<p>at first I believed these classes would serve as an efficient guide towards my 2200 + goal, but the subsequent method of studying they present to me is not beneficial at all. To anyone who is considering taking prep classes, you're better off with independent work. I am stuck in the middle of an eight week program that wastes my time, effort, and money (2000$ FML).</p>
<p>Please elaborate.</p>
<p>I signed up for Elite, believing I would increase my current 1900 score to 2200 +, the prep classes focus on assigning HW, elaborating the math section (which is already 700 + for me), etc. I feel as if I would benefit to a greater degree if I followed some of the SAT prep guides found on this site, but I don’t have any time. Instead I am trapped in expensive classes, noticing no immediate rise in my scores. I’m more of an independent learner, I should have researched more on this site before wasting money. What can I say, I fell victim to their sales pitch.</p>
<p>I do share the same sentiment that prep classes aren’t worth the money. However, if you’re willing to learn and to do your homework you will see a rise in your score. Just continually ask questions and pay attention. </p>
<p>You could always supplement their material with other prep books, guides on this website, and vocabulary lists.</p>
<p>Yeah prep classes seem like a total scam. Maybe helpful for dumb kids that need a 1500 CR-M-W to get into their directional state U and that have parents with plenty of $$$, but they just seem utterly useless to the above-average person. Individual Blue Book studying and maybe individual tutoring for people with money to blow ftw.</p>
<p>you should have taken elite prep. I’ve heard it is extremely intense!</p>
<p>Prep Classes are only helpful if you’re in the <1800 range. They won’t really help you get into the 2000’s.
A tutor may help, but those are extremely expensive, and you should only hire those with a good track record.</p>
<p>I am an SAT math tutor and author.</p>
<p>I teach a prep course. The primary reason to take the course is for motivation. It is good for students that have trouble getting themselves to do work on their own. The secondary reason is to learn SAT specific strategies. A highly motivated student can spend under $50 on prep materials and do it all themselves. When a student comes to me with close to a 700 math score I usually recommend that they use my materials to study on their own, and then possibly see me for one or two one-on-one sessions to go over any of the harder problems they couldn’t figure out (if necessary). I suspect that 90% of the people visiting this particular forum do not need a course</p>
<p>Yeah, I had a mediocre experience with my prep course. 2 grand for just a little prep, I’m currently in a paid internship in an effort to pay back my parents. 2080. Psat was 223.
All that time, effort, and money for a lower score. And I DID put effort into it.</p>
<p>Walk into the ACT w/o so much as a google search, 34. Different tests for different people I guess.</p>
<p>I paid $1,000 for a prep class. It actually helped me tremendously because all of my previous teachers neglected to teach me grammar rules. I went from scoring in the mid 1800s to getting a 2260 on my first sitting of the SAT. It’s all about your mindset. Believe that it can help you, do the work, and you’ll see improvement in your scores.</p>
<p>Great. I just heard 2 people lambaste prep courses. It seems to be a favorite scapegoat here on CC. </p>
<p>Only one person offered a vague reason as to why the prep course didn’t work for him or her - “I’m more of an independent learner.”</p>
<p>So is there anything intrinsically wrong with a prep course? I want to know about the quality of the teachers, the types of students that attend (smart? motivated? rich?), the quality of the instruction, etc. Do the teachers know what they’re talking about, or are they repeating the book verbatim? </p>
<p>Can you please elaborate on your prep class experience, Discobiscuits?</p>
<p>oh my goodness. this thread makes me laugh.</p>
<p>if you’re at elite and you’re not improving, most likely it’s because you’re not doing the work and trying. elite isn’t going to make you swallow the information; what you put into it is what you get out. because of elite i’ve gotten from low 1600’s to high 2200’s, and my classmates a very similar marked improvement, so if i were you, i’d really turn inward rather than outward.</p>
<p>or… at least, realize it’s you not the prep course. same thing as i just said, i suppose.</p>
<p>I didn’t find my prep class all that helpful- the book itself that I got was more helpful, although they decided to remove the answers from most of the practice tests, making it more or less useless when I went to do them.</p>
<p>IceQube,</p>
<p>Here is my perspective as an SAT Math prep tutor:</p>
<p>There is certainly nothing wrong with taking a prep course. The main question is whether it is worth the money. I personally do not like the big name prep companies I am familiar with. I disagree with their hiring practices, their teacher salaries, and I don’t like their materials (again, these are the ones I’m familiar with - there may be others that are very good). I would always recommend seeking out a local group that comes through recommendation. </p>
