<p>Our daughter used a modified Xiggi method with great results. Our son says that--realistically--SAT prep only will happen for him if he is in a class OUTSIDE of the house (and away from his guitar and the internet etc.) </p>
<p>Can you offer any guidance to us as to how to pick a course? S is a strong student (testing well into the 90th percentile on most standardized tests) but makes the usual careless errors. He also has some testing anxiety, so it would be good for him to be in a program where they replicate the testing environment periodically (so that he can get used to the stress). </p>
<p>We looked for a convenient location and a group class schedule that worked for my daughter's schedule. When her friend chose the same provider, even better, because they could carpool.
There were three major providers in our area for group classes, and they seemed pretty equal to me in most ways. For private one-on-one SAT tutoring, the costs and quality of instruction seemed to vary more.</p>
<p>My daughter did fine with Princeton Review. It was given at her school after the regular day ended. So it was convenient. I think it helped that she didn't have to go to a different location. Junior year is so busy, any way to simplify it is good to do.</p>
<p>Mathmom -- Do you think the problem was with Kaplan, or just the teacher hired by Kaplan for that course? And, then I guess it brings up the other question, how can you be assured that the teacher would be any good?</p>
<p>You do better with a tutor. The canned courses are less efficient as they cover everything whereas a tutor can hone in where the student is weak.</p>
<p>cpt-- I agree that the class approach won't be efficient and have talked with him about it (and urged him to reconsider). Given his testing nervousness, however, he likes the idea of a formal class that holds mock proctored exams. Kaplan and Princeton review, for example, hold four full scale mock tests. While this is overkill for most students, he thinks it will get him used to the stress. He does better when the setting is familiar.</p>
<p>I blame the teachers more than the texts. It was offered at a big discount at our school. The only reason my son took the course (sort of) was to get practice on the essay/writing section. They gave his essays scores like 0 and 1 which was ludicrous. (I read them - they were middling essays very much in line with his actual essays for which he got a 7 the first time and a 9 the second.) And they didn't have any comments on how to improve them. We also found it frustrating that while they gave an initial test and were supposed to sort the classes there was no evidence they did any sorting. It would also have been helpful if they had covered different parts of the test on different nights so that a lopsided kid could come just for the parts they needed. I just found the whole essay stuff infuriating. It's the one part of the exam where an outside opinion would have been helpful and they were completely off base.</p>
<p>You can attend mock test sessions for free. The test prep places around here (WA) hold them every so often. I just checked the Kaplan website, and they seem to be held every month. I'm pretty sure my kids went to a session by some other people as well, but I can't remember - maybe Princeton Review. The parents attend a sales session while the kids test (that was the PSAT). The SAT took longer, so the kids took the test one day and the sales pitch was when the scores were returned (a week later, I think). We were not able to go, so the results and class info materials were mailed to us.</p>
<p>Hmm, eg1, that's an interesting idea -- just use SAT marketing tests for that purpose. I wonder if I could string a number of these test together to make it feel real enough for him.
