<p>Are SAT prep classes worth the time and money? If so, which ones are the most effective and best overall in your opinion?</p>
<p>well i know that kaplan's suck the most. PR is a bit better. But if you're aiming really high, I wouldn't suggest you taking those classes b/c they're aimed at average folks wanting to improve. There are SOME SAT prep classes that actually train you for 2400s but I do not know who they r</p>
<p>Get private tutor or something.</p>
<p>I saw IvyBound and Boston Prep on internet. They're costly and seems to have one-on-one tutor but I don't know if they're any good.</p>
<p>I would say that if you like the techniques of one company's books, go with them. I would do PR over Kaplan, but I personally think PR is way better than Kaplan for the SAT.</p>
<p>I think Kaplan and PR teach a lot of gimmics that are only appropriate for kids who are really, really struggling acadmically. If you are a passing student, you are better off on your own or with a good private tutor.</p>
<p>Here is my advice, assuming an incredibly modest budget:</p>
<p>Get the College Board's book, The Official SAT Study Guide.</p>
<p>Math: Do the math tests under timed conditions. After you have graded them, go to a math teacher you know and respect for some extra help after school. If your teachers do not offer extra help, you may want to reach out to classmates who seem to be very with it academically.</p>
<p>Critical Reading: As you take practice tests, circle all of the words you cannot define with confidence. Look them up and memorize them. Remember the old saying, "There is no royal road to knowledge." This means that even if you are born into a royal and privileged family, you have to learn the same way everyone else does -- through dedicated hard work.</p>
<p>Writing: For the essay, remember to stick to the assignment and nothing more. Form in opinion. Clearly state your opinion in the introduction. Support the opinion with examples that are on point. Draw a conclusion (one that looks a lot like your introduction.)</p>
<p>For the multiple choice section, just do a bunch of practice tests and you will figure it out.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>Karl, you say that because you are a private tutor.</p>
<p>I am an A student, top 2% of my class, not academically challenged in any way, and PR's "gimmicks" work for me when I need them. No matter how smart you are, there are times on the SAT/ACT when you need to use a shortcut, and it's very helpful to know a few in a pinch.</p>
<p>Since you're obviously trying to establish yourself as an "expert" on the topic so that you can subtlely promote yourself (although you're not as subtle as you think since it was easy to figure out), it would be wise not to insult people who have different views than you do.</p>
<p>I was PR's first employee when I was in high school back in the mid 80s. I used to keep the books and manage the office. Since the office was so small, I was obviously privy to a lot of internal strategizing. Here are my two cents on the last two comments:</p>
<p>The founders of Princeton Review were still college students when they dreamed up the idea of writing a book to help other kids "outsmart the test makers." They were young entrepreneurs with absolutely no teaching experience, as far as I can remember. Nonetheless, the office was kind of a fun place for a young girl to work. I remember that John had pushed to use the word Princeton in the company name because he wanted people to know the book was written by people associated with Princeton University.</p>
<p>[I managed to get into Dartmouth College, by the way, without their help. I did not apply to Princeton because I liked Dartmouth and wanted to get away from my parents, who, by the way, could not have afforded private tutoring for me. I am a stay-at-home mom with three kids now, but I am glad I pushed myself as a girl.]</p>
<p>I agree with Karl S that PR does teach a lot of gimmicks. However, I do want to qualify what I mean by a "gimmick". A gimmick is a strategy that does not work 100% of the time. If a simplifying strategy worked, let's say, 80% of the time, it made the book back then. Since I thought I was smart enough to figure out which 80% of the time to do one thing and which 20% of the time to do something else, I didn't bother confusing myself by learning gimmicks during down time in the office.</p>
<p>To me, a "test strategy" is something different. A test strategy provides a student with a quick, easy and accurate way of solving a problem. The first PR book had plenty of test strategies too.</p>