<p>As far as statistics go, my students improve an average of about 90 points in Math from their PSAT score. The verbal teachers I work with show similar results on each of the 2 verbal sections. In my course I only use questions that are College Board or indistinguishable from College Board. Students that have PSAT scores lower than 550 tend to improve much more than 90 points (I’ve had a few students improve between 200 and 250 points). Students with PSAT scores over 650 generally improve a bit less.</p>
<p>Now the question is would these students have shown such improvement without the course? My guess is no. There are 2 reasons for this. The first is that many students simply don’t realize that you need to learn new strategies that are specifically for the SAT. The second is that the course gives a regimented program that they must follow, and this creates motivation to do the work.</p>
<p>Can any student do this well without a course? I believe that the answer to this is still no. Some students need a course to show this much improvement. BUT I believe that many students can do this well without a course, and this includes many students coming to these forums. For stronger students, the right test prep material and a little dedication is all that is needed.</p>
<p>Note that my course consists exclusively of doing SAT problems and going over multiple SAT specific strategies to answer problems correctly and save time. I do not waste any time reviewing mathematics unless I have particularly weak students, or a problem happens to involve a concept that my current group of students is having trouble with.</p>
<p>@IceQube
Gladly.</p>
<p>I did not have a private tutor; I went to a company called Hammer Prep in San Diego. He gave me relatively little home-work, meaning I was able to devote only about an hour each week outside of the session. It was during the middle of my school year, and the company didn’t exactly hit me with the importance of studying (I mean to say: had they benchmarked me in any way, outside of going over at-home work, I would have probably asked for more work). Priorities blurred.</p>
<p>Moreover, I might’ve spoken too soon out of emotion from the relatively low test score. Everyone I took that SAT with estimated scores ~200pts higher than they achieved, including myself. Perhaps it was a “bad” test? Idk. Taking again in a few months.</p>
<p>DrSteve and Discobiscuits</p>
<p>First, sorry for my truculent tone. I was simply trying to elicit some responses as to why the prep course didn’t work. I can’t find many reasons why and heck, even silverturtle’s guide says to avoid prep courses (w/o a reason, as usual).</p>
<p>DrSteve: I agree with everything you said. Some students simply need a prep course since prep courses provide motivation in one way or another - prep courses aren’t free and having homework can provide the structure that some students need. Others, of course, may be better off studying by themselves. </p>
<p>Discobiscuits: thanks for your calm reply. I do like the name of your prep course ;)! There are a variety of confounding factors when evaluating the effectiveness of a prep course. I do hope that your SAT scores improve dramatically when you take it again :)!</p>
<p>I took a prep class taught by two of the teachers at my high school, one English and one Math, both of which I was in my second year of classes with at school (and thus, I already knew that I loved their teaching styles). Prep classes, for me, were about learning the specific formula by which I could get a 12 on my essay, and all the tips and tricks of solving math problems that might not be intuitive. The class certainly taught some methods of approaching problems that I didn’t need (for example, I had already gotten a score I was more than happy with for CR), but even just getting the practice was beneficial. In conclusion, I don’t think the prep course was just “motivation” for me, but provided me with useful methods of solving problems or writing in a way that better catered to the SAT.</p>
<p>Of course, I had a lot of friends in other prep courses that very well may have been more expensive (they were more the brand name prep courses that are geared more towards the general public; at a certain level, I think you need to be in a different prep course than the ones that are aimed towards average scorers, but I digress), who benefited from methods I taught them from my course. I’m not sure if it’s at all possible, but sitting in on a class one day if you can to get a feel for the rigor and the teaching style of a particular course would likely be very helpful in evaluating its worth for you personally.</p>
<p>For what it’s worth, my essay went from a 10 to a 12, and my math went from a 680 to an 800 (and after the test, I’d been beating myself up about one question I realized I’d read wrong, but had specifically learned how to solve in my class and could have solved had I read it correctly).</p>
<p>Malaprop, what were the hints to get a 12 on the essay?</p>