Is self-studying just as effective as SAT Prep classes?

<p>I found that working alone on the problems on your own helps increase scores more than the test prep class. the class does help get you in the right testing conditions however, as I feel it emulates the real SAT setting</p>

<p>might have been mentioned before, but I took 18 practice tests, timed and with discipline, in 18 days. Went from 1800 to 2100, and ended up scoring 2010.</p>

<p>I self studied and after about 4 months i was consistently getting around 2300 on my practice tests. Started out at around 1950 before. All i can tell you is PRACTICE. Take as many tests as possible</p>

<p>Self study vs a prep class vs a private tutor depends on the kid and how self motivated they are. If you are self motivated, you can learn more material in less total time on your own. If you are unmotivated, then going to a class will make you study, as long as you are able to pay attention during the class, but it’s less efficient because you are covering things that you already know and don’t know, rather than self studying and covering things you don’t know.</p>

<p>Xiggi is too modest. Look here and look up Xiggi’s and Silverturtle’s SAT prep guides.</p>

<p>[SAT</a> Preparation - College Confidential](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/]SAT”>SAT Preparation - College Confidential Forums)</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

<p>I personally feel that SAT prep classes are a huge scam. They are just greedy people who want to take the money of parents desperate to get their kids into college. I took a few practice tests and scored a 2360. Most of my friends who having their parents pay thousands for a test prep class were scoring in the 1500-1700 range. They came to me for help, and I suggested a few resources to study on their own, such as Direct Hits, thecriticalreader.com, and practice tests. After focusing their time and attention on those, many were able to score over 2000.</p>

<p>You learn by doing. The prep classes basically tell you things…tricks, techniques. Thats great, but you really need to practice to get a good score. Take on a 20 minute portion of a practice test each nite and review your mistakes. Make it a game to try and beat your best score. Do this for 6-8 weeks leading up to the exam, youll do fine.</p>

<p>My DD took a school-based test prep class before she took the test the first time; she performed poorly. She took the test a second time, and performed poorly. Finally she got a study guide and actually spent six weeks working on her weak sections and she did really well on the third test. So to all the naysayers who state you can’t really improve your score, they are wrong. In the end, for her, it was studying, and I suspect no matter what venue you use, if you are diligent you will do well.</p>

<p>Also, be sure you take the ACT too. Many students who score low on the SAT will do much better on the ACT (and visa versa).</p>

<p>The answer is yes.</p>

<p>CR is the hardest section to improve upon, generally.</p>

<p>Self-studying works very well! I, an international student, got a 1990ish on my first practice SAT. My final score was in the 2200s. The SAT is entirely coachable if you buy some good prep books. I ended up owning and working through about 10 of them (including subject tests). My worst subject test scores were 750 and my highest 800. I did not attend any SAT Prep Courses.</p>

<p>Only thing you have to keep in mind is you need to study what you’re not yet good at. This might seem obvious but it may need some willpower to actually do it.</p>

<p>Perhaps I should be more clear: given a self-studier who works very hard, keeps on schedule, analyses the test to learn how it works, breaks down his strong and weak areas, understands the distribution of questions on the test and the questions likely to be asked, and is astute enough to reverse-engineer the test, he will be successful. However, that is a big hypothetical “given”.</p>

<p>What test prep does is to give you the big areas that are repeatedly tested, an explanation of how the test works, review of your essays, timed practise, and an analysis if your own personal strong and weak areas. It also helps students to carve out some time in their busy weeks for the SAT - a forced study schedule.</p>

<p>There is very little that you cannot eventually figure out on your own. Test prep speeds up some of that process (if you let it).</p>

<p>I definitely agree with the sentiment that naturally great test-takers or just generally very intelligent students will NOT benefit from a prep class as a less skilled test-taker. Some people won’t benefit from either; remember, this is an aptitude test. It is made to test your natural intellectual abilities rather than accrued knowledge. </p>

