Preparing for the SAT may not pay big returns
Ever wonder whether all those expensive test prep courses actually work as well as the companies claim? Some guarantee they will raise your SAT or ACT scores significantly.
Well, the National Association for College Admission Counseling commissioned a report that found that the average gain for students who have taken professional test prep is only 30 points for the SAT and only one point on the ACT. That, the report says, is significantly less than gains that are claimed by test prep companies. But here's the rub. NACAC also says that college admissions officers sometimes report that even small increases in test scores can have an impact on whether a student is admitted or not. For instance, some colleges have cut off test scores and others say even slightly higher test scores can influence whether a student gets into a college.
The full paper is available online.
Baltimoresun.com's 
Comments
So if the improvements are so minor do the schools at least get kickbacks for letting these companies advertise for free in their schools? We've gotten flyers, had Kaplan reps talk at math contests, and gotten emails pushing Kaplan from different sources - lots of free/supported publicity for a for-profit organization. I'd hope that they at least give the schools free study materials or something.
I replied to one of the school sent adds asking if this class (which would cost money and time) was really worth it. The response was that I should ask Kaplan that question. Seemed kind of hard to believe that I could count on the company trying to sell me stuff to give me an honest evaluation of their product.
I understand even a few points can put you over a line in college admissions, but if the general uncertainty of the test results are almost as high as the improvements it seems like it's "all in the noise" (to use an engineering term) to me.
Posted by: a parent | May 27, 2009 11:48 AM