The "Pocket Prep," the new Franklin Electronics/Princeton Review handheld device for use in SAT prep.

With the school year comes the next round of SAT tests – October, November, December, January, April (the big one, SAT I only), May, and June. (See the link to the test calendar below.)

Each month means different things to different people. The October and November tests, sometimes December, are last attempts by seniors to have just one good swing at that ball. Or to load up on subject area ("SAT II") tests that more colleges are requiring more of. Which makes it tough, because the natural II test for many students who are stronger verbally than in math, science, or history was the Writing test, which has been folded into the now-marathon 4-hour SAT I.

This season may also for juniors perhaps planning some academic equivalent of an early draft into the NBA.

I've ridden out the SAT process twice now, once myself, so many years ago that they didn't need "I" after "SAT," and more recently with my older son, who took the SAT I twice, got basically the same score, and is preparing to take a couple of SAT IIs because some of the colleges he's applying to have increased their requirements for SAT II tests.

Otherwise, I really am not otherwise an expert on the SAT.

But I do have a little idiosyncratic and simple set of recommendations.

1. If you can, visit the testing entity's site, in the case of the SAT, https://www.collegeboard.org/. In fact, in the case of the College Board, they really have done a fine job with a strong web site. If you know who you are, you know where to go next, and for students, the site genuinely is more helpful than anything I recall from the days of graphite-stained fingernails. But you should go there early. The online resources do take computer time to use, and here I'm mostly talking about the practice testing stuff, so don't leave it to the last minute. However, since it comes with your registration, using the test-prep stuff they have online can be a small savings against a book or another software-based prep aid and a significant savings over a course or a tutor, so it's worth investing the time to check out what they've got online.

2. We did try out the "Pocket Prep," an SAT prep device in a hand-held computer format that is produced by Franklin Electronics and powered by the Princeton Review's content. You can see it, read more about it, buy it, at http://www.franklin.com/estore/details.aspx?id=SAT-2400

• Before you buy, I'd recommend you look closely at anything like this. You might presume that a teenager would like this because it is like a Game Boy or something, and that may make it more fun to use. But it is not a Game Boy, so if the fun only comes from jumping on enemies' heads or throwing fireballs, no this isn't going to be "fun."
• In fact, if the student trying to prep for the SAT has left that job to the last minute, he or she is probably not going to benefit from the possible conveniences of any technological solution because the or she won't have time to internalize its functional use and to incorporate the habit into daily or weekly routines.
• Still, by the way, my son did like the "Pocket Prep," despite his typical teenage procrastination, and despite the fact that we'd already shoved Princeton Review prep books (and all the other ones we could find) onto his desk.

3. There are still, abounding, now that I mention them, thick books of practice tests and test-taking tips from Kaplan, Princeton Review, Peterson's, "For Dummies" books, Barron's, as well as flashcards from some of the same and others, and any number of other products that you can find. There are also plenty of books that are more like coaching texts, letting you in on the tests' tricks and secrets, telling you how to prepare using materials you can find at home and in your library, and helping the reader approach the test process in the right frame of mind. They're all very different, and it's best to keep your own (or your son or daughter's) lifestyle and work habits in mind. For example,

• You can buy these resources "by the pound." That is, you can figure out how many practice tests you can get per dollar. If what you need really is test taking experience, including watching the clock, then this isn't a bad way to go. Again, if you've left time to take six or seven practices.
• You can browse these resources (probably should) and try to get a "feel" for what you (or your son or daughter) would actually bother to read. There are some very cool books, including the almost classic Up Your Score (https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0761133259/qid=1125071032/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/102-6219633-9180106?v=glance&s=books&n=507846), but what's cool to your particular eye and ear? Only the reader knows! If you're not "shopping by the pound," but "shopping by ear," it's important that the student do the shopping.
• You can also look at the pedagogy. Some of the books take more space than others to explain test items, for example. One test would be to look at a math explanation from the latter part of a math section. Since the SAT tests arrange their test items more or less in order of expected or demonstrated difficulty, it's likely that an end-of-test math explanation is going to be one of the hardest explanations to understand in the book. If the book you're looking at does a good job with that one, well, it's likely to have been pretty well written and edited and make easier explanations, well, even easier.

4. Tutoring services. With this, there is no advice other than meeting with the tutor, getting the process underway, and then checking in whether the student and the tutor are on the same page. You can distinguish a tutor's suitability in a few general ways:

• Does the tutor lay out the task ahead clearly? Is the person punctual? Does the person exude confidence? Can the person talk intelligently about the tests (for this you have to go back to #1 and learn enough for yourself to be a good judge!)?
• Of course there are national test-prep companies that offer coursework and individual tutoring, and you can certainly query them and use their prices and the description of their offerings as benchmarks. While I can't speak about these from personal experience, obviously, Kaplan, Princeton Review, and Sylvan spring to mind as such national education companies.

5. This one's tough: Keep it all in perspective. The college admissions process looms large over secondary education, but it is soon forgotten in the other concerns – paying for college, not flunking out of college, and getting a job after college. The SAT and other scores are important markers for colleges, no doubt, but modest differences in SAT scores are less likely to be 'tie breaking' considerations than are other things when it comes to admission at highly competitive colleges, and if you do your college research well, you're probably going to target schools who will take people in your range of scores, because that's where you'll generally find your interests and the right atmosphere.
• With one caveat: Plan early. If you're the kind of person who learns well at the computer or with a hand-held device, with flash-cards, or with any alternative to the paper-and-pencil, and especially if you can't afford to take a course or get a private tutor, starting early means you have time to explore different affordable alternatives and to give those alternatives time to become functional for you.

Here's the link to the SAT testing dates for this coming school year. Good luck!
https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat/register/dates-deadlines