Higher scores at a lower cost

Danette Goulet

NEWPORT-MESA -- For many students, getting into college depends on SAT

scores.

That is why David Benjamin has been trying to reach Costa Mesa students

-- many who would be the first in their families to attend college --

with his SAT preparation course, Ahead of the Class.

Benjamin has made it his personal goal to give students who might not be

able to afford a class on taking the Scholastic Assessment Test a chance

to improve their scores.

He has not been able to fund a full-length course of 12 to 15 classes for

students at the Shalimar Learning Center and the Save Our Youth program

in Costa Mesa. But he has for the last three years provided an

abbreviated course. Students pay just $25, compared to the usual fee of

$600.

This year, Benjamin taught a four-week course that met once a week. He

had a class of 17 students from Newport Harbor and Estancia high schools.

Every one of the students raised their scores by the end of the course.

“When this class started off, there were scores in the 400s -- the lowest

percentile,” Benjamin said. “It just shows you how much prep was needed.”

One student’s scores improved by several hundred points, he said.

Juan Gonzales, a 17-year-old junior at Newport Harbor High School,

previously scored 450 out of a possible 800 on the math section.

After four sessions with Benjamin, Gonzales’ math score was in the 600s.

“They teach us little tricks. There is really no way to study for it,”

Gonzales said. “But now I know that the first five questions are easy, so

I shouldn’t spend a lot of time on them.”

It was through the Save Our Youth program that Gonzales was urged to take

Benjamin’s course.

Like many of the students in the class, Gonzales uses English as a second

language. So Benjamin taught him to look at the root of the words in the

vocabulary section.

For example, in Spanish, “facil” means “easy” -- so it can help students

figure out the meaning of the word “facilitate.”

When Gonzales takes the SAT in the fall, his goal is to test higher than

1,000 -- a score he hopes will get him accepted at UC Irvine or USC when

he graduates next year.

“I hope I am in the 1,200s or 1,100s,” he said. “I just want to go over

the three-digit mark.”

FYI

Ahead of the Class and the Shalimar Teen Learning Center are seeking

sponsors to help fund SAT preparation courses for students.

Information: call David Benjamin at (949) 725-0640, or Jeniffer

Rivera-Puls at Shalimar at (949) 650-7648.