College Admission Help

College Counselor Advice: The SAT—To Study, or Not to Study?
By Dr. Patrick O’Connor

The question seems simple enough—does studying for the SAT help you score better when you actually take the test?

Common sense tells us the answer is yes. What do you do when it’s time for a Geometry test? You study what’s going to be on the test. What do you do before you take your road test for your driver’s license? Get behind the wheel and cruise. What did LeBron James do to make that whamma jamma 3-pointer to beat Orlando last month? Right—practice. Based on this iron-clad logic, taking a look at the SAT practice questions available in your school counseling office would sure seem to be a good idea before you crowbar yourself out of bed at dawn on a Saturday to take the actual test, especially since the new questions are patterned after the old ones.

On the other hand, this is college admissions we’re talking about, a place where my seniors tell me common sense is sometimes uncommon (“They recalculated my GPA by taking out all of my Art classes, but Art is my major!”) Just as you’re about to give up part of your Memorial Day weekend to do a little test prep, along comes a report from the National Association for College Admission Counseling, saying students who test prep on the SAT usually don’t improve more than 30 points. You might want to take a look at a summary of these results for yourself, at http://www.nacacnet.org/News/Newsfeed/Pages/Article.aspx?id=I109483552&type=News …

…and when you’re done looking at that, take a peek at the related article from USA Today, where an impressive number of colleges say that a 30 point increase may be small, but it might be enough to really raise your chances of getting admitted, especially at some selective schools. This article can be found at http://www.nacacnet.org/News/Newsfeed/Pages/Article.aspx?id=I3176773572&type=News

If these two articles give you the same feeling you had when you first read the periodic table, join the club. If the report is true, students shouldn’t bother prepping for the SAT, since scoring 30 more points isn’t that big of a deal. Then, along come a number of colleges that say 30 points IS a big deal, since many colleges rely heavily on test scores to sort out students. This test-heavy reliance is something NACAC discourages, but colleges do it anyway—especially with many scholarships, where a minimum SAT score guarantees merit cash for a student.

On top of that, there’s the other reporting source we started with—common sense. We all know a couple of students who blew out their second SAT attempt after doing some kind of intense studying. It may be that some students got nothing out of test prep, but then there’s the study factor, something the report doesn’t cover; did the kids who gained 200 points study harder than the students who only showed up to class to please their parents?

There’s sure to be more push back on this study and what it means—for starters, call the colleges you’re interested in and see if 30 points will matter to them. If you’re not sure, or if you want to play it safe, my money’s with LeBron’s approach to making his dreams come true. Even if you don’t have the bucks to spend on private test prep, use the free pamphlets and the free online materials to sharpen your game before the 8AM tipoff. Once you know your opponent, it’s easier to make the test-prep highlight reel with a killer score—and like it or not, that matters to some colleges.



College Counselor Advice: The SAT—To Study, or Not to Study?