<p>Is it worth paying hundreds of dollars for a tutoring program? Do they teach you anything you wouldn't learn otherwise with prep books? Basically, could you get a 2400 simply with self-motivation and various SAT books?</p>
<p>The private tutoring is absolutely the most efficient way to up your scores. My children had Kaplan tutors and there is no way their scores would have improved to the extent that they did without the program. There are very few high school students with enough time and motivation to get the same results on their own in the same time frame. However, they are expensive, so if you think you could do it on your own and have the luxury of enough time to try it might be possible. Personally I felt it was well worth the money to get the results that we got.</p>
<p>If your’e even moderately intelligent, you can use self-teach methods and save yourself hundreds to spend on college education. Most people with good scores are those who taught themselves everything. If you aren’t motivated enough to teach yourself (I assume you don’t fit this category since you’re taking the time to ask online), then pr and the like are for you. I think you should get a ton of books, make a plan and get to it!</p>
<p>Kaplan and TPR are bottom of the barrel, imo. I’m in Seoul, and neither of them is really “on the map” compared to the top spots here. </p>
<p>Tutoring can be a huge help for some people, but others don’t need it. If you’re very disciplined, you can probably make do with the advice on CC and other places on the Internet in addition to setting your own study regimen.</p>
<p>Either way, in the end the scores come from your own hard work and determination.</p>
<p>It is true that you could study on your own.</p>
<p>However, most kids don’t have this discipline.</p>
<p>My brother’s kid took a prep course, and treated it like a job, going to that office every day, and taking various practice tests each day , and wound up getting into Yale.</p>
<p>Further, Kaplan knows what it is doing. It has been in the business of test prep for 50 years.</p>
<p>I took it for the LSAT, albeit it 30 years ago, and I think it helped greatly.</p>
<p>Kaplan and any other big box test prep companies are to be avoided like the plague. They’re expensive and it’s well known that their practice materials are specious at best. I know, I’m a former instructor with one of the big guys. Any tutor or company not using the College Board blue book as a text is not worth your money.</p>
<p>Those companies continue to thrive on name recognition alone. There are so many better options out there both online and in the classroom. Online tutoring is effective and convenient for students. Most work is done outside of sessions so tutoring doesn’t have to be prohibitively expensive. And it is absolutely possible for motivated students to prep on their own, or with some limited help from a friend or classmate if necessary. Think outside the box for both better and cheaper options!</p>
<p>A quote from one of my friends that worked for a big name company:</p>
<p>“I was not qualified to teach math.”</p>
<p>My friend is an English teacher. I’m not sure why he was hired to teach both English and Math. </p>
<p>He also was not paid very much. </p>
<p>My suggestion: Before you pay large amounts of money to a tutoring service, research their hiring practice and where your money is going. </p>
<p>Also, in my opinion, it is very important that practice tests should be College Board exams. Any company that uses its own tests can artificially deflate or inflate your grades at will. When I have my students take practice tests, they are always College Board tests.</p>
<p>I don’t know enough about all the big name companies to say that they are bad in general, but my intuition tells me that you are always better off finding a local group in your area with a good reputation. Ideally, your Math and English teachers should be different (if not, make sure you are comfortable that your teacher is qualified to teach both). Make sure the tutor is paid well (an exceptional tutor will only work for a high rate of pay). Make sure group sizes are small, and students are grouped by PSAT score.</p>
<p>You don’t need to pay someone to tell you to study. You know you need to study, so study. I know that my schedule is already so busy, that I cannot set aside an hour or two a week for paid tutoring. If you’re getting good grades in your classes, then you can teach yourself the material. None of it is very difficult, but if you do have problems, feel free to get help online, or any number of inexpensive prep books (read: Blue Book). Your tutors won’t know the material much better than the books can teach you. Why waste hundreds of dollars to get someone to explain (insert topic), when you have the internet, a library, etc., at your disposal?</p>
<p>They are not good. Get a private tutor from Craiglist or Tutornation. PRinceton Review and Kaplan is really useless. They pretty much copy everthing from their review book. If you want to,you might as well buy the book from Barnes and Noble or Book a million.</p>