<p>I think Karl S' message was written, not to promote private tutoring, but to inspire kids on a strict budget. Kids like I was. Trust me SugarNSpice, if you are as smart as you say you are, you can do well without gimmicks. </p>
<p>Also, please note that Karl S opened with the phrase "I think" and most of his advice was for kids who need to prepare on a tight budget, not with a private tutor.</p>
<p>Indulge me for one more moment:</p>
<p>My experience with PR as a girl coupled with the attitudes in SugarNSpices' last two comments definitely lead me to believe that she is a twenty-something year old woman who works as a "teen" blogger for PR. </p>
<p>Think about it. She mentions Kaplan in the message to Karl S' to appear balanced and then promotes PR with a ringing endorsement. She then gets insulted and very aggressive (unusually aggressive for a young girl I might add) when a private tutor mildly bashes Kaplan and PR before offering advice for kids who cannot afford private tutors or expensive courses. </p>
<p>Her mantra is that kids need shortcuts, no matter how smart they are. Karl S never said anything about shortcuts, let alone that they were objectionable. In fact, I am sure he encourages kids to use shortcuts whenever possible. The bottom line is that I think PR has stooped to a new level by paying people like SugarNSpice to protect the company against the naysayers -- the people who still believe that a motivated kid can do it on his or her own.</p>
<p>Just for fun I recently looked up PR's fees for private tutoring in New Jersey where I live. They are charging $350 per hour for private tutoring from people with only 5 years of tutoring experience. Unless they are giving out the answer to the next test, I don't see how they can justify those fees.</p>
<p>In my opinion, PR has not changed one bit since the mid 80s. They are out to make money any way they can. I am sure that SugarNSpice was trained and certified by PR to be a teen blogger. Now there is nothing illegal about that as far as I can tell. Professional athletes and celebrities are paid to endorse products all the time. I am just a bit disappointed.</p>
<p>Stop trying to "subtly promote" PR, Sugar, and tell PR to "stop insulting" the public.</p>
<p>Remember, you cant fool a stay-at-home mom;) Ciao.</p>
<p>My husband was hacking around after I posted my last message. Look at what he found. It appears that the young SugarNSpice has been working overtime to "subtly promote" PR. The seventeen-year-old seems to have a friend who was hired as a tutor for PR. Sorry if you get fired Sugar, but women (assuming you really are a woman) were made for better things.</p>
<p>"I totally agree that a 99% score does NOT mean someone can teach. My physics teacher was brilliant but a terrible teacher. I'm an A student but was failing physics...but still got an A with the curve, because all of the A students were getting Cs and worse. He was that bad.</p>
<p>An older friend of mine taught for Princeton Review...her training was pretty intense and she had to audition. Not everyone in her class made the cut (she's a natural teacher, though). But they don't use novices for the private tutoring...she had to prove herself as a class instructor before she'd be eligible to tutor. Only the best instructors work as tutors since that pays more."</p>
<p>I really like this blogging stuff;) Ciao, again.</p>
<p>What was the evidence that Sugarnspice is an imposter?</p>
<p>I am not questioning your evidence, I just dont follow why you are so adamant about her affected identity?</p>
<p>Chris_CEEAE,</p>
<p>I understand that many people go online with ulterior motives. That seems acceptable because it is part of the game. I am offended at the notion, however, that big test prep company's are paying adults to pose as teenagers who swear by the companies' products and services in order to promote them. Furthermore, it is notably offensive when these paid mouthpieces go out of their way to attack others with the goal of stifling their opinions.</p>
<p>While Karl S may have started with a negative opinion of Kaplan and The Princeton Review, (1) it was only his opinion, (2) I have no reason to believe that he is anyone other than the person he claims to be, and (3) he went on to give what I believe is good advice for those who cannot afford private tutoring or expensive courses.</p>
