Not for Everyone, But If It Fits - Wow!
Written: Jun 30 '03 (Updated Jun 30 '03)
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Pros: 100+ score gains are realistic; math improvement easier than verbal; (practice); constantly updated content
Cons: expensive if not committed; learning style must fit course style; SAT is a bad test
The Bottom Line: You can improve your score - but only you, and it's work. Figure out how you learn best and you'll know which format will work best for you.
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| reframmellator's Full Review: Princeton Review SAT I Course |
Disclaimer - I've been a Review instructor for nearly five years, so I've seen a lot of comings and goings. I still teach Review courses because they work, they're fun, and it's a great change of pace from my day job.
I've seen some of the Epinions reviews in which people said the verbal techniques aren't as effective as the math techniques. It is true that it is much easier to raise almost any student's math score than his/her verbal score. Math is digital, no pun intended, and verbal is analog, since words have so many shades of meaning. Complaining that the verbal techniques don't work is a little bit like a new golfer taking a one hour lesson from a top teaching pro, going out and shooting a 190, and then saying the pro is a lousy teacher. There is a direct correlation between how much time a student puts in on verbal techniques and how much his/her score increases, and a second correlation between what level of vocabulary they bring to the class to begin with - a golfer with some athleticism will improve more in six weeks of practice than one with hardly any. I can look at students' baseline verbal scores (before any course work) and tell them in class: "you love to read, you love to read, you don't read much, and you HATE to read" and they'll ask how I know. So parents, if you want your kids to improve their verbal scores, get them to READ - now. I highly recommend the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal or NY Times. Read it, summarize it, and discuss it - you both might learn something.
Also,it's easier to teach techniques to solve the math problems - in some cases with no calculations required, than it is to ask a kid to learn 250 new vocabulary words in six weeks. Verbal is hard, but that's because in most cases, students have farther to go to get to the level of knowledge that matches their target score.
It's also a fact that the Review changes course content to match trends in the test itself. I'm on my third revision of course books and fourth version of the vocabulary list. The Review excels at keeping tabs on ETS, the people who administer the SAT's.
I don't hesitate to recommend Review materials, and to be fair, the more people who sign up for the course or tutoring, the more work I get. But there are pros and cons to each route.
The Course is great if you need a prod to motivate you to stay on task over a six week period, and for most parents that prod is the $900+ course price. You get a small class size, teachers who make it fun while getting the job done and can often give you varied problem solving techniques to match your learning style, and four practice SAT's that take much of the mystery and nerves out of The Big Day. The tests are not only practice, they show your progress, strengths and weaknesses and can even assess your guessing skills. If you need some individual attention and can keep up with a healthy pace, this is a good choice.
One on one tutoring is even more expensive, and adds the advantages of personalized attention that really can help a student who learns at widely varied paces, or is a little shy about asking questions or trying in front of a larger group.
The CD-ROM version is good for kids who like computers, have good discipline and respond well to an irreverent, interactive approach. There is not likely to be as much test practice benefit - students constantly tell me that taking a makeup diagnostic (practice exam) at home is a poor imitation of taking it in an SAT-like proctored setting. An advantage of the CD-ROM is that it's easy to repeat course content without being embarrassed.
The books are somewhat like the CD-ROM without the degree of flexibility that comes from an interactive approach on CD-ROM. In school, if you learn better by reading the book than by listening to the lecture, use the book.
They all work, and they all carry ifs. If you have the self-discipline, the CD-ROM and books are cost effective. By and large, most students benefit from the discipline, practice, and interaction of a live course, and no one does it better than the Review. Yeah, I'm biased, but I've also seen a lot of students and DIY'ers in the time I've taught classes and my kids have graduated from HS.
The bottom line is that any test that is coachable is a lousy test. The Review is evidence of coachability, and the SAT is a lousy test. It is at best a weak predictor of freshman academic year performance, and it correlates better with family income than freshman academic performance. Despite serious efforts by ETS, the test shows gender, ethnic, and racial bias in the results (Asians score higher than Caucasians, for example). But it's one of two games in town, so why not play to win - unless you want to consider some of the 300 schools who do not factor the SAT into their admissions processes.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
reframmellator
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Reviews written: 25
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