<p>my mom paid $600 for my SAT WORKSHOP and drove every weekend 30 mins away to go there, but it’s one of those things where it doesn’t matter how much you pay, it’s how much work you put into it on your own because it was a group session. i thought it was worth it, i was NEVER gonna study on my own with all i’ve got going on. it actually pushed me to take a look at practice problems. with that in mind,
many people in my area pay $900 PER SECTION for a private tutor. seriously there’s this one place huntington that charges $110 for pretest, and $60/per hour and they recommend i take 60 hours (LMAO!!! obviously i didn’t go to that place) but i know a kid who got like 30 hours there and another who got like 25.. so it’s the norm here.</p>
<p>I don’t think it really matters. If my mom is willing to pay for it, why not?</p>
<p>@afruff23: Are you serious? That’s completely different.</p>
<p>With the exception of a private school that you have to pay to attend (and even that isn’t sure-fire because the private schools around here all suck), no one is given an unfair advantage in HS by taking those courses.</p>
<p>my mom drove 3 hours every saturday for my prep course, and i worked assdiously during the sumer, 6 hour study periods everyday. bought 6 books and completed 4 of them. finished a cr and a writing wb, and almost completing a barrons math workbook. finished 1 full vocab book.</p>
<p>i agree. people have every right to prepare as they wish for the sat. if you disapprove of prep classes and tutors, dont take a prep class and dont hire a tutor. why does it matter what someone else does?</p>
<p>"@afruff23: Are you serious? That’s completely different.</p>
<p>With the exception of a private school that you have to pay to attend (and even that isn’t sure-fire because the private schools around here all suck), no one is given an unfair advantage in HS by taking those courses."</p>
<p>Wow, so you understand foreign language structures, physics, essay-writing, and mathematic proofs all without a teacher?</p>
<p>Why not just take the tests without a teacher? Because that’s really all tutoring is.</p>
<p>Socialism is the stupidest ideology of modern time, yet it keeps coming up very often. Why is that?</p>
<p>I don’t think the OP did very well on reading comprehension. There are so many flaws in his argument that I can’t even contemplate having a normal convo with him. It would be like beating your head against the wall repeatedly.</p>
<p>As everyone else said, in the end, it is entirely up to YOU, the test taker, how you do. Most people self-prep, some who do courses pay for them and others get them free. Do whatever YOU have to do to earn the score you want/need, and don’t worry about what others do. </p>
<p>Your SAT score might keep you out if it’s too low, but someone else’s SAT score won’t. SAT is only ONE part of your app, and if someone else has a 2400 but the rest of their app isn’t strong, they’re not going to take your place if you have a 2000 and your app otherwise kicks butt.</p>
<p>So get over it, and spend your time studying for the SAT instead of complaining about how others do, working on your grades or your ECs, or writing some decent college app essays rather than engaging in a silly discussion here about something you can’t do anything about. You want to get into a great school? Make it happen yourself and don’t worry about what anyone else is doing. It’s an approach you’ll need to take your whole life anyway if you want to be successful, so you might as well learn it now.</p>
<p>Reading CC is a form of tutoring. You will learn more from Xiggi’s thread than you will from most prep courses… I can’t say all because I’m not familiar with the universe. For instance, I bought my son some SAT books at the bookstore (the usual suspects) and didn’t realize that Kaplan, for example, was horrible until he started going through it. Then, after reading Xiggi’s thread and seeing a consensus on the “best resources”, we saved money and time by learning how to approach the test and the best resources used by high scorers. You look for patterns… whether they are on the SAT test or in the study patterns of high scoring students. The score we could have “bought” from a local tutor would have been far lower than the score he is already getting on old SAT tests based on CC advice.</p>
<p>Nearly every student CCer on this thread has reaped the benefits of free online tutoring.</p>
<p>Buying prep materials for the SAT and doing better isn’t like your Dad buying a library for Harvard, and getting you in. Its more like you spending money to buy expensive chemistry books and tutors, and using that knowledge to win a prestigious chemistry contest. Is it fair? No. </p>
<p>There is no SAT prep besides teaching you the basics of Math and critical reading. There are no “secrets” that help you to do well on the test. The review books just help you to remember old math material. Is it cheating to review old math formulas?</p>
<p>Do you think this is a good idea for an application essay: “What I learned/ how I felt about working after school to pay for my own SAT prep course and tutor” ?</p>
<p>don’t see why people need t to ***** about this… Why do you care what other people spend their money on? The review class doesn’t automatically gurantee you a 2300, it helps you but you are ultimately the one in charge. Why do you have a problem with that? Is it because you are jealous that you couldn’t attend any expensive test prep or tutors? I think so</p>
<p>^Jealous of what? I’m perfectly happy with my score. Obviously you’re all more offended than I am. I was simply asking a question until you all came along and made it into a bash-fest on me. Don’t flatter yourself by thinking you know anything about me.</p>
<p>NancyDrew: I’m a girl, FYI. And how you do on some test like the SAT that doesn’t even test on your actual skills but instead tests on how well you can take a freaking test has nothing to do with my reading comprehension skills.</p>
<p>Besides, if anything, you should have commented on my writing skills, since you’re the one reading it. Not me.</p>
<p>I do have to agree with HGFM regarding the unfairness of the test prep system. Perhaps one of the 2008 candidates could propose a National SAT Test Preparation System to provide universal access to test prep. Should this program, over time, fail to narrow the range of SAT scores, a government-imposed point redristribution plan could work. This would be a graduated redistribution: the higher you score above the mean, the more points you have to give up. The only real flaw I can see in this plan is that the mean would eventually drift downward, as the more motivated individuals wouldn’t work as hard. I mean, why bother. This would be a small price to pay to ensure that everyone gets his fair share.</p>
<p>“Perhaps one of the 2008 candidates could propose a National SAT Test Preparation System to provide universal access to test prep.”</p>
<p>No way. The SAT is designed so that 500 is around the average score. Grades standardized exams will not be affected if EVERYONE gets tutoring, CB will just change the curve.</p>
<p>Also, anyone who thinks having a tutor explain things to you is parallel to studying on your own and formulating methods on how to do well on the SAT is just silly.</p>