@js2001 I’m glad that you find this discussion helpful. My kids weren’t into test prep. My son did zero prep for the exams but had experience from taking the SAT a couple of times for the Midwest Talent Search. He got very high scores. My daughter also did zero test prep but didn’t participate in talent searches or take early exams. In her senior year she got decent scores, but since she was applying to art schools it was her portfolio that mattered most. That is what she spent most of her time on in preparing her college applications. However, some years later – after she’d been in the labor force for a few years – she decided she wanted an MBA (to add to her BFA in industrial design). She took a self-study Princeton Review course, as well as a college-level math course. When she took the GMAT exam (for business school) she did well enough to gain admission to a top 10 business school. Prep and practice really mattered. But it was self-prep.