Our Sylvan SAT Prep Experience for Improving SAT Scores

Last Updated on November 8, 2017 by Diane Hoffmaster

This post about Sylvan SAT Prep courses is in partnership with Sylvan Learning. All opinions expressed here are my own.

I am the proud mom of one academically gifted high school senior.  He is both a joy and a giant pain in my backside like most teenagers are!  This year has been challenging for him, trying to find a balance between his grades and tackling things like sports, drivers ed, and his social life. While his grades are very good and his SAT scores were decent, the competition in this area for college spots is fierce.  In order help him go above and beyond, we enrolled him in a Sylvan SAT