SAT Prep Company and Independent Studying

Are you stressed out because of SAT? ACT? SAT Subject Tests (also known as SAT II by the older title)? I am here to help you and give you an important feedback on effective fact-analysis between test prep company and independent studying. You can view this as an opinion article found in editorial section, but it is also like an article in the News section. Everything I am about to tell you is based from countless readings in newspaper, reviews from college admission websites, experiences in tutoring students, and answering numerous questions on Yahoo! Answers.

These five statements are very important to your improvement in SAT exam. I hope you take them to the heart!

Statement I: SAT Prep Company is all for improving the student's intelligence.

False.

The truth with SAT Prep companies and their courses is that their ultimate goal is to improve the student's test taking abilities. This does not mean that when you finish the course, you will be smarter than what you were before. These SAT Prep companies design their courses to focus on the three sections of the SAT and the most frequently tested concepts.

By no means, do these companies pursue to ameliorate your abilities in academics. It is true that you will be able to review mathematics and learn new vocabulary like zenith, recalcitrant, and cacophonous that you may have never seen before. But, all they do is to teach you to memorize these words, quiz you to make sure you can match the words and their corresponding definitions, and expect you to get the question right when it comes up.

They will NOT teach you how to incorporate the words correctly into the essay. This is problematic when the student enters college because I have seen way too many students, who underwent a series of SAT prep, and cannot write a great academic research paper. The issue is that although these students know the words, they may not be able to incorporate the words well. Or, they may incorporate the words but in the context that does not make sense.

To put it simply, SAT Prep Company may boost your scores, but in terms of your academic abilities, you may not be too far from where you began the course couple weeks or months ago.

Statement II: SAT Prep Company is a big scam and a waste of time.

Not Always.

There are some legit SAT Prep Companies that are guaranteed to improve student's scores. These prep companies are usually not franchised and have tutors who are somewhat young - young enough to be in their 20's-30's, but not too young as in college student or old to be in 40's or 50's. Anytime you come across a SAT tutor whose age is high, you want to be careful. These tutors might try to implement methods that are outdated and anachronistic.

Then, there are three big prep companies for SAT - Princeton Review, Kaplan, and Barron's. Personally, I think that you can learn everything from their prep books, which are mostly excellent except Kaplan. Kaplan is problematic because it is just too easy. Barron's is usually harder than the real SAT, and Princeton Review is about average. The point is that all these prep books don't really change too much from a year to a year. And do you think that prep courses will? Probably not. The only exception is if there was a major change in the test, like in March 2005, when the new SAT was implemented.

Of course, I am not saying that these companies are scams. They are not. They do trainings for their tutors, but the problem is that the cost is just so high and not realistic compared to what they can teach. If the courses were in low hundreds, then maybe. But, some of these courses are couple thousand dollars, which I frankly do not understand how and why.

Then, there are medium-sized private SAT prep companies that have chains within the state or states. There are some problems with these prep companies. They often use their title to criticize the three companies and charge somewhat lower (but still very high) fees for local students. They advertise to parents, act like they know what they are doing, and just try to get the students to come. In many cases, they can be dangerous. Why? I used to believe them too, until I read a New York Times article that one of these franchised SAT prep companies decided to form a difficult diagnostic test. So, as the course progressed, the SAT Prep eased up on the difficult, allowing the student to naturally do well. This is called a score inflation. In the diagnostic test, the student in the article received a pretty good score on 2000+ range. On the actual SAT, he scored a perfect score. A big difference.

Statement III: It is possible to do well on your own.

Yes.

How?

The key is consistency and time management. SAT is an exam that can be studied for, but you need to study consistently. The student looking for an improvement must open up the Official Guide to SAT and study everyday for certain amount of time. The student should study vocabulary, practice sections, and take practice tests in real-settings. This part is obvious to many students once they have decided to study for this exam.

The time management part is not. In order to succeed in time management, you need to be able to know when you have reached your limit for studying that day. You are not a machine who can just study for seven hours straight. There has to be an intermission and break between studying for SAT, so that you can do something else to cool your mind.

I have seen many students who studied so hard for SAT and failed. The key was that they did not study the "right way." The "right way" is consisted of consistency and time management. Study regularly for certain amount of time, and set a time to relax and keep your minds off. If you become too stressed, you will actually lower your score. It is possible.

Statement IV: SAT Prep Company knows something that the students don't. So, if I go to the prep companies, I will learn these "secrets" and do better than if I was alone.

False.

SAT is an exam that you have to know the concepts. There is no secret to do well on SAT except practice. Let me walk through each section.

Critical Reading: This section requires the student to read constantly on the spare time to build vocabulary and reading comprehension. Yes, there are strategies, but if you don't understand the question OR passage OR both, you cannot get the question right. It's just that simple. It is more important to build some basic reading comprehension before trying to look for an easy way.

Math: This section requires you to review the mathematics by doing problems. That's right. If any tutor sits beside you and just talks for thirty minutes about various theorems or concepts, this will do NOTHING for you. SAT Math section does not test your math ability on problems like what is x+2x? No, it tests your abilities to think critically, and that can be only improved through practices!

Writing: Similar to the Critical Reading section, this section can be improved by reading a lot and reviewing the frequently tested grammar rules like subject-verb agreement, parallelism, ambiguous pronouns, idioms, and more.

What SAT Prep Company has that you do not have is not really a "secret." They just have practice materials for you to try, hoping that they can predict the types of concepts in the real SAT. Now, you do NOT have to go to the prep companies to get them. That's why you can just stick with the prep BOOKS and review THOROUGHLY to understand everything you need.

Statement V: If I do both SAT Prep Company and Independent Studying, I will improve twice as much since I have studied both my ways and the prep companies' ways.

Yes & No.

There are two types of students in the world. The first type of students hates standardized tests and do not want to even look at the test booklet. You give them prep books, and they'll be listening to iPods no matter what. For these students, going to SAT Prep Company and having to be able to know what to do will be better, and that can help for studying independently as well, resulting in a twice of increase. This is hypothetically, of course. The term "twice" should not be taken literally.

The second type of students knows what they have to do. These students will study hard with and without prep companies. For them, the improvement may be lower if they go to prep companies. They might be sitting there, thinking that they can do so much better on their own because the prep teachers don't know how to meet their needs. Also, they could be stuck in a classroom with the first type of students, who may be boisterous and disturb your precious learning opportunity. Lastly, you will be tired. Very. Prep companies will burn you out because you will try so hard, hoping that it will all pay off (and it may or may not).

Then, how do you know if you are fit for SAT Prep Company or Independent Studying? Here is the questionnaire that I think can help.

1) I can study on my own. YES or NO

2) I can turn off my cell phone for my study time. YES or NO

3) I can abstain from Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and other social networks during the day time while I study for SAT in those days. YES or NO

4) I believe I'll be able to know what exactly is wrong with my scores. YES or NO

If you answered YES to these questions, then you are up for Independent Studying.

If you end up in 2:2 (2 YES and 2 NO), then consider this question:

5) I am study up to 4 hours of day per SAT. YES or NO

If you said YES to this question, then you are up for Independent Studying.

Whatever you do, keep in mind that this is just a test. It will not destroy your life although you may think that way. Keep the confidence and do your best!