<p>So I'm not sure if you are familiar with the concept of a hagwon (my fellow koreans reading this surely are) but I am not sure if the one I am in is working.</p>
<p>Hagwon - a korean cram school where kids go to spend their time studying and preparing for things such as the SAT and Subject Tests, kind of like Princeton Review except all the kids are asian and there is a generally high SAT rate (most kids go to magnet schools)</p>
<p>It is highly reputable. Ive been at the hagwon in question for 3 weeks. My SAT scores have not increased in the slightest. My critical reading score is hovering around 640-650 and my writing is horrible. How do I get the most out of this hagwon? </p>
<p>The thing is I take a significant amount of time out of my week to tinker with various gadgets and program computers. Its my hobby and I hope to go into computer engineering. Its hard balancing time between SAT prep and my interests.</p>
<p>I’m Korean and I can totally relate. I was sent to a hagwon two years ago and it was complete *<strong><em>. When I took the SAT this past June, I only got a 1990. 2000 bucks down the drain. After that I said *</em></strong> it and now I’m just taking practice tests every day. Unless there’s a bunch of hot chicks in your class, quit. Convince your parents that you can manage your time between SATs and computer programming. I’m pretty sure they don’t want to waste thousands of money on something that will probably not work.</p>
<p>I actually just started in one too 2 weeks ago. My CR score without studying on the diagnostic was a 660. I took just the CR section today after 2 weeks of freaking hard work and ended up with something like a 630-650. So I spent all day doing CR sections ALONE without any useless paid help and analyzing the questions and now I am going upward -_- freaking hagwons…</p>
<p>So… when I go tomorrow morning I am going to tell them to stick it and let me take practice tests because obviously reading the NY Times or doing useless Vocab not found in direct hits is not a good use of time :P</p>
<p>I went to a so called SAT hagwon that helped kids get into Harvard and Yale or whatnot. Complete piece of **** and waste of time. The truth is, they’re after your money. It’s called “hagwon” business. The teachers might appear to be teaching and caring for students, but thats usually not the case. My reading score went up 40 pts after like a year of going to that expensive “hagwon”. I suggest you study independently with prep books. It will help you get a better score in the long run. If you think you really need help, get a private tutor who can actually score above 2300+ themselves. But I believe you can score higher on the SAT with independent studying.</p>
<p>Haha wow what a similar ordeal that we are both experiencing. </p>
<p>I go to Elite right now, although I’m Chinese and it’s not just Koreans (I’m in America), for its SAT Boot Camp, which you might have heard of since you’re Korean.
While doing so I am also self-studying for Precalculus to advance to AP Calc AB next year (Algebra II/Trig – > AP Calc AB instead of Algebra II/Trig –> Precalculus –> AP Calc AB) and it’s sort of difficult. I, too, feel that I am not getting something out of the SAT and am scoring 650-700s, but no more than a 1900 total…</p>
<p>I am constantly wondering if I should just give up on the Precalculus self-studying but then again that would mean I would have to suffer through the class which is basically a repeat of Algebra II/Trig concepts and instead of doing AP Calc BC in junior year as I would have done at my previous school (I transferred after middle school to a new high school, the previous one being both a middle and high school combined) I would be doing it in senior year at my current school. But then if I do give up, then that means I will have double the time of studying the SAT and getting more out of it. Sigh. And, I also have to get ready for a piano examination coming up in the fall and a crap load of summer hw for three of my classes next year.</p>
<p>Those “hagwons” I believe do work. Elite gives us a lot of practice questions, tests, essays, etc. A lot of people will probably not have as much practice as Elite is providing for me. As long as you put the time into it, you’ll get something out of it. But, the more busy you are, the less time you have for it and so its effect is the opposite.</p>
<p>I guess we’re just going to both have to balance our lives. In my mind I just keep pushing myself and saying “There’s a lot of people out there that I have to deal with more than this. I can do it.”</p>
<p>Yeah I understand what both of you are going through as well. Except for me it’s not engineering or math, it’s photography/cinematography, orchestra, and tennis haha. And depending on the learning center, it can vary, but for sure I know the classes I am taking are helping me, it’s just some of the work they give is superfluous Gotta change that tomorrow!</p>
Gotta change that tomorrow!</p>