Test Preparation: Are We Still Debating This?
November 2, 2009 | Todd G.
The never ending debate about testing tutoring services continues at the Kansas City Star. Steve Rosen did a piece about the test preparation business and whether or not it really is worth the money. He points to a survey that showed an average increase of 30 points on the SAT for students who did the preparation, and 1 point for the ACT. The suggestion is to consider free prep services first and then move up the ladder if you feel you really need some substantial studying help.
We’ve covered this topic before, but it still tends to be a source of confusion for many high schoolers. Should they or shouldn’t they? I never did and I think I would have benefitted greatly from the tests. Then again, I would have benefited from doing any studying for the test. I think I took the PSAT, but that was the extent of my exposure to the type of questions I might see. And to be honest, beside the questions being structurally similar, the content was so completely different it did little to prepare me for what was to come. Let’s just say I was a major underachiever when it came to my scores, considering how well I did in high school and later in college.
Of course, the best thing to do is to ask the people who have done this kind of preparation. If you’ve done any of these services, please share your experience with your peers so they can make a more informed decision about the preparation. It must have a lot of satisfied customers, after all it’s been around for a while now and can actually show a tangible improvement in scores. So if you’re one of the people who have done this, speak up and let us know if it’s worth the money!
So, I took the PSATs and didn’t get a very good score. So I took them again after a prep class and got the same score. So I took another prep class and did a computer program and read “SAT for Dummies” and took the SAT and got the exact same score.
When it came time for the GRE, I first took it the first time on my own, and then got help from a friend who tutors for the SAT — honestly, the GRE and the SAT aren’t about what you know — they are about knowing how to take the test. My friend taught me nothing I didn’t already know, she just showed me tricks (literally, they were tricks) that improved my score.