US mom spends $10K in quest for perfect SAT

A New York state woman said she has spent $10,000 in her quest to obtain a perfect score on the SAT college entrance exam. Debbie Stier, 46, of Westchester County, a former publishing executive and mother of a junior at Fordham Preparatory School in New York, said she took the SAT every time it was offered in 2011 and spent thousands on preparing with various test services, the New York Post reported Monday. "It's been overwhelming, stressful," Stier said. "I did feel intimidated. If I felt intimidated as a grown-up, imagine as a teenager." Stier said her best score was still 270 points shy of a perfect 2400. "How did I put in all of these hours in math and I basically scored the same as in high school?" she said. Stier said she wanted to highlight how test-prep services, which have become a successful industry, are often a waste of money. She said she found online course Kaplan to be riddled with typos and glitches while competitor Khan Academy is a "navigational nightmare."