SAT Prep Effectiveness

Coaching and tutoring has diminishing returns. Simply having done the practice test before the actual one would both significantly boost the score while reducing the anxiety. The tricks are not hard to learn, and practice tests are cheap to buy (or borrow from library). SAT is (was) probably the cheapest way to boost admission chance for a poor student compared to extracurricular, competitions, volunteering, etc. Those with money always have an advantage, but standardized test like SAT is probab

Studies disagree that you on avg. see large gains from test prep on the SAT.https://slate.com/technology/2019/04/sat-prep-courses-do-the...

Got an 1540/1600 on the SAT and a full score on the PSAT. I’m now in college on a National Merit Scholarship because of my PSAT score.Today, it’s even easier to study for the SAT. Khan Academy offers free, official prep to every single student and 8 official practice exams to take. I also used free practice tests made by other companies to study, too. The only purchase I made for SAT prep was a $20 book from Kaplan that had 1000 practice questions and helpful (guessing) strategies.The

My daughter credits the test-taking techniques they taught in her SAT prep course for a big boost in her SAT score. She says the test-taking techniques were orthogonal to how well she knew the material. I'm happy for her but at the same time it seems unfair that my ability to afford the SAT prep course gave her an advantage not available to families with lower incomes.

That's probably selection bias.The SAT is actually pretty tough test to game. Anxiety drives parents to pay a lot for test prep, but there isn't much indication that it actually improves scores.

For students trying to achieve high scores (which are a prerequisite to getting into most "good" schools), this won't help.Two summers ago I took courses at Summa [1], an SAT prep course in the San Diego area. The valuable material wasn't the classes reviewing geometry or speed-reading -- it's taking and reviewing the SAT repeatedly. Organizations like Summa can produce SAT-like practice tests, because the highly-prepared kids have probably taken all of the example t

Your situation is not the same for everyone, though. It should instead be more carefully worded, "[We didn't] need any more resources for SAT." Imagine the more extreme case of a student who took it first try and got a perfect score. You wouldn't necessarily expect everyone else to be able to do the same.Being on this site, you're probably someone who values education. And you probably raised your kids to be capable. Or maybe they just lucked out and got the correct w

The benefits of SAT test prep seem to be a lot smaller than most people think https://slate.com/technology/2019/04/sat-prep-courses-do-the.... And in studies that have shown a benefit, the control group also tends to improve - meaning that simply taking one practice test ahead of time might have nearly as much of an impact as doing

I took one of those expensive SAT prep courses and yes, I agree that those don't increase scores very much, the program I took was awful.However, I totally disagree that rich people can't game the SAT. I used to be a moderator at /r/SAT and /r/ACT on reddit. All of the questions and answers for all of the exams, including subject tests are known and published online. Both SAT and ACT routinely reuse exams from prior years, and anyone who puts in enough time to st

People always point to coaching to refute this argument but that isn't really what makes the difference. I never had any professional coaching for the SAT, but I did have:- Access to unlimited test prep material (from College Board, Princeton Review, Kaplan, others). Each book was $100+, and I must have easily spent a few thousands on books, sample tests, vocabulary lists and other material.- A laptop and stable internet connection.- My own quiet and comfortable room to study in.<p