Hi! I’m starting SAT prep now and I wonder do people normally go to SAT schools or they just take online courses? Which one would be more efficient? I also heard that some people are having private tutors as well… Please give me some suggestions, thanks!
I can’t speak for anyone but myself, but I was trying hard to get over a 1400 on my SAT after getting a 1390 on my PSAT. I went to three math review sessions offered through my school which weren’t anything special. I used the khan academy practice often, more for math but for some english too. In the end I got a 1550 (800 math 750 english) on my first try at the test, so I would say that from experience tutors or programs can definitely help, but your score is only going to be as good as the effort you put into studying.
Sorry that I didn’t exactly answer your question, but I hope you find this useful nonetheless.
Both the ACT and the SAT are designed to measure how much you learned in high school. So, my best advice is attend class, complete assignments, read textbooks and other materials thoroughly and carefully, read generally, study both content for tests and other information that supported the main topics in class. Breadth and depth of high school learning is the best preparation for these tests.
When taking practice tests, learn how to gather points with correct responses and not waste time on items that you don’t know and can’t eliminate potential answers. When checking your responses, pay attention to the explanation about why a respond choice was correct and why misses were incorrect. Make flash cards unfamiliar information and add any pertinent detail related to the topic on the card. I found it useful to re earn middle school math such as rods, bushels, peck, and so on. I found studying vocabulary in the test preparation book, regardless of whether a word was in the stem or response. Preparation for these tests is very different from studying for school tests or finals. You simply can’t know
which information will be really on either test. Think about information more broadly. For example, become broadly knowledgeable about the Civil War, for example, so you can answer a wide range of questions on this topic…
Get a typical amount of sleep the night before and eat a typical breakfast. Gather healthy snacks and have a handful of hard candies that give you some sugar. Totally avoid drinking energy drinks. You want to be alert and not crazed. Learn how to relax yourself if you get nervous. Don’t panic because that zaps confidence and costs points. When you are sure of an answer, make sure you record your answer correctly and don’t review later. It’s like a bank deposit you made. You may ministers and answer hard questions by eliminating what you are sure is wrong and choose between remaining choices.
When each section is complete, it is gone. There is no need to think about what you may have gotten wrong or right because it is gone. Assure yourself you did your best and forget about the test until you get your score report. Worry doesn’t chang scantrons. It is only a test! Not something that controls your entire life. It is oh a test!
It depends on how motivated and self sufficient you are. If you put the effort with personalized programs like khan academy and prep scholar, along with a book or two, you can outperform people in private courses. If you need the social aspect and a person(s) to hold you accountable, then a tutor/program is better. I personally prefer self studying with online and book resources. In my school, people who went to weekend or after school programs typically got around 1100, and didn’t put much effort at home. The self studies scored 1300+.
Alright, I got a 1570 and an 8/8/8 on the writing. People are always surprised when I tell them I only used Khan Academy. Here’s why it was right for me:
- It’s personalized. You can link your PSAT score to it and it will give you questions that target your weak areas.
- It’s portable. This was a huge plus for me. I could practice SAT questions on my phone while I was sitting in a car or waiting for an appointment.
- It’s free. Why spend money on something you can get for free?
- It’s organized. It lets you schedule your practice sessions and tells you how much and how often you should practice in order to meet your practice goals.
@ski_racer I have a problem where I’ve practiced enough with KA reading for it to “click”, because idk how to explain it but usually the right answer pops out at me/I can eliminate the other ones. I was pretty confident after I started to do well on KA, and tried an official CB practice test, but some of the answer choices were REALLY ambiguous/either could be right/just didn’t feel like the KA questions. In fact, the KA questions were easier for me. In your experience, was the blue book more accurate or KA?
@codingbat I only used KA, and I only used it consistently for about 2 weeks
@ski_racer Did you take any of the 8 practice tests KA offered? (Those are the same as the ones in the official CB book) or did you only practice with the mini 11-question quizzes?
@codingbat For personal reasons, I was unable to take any practice tests. I realize that my strategy does not work for everyone, but it worked for me.
Hi,
Can you tell me how I can use Khan Academy, the app on my phone to practice SAT? I have the app but I don’t know how to use it as a portable.
Thank you
I personally like online preps because you can truly go at your own pace and work it easily into your schedule. With online, you can do it when you have time. For example, if you only have small spots in your schedule to study rather than a couple of hours at a time, then online definitely would be better. However, if you have a hard time motivating yourself, then a school would be better.
I just finished my sat prep classes and honestly I feel like I didn’t improve that much in them. If you can afford it, consider a personal tutor instead, or just use Khan Academy. The problem for me was that because I was taught in a large class, the teacher was only able to go over very general tips and lessons. Maybe that will be different for you, but I didn’t have a very good experience in that setting. I think it’s best to make sure you understand your own weaknesses and how to improve. I’ve been using Khan Academy and my math scores have really improved.
What I did was take classes and then use sat.uworld.com in my own time. I prefer that just because it is more comfortable than a classroom environment yet the question style is pretty much identical to what was in the packets we got in class.
Personally my SAT course bumped my score up by several hundred points, but I think it really depends on the course (some are more helpful than others). I used Harvard Student Agencies which was pretty reasonable comparatively and all the tutors were Harvard students https://tutoring.hsa.net/