<p>couldn't get anyone to a 12?. He was like..'either you have a 12 or you don't..i can't help you with it at all'</p>
<p>I do think that what Xiggi and others have said about quality differing in various cities, etc. is true. In my area of CT, Kaplan is more popular and flexible (you can make up class's at another area class) while Princeton is stricter, has far fewer class's, and students complain of "dull teachers". They are also a little more money. I also found that Kaplan were the first to offer ACT preps, although only one, while Princeton didn't have any class's. I'm sure though that PR has great class's, it can just vary.</p>
<p>Harry, your teacher is out of line! It seems to me that the essay portion is one of the most coachable sections of the test. My daughter's class was given the assignment of going through newspaper articles, books from high school classes, historical events and pooling examples to be inserted into the essay. Then they were told how to organize the essay and were given very specific comments on their individual essays. One of the comments my daughter received was "write larger" so that you fill the full 2 pages. Not a great substantive comment but it showed her that she needed to write more than she had been (or make it look that way).</p>
<p>wow! we only did two practice essays out of class</p>
<p>i guess that proves every class is different</p>
<p>Wow, thanks everyone for the responses and the insights. I appreciate all the time you took to reply and I've been doing more thinking and research as well.</p>
<p>My son will be entering his sophomore year this fall and we're planning to "schedule" his prep time among his ECs so that he's not overloaded (which is so easy to do!). I think that a class is very helpful in that regard, to keep him on a schedule because of the amount of homework that's assigned (I read that PR assigns a lot, which is a good thing -- it will make him practice when he'd rather not!). </p>
<p>He will begin with self-prep so that he can get familiar with the SAT and see where his strengths and weaknesses are, and to see if he needs a class or tutor (and how much of it he'll learn just as he goes through school). </p>
<p>I do agree that motivation is key to doing well, and he's definitely motivated (and I'm definitely not going to pay him to take the test!!). :-) Harry, I'm sorry you had such a bad experience; did you talk to anyone there? I took Xiggi's advice and asked about instructor qualifications at PR (they actually do quite a bit of training), and they told me that if we're unhappy with our instructor we can switch to another class. If you don't complain, they can't weed out the bad ones. </p>
<p>I have gotten good recommendations from PR from other parents in my neighborhood and feel pretty good about going with them if/when my son's ready for a course or tutor. The essay tips one of you posted, that they gave in class, are great. Thanks for sharing!</p>
<p>I'm weighing in late here and maybe someone already said this, but I think sophomore year is way too early to start prepping for the SAT. The material on the test is pretty boring and I think you run the risk of losing focus by second semester junior year. My son starting prepping January of junior year and took the test in May - neither he nor I think any earlier prep would have made any difference. </p>
<p>His younger brother will take the PSAT for practice as a sophomore, again as a junior. This will let him know what types of questions/areas he needs to focus on; he'll then start prepping for the SAT junior spring.</p>
<p>it doesn't matter when you begin prepping as long as you are willing to put in 100%</p>
<p>In fact, it is a good idea to prep sophomore year if a student has a chance to do well on the PSAT junior year, which serves as the NMS qualifying test; even if not untimately an National Merit Scholar, being a finalist or even a comended scholar is a nice thing to be able to put on the college apps. Taking the PSAT as a sophomore is good practice but no substitue for reall prepping; the sophomore score will give some indication of what areas need to be strengthened. Also, many students do take the SATs pretty early in junior year, so the OP's prep timetable sounds quite sensible.</p>
<p>Everyone needs to make their own decision, but for my kid a few months of intense focus on SAT prep was more than enough. (And he won a NM scholarship with no sophomore year prep). At some point you are just not going to get anything more out of the prep, and you want to "peak" in junior year.</p>