<p>I skimmed through the math section of the College Board’s prep book, just to get a refresher on some probability stuff, but other than that, I didn’t study. I got a 2110 my first time around and then without any further studying, got a 2160 the second time. The tests were taken two months apart. </p>

<p>I wish I would have prepared for the reading section, but I’m naturally good with math and writing so there was no reason to study for those. The only reason I think I did better the second time was test experience.</p>

<p>I would definitely not recommend a prep class. It eats up a huge amount of your time that could be spent doing much more impressive things, and it’s really not worth it. I haven’t taken a prep class; instead, I look up a lot of tips online for writing the essay and took several practice tests to get familiar with the types of questions I could expect on the test. If you’re fairly intelligent, then you already know all of the material on the SAT. It’s not a test of your knowledge; it’s a test of your ability to take tests.
So really, don’t waste your time and give in to the idea that these prep classes have secret formulas that will help you succeed. Take practice tests, familiarize yourself with every type of question they ask, brainstorm a few broad examples that you can use for really any essay prompt (for example, I find the Declaration of Independence to be really versatile and applicable to a lot of different essay prompts- if you can find more examples like these, then you won’t even need to prewrite before the essay), and you’ll do great. Good luck, and don’t panic! :)</p>

<p>In my opinion, self-studying is the way to go…</p>

<p>I took a kaplan prep course before I took the test in January…
-$500, for the most part, wasted
-15 other kids taking the course with me. Most of them were forced to attend the class by their parents and tended to be distracting.
-Most of the students were aiming for scores in the 1800 range
–I got a high 600 in CR, and mid 600s in M and W
Overall, a nice social experience but didn’t bring me closer to my goal of 2100+</p>

<p>I self-studied for a week before I took the SAT a couple days ago on June 1st…
-focused on my problem section (math…lol) and did numerous practice sections from the Official SAT practice book

  • read up on some tips I found on CC and other sources
    Of course no scores yet, but I felt a lot more confident during the math sections. I regret not spending as much time on CR and W, so if you have extra time devote some to the sections you haven’t practiced as much! </p>

<p>But just as some people have already said, if you self study make sure you have a schedule of some sort to adhere by. Discipline is key.</p>

<p>Hope this helped!</p>

<p>I started with a 1900 during freshman year and got to 2340 only by self-studying.</p>

<p>junior year psat 176, senior year october SAT 2360. it can be done just start asap and put the time in.</p>

<p>I self-studied by taking ~5 practice tests in the Blue Book and went from 2120 to 2320. I also looked at Silver Turtle’s guide and some advice I found online for the writing section, but I believe the practice tests made the difference. Good luck!</p>

<p>I self-studied by going through several SAT prep books and got a 2400 (for comparison’s sake, my junior year PSAT without studying was 230).</p>

<p>Agreeing with a lot of other people here, I think self-studying is more effective than SAT Prep classes. </p>

<p>For what it’s worth, I went from a 173 to 209 to 214 PSAT and eventually a 2300 on the SAT by self-studying. I basically read Direct Hits, studied a SparkNotes grammar guide online, made a universal essay template, and then did practice tests out of the blue book. I probably spent about 60 hours over three years to prepare which works out to a few minutes a day on average (but I tended to have spurts of studying where I would have the motivation to read through Direct Hits or something, and when the test was coming up, obviously I would cram). </p>

<p>Many of my friends who went through prep classes improved their scores, but not massively (generally improved by 50 to 150 points total).</p>

<p>Self-studying is absolutely as effective in my experience. BUT… you are much less likely to actually sit down and do a substantial amount of practice problems on your own. What I mean is unless you have a rather intense work ethic, you will most likely get much more done by taking a class. Taking a course that meets 10 times and consists of taking ten full-length practice tests, assuming that you will attend each class, will force you to do take the SAT 10 times. However, not many people will find the time to do that on their own.</p>