The Good, the Bad, and the SAT: How To Prepare

For our readers still in high school, the October 2007 SAT registration deadline is in one month. If you're a junior, you can wait until the spring, but if you're a senior, you need to take the SAT this fall (if you'd like to attend one of the 5723667263 college that require the SAT, that is).

First, register at CollegeBoard, and second, start preparing.

Because many successful students decide to take an SAT-prep course and because many successful students prepare on their own (what I did), I am going to provide information for both options.

Taking an SAT-prep course
Here is a quick list of the more popular, national test-prep agencies:

• TestMasters provides 60 hours of in-class instruction for $850. I am currently taking their LSAT-prep course.


• The Princeton Review offers classroom, small-group, and private tutoring --ranging from $999 - $2000.


• And Kaplan provides up to 32 hours of tutoring for $999 - $4199 (they also have several different course options).

Also, checking TutorLinker for SAT-prep tutors in your area is also not a bad idea.

Preparing on your own
But if there is no SAT-prep course/tutor available in your area or if you just don't have the $800+ dollars (who does?!), that is okay and just fine (I, myself, did not take an SAT-prep course). You can prepare on your own --both offline and online.

• CollegeBoard offers official SAT practice questions, an SAT question of the day, and an official SAT practice test for free on their website. You only need to be registered.


• ProProfs SAT School, fitted for Web 2.0 (oooh, we like!), offers an unbelievable amount of free, online SAT-prep tools and resources. Students (and teachers) can view and download study guides and cram sheets, take practice tests, print flashcards, and collaborate in discussions and forums, all for free. This site gets my gold star, for sure.


• The Princeton Review offers their coursebooks on their website. I have read and enjoyed their easy-to-follow LSAT-prep and SAT-prep textbooks. Achieve more than Joe Bloggs!


• Kaplan offers SAT-prep material for your iPod for $4.99 at the iTunes Store. [via The NY Times]
  
• And there are several online resources as well. Even a way to learn SAT vocabulary by just listening to hip hop.

And remember: Unlike the LSAT (what I'm preparing for), you can take the SAT as many times as you'd like. Minus the pretension, I graduated from Yale University this year, and I took the SAT three times.

Comments

[Janice]

I used Prepme.com and it's a lot cheaper than the options you mentioned and got great results with it. It's flexible and for athletes like me it lets you study on your own schedule.

[Wallace]

Another good web 2.0 site is http://prephub.com" rel="nofollow">PrepHub. PrepHub is a community built around user contributed test prep questions. It currently supports the SAT, GMAT and LSAT exams. Users can answer questions, take timed quizzes and then get a statistical breakdown of their performance. Helping the user find their strengths and weaknesses.