The Perfect Score Project chronicles Debbie Stier's year of exploring a variety of test-preparation strategies as she sat for the SAT seven times, with the goal of helping her son, Ethan, prepare for his own college-entrance exams. Stier knew Ethan's ability to obtain merit-based financial aid would depend on high scores on the standardized tests, but her last experience with the SAT had been nearly 30 years earlier, and an extensive test-prep industry has sprouted since then.
Stier tried a different study method before each test, from personal tutoring to online learning to self-directed practice using official College Board materials. The Perfect Score Project discusses the pros and cons of each approach, her test scores serving as the final verdict. Stier's evaluation of her SAT experience weighs its effects on her personal growth and relationship with her son at least as heavily as her test scores. While what she did comes across at times as a particularly intense example of "helicopter parenting," and readers might not agree with either her tactics or her conclusions, she offers many helpful insights about the testing process to parents of the college-bound--as well as to the test-takers themselves. --Florinda Pendley Vasquez, blogger at The 3 R's Blog: Reading, 'Riting, and Randomness