“How can I choose a good test prep class?
I hear this question frequently at family and social gatherings.
It’s a dilemma for a lot of people. How do you choose any good service: a dentist, chiropractor, accountant, or lawyer? Of course, word of mouth is an excellent way to track down a reputable company or individual. You may be wondering why I would post a blog discussing how to find the right test preparation class or tutor.
Inspiring Test Preparation is available to students local to the Washington DC area, nevertheless, many people come to this website seeking advice about test preparation and they aren’t close enough to use our service. Hopefully the following advice will help them choose a good group or person to work with. ( If you are too far from any prep you may call 703-203-5796 for a phone consultation on how to prepare on your own or long distance with us.)
Steer away from franchises. Unless you know several people who have recommended a particular franchise be careful for the following reasons:
- A franchise is often run by someone who has put up money for the local outlet but lacks a real understanding of the ACT or SAT.
- Often, the franchise sells a turnkey system with books and carefully executed teacher’s manuals and that is the model for the preparation.
- The instructor for the class may or may not be a competent teacher.
So avoid franchises unless you have the name of a competent instructor that works for the business and can be sure that is who you will get as a teacher.
Eschew large companies for many of the same reasons you want to avoid a franchise. You are simply at the mercy of the company; will you get a good instructor or get someone reading from a manual?
If you think you’ve found a good local company go to your school guidance counselor and ask if he has heard anything good or bad about the business (or individual). Try and get the name of former clients for recommendations about the company.
If someone criticizes the company, read between the lines. If a student cuts classes, never does homework or practice tests, has a belligerent or lazy attitude, the problem may not be the company. Use some common sense and try to get critiques from more than one source.
Things to look for:
- Small classes.
- Grouped by ability. (Should a student with a 400 math be in the same class as a student with a 650 math?)
- Shorter instruction sessions (2 hours, 3 maximum).Three hours is a long time to have to sit and learn about test preparation, four hours is absurd.
- Frequent practice testing.If you don’t practice, you can’t implement the recommendations made by the teacher.
- Quality material.Choose a company that uses the College Board’s The Official Study Guide for the New SAT or the Real ACT Prep Guide. The questions/tests in the book are formulated by the company that writes the ACT, and the SAT ( the Educational Testing Service -ETS). Be suspicious of someone who uses Barrons, Kaplan, or Princeton Review’s version of the SAT. These are virtual reality tests and are substandard. If the instructor tries to convince you that these books are just as good, watch out. Especially on the reading comprehension, these books can cause a great deal of confusion and loss of confidence. [Caveat: unfortunately, with the introduction of the redesigned SAT in 2016 there is a lack of official tests available to the public — in this case use the official PSAT for a beginning score and if you think you need extra practice, use some unofficial guide, keeping in mind the issues mentioned, and then once you think you’ve improved, use the official guide to test how much your score has gone up.]
- A course given over enough time to get a full review. Very few people can prepare for the whole test in just a week. If you are looking for super-good gains you have to give yourself enough study time. Six to eight weeks should help you pace well. Nota bene: even a quick preview of the SAT is better than nothing. You can download a free real SAT from www.collegeboard.com
- An instructor who teaches the math, not just how to plug in answers until you find the right one. Back-solving may salvage the score of a hopeless math phobic but if you are starting with a 600 and want to score in the 700s you need to clean up your math and practice. KhanAcademy.com can help, but remember most solutions should take less than a minute.
- A service-oriented staff. Prompt responses to calls and emails are good signs that someone cares.
- A company or individual that has an address. A real address, not just a website, post office box, or email. If you are dissatisfied with the service how are you going to contact the powers-that-be?
- Quality instructors.Recently a client told me that the previous place she had used for test prep hired first-year college students and the company advised these “teachers” to lie about their age to gain authority. These “teachers” were also instructed to lie about their own test scores and claim they were higher. All industries have their questionable components and, sad to say, test prep is no exception.
Kate has developed a highly successful online test preparation and academic tutoring program.