<p>Does SAT prep classes of Princeton Review and Barron really help or is it just waste of money? Should I sign up for it??! I'm looking for suggestions.
If yes which one should I sign up for?</p>
<p>Thanks a lot :-)</p>
<p>Waste of money.</p>
<p>Even this one “hagwon”, which refers to a Korean cram school, where I am doing an SAT “boot camp” doesn’t help that much. If I could turn back into time and save $2000 by self-studying on my own, I really would.</p>
<p>I actually posted this in another thread; skip to the bottom if you don’t want to read an anecdote of mine:</p>
<p>My favorite part of PR is that they offer free practice SAT’s and SAT II’s to people (that are unbelievably difficult compared to the real thing) and try to lure customers in. I took their free Math II exam, and wrote on the bottom of the answer sheet, “Hi, I know this is a ploy to give me a bad score and have me pay way too much money for your course. Sorry, I ain’t stupid enough to fall for your pathetic marketing strategy. Go to hell.” I still got an 800 on that ridiculous test. </p>
<p>The point is this: PR (and probably Kaplan) courses are overpriced and useless.</p>
<p>The PR classes provide with with lots of their prep books, but honestly I’ve found that the only books you should out of are the blue books (the College Board books). As much as PR claims to have totally mastered the SAT, I can definitely see a difference between a PR SAT and the real SAT, especially in the math sections.
The actual class itself can get pretty lengthy and time consuming if you’re taking them during the school year (tip: do not do that). I had one teacher who taught math, cr and writing for 90 minutes and it was a pain sometimes. Basically, you’re taught how to plug in the answers, “ballparking” answers etc etc. I would advise you to take a prep class once, and if you need to retake the sat, then work out of books. I took PR and ESC, ESC was a waste of time, but I did love the math teacher I had!
Good luck :]</p>