I understand what people say about SAT prep classes being somewhat inefficient. I think that would be particularly true for him because his skills/deficits are rather lumpy.</p>
<p>Definitely DS would have been better served by a one on one tutor situation. The course was just too general and bored him - he would have been far better off if the teacher/tutor was focused on his specific issues.</p>
<p>Another bad Kaplan experience here! I signed S up before hearing of the awful experience a neighbor's S had had. Her advice to me, "Be sure to do all the homework." In order to get a full refund, you have to prove you did all the homework. Kaplan manager admitted that the teacher was new and wasn't working out. After checking S's homework, we got our money back. I felt bad because my son had spent so much time in classes and on their homework and didn't improve a bit.</p>
<p>I also think Kaplan's initial mock tests are deliberately harder than the real ones. They really left a bad taste in my mouth. So they make it look like you are improving, but you aren't. My son scored much lower on it than either the PSAT or any of the SATs he took.</p>
<p>A different opinion here on the Kaplan course. </p>
<p>DD did the Kaplan course. (No Princeton Review courses nearby.) Her first SAT scores were about 200 or so points higher than predicted by the PSAT. Her first Kaplan test was about the same as PSAT. She did have a good instructor, and she did do most of the homework. For DD is was a matter of having a scheduled time to review and practice. It also boosted her confidence as she's always been a bit weaker in standardized test taking. </p>
<p>She recently used her Kaplan materials after a last minute decision to take the SAT again. I think that will be a good indication of the quality of those materials since she previously took the May test. She supplemented the Kaplan materials with actual tests from the collegeboard book.</p>
<p>I would guess the quality of these classes depends on the teacher a lot of the time. The mock tests we went to seemed "OK." My kids seemed to do about as well as they ended up doing on the real test. I did tell my kids it might be harder than a real test, just so that the test prep center could claim improvement, but they didn't seem to encounter that. I also told them not to stress about the mock test, so maybe they were more relaxed for it than for the real test, and that made the tests appear equally easy/difficult. The mock tests we went to were quite professionally presented--no bad impressions. I just couldn't get past the high cost of classes and tutoring, so we are not likely to ever be real customers.</p>
<p>Now that I have dissed Kaplan, I should be fair and add that the overall SAT averages for our school jumped a whopping 50 points per section after the course was introduced. I think they are quite useful for below average to average students.</p>
<p>D is a very good but not great test taker. I tried suggesting the Xiggi method, which is what I would have used if I were taking the exam, but it just didn't fly with her. She took a local course, and got a very good, but again not fabulous score on the ACT. She thought that the class was pretty helpful in terms of reviewing the geometry she'd done years ago, and in giving her some strategies on the reading -- she naturally does very well on grammar questions, but she mentioned that quite a few of the kids really improved based on more explicit instruction in this area.</p>
<p>But in the end she found that working one-on-one with a tutor was actually the most helpful, and I wish we'd just gone that route directly. It would have been cheaper, and her time would have been better used. While she didn't like studying on her own, finishing assignments given by her tutor before the next session became just like another chunk of homework. The tutor did a good job working with her on specific strategies for the kinds of items that she consistently had errors on, and very good advice on time management given her specific strengths and weaknesses. (She's a good reader, but not an especially fast reader.)</p>
<p>On the other hand, another friend's child wanted to get close to a perfect score on the math portion of the SAT and the SATII in math (which would NEVER have been a possibility for my D) and found a tutor who really ruled in this area. He'd have intimidated my kid, and I doubt she'd have done as well overall.</p>
<p>A student's perspective: private tutors are a LOT more helpful IF your student is scoring in the 90th % and up range, I think that's above a 2000 overall and maybe at least 650 on every part.
My best friend tried a class from Princeton Review and their scores actually went down from the intial test to the end test of the course (they went after sports practice once a week for a few months I think). However, their parents proved that they'd done all the homework so they offered them another class or private tutoring. They took the private tutoring (it was 4 sessions I think) and the tutor helped them a lot with math and with some of the grammar stuff, and those 4 hours taught them a LOT more than the class had over several months, and improved their scores in math and writing. They had been in the 680-720 range for each of those I think.</p>
<p>I think it's because in a class of varying score-ranges, students probably won't get to spend a lot of time on what they need to work on. There might be some kids aiming to go from a 1500 on 3 parts to an 1800 - if you're at a 2000 and want a 2200, this might not work. I think my friend went from like a 2050 to a 2250 (Not sure of their exact scores but that's the general range for each) just from the 4 tutoring sessions.</p>
<p>thanks for all your thoughts. Talked with my son this morning and his preliminary thought is to take a couple of the freebie tests offered by the companies (to deal with anxiety) and to enroll in an on-line SAT prep course (maybe Kaplans). While he would prefer the comaraderie of a class, each class' schedule seems to interfere with some extra curricular activity. Also, I am a bit doubtful that a class would work well for him. . . .</p>