A majority of the students in our survey who paid for SAT coaching said that the idea came from mom and dad. That’s understandable—parents are the ones who pay the bill. But our questionnaires found numerous instances when over-stressed parents crammed a cram course down the throat of an unwilling student. One my-mom-made-me-do-it prepper describes his course as “a waste of time and money,” adding that “what helped was sitting down by myself and becoming comfortable with the format.” He scored 700 V and 730 M.  Another student says his math tutoring was “worthless” and that he reacted negatively “because it was not my choice.” His scores were 760 V, 690 M and he advises students to take practice tests and prepare on their own. Yet another student was prodded by his parents to get tutoring in math after he scored “only” 640 the first time. “It was boring and I wasn’t told anything I didn’t already know. I’m just glad my parents paid for it, not me,” he tells us.  And his math score the second time? 640 again.  Asked about the benefits of her prep course, another student who scored 520 V and 630 M replied: “It pleased my parents.” Were the benefits worth the cost? “NO!”