I have been tutoring students for the SAT for a few years. The primary difference, I think, between test prep courses and individual practice work, is developing strategies. I think that Kaplan especially provides a number of strategies for students to use while taking standardized tests. For students who lack these skills, I think that the courses and/or individual tutoring really help; however, students who are generally good test takers and able to generate their own strategies might fare as well studying independently. One thing to keep in mind is that the tests style is often much different that "normal" academic testing and that mastering the test might not mean just mastering the material.
just my two cents- Jess Anderson Pomfret School Pomfret, Ct 06258 Subject: GRE preparatory courses From: "Stephen Black" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 21:40:17 -0500 X-Message-Number: 2 The Kaplan GRE preparatory people are coming to town (well, to campus anyway), offering the inducement of free practice tests on the GRE and undoubtedly also providing a hard sell of their services. I was preparing to send around a gratuitous note to our students, offering the advice that people would be better off saving their money and just practicing on their own. But I thought that perhaps I'd better check the literature first. I was surprised to find, among the most recent of what's there, the conclusion that intensive, structured preparation courses help (not specifically Kaplan, but I assume simulated Kaplan). I have only the abstracts to go on. One of them is a 1996 study of J. Miller et al in Journal of Behavioral Education. Another is a dissertation which is a replication of the Miller study plus other stuff (C. Groeger, Dissertations Abstracts International, 1999). The conclusion seems to be that such courses do boost verbal and quantitative. Yet I'm hard to convince. It strikes me that the design is before- after (pretest-posttest) only, and I'd expect some gain just from increased familiarity with the tests. I'd like to see how well the intensive, structured training compares with a contrast group, given only the opportunity to practice taking GRE exams on their own. I'd think that many would show improvement just from practice. But is there something more that only Kaplan-type courses can deliver? Anyone have any thoughts (or evidence) on this? -Stephen ********************************************************************** This footnote confirms that this email message has been swept by MIMEsweeper and Sophos Anti-Virus for the presence of computer viruses and malicious scripts. While this is not a guarantee of virus-free mail, it is your assurance that we take virus threats seriously and do everything within our power to protect our mail recipients from these threats. ********************************************************************** --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
