I feel very fortunate to have been able to participate in Kaplan’s Online Tutoring Test Drive along with my son Reece. This was a two month program in which each week Reece would take “tests”. Kaplan’s Online Tutoring begins with an initial assessment of the childs strengths and weaknesses based on their grade level. Those are the “assessment” tests the child takes.

Reece struggled with these assessment tests because a lot of the questions that were presented before him he had not yet seen in 6th grade. He was not “graded” on these tests, but rather, they were used to help determine what the future “tests” would include and these “tests” would then focus on the areas in which Reece needed the most help. When we signed up for the program, Reece was a little over a month into 6th grade. With that being said, I think it might have been helpful, if, instead of having the program entail all of 6th grade curriculum, but maybe break it down by quarter. So that if you sign up in the first semester of 6th grade, you would have different assessment tests than those who sign up in the 3rd quarter of 6th grade.

The next step is to take “tests” each time Reece logged on. Every time he logged on and finished an assignment/test, he would earn “Experience Points” which are used for motivation and that can be used to purchase anything from a toy to a Playstation 3! Initially, when I signed up for this program, I really thought Reece would love the “Experience Points” factor and that would motivate him enough to continue to want to go upstairs and take tests. Although, silly me, he needed more than just “points” to get motivated. He also needed me to tell him it was time to “study”. As great as I think the “Experience Points” are, you must understand, this is not a tool that you can just sit back and your child will be on it everyday. You will also need to help motivate your child. You need to encourage your child verbally as much as the “Experience Points” motivate him materially.

Reece does not struggle in school, but he is not a straight A student either. There are areas that I think he could definitely benefit from being tutored. The struggle we had was finding the time to actually work on the program. Although it is recommended to spend only two hours a week on it, we struggled to find that time and here is the reason why I think. This is a software program. There is no tutor waiting for us, there is no place to drive to, we will never be late. These things combined with an already busy schedule could possibly lead to your child not getting as much out of the program as you would like.

It was my experience, that if we did not schedule the time the week prior, we seemed to find a lot of difficulty in getting the two hours in. And it was only two hours! You, the parent, need to act like the “tutor” in this case. You need to schedule the tutoring time and make sure your child does it. You cannot let things like “I have a headache tonight, I don’t care if you don’t do your tutoring Charlie” get in the way. The 20 minute stop at the grocery store put off the tutoring. You just can’t. You must treat this like a real class, with real times, with real consequences if the “tests” are not taken.

I know Reece does not like it when he feels like he lets teachers down. But do you think he cares if he lets a software program down? A software program cannot be the only thing motivating your child and setting the class times. You, as the parent, must do it and stick to it. I have to admit, there were times I let it slide because it was not formally “scheduled”. That is why I believe if you are going to do this program, that you know you must be involved. With that being said, I absolutely believe Kaplan’s Online Tutoring does a great job in assessing the student initially, and then working on their weaknesses.

I watched Reece take a few of the “tests” to see how his progress was going, and it was very interactive, easy to read, with “picture” breaks telling the kids they are “half way done,” “almost done,” etc so that the child knew where he stood when taking the test and how much farther he had to go.

When I log on to see Reece’s progress, I can either choose a selected time frame to see his progress or look at the entire program. But it goes deeper than that. It is broken down by Reading and Math and then further broken down using colors to show you what skills have been mastered, what is in progress, what has not yet been started, and what has not been mastered.

Look at the graph below:

You can see based on the green color that Reece has mastered one skill (green), is currently working on one skill (yellow) and has not yet started on one skill (white). The reports are easy to use and easy to understand.

If I were to choose an online tutoring program, I absolutely would choose Kaplan’s Online Tutoring program.

And now you have the chance to try it for free for a month! Follow these intructions to get your month FREE:

1) Go to Kaplan Online Tutoring Program Selection

2) Select “Buy Program Now”

3) Enter discount code FB1MO on the Account Setup page to get one month of the Online Program – normally 29.00 a month – FOR FREE!

But that is not all! Kaplan is hosting a Make-A-Wish Charity “Like” Drive, where every time someone new likes a Kaplan Test Prep page, they donate a dollar to theMake-A-Wish Foundation (up to $50,000).

To find out more information visit: Make a Wish “Like” Drive.