<p>I have a friend (rising senior) who took the SAT I for the first time in June '06 and she scored a 2010. She's looking to raise her score to the 2200+ range, but is having issues -- she didn't do much prep first time around, meaning the few months before the exam because she was bogged down with schoolwork (but she has been in summer SAT prep programs since 9th grade or so). </p>
<p>Do you think it's worthwhile for her to go to a SAT prep summer program that's more expensive (like the $800+ ones, like PR) or to simply work through 11 Real SATs & other workbooks by herself? She's not a very motivated person per se... but she works hard when forced to, haha. </p>
<p>Is it that easy to raise your score YOURSELF 200+ points? Or is it more beneficial (yet costly) to attend a GOOD prep program?</p>
<p>I think self-study is more efficient, in terms of both time and cost. I self studied and got a 2280. A friend of mine had the same starting score on a free diagnostic. He took a PR class and got a 2100. I improved over 200 pts. while he merely improved 40. Buy the Kaplan Book for Grammar and the Barrons for MAth. I am personally still stuck with a 680 CR so I can't advise you there.</p>
<p>Use the barrons math book for review. Then, skip straight to the tests in the blue book. WORK FOR ACCURACY! Take a couple of tests and see how u do.</p>
<p>As for writing, I recommend the Kaplan review and obviously the blue book tests. Practice and go over your mistakes. I just took several tests and eventually I landed myself with double 800s.</p>
<p>Don't worry about you current scores and look ahead. Go in with confidence and say in your mind "imma own this test really hard." Thats all you can do after you deplete all practice tests.</p>
<p>Also, are you good at CR?...I need help with that to break 2300!</p>
<p>This thread isn't for me, btw lol :P But thanks for all the info!</p>
<p>I got a 720 in CR, which isn't too bad -- I didn't do much prep at all, because I read a great deal. I reccomend Barrons CR workbook though, work through it at a slow pace and just remember that all your answers are right there on the page for you (unlike math and writing, where you have to write your own essay and grid-ins) I copied this from my other post: </p>
<p>"don't read the passage meticulously. do a brief skim to make sure you know where all the key components are (ie that you think the questions will refer to. if you've done enough sat verbal practice sections, you'll know they usually ALWAYS ask stuff about words with multiple meanings, contrasting authors of two passages, and the like) and continue on quickly to do questions.</p>
<p>something i've learned -- gut instincts are usually the way to go. because you have the reading fresh in your mind, the most LOGICAL answer usually comes to you first. DON'T overanalyze, that was my problem after coming out of a rigorous english course in school: i overanalyzed everything to a DETAIL (being an english/humanities person) so i complicated everything for myself when i could've just made life SO much easier, lol.</p>
<p>another tip that helped me a loooot - if you have extra time, go back to each of your questions (or at least star the ones that you aren't sure of) and GO BACK INTO THE PASSAGES and underline the PROOF for your answers. if it isn't there, then it's probably not right.</p>
<p>i'm not sure how much reading vocab will help you. the skill of deducing vague meanings from context, imo, is much more useful than memorizing some thousand-world vocab list."</p>
<p>hope it helps :) plus try the workbook! It may just bump you that 20 points! (and 2280, nice - very impressive. i hope you reach your goal!)</p>
<p>I think it depends on the type of person your friend is, and you say she works well when forced. I took a month long class a local tutoring place and didn't find it particularly benefitial at all. It's difficult to be in a classroom setting when what you really need to do to improve is so specific to the individual. For example, I was pretty much getting the majority of the easy/medium math problems right and struggling a little bit with some of the hard ones, as I'm generally pretty good with math. There were some kids in my class though, who weren't as comfortable with some of the math and as a result my teacher decided most of the time to focus on the easy/medium ones to make sure they didn't miss those, so I found myself bored knowing how to do it, and then when we got around to problems I missed, class ended. </p>
<p>BUT, I did think it was helpful because it forced me to practice. If anything, the thousand dollars (or w/e it was) forced me to sit down, take 2 structured tests with them (more would have been better), and forced me to do the work outside of the class b/c I didn't want to go into class without having it done. </p>
<p>My advice would be that if your friend can motivate herself now that she has time this summer, maybe just go for that, but if she thinks she needs that boost and deadlines, a class might be worthwhile if only to force herself to self study, if that makes sense.</p>
<p>Personally, I think the Xiggi method has several flaws. Anyways, unless your friend needs to have a guy punch her in the head to motivate her to study for the SATs, I do not recommend SAT prep programs. The lectures waste your time and the only thing I find would be of value is the environment. Having school desks and people around you, but other than that, there is little to no value for anyone that wants a 2200. </p>
<p>Well, I guess you could make your parents feel like they did their job as parents. Blue book and Online course. Get them. Good luck. Have fun. No noobs or leavers. Also motivate yourself each day like "I am gonna ace this f*ing test. I will ace it and get to a good college and get rich and go to Japan and lay cute school girls for the rest of my life!" I told myself this for 6 weeks before the SAT to motivate myself. Even though it probably won't happen, it is a good motivator for me and paid off. 2350+</p>
<p>Well, I'm getting a PR tutor - yes! I know! Shock! I know the prep courses are worthless, but /this/ should be really interesting. Of course I'm also self-studying from Barron's on the side, but I'll get back to you all in Oct. about how this tutor thing works out (too late for some, but...).</p>
<p>People are quick to denounce it, but haven't tried it themselves. So, we'll see how things go. </p>
<p>As an aside, I took my first two SATs sans ANY prep, including self-study. Just got a good night sleep & relied on my formal education. Just being familiar with the test the second time around boosted my scores 100+ points. This one in Oct. is going to be the final nail, hopefully NOT in the coffin, lol, so I"m going all out.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Well, I'm getting a PR tutor - yes! I know! Shock! I know the prep courses are worthless, but /this/ should be really interesting. Of course I'm also self-studying from Barron's on the side, but I'll get back to you all in Oct. about how this tutor thing works out (too late for some, but...).
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</p>
<p>I'm not sure how the tutor works (I only took the course), but I hope you're not going to be as resistant to the methods they force upon you as I was.</p>
<p>Basically they stress you to look for clues, blah blah, get the obvious out of the way, but the lady kept stressing it every class, it was so illogical for me because none of the choices chosen by the methods she demonstrated on the board made real sense, she didn't even reason ("and choice C can't be it, because, well, it just can't").</p>
<p>I don't know, maybe your tutor'll be better with reasoning.</p>
<p>If he's not competent, I'll totally disown him ;). But, ew, "C can't be it because it just isn't" sounds a lot like...all of the math teachers I've ever had! Haha.</p>
<p>Well books came in the mail today. Very awesome actually. 11 real SATs, plus three diagnostic tests and scantrons (apparently you take 'em at their test centers...you know, proctors and all...). There is also a "manual for the SAT" which appears to break things down very clearly. Should be really useful. </p>
<p>Now all that's left is to see how the TUTOR is. Hehe. Because I dunno, can Princeton Review beat Barron's? Might be a good summary of the Barron's info.</p>
<p>The tutors generally are the same people who teach the class.</p>
<p>The requirement to teach the class is pretty easy. You need to score 700 or more in each section on the SAT. Have a college degree. Take some sort of free "teaching course" by princeton review and you are in.</p>
<p>THUS, ANYONE WHO WANTS BETTER THAN 2100 should not use princeton review since the teachers can only score around 2100 themselves. I saw some ads on craigslist.com hiring princeton review teachers. </p>