SAT Prep Courses

The SAT is one of the most important tests you will take in your life. It can be the difference between getting into your college of choice or not, and can play a determining role in whether you will pay full tuition or receive some kind of scholarship.

Especially for those planning to major in a very specific field, getting into the right college can be a defining factor in the path your life takes after graduation. You see where this is going. The SAT, despite some criticism of its structure and testing methods, is of tremendous importance.

Fortunately, the test can be taken more than once, and there are a number of SAT prep courses available. It is highly recommended to attend a prep course before taking the official SAT test, if only to become familiar with the style of the test and the testing environment. It is relatively easy to find an SAT prep course. Many high schools offer prep courses not only for their own students, but for students throughout the local area. A growing number of universities and colleges are now also offering SAT prep courses. There are several nationwide organizations that offer prep courses, including the College Board, which develops, owns and publishes the SAT test (the test is not administered by the College Board, but rather by Educational Testing Service).

The College Board and some other organizations even offer online SAT prep courses for those unable to find a prep course being offered in their area, or for anyone wanting to take the prep course from the comfort of their own home.

Online prep courses have some benefits, like being quite a bit less expensive than offline prep courses. Most also include a lot of extra practice material and testtaking strategies. For some, however, going through the SAT prep course from the comfort of their home will be a disadvantage. The physical setting of the SAT test can be intimidating, overwhelming or otherwise not conducive to testtaking for some students. Gaining some preparation time in that environment can be a big help when it comes time to take the real test.

Nevertheless, online or CDbased SAT prep courses are rapidly growing in popularity. SAT prep courses on CD can be particularly helpful for those students mentioned above who plan to major in a very specific field. In addition to or instead of taking the overall SAT test, students can opt to take SAT Subject tests which, as the name suggests, focus only on a particular subject. CDbased prep courses can be created to help students spend more time preparing for only that part of the SAT they will be taking.

An interesting side note is that SAT was originally an acronym for Scholastic Aptitude Test. Since 2005, however, the official name is the SAT Reasoning Test, and the “SAT” part is no longer officially an acronym. Despite stripping it of its status as an acronym, the name of this standardized college admission test was not changed in order to avoid confusion.