Photo Credit: KAYLEE OBERFIELD
BY BRANDON SLOANE
In high school, there are few tests more crucial to a student’s future success than the SAT. It can be a make or break part of the college acceptance process. That is why it is of the utmost importance to make sure you are fully prepared to take it. For most students, this means taking an SAT preparation class taught by teachers or former students. These prep courses are generally accepted as the best way to prepare for the SAT, but, in reality, the time and money you put into the class may not be worth the hassle.
The main reason why these classes aren’t worth the trouble is they teach things any student could easily find on their own with a little bit of research. For example, in a class that I took, my tutor would do a practice test every week and then grade it with us. The tutor would go over the problems students had difficulty with by reading explanations from a set list of answers. While this is a good way to prepare, it is something that any student could do on his/her own. There are hundreds of SAT practice tests online that a student can use and there are countless SAT practice books that you can get in order to study the same material you would learn in an SAT prep class.
Additionally, SAT prep classes are costly and time consuming. According to Bloomberg.com, most tutors cost an average of $300 per hour and some even get as high as $685 per hour. When you compare this $13 for The Official SAT Study Guide on Amazon, it really shows how overpriced these classes are for what they give you.
Also, for high school students, these classes are at very inconvenient times and conflict with homework, jobs, and extra-curricular activities. Most of these classes run for a few hours per class and can be located far from the student’s homes. So, when students take classes that don’t really teach them anything, they could be better served using that time doing school related work.
The most significant reason why SAT prep classes aren’t crucial is that results have shown that they don’t help boost scores that much. In a report done by David Hawkins from The National Association of College Admissions Counseling it was shown that, in a survey of thousands of students, those who took prep courses only had an increase of 30 points in their score out of 2,400 points. This equates to about a 1% increase in a student’s total SAT score. For a yield as minor as 30 points, is it worth it to take an expensive, time-consuming class rather than just studying on your own?
In the end, the only real way to learn anything is to practice and the SAT is no different. It is up to the student to dedicate the time to learning the material and no high-expense prep course can replace that. The only tutor you need for this test is you, because no one can teach you better than yourself.
