Free SAT Tutoring from Peers
Culver City High School studentsstrive to be leaders of the future. That means helping as many people aspossible reach their full potential. I and three other CCHS juniors - ArjunPalkhade, Brandon Kim, and Jackson Hausrath - have striven to seek that futureby starting a free SAT Peer Tutoring program after school that currently boastsover 25 members after only two meetings.
For many students, the SAT - animportant standardized test that helps determine which colleges a student getsaccepted into - can be a speed bump determining their collegiate careers, yetthe majority of students are unable to afford expensive tutoring, highlightingthe disparity of students’ economic opportunities to score well and get intotheir “dream schools.” This wealth barrier in standardized testing is preciselywhat CCHS SAT Tutors seek to break down through free, personalized tutoringfrom enthusiastic peers who already have SAT experience.
Co-founder and executive of thisprogram, Arjun Palkhade, recalls attending a “summer SAT program that cost
[him]
$2000, and [he] realized quickly that not many people can afford to havethese programs” that often mean the difference between one’s highest potentialscore and a mediocre one. Palkhade hopes to create more opportunities forstudents in his immediate community at CCHS because even on a small scale, whenmore people achieve “bigger goals, the rest of us do” too. By providing freeservices and tutoring “We are able to balance the playing field and help ourpeers,” Palkhade said.
The SAT has recently become a topic ofconversation among CCHS students who have heard that standardized testing maybecome less important in the college admission process as testing students on“niche subjects such as the SAT” does not demonstrate a student’s full set ofcapabilities, according to Palkhade. Some progressive top universities,including Yale, openly tell their student-applicants that they have started toweigh SAT scores less in the admissions process and increase the importance ofextracurriculars and activities to encourage a broader skill level amongst newgenerations of students.
The SAT Peer Tutors have definitelyembraced this new emphasis and, through their program, want to make studentsaware of all the changes that may come about in the college admissions process.Meanwhile, the SAT remains a crucial college admissions factor, second only toa student’s GPA, and this group of peer tutors will continue to help studentsget the highest possible score.
The SAT Peer Tutors plan onpersonalizing their program through consistent diagnostics, utilizing KhanAcademy, tutoring groups of 4-6 students at a time based on skill level to tendto each student’s needs, and keeping weekly progress data on each student todetermine which of the four test sections - Reading, Writing and Language, Mathwith no calculator, Math with calculator - that they can improve on.
Jackson Hausrath, the program’s Writing-and-Language-specializedtutor, added that this free SAT peer tutoring program is not only “beneficialto students, but also to the CCHS community, as learning from each other asequals and learning together with motivated peers sparks a sense of togetherness.”