Princeton review vs College Board Blue Book SAT

[Pitthopeful]

I hired a tutor from Princeton review and I did a diagnostic test and got 500 math, 430 Reading, and 380 writing. I also took a practice test from the College Board Blue Official SAT Study Guide, and got a 590 Math, 510 Reading, and 460 Writing. Which one is more real in terms of how well I do on SATs???? Or more accurate???

[dirkslam41]

Ok your tutor clearly sucks. And the blue book is awesome for mirroring the actual exam.

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[Pitthopeful]

dirkslam41 - So your saying my SAT score will be more like the blue book score???? Or will my SAT score be more like the Princeton Review score??

[AwesomeOpossum]

Originally Posted by Pitthopeful

Which one is more real in terms of how well I do on SATs???? Or more accurate???

If both diagnostics were actually old exams, then both are completely accurate. The way the diagnostic works is that you take the exam in the same setting as a student who actually took that exam did. Then you score yourself the same exact way. Your diagnostic scores reflect how you would have done ON THAT TEST if you had been one of the students who actually took that test when it was administered.

Originally Posted by dirkslam41

And the blue book is awesome for mirroring the actual exam.

Agreed. CollegeBoard WRITES the exam, so if you're gonna use a book to study from, use theirs.

[Pitthopeful]

AwesomeOpossum - I 'm so confused now, cause I got two different scores for two different practice tests. I hope my performance on the SAT's is similar to that of the blue book.

[dirkslam41]

In the blue book I kept getting around 2040-2080. On the actual exam I got 2000 so its pretty close in comparison. Blue book is a pinch easier. However, I'm going for the ACT since its a better test for me

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[flashandcrash]

I'd recommend the Blue Book since they're real questions. They're a better gauge of where you're at. If you want a challenge to push improvement, I'd recommend PR (or, even better, Barrons).

[limomof4]

Your first diagnostic test from Princeton Review was most likely designed to be harder...They do "guarantee" point improvements so you will see your scores go up as you take the next few diagnostics...Don't worry..

That said, the Blue Book as everyone else has stated is the best way to study...the first three tests were administered as presented in the Blue Book so if you really want to know, take them!!! The other 7 contain questions that appeared in the sat prior to March 2005 when the SAT changed...They have been repackaged to be in the same format as the current test.

FYI...I always encourage students to use the Princeton Review 11 practice tests book. The reading sections contain truly difficult vocab and tricky passages...By practicing with more difficult that real tests, you will be pleasantly surprised on your real test! Good luck!

[Pitthopeful]

bumppppppppp

[Wood5440]

Try taking a PR final test and compare that score to the other two.

Any commercial company that guarantees a score improvement has a vested interest in showing an improvement from a pretest taken before the class to a post-test taken afterward. The way to make that more likely is to give a hard diagnostic pretest and an easier post-test. One gets a low start score and a high final score. Another way to game the results is to ask more questions that are solvable through the application of that company's test prep strategies, perhaps more than are actually on a real SAT.

Of course, I'm not accusing PR or any other company of actually doing such a self-serving thing as rigging their diagnostic tests to make themselves look better than they actually are; I'm just saying that that is one way it could be done and that taking a pretest and a post-test without actually taking the class is a way to gather evidence to find out.