<p>About a couple of months ago, I took a free practice test offered by Kaplan in preparation for the January SAT.</p>
<p>I detected nothing wrong with the test or the company until I received my scores back and found out that whoever had read my essay had given me a "3".</p>
<p>I was dumbfounded by this as I considered the essay a pretty good effort on my part and thought that it deserved at least a 4. At first, I didn't think much on it, but now that I reconsider it, is it at all possible that the Kaplan graders consciously gave me a lower score than usual so that I would be compelled to pay for their services?</p>
<p>I realize that you cannot judge w/o the actual essay, but I was wondering if anyone else experienced such a doubt.</p>
<p>Please comment, because I feel quite stressed about my essay-writing skills just because of that darn Kaplan test and the SAT is this Saturday....any thoughts?</p>
<p>Yep, test preparation is a HUGE business. I wouldn't really put it past them to deliberately give me lower marks just so I would partake of their idiotic products.</p>
<p>Why are you worrying about a practice score from a test you took months ago, the night before your SAT? Don't give yourself unnecessary reasons to freak out. Forget it, relax. Go eat some ice cream and watch a stupid movie, then go to bed. :-)</p>
<p>I don't know about Kaplan in particular, but I've had that experience when I've tried practice tests from books. On one SAT 2, I got a 450 on a practice test in the book, then just a couple of days later got a 780 on the actual test. That's an extreme case, and is at least partially caused by better focus on the real test, but still... I think all of the questions on practice tests are things that could be on a real test, but the companies have a definite incentive not to throw in too many very easy questions.</p>
<p>IT could also be a teaching method...If you got 700 months ago, you'd lose all impetus to study for the real thing, and given the stress of the day, the earlier time, the lack of study and just the unpredictability of the test you could very well drop significantly. Kaplan has to prepare you to get 900/800 if you want a chance at 800 on the real day just because of this. I think if you wrote a 6 essay and they gave you a 6, but then you got a 4 on the real day there'd be more complaints than the other way round, no? and 3,4 isn't a big difference. It's just one marker who put one point down. Also essays might just not adhere to their requirements. I usually think I should be quite good at essays, I'm taking British A-level Eng Lit, and did it in gcse, and writing/reading is a major interest of mine. Yet I only scored a 9/12 on the test, so maybe you just weren't writing the right type of essay.</p>
<p>It's definitely possible that I missed the mark on the essay, but it's also possible that test prep companies use dirty tactics to gain business. Like Changeling, I feel I'm a pretty accomplished writer, and that 3 just did not sit well with me. I guess it's just business.</p>
<p>Thanks to everyone who posted on this thread!</p>
<p>My friend took a Princeton Review prep class and he had a similar "fraud story": They guarantee your money back if your score doesn't improve or something; this score improvement is measured by a pretest and a posttest taken before and after the course; my friend said that the pretest was significantly more difficult than the post test, and that they probably did this on purpose to make you get a higher score the second time around.</p>
<p>"The regular price gives you a postal score report sent that requires postage and manual labor while the computerized, faster, e-mailed report that requires no human labor costs extra." Absolutely ridiculous.</p>
<p>I DEFINITELY think testing companies do this intentionally (that is, lower practice test scores) for 2 reasons probably already mentioned, but I have not read the above posts: 1. Get students to buy review materials/courses. 2. Systematically lower scores for practice tests so that the actual test either seems easy or receives a higher score to show "improvement."</p>
<p>My personal experience with this - I took the free Princeton Review practice test online a few weeks before the Dec SAT. I had taken multiple Blue Book CB practice test and scored between 1400-1570 on them all.. I got a 1290 on the PR test, both because I thought it harder and the grading much harsher. I would take one of the OFFICIAL practice tests before taking too much stock in what a (for profit) grading company says you will get if you don't buy their services!</p>
<p>I honestly think it varies. I took multiple practice tests from Kaplan, and my scores were very close to that of the actual SAT. In fact, a practice taken at the end of September resulted in a 2200 ... and my actual Oct score was exactly the same.</p>
<p>I don't like Kaplan - I purchased a bunch of their review books when I was young and naive... I feel the tests just arent quite as good as CB's.</p>
<p>I agree with Echelon. Kaplan books are a waste of time - their answer key always contains mistakes (lots and lots of them!). Collegeboard is obviously the most accurate, and IMO 8 practice tests are enough. If they're not, then there's always the 6 online tests and QAS.</p>
<p>Kaplan's grading system is either alot more pestimistic or rigorous. Every test I took the highest I got was a 4, and yet on the real SAT I scored a 6+6 and a 5+6 using the same essay technique which got me a 3/4 at Kaplan.</p>