<p>My bottom line is this: pseudonyms are okay to protect anonymity, but impersonating, for money, teenage girls in order to promote a particular company's products or services, while attacking those with opposing views under the guise of having been insulted, is not okay.</p>
<p>I could be wrong, but I would bet that SugarNSpice is a twenty-something-year-old college graduate, who likes to go clubbing on the weekends.</p>
<p>I'm curious about one thing to SugarNSpice: Why do you think Princeton Review is SO good?</p>
<p>Read SugarNSpice's comment about PR > Kaplan. So, SugarNSpice likes PR more than Kaplan for SAT.</p>
<p>Read SugarNSpice's comment about ACT. I just thought it was bit "odd" that SugarNSpice pays attention to both SAT and ACT. I mean, it's possible and I don't have problem with anyone doing this but why would you be so knowledgeable about both SAT and ACT? I barely have time for only one :-P.</p>
<p>I don't know about SugarNSpice faking the age. Maybe that's little bit too far fetched. But I just think it's bit "odd" and "curious" how much SugarNSpice likes PR. In most cases for people here, I thought they disliked PR because their questions were unreal. But it seems that SugarNSpice likes all the prep books (including Grammar Smart for grammar) by PR. Honestly, PR isn't "all" that.</p>
<p>As I said, I don't care if the person uses fake age or anything. But if PR is that good, I need to know it and buy it so I can raise my score (so far, Reading and Writing Workbook wasn't that good as I hoped).</p>
<p>i am currently going to a prep class called "Alpha." it is only located in southern california, so if you don't live there, than i guess that wasn't much help. but i do want to say that although at first i hated going there, thinking it was a complete waste of time, i think it has really made me improve. i think what a prep class does is it forces you to study and do the work. i, for one, have a hard time self-studying because i have no motivation, so i probably wouldn't improve so much on my own.</p>
<p>i know a couple of people who go to Elite and they really like it. but you have to either do the 2100 program or Boot Camp program if you want to get over 2100. also...it is pretty costly.</p>
<p>where i'm going (Alpha), it's $1600 for 9 weeks. i think the boot camp at Elite is over $2000, and so is the 2100 program.</p>
<p>Wow, you people have WAY too much time on your hands! When I read Karl's comments on this thread and another one (he initiated one where he just had to "rant" about some aspect of what he doesn't like about big prep co's, which is also verbatim on his own site's blog), I suspected he was a private tutor (his initial post in this thread did not say he was one in the subject line -- he added that afterward). I looked up his public profile, and sure enough, he is one, and had a link to his site. He came on here specifically to promote himself, and started to do so with posts that attack other ways of prepping (other than self prep, of course).</p>
<p>Why is it such a big deal to know about both the SAT and ACT? Most of my friends are taking both because we want to see which test gives us our best score. I get straight As but I do suck at standardized tests and PR's books were the only ones that helped me, so yes, I rave about them. So what? I don't use PR for everything and always tell people to use Gruber's for math.</p>
<p>If PR wanted to pay me for my opinion, that would be killer, but I haven't gotten a call yet. LOL.</p>
<p>Chill, people.</p>
<p>DaniWB, Your thoughts are very interesting. They offer a plausible explanation for why SugarNSpice was so insulted by my derogatory comment about PR, why she went out of her way to promote PRs private tutoring in separate thread, and why she seems to know so much about both the ACT and SAT. I too thought her response to me was quite harsh. However, the teacher in me wants to believe that she is who she says she is and that her motives are more genuine than you think. Maybe her father works for PR or something like that.</p>
<p>SugarNSpice, No harm intended. I am a private tutor. I have not tried to hide that. In fact, the title of my message was Advice from a Private Tutor. That should have been enough to signal that a biased opinion was coming.</p>
<p>What you dont know about me, however, is that I am a private tutor who is extremely busy, year after year, tutoring kids from very privileged backgrounds in Princeton, New Jersey (great kids, but privileged nonetheless). My parents, like those of DaniWB, could not afford private tutoring for me when I was younger. A part of me wants to help the kids who have no choice but to help themselves, kids who are growing up like I did. My CC advice will always be free and geared toward the students with limited financial resources. I do not think there is anything self-promoting about that.</p>
<p>I agree with DaniWBs definition of a gimmick, by the way, and I stand by my assertion that PR teaches a lot of them. In all fairness, however, I should not have mentioned Kaplan in my negative comment. I think Kaplan does make an effort to teach subject matter and to offer what DaniWB defined as test strategies.</p>
<p>As for my web site, <a href="http://www.eprep.com%5B/url%5D">www.eprep.com</a>, I am hoping it will become just another free resource for people who are looking for expert advice on test preparation.</p>
<p>Karl S,</p>
<p>You are too kind. I am still thoroughly convinced that SugarNSpice is a PR blogger.</p>
<p>I will check your site out later today. Ciao. I am off to get the kids at their summer art camp. :)</p>
<p>DaniWB, I hope I don't grow up to be as cynical as you. Sigh. But I'm starting to get that way, not to mention disenchanted here. </p>
<p>grayfalcon, I am a fan of PR, but I could just as easily been one of Kaplan if I had their books instead. The reason I have so many PR books is because I bombed my first SAT (I didn't study for it because, as an A student, I figured I didn't have to, but my 580 verbal and 520 math told me otherwise) (I did nicely on writing, tho). My mom totally freaked out that I wasn't going to get into a top college (my dad is actually a history professor, Karl, so college is a very big deal in our house) and went out and bought me a bazillion prep books for like, every SAT-related test, even one for physics, which I was bombing in class. You know why she picked PR instead of Kaplan? She liked the colors on the book. YEP. She's nuts. She'll probably want me to go to the college that has the prettiest brochure.</p>
<p>I don't know if Kaplan vs. PR truly matters, but the PR strategies were good for me, especially for reading passages. I have ADHD and don't take meds for it (tried them, they made my heart race), so I have a very hard time concentrating on things that are not really interesting to me. On the reading passages, I would totally zone out; they're boring on purpose. I know most people hate the PR method of reading the question first and skimming the passage for the answer, but this worked better for me because my mind would wander off if I read the passage. PR didn't work as well for me for math (I suck at geometry), so I used Gruber's for math and would highly recommend it. </p>
<p>And yes I did take the ACT and got a 34 after studying for it (PR + Getting into the ACT). I won't be taking the physics SAT II but am using that book to prop up my laptop!!!!!</p>
<p>I have a strong opinion on anything I have a real opinion on, so yes, I glow or rant sometimes. If I seemed overly aggressive toward Karl, I apologize. My uncle, the coolest guy in my family, is in the hospital and they can't figure out why his blood pressure hits the roof and his heart skips like 4 or 5 beats when he gets up, and I am a bit on edge. There is room for everyone's opinion on here, so I am sorry for my aggressiveness.</p>
<p>It seems like last reply was pretty much directed at me.</p>
<p>Anyway, all I said was "why PR so good?" I guess PR works really well for some people. Also, only reason I mentioned both ACT and SAT is because most students do not study both SAT and ACt. I do not know anyone around me who studies even for SAT (other than myself) and not to mention study BOTH SAT and ACT. </p>
<p>Also, PR's method ---- or gimmick as people mentioned ------ is helpful to some people. But I'm pretty critical against PR because most people I know said that PR is full of errors. Not that Kaplan is any better ---> lesser error but way easier problems.</p>
<p>Hope I wasn't offending. You know how it feels.. Studying SAT over summer is a PAIN.</p>
<p>Nah, it was for everyone busting my chops.</p>
<p>Maybe the ACT vs. SAT thing is regional. I am on the East Coast and most people at my school are taking the SAT, only doing ACT if they don't do well on the SAT, but I know a lot of people trying both. Or at least, practicing for both and then deciding which one to take. I'm surprised more people don't do the ACT because IMHO it's a lot easier to prep for, and more closely resembles what you learn in school.</p>
<p>My uncle needs a pacemaker...sigh...</p>