Report Rips SAT Prep Courses

Millancad
Wed, 27 May 2009 18:36:18 +0000

I think the helpfulness of prep courses depends on the kid. Most people taking the SAT are young and not that interested in sitting down to prep. I’m sort of weird. When I was 11 (when I first took the SAT) I would go up to my room, close my door so that it would be quiet, and read the SAT book, do practice tests, whatever. Of course, it was shorter back then, just 2 sections, but still, most kids don’t want to do that. If a kid is simply not going to study on his/her own then a prep course is a good idea. My cousin is probably going to have to take an SAT course. But he has major college hooks anyway (Male URM, difficult childhood situation that lead to him not learning to read until he was 8, etc).

But really, I think that the biggest score boosters on the SAT are finality and comfort. Even though my May testing was my 2nd “Real” SAT, because I took it in 6th and 8th grade, it was my 4th time around. I had also taken the PSAT twice. So I walk into an SAT testing room with a half decade of experience. When I walk into an ACT room, I don’t feel comfortable. But I think it’s better to get a sense of comfort from taking a lot of practice tests than from a million retakes.
As for finality, I think in a way it was better back when you took the SAT once. It was one shot, all or nothing. My father, who I guess took the SAT in 1963 or 1964, had to go somewhere far away from his little K-12 segregated school house. It was a huge event, in large part, I guess, because most people coming out of that school weren’t going anywhere near a uni, but also because it was his one chance. When you have one chance, you have to do well. I know the first time I took the SAT for “real” this January, I was pretty blase about it because I knew I could take it again. I mostly credit a sense of finality (and a sense of “Wow, that’s bad. I know I can do about 200 points better than that”) for my 190 point increase. I decided it was going to be the last time. When you can retake and retake, and combine your scores, it’s not a real test. When you can say “I’ll get my desired CR score in January, then my Math in March, and save my Writing score for May,” it’s just a game.