<p>Hi. How many people here have taken prep courses for the SAT? (For example, courses like the princeton review or kaplan.)
I'm thinking about taking a princeton review course for the new SAT in the spring, but I wanna know whether or not I should waste a $1,000 on the course.
Do you think these prep courses help? How many peope here have taken one of these prep courses and how much did you improve? Do their tips really help for the SAT?
Thanks.</p>
<p>I took the New SAT PR Prep Course over the summer ... the diag tests didn't show much of an improvement (if any). I don't think it's worth your money unless you need the motivation to study - or you're more of an "average" student. The course seemed to concentrate on concepts that were too easy for me - I actively participated and asked questions on homework and such, but the majority of the time was spent helping the "common" student with his simple math problem. <em>shudders</em>.</p>
<p>I'm not looking down on anyone - I just strongly feel that this was a waste of my time and money. The diag tests were good in that I was forced to sit in a proctored environment to take them - I suppose this is valuable. But worth 950 dollars ...? I don't know.</p>
<p>i took sylvan prep and went from a 1260 to 1460</p>
<p>it all depends on you and whether or not it would help you personally.</p>
<p>me, i know that it would do jack squat for me and just waste my time and a thousand bucks. my parents agree with me (finally) and i told them that we've already shelled out the $50+ in books that the best thing for me would be to get a private tutor to make sure i actually did the work (because otherwise i probably wouldn't).</p>
<p>but i know some people that it upped their score 100-200 points, others it did nothing for them. it depends on you and what kind of learner you are and the environment you learn best in.</p>
<p>A thousand dollars.. hahahha.. </p>
<p>Ok.. All you need for a higher score is to be motivated, as some guy above me mentioned.</p>
<p>Buy 10 Real and a of couple prep books. From there, all you have to do is practice. It just takes time..</p>
<p>I thought about taking PR course to break 1500. As an int'l student, it seemed impossible for me to go over 700 in verbal. Over the summer, though, I studied a lot (and I mean it; there were like 15 prep books that I used) and did verbals only. Well, w/ some luck and hard work, I got 750V. I'm glad I haven't taken the course.
Hard work>prep course</p>
<p>Note that my discussion here is based on the old SAT scale.</p>
<p>If you're scoring average -- about 1000 to 1200 -- a classroom course MAY help. Even then, your results depend a lot on your instructor, so make sure you investigate fully before you sign up and pay for a course. DO NOT rely on the name, and assume the company has first-rate instructors! I have personally worked for other prep companies before (Kaplan and PR), and I can tell you from experience that their instructors are not always the best (not to mention that some are not even trained properly!), and, even when the students give great evaluations to the instructor at the end of the course, the students' ACTUAL scores (NOT scores on diagnostics!) do not always go up very much. Look for an instructor who has scored 1500+ on an official exam, has had years of experience, and has a great track record.</p>
<p>The best resource if you're scoring above 1200 (and even if you're below) is having a REPUTABLE private tutor. A classroom course probably won't do you much good if you're in the 1200+ range, as a lot of the material is targeted towards the lower-scoring students. The same qualifications you look for in a classroom instructor apply to the private tutor. I have worked with all kinds of students (starting anywhere between 800 and 1390) and gotten their scores up from 100 to 200+ points. The tutor you choose should be able to do the same or something close. You will need at least 20+ hours of tutoring, ideally over a period of 6 to 10 weeks, to improve by 150 or more points.</p>
<p>Improvements for the New SAT should be even easier to achieve. I am expecting my students to improve by about 300+ points (after about 25 hours of tutoring) total on the new scale.</p>
<p>How does the Princeton Review's 200+ point guarantee work for the new SAT? Is the improvement based on a PR diagnostic test or an offical SAT or PSAT score?</p>
<p>i took the PR one for the old SAT but i'm a junior right now. Personally i think it realyl depends on if you get good teachers for the course or not. I mean the basic curriculumo f the course at PR was no different from what they sell in their books so basically if you have a really interactive and engaging prep teacher you will benifit from the course alot more. I went from a 960 to a 1460. the 1460 was the first time i took it in high school ,the 960 was from middle school so i guess it doesn't really hold water but i thought it helped me alot.people who can teach themselves and can motivate themselves well shouldn't have to spend 1000 dollars for it.</p>
<p>Be wary of any guarantees from PR. Some of my students who took the PR course, but didn't go up 100 points (they only went up about 20 points from the PSAT to the SAT) and complained to the center afterwards got NOTHING from them. PR does NOT normally give refunds if your score does not meet the guarantee; all you usually get is a free course, and you may not even get this because they can be d***s about this kind of thing (and force you to base it on THEIR diagnostics as opposed to an OFFICIAL exam, which, as we all know, is what really matters). So before you decide to go with a PR course based on a guarantee, be sure to ask for all the fine print and get the guarantee details in writing from them.</p>
<p>Godot why do you think it will be easier to improve on the new SAT?</p>
<p>I'm pretty sure that the PR claims that you get a free "refresher" course if you don't improve that much.</p>
<p>The "refresher" is probably short, boring, and repetitive.</p>
<p>It will be easier to improve your scores on the New SAT because of the following reasons:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Analogies are now dropped. These questions, although still coachable, were pretty annoying for some students. Also, there is now less emphasis on vocabulary (because there are more RC questions). I only have my New SAT students learning about 700 words, versus about 1100 before.</p></li>
<li><p>QCs are also being dropped. Again, these irritated some students. The more advanced math questions are really not that tough -- they are usually more straightforward than the questions involving more basic topics.</p></li>
<li><p>The writing section is eminently coachable. By learning a basic set of grammar rules and practicing a formulaic way of writing essays, many students can do quite well on this section.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>The New SAT is not necessarily easier, but I think it will definitely be easier to IMPROVE one's score. Still, getting a perfect score will be a little tougher now (I estimate only one in 3000 will now get a perfect score, versus 1 in about 2000 before). I'm still searching for my first perfect score student!</p>
<p>prep classes sux! especially PR, get a book and study on your own, they don't teach you anything!</p>
<p>I know someone who got a Kaplan tutor. He said that the tutor read out of the Kaplan SAT 1600 book.</p>
<p>I took his advice.... and bought the book. My score went up 170 points. It only cost me 20 bucks, it cost him a whole lot more. bam.</p>