<p>From my experience, I can’t say it’s always true. I’ve seen many students raise their scores on average between 400-500 points using a Test Prep Academy. With that said, they worked really hard every day and spent a bit of money because they’re not cheap. A number of them had good schooling as well…i.e., a relatively good foundation to work from. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>It’s true to a certain extent with the correction by IceQube (LOL), but many people also learn similarly. With that said, there are 3 major types of learning: through association, consequences and observation. </p>
<p>A test prep course/school works for you if you can achieve the 1-3 forms above and also need:
*someone to push you and keep you relatively disciplined (most of us need this)
*a curriculum that forces you to do more than you would if you were studying on your own
*someone to ask questions when you’re stumped
*a center that provides you probably with more resources and a network of people who are experienced in the discipline (if it’s a good one)
*great teachers (again, if it’s a good one)
*teachers who will let you ask them questions up through the last moment before the test (if it’s a great one)</p>
<p>Otherwise, if you can achieve the learning on your own and are very disciplined, as many have said already, it may not be needed for you. Also, depending on your education, you may already be close to ready and just need to polish up by doing a little bit of fine tuning. This forum obviously helps with this. </p>
<p>My son just did a few review tests, only on math and science, the week before the ACT (I found them in a post here on CC). He spent about 4 hours total and got a 36. He has so much homework, he doesn’t have time for prep courses or tutoring.</p>
<p>It depends on luck if you haven’t built up the vocabulary base you need before taking the test and then rush to try and study all the words you might need to know. Frankly, if you do build up the proper base of vocabulary, reading, grammar, writing and math, it’s not luck any more. </p>
<p>There’s a clear reason why some people do score between 2350-2400. </p>
<p>Let’s see if there’s a response to either my question or your comment. I was a little blown away at a 900 point increase and wanted to hear about the “magical formula.” </p>
<p>Pretty impressive. Also very unusual. According to the website (whose claims I would probably take with a grain of salt), an average of 1 out of 300 of their students score 2400. Two twins doing it - wow!</p>
<p>Sometimes people think that buying a prep course will guaranteed raise their scores. From what I’ve seen, that’s not necessarily true. But I took a course and found that course+hard work on your own can yield tremendous results.</p>
<p>I had an 8 week prep course that lasted for three hours each class. The program I was in is known as the best SAT prep course in my part of New Jersey. It ended on the 6th of April. Afterwards, I kinda started to slack off on the preparation a bit, and I only got back into using the blue book a couple of weeks ago. However, I have always been doing the SAT Question of the Day, and I have also reviewed the questions that I got wrong on the PSAT AND did practice questions based on that. I’m desperate to take my 1580 PSAT score up to an 1800 SAT score first time…however, with only three weeks before test day, I’m feeling very nervous and frustrated. The way it’s going, I may just have to settle for doing some hardcore self-studying over the summer, taking it again in October, and getting an 1800 then.</p>
<p>I took a princeton review course. First diagnostic test I scored a 1510, last diagnostic test I scored a 1980. I didn’t review all summer and then took a real SAT and got 1980. Self studied up to a 2120. In my opinion, that princeton review course helped me a lot in terms of figuring out how to solve problems and approach them.</p>
<p>I am from NJ and I took an SAT prep course at Huntington. I had scored a 1740 on my first SAT without any prep at all. I took a diagnostic test at Huntington and scored a 1530 (which shocked me compared to my real SAT score). They recommended that I take 20 two hour classes with an individual tutor in order to reach my goal score of a 2000. The price for that was way too high so I went with half of the time they recommended, 10 two hour classes. My last diagnostic test at Huntington was a 1740 (this made me really upset since it was the same as my real SAT score after 10 classes). I took the real SAT a week after the course ended and scored a 1950! Although I did not reach my goal, I came very close to it with only half the time they told me I needed. If you do the math, that was a 210 point increase from my original SAT score.</p>
<p>Overall, I would recommend taking a SAT prep course such as Huntington. My advice however, is take a real SAT before (whether its a blue book one or an official one) just so you know where you are. Once you take the diagnostic test, I would not fall into the their trap to make you take more classes than what is needed. Take enough hours so that you will feel comfortable taking the test, and you should be able to do great.</p>
<p>Dumping $1K into an SAT prep course is probably not something I would waste my money on. I just took practice tests and my scores are pretty good. Plus who has time to enroll in those? I just think it’s a waste of time and money. </p>