<p>Which has the better courses? Has anyone used the private tutoring? PR tutoring costs more than Kaplan, is it worth it?</p>
<p>Can PM if desired.</p>
<p>I've heard PR is better</p>
<p>^I agree. I took the sat class with pr, and while it got me from a 1500 to a 1900, I still raised my score to a 2140 with self studying. There classes are good for people with 1500 who want to go to a 1800 or people with a 23-24 to a 28, but after that its all on you.</p>
<p>^^concur -- self-motivation (and self-study) is critical to score 30+. For math & science, D liked Barrons. For english tips (common words, idioms, comma rules, etc), Kaplan Comprehensive does a good job.</p>
<p>D2 used a private tutor@$30 per hr. just for English help. Met three times, did homework assignments. Had a 27 on PSAT English, got 34 on ACT English. Money well spent!</p>
<p>^Eerm, a 27 on PSAT English is really really low. You could guess and do better.</p>
<p>No.Minn.:</p>
<p>that can't be the correct psat score, must be a typo?. (A student earns a 20 by showing up and taking a nap; ~50 is the US median.)</p>
<p>guys, NorthMinnesota is talking about the PLAN test, which is like a "pre-ACT" test that students take during sophmore year. its scaled from 1-32</p>
<p>opps, well she had written psat so I got confused...</p>
<p>Just based on my experience with Cracking the ACT, I would go with Princeton Review. That book ROCKS.</p>
<p>Yikes! I did mean PLAN!!!!</p>
<p>I bought PR, Real ACT, and Kaplan. Started with Kaplan and like the previous poster said - it jumps around from topic to topic (gets annoying somewhat). There will be a chapter for strategies for all the subject areas and then the next topic will cover even more strategies and so on. They could have just focused on Reading first for example and covered everything in the first 10 or so chapters instead of jumping around so much.</p>
<p>If you buy the Premium Edition, some info will be on the CDROM plus Kaplan Online which you probably won't bother looking into (I know I won't). Most of the advice are pretty useless since they're all common sense stuff (e.g., don't spend too much time on a question, keep an eye on the time, etc.)</p>
<p>Pretty disappointed with it so far. :/</p>
<p>I took the ACT class from Sylvan. It improved my score from 24 to 33. Of course, I did a ton of practice tests at home.</p>
<p>Where do you guys get a "ton" of practice tests from?
I'm almost done with the real ACT tests and I finished the PR book, but I can't find any more real tests.</p>
<p>I did 3 in PR book, the ones in Real ACT, and Sylvan provided me with like 4 tests that I took on the weekends. They were amazingly accurate. After my AP tests text week I'll start the Kaplan book. But books like McGrall's 10 ACT practice test are totally off.</p>
<p>I personally prefer Kaplan for the ACT, but that's just me. If you do end up with a course for Kaplan, DON'T DO THE ONLINE COURSE. I ended up doing that, which was a waste of money because I wasn't dedicated enough to keep up (I still managed to increase my composite score by three points though). </p>
<p>My Suggestion: Buy the Kaplan book, do some practice tests, see what your weaknesses are, attack them with the book, do some more practice problems, then take some practice tests. You'll be fine.</p>
@s2k how were the princeton books? Lol probably no hope in asking since you were last active on June in 2008 but its worth a shot