The skinny on the test prep market: which test prep books and companies rock my socks, (and those which don’t)

Princeton Review:
I think overall they have a well-structured program both in their courses and literature.  I am wary of their practice tests though.  I know there have been mistakes on their free diagnostic tests which they offer to students, and students typically earn lower scores than predicted (which then motivates students to sign up for the PR class).  But otherwise, I think they offer good practice.  I’m a huge fan of their Hit Parade, a vocab list which is their statistical research on which words show up most frequently.  Recently this Hit Parade changed, but studying either of the lists is a great place to start.  This list of 250 words is a great place to start mainly because it’s manageable.  The words are not only good words to know in life, but also words you WILL see on test day.  I’m not a fan of Princeton’s cartoon vocab book however and their practice tests were hit or miss for me.

The PR course is expensive and if you ask me, what you’re really paying for is someone else to motivate you.  The course is structured so Joe Bloggs, a regular fellow who is easily tripped up, can succeed at the SAT.  Success is defined differently for everyone though, and I believe the PR course is not going to be what the gunner’s of the class want.  Their methods are a good structure and provide a bare bones background to the SAT with exercises, but you’ll still need to work on your own if you want the perfect score.

Kaplan:
When I think of Kaplan, I think of good flash cards.  I don’t really know why that association occurs, but even today I still hear of their flip book which students love.  In the classroom world, I think PR is more popular than Kaplan.  Essentially, I would say their classes are roughly equivalent in style and structure.  Their mission statements may be slightly different, but both companies offer just a basic introduction to the world of SAT.  Any gunners out there will still need to do more work after class.

Barron’s SAT Prep:
Barron’s practice tests are not completely accurate; however, students have told me they still found the exercises and tests to be good practice.  Barron’s in my mind is a company which spends more time on other stuff such as APs and although they are not bad, I wouldn’t consider them good either.  I find their literature to be dense, although their exercises on sentence completion or reading comprehension are good.  Barron’s claim to fame in the SAT world is their 3000+ word list.  Very few people have mastered this list in high school and most don’t even attempt to learn it.  I started this list in the 6th grade and rather steadily plowed through it until my actual exam in 11th grade.  I still can’t claim to know all the words in it, but as a disclaimer, even if you know all these words, you will still see words on test day, which were not in this book.  Ahh…don’t you just love SAT vocab

The Underground Guide to the SAT:
An attempt to make the SATs fun, or at least bearable.  And they do a pretty good job of it.  They introduce a cast of “characters” who work through the material with you.  They make the ETS into a serpentine enemy to motivate you to defeat him.  Although I found the book to be amusing, and outloud funny sometimes, I also wish it had more material.  This book is a great resource and has some unique takes on the SAT which you will not find in more traditional test prep books, but you will need to supplement this with other literature as well.  They also set up an Ipod vocab list which is sweezo.

REAs, Arco, SparkNotes:
To be honest, I don’t know too much about any of these other companies.  In my mind, these companies have a broad range of test prep and lit prep stuff, and by doing so they spread themselves thin.  I took an Arco exercise once and found two typos within 20 questions; I had a terrible first impression and never went back.  Not to say that these other books won’t be helpful to you, but be cautious.

Again, these are just my thoughts and I openly welcome you to challenge anything and everything I have to say.  The forums are a great place to debate these things.  Remember, that whatever you found helpful or not helpful is important to share with the people around you.  Although the cutthroats believe that “hiding” information from a fellow student may increase their own chances of acceptance somewhere, this is almost always a futile exercise.  It’s better to be helpful and make friends and a network.  At least that’s what dudeman said in the book Never Eat Alone.