<p>I have taken many SAT prep courses in my high school career. I am the son of very worried Asian parents, so I have been ferried from Princeton Review, Kaplan, and even a Korean SAT program (CCB), with self-study in between. I have had several years to judge these various prep courses, and I want to try to help people in the future who are concerned about this test. </p>
<p>For the record, I received a 2240 (710 CR 730 M 800 W 12 E) on the actual SAT exam, taken in November 2006 (my junior year). I had taken the test only once before-in June 2005, the end of my freshman year (when the new test first came out). I took the test then cold, to see what the test was like. I received a 1960 (670 CR 600 M 670 W 9 E). I decided not to take the test again after I took the ACT and scored a 34--enough was enough at that point. PSAT sophomore = 203; PSAT junior = 227.</p>
<p>No matter what, I feel that self-studying is CRUCIAL to getting a good score on the SAT without natural talent/luck. If you do not self-study, these courses mean nothing. </p>
<p>Here is my judgment for the courses I have taken.</p>
<p>Kaplan and the Princeton Review:
General: Before CCB, my parents were concerned that I hadn't spent enough time (and apparently they not enough money?) on the SAT, so I was brought to each of these courses in the spring of my sophomore year (about 4 months total, on Saturdays 12-3 or so). In my opinion, these are pretty much the same exact thing. Teachers teach from the book, are trained to think using the book's methods, and do not stray from the book at all costs. I recommend that this course be used only for those who currently score below 2000 on practice tests...
<em>controversial tangent</em>
...tests (plural) that you yourself have taken at home or elsewhere. I believe the diagnostic tests that these two programs give are made deliberately harder or different in order to convince customers that they really need help. Both the Kaplan and Princeton Review diagnostic tests gave me 2100s. I consistently received 700 on the writing section despite a near perfect MC score--why? The testers gave my essays low scores, which effectively dropped my section score about 50-100 points every single time. I sat through each class, learned nothing from these two programs, and I got a 12 on the real essay; Kaplan/TPR gave me 6-9, which would have been OK if the essay graders had ever told me why they gave me that score, or criticized me, or told me anything at all. The other sections fluctuated wildly--I got a 650 on one math section, only to get a 780 on the next with no change in testing strategy. </p>
<p>Atmosphere: Very bland, to be honest. You go in, sit down, and listen to the teacher talk. He reads the book and you do a few drills. There is a break every once in a while. Then, a change in section or a vocabulary game. Then, you leave. I found myself unable to pay close attention to my teacher's explanation of the course methods. To get an understanding of the people who can work for these test prep courses, my PR teacher was a Rutgers undergraduate (senior) who came in late one weekend because he had gotten drunk the previous night and broken his leg dancing on a table. He was an adequate teacher overall, but the things that you are taught in Kaplan/TPR seem to be for people who honestly do not know or have the time to learn the actual material. You do not learn how to actually do the math problems in the math section--you learn tricks to get around knowing the material, tricks that are often just as difficult to remember as knowing how to solve the problem itself. For instance, one of the lessons is actually something along the lines of 'Doing the math without algebra'. If you know your algebra, this is utterly useless for you-practicing the algebra would be infinitely more practical and versatile. Overall, I do not believe that this for people who know the stuff but need practice. This is for people who need a way to perform well on the SAT with limited skills or a very short period of time to do so. I sat down, did the assigned work, and left. I wish my parents had not spent money on this course.</p>
<p>One of TPR's promotions was that if they couldn't raise my score by something like 200 points, they'd automatically offer me another course in anything, SAT I or II, for free. I ended up declining the offer.</p>
<p>CCB: A Korean SAT day camp, basically. I took this in August of junior year. This is the hardcore of the hardcore. About 30 of us were placed in 3 rooms and had 3 different teachers, each one teaching a different section of the test. The course has 8 hour sessions for 4 days a week, and a test on Fridays. We had a grammar nazi for a writing teacher, an ethereal, philosophical 30-something year old man for a CR teacher, and a..well, an old-school middle-aged Asian man for a math teacher. This actually worked, mainly because it's structured like actual classes. I won't talk much about this class because probably none of you know or want to sign up for this course. It is not for the weak-willed, but it will get you results. My initial scores here were about a 2150 (with harder writing MC but perfect essay score), and improved to 2200-2250 by the end of three weeks (with perfect writing score). I highly recommend it.</p>
<p>Self-Study: I did a lot of this before, in between, and after all of these courses. I took every book that I could find, every test, every diagnostic. Do this regardless of whether you take a prep course or not-it is the most important part, regardless.</p>
<p>I suggest this method in order to not burn out and want to stab yourself after a few weeks/days/hours/minutes. I still never wanted to do another SAT ever again after the test, but I got through OK.
1) Do a single large test, and then find out your lowest/least confident section.
2) For the next week or two, very slowly do only that section, dedicating time you might normally be taking for the other sections on that section alone.
3) Meticulously analyze every wrong answer, every error--and analyze the question; what it means, how it's worded, what the intent is.
4) Understand your problems:
a) Vocabulary requires practice and usage and is generally hit or miss. You do not need to memorize the dictionary. Breaking down an unfamiliar word usually works wonders, and words that sound like other words tend to be similar in definition as well.
b) Critical reading passages require that you understand the mindset of the reading (which to me is also unfortunately hit or miss). I read fast, so I always read the passage first and answered the questions afterwards by rereading the parts mentioned. Some people also just go straight to the questions and read only the necessary areas, but I feel that this prevents the tester from understanding the passage well. The general rule for answering questions with quoted phrases is to read the 4 lines before and the 4 lines after the quote. You will almost *always *be asked to find the tone of the passage in some way or another, so just do so while you read. Oftentimes, knowing the tone of the passage will answer several other questions indirectly.
c) Math errors usually are the result of tricky wording or deficient/incorrect application of principles (combined with good ol' human error), and are usually pretty straightforward. You get em or ya messed up somehow.
d) Multiple choice on the writing is exclusively grammar, and is simple to study for--learn all of the stodgy old grammar rules by heart. Imagine a proper Englishman speaking the sentence in front of you, and imagine to yourself: Are his cricket buddies going to laugh at him for using the plural form of a verb in conjunction with the subject noun 'Everyone'? Why/Why not?
e) The essay requires organization of structure and content. The secret? The rubric DOES NOT CARE ABOUT TRUTH. Don't know any real examples explaining why power should remain in the hands of the people? Make something up about Greece! My old fallback was always the 'ancient African fable' which involved a hog doing something and getting his just reward/punishment, conveniently providing a lesson about the question at hand. You can say the most absurd things in your essay-as long as it is organized and related to the topic, then it can only help you.
5) RELAX for a little bit (no more than a day)
6) Take another single large test and repeat. </p>
<p>This basically has you concentrate wholly on one section--to GET that one part and expect the questions, format, etc. beforehand. You aren't doing 5 hour test blocks, you're doing maybe an hour or two at a time of just one section. You should get comfortable with it and start performing better. Eventually, that section will become a strength, and you can start improving on another section.</p>
<p>I hope this long, long, long post helps parents/students in the whole SAT business. I don't trust most prep courses past their books. Taking the test yourself is the best way to really practice, along with content drills for math and rule memorization for writing, etc.
I know that I don't have a perfect score, so I don't pretend that I can tell people what to do on the SAT. But I am sane today because of the methods I used. Practicing for these tests is like mentally running for 5 hours, and a tired brain is an inefficient one. Focus on one section, and just pound that section into submission before moving onto the next one. That's all I can say without asking for money (it's a very lucrative business, after all...)</p>