<p>Kaplan somewhat helps. I took it and a lot of it was really repetitive. I honestly think that the things that were taught in class, you could teach yourself. It helps in the respect that it forces you to learn the material. My score only rose 150 out of 1600, but then again, my score isn't 2000 on the new test either.</p>
<p>I took the Kaplan private tutoring course for 26 hours ($100 per hour) because my parents have money and made me. If I could relive those 26 hours I would have just concentrated and studied on my own. I am bad at CR, excellent at Math, and very good at Writing. The course made my CR score drop and my Writing score improve. They have this stupid "money back guarantee" that requires I spend course time on Math and to do all the math homework even though I aced it every time. I instead wanted to focus more on CR but clearly that didn't work well either. They teach you these stupid techniques and patterns for CR that distract you from each individual question and waste time. When test time came in May I got:
CR 690
Math 800
Writing 800.
I wasn't satisfied so I studied ON MY OWN for a month, forgot all the crap techniques from Kaplan and improved my CR to 740 in June. In general I would recommend NOT taking Kaplan or any prep course for that matter because of their dumb contracts and "methods" that don't address each question as they come.</p>
<p>i wouldnt recommend taking any prep courses at all</p>
<p>I actually work for Kaplan as a tutor -- I teach the course in question, or at least the critical reading and writing sections of the SAT. (I scored an 800V, 770W). And I actually advise students, particularly top students, not to take the course. Some sections, like writing, are coachable (writing is my favorite section to teach); however, the critical reading section is difficult to improve and all we teach is strategies that you can read in any SAT prep book you buy from the bookstore.</p>
<p>My suggestion is find a talented college student who scored particularly high on the sections you are weakest on, and get them to coach you.</p>
<p>I took the Kaplan course. A few things to note:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>As some have described, the teachers are somewhat robots. I got lucky and basically paid for a classroom class and got a private tutor, so this wasn't always the case with me(as he could review why I was getting wrong answers), but he followed the book pretty closely, and I got the sense that most teachers do too, and this may not be what you want. Look into private tutoring if you want help prepping for the SATs.</p></li>
<li><p>I was getting ~630M/650CR/590W on the Kaplan tests(pretty consistently, from test 1). I don't feel that the Kaplan course had any impact on my scores, but I didn't really study(just did about 50 math questions or so), and on the real SAT I got 700M/670CR/660W. Even if you attribute this gain to the Kaplan course, it's only 160 points total. </p></li>
<li><p>Personally, I think that you're best off studying on your own. It may be just me, but I found the Kaplan course to review over rudimentary math and grammar principles(not the hard stuff!) instead of going over many questions and determining patterns. If you study on your own, you can easily ignore the concepts that you are familiar with and only review what you need to. The rule of thumb with the SATs is "Practice makes perfect." After having taken the class, the only useful thing I really got were the 4 test books and 4 answers, something you could easily get for much less than $1-2K(the blue book, with 8 official tests is only $20). Plus, Kaplan isn't the college board, and as such they don't have the official tests. Therefore, while they may have studied the format intensely, only the college board tests are extremely similar to what you'll see on test day. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Hope that helps,
Mike</p>
<p>It helps with basic math points and it also helps with the writing multiple choice. But, I don't think that the class helped my critical reading or essay very much. My essay scores were always an 8; they never improved. Although, it all depends how much you put into it...</p>
<p>I started Kaplan with a 222 PSAT and ended with a 2400 on the real thing. I can't provide comparisons to other courses, but here's my two cents on how it helps someone whose already scoring high.</p>
<p>Basically, if you're already doing really well, the only thing that Kaplan will do for you is force you to sit and study. Might help you review a math concept or two that you'd forgotten or provide some strategies for CR/writing, but its main benefit will be in forcing you to devote time. I was the sort of person that wouldn't have sat down for a number of hours every week to study, so I needed Kaplan just for the sake of forcing myself to study. The course itself taught me very little, but the time spent focusing exclusively on the SAT was priceless. However, as other people have mentioned, the classes are often composed of lower-scoring people, and they tend to move veryyyy slowly.</p>
<p>If you think you'll study extensively, over a long period of time, without the course, then you don't need it. But if you need to force yourself to practice, its worth it just for that. </p>
<p>The tests they give are excellent, very true to the real SAT. However, the scoring is off somewhat...the curve is significantly harsher than the real thing, especially at the high end of the scores. Keep that in mind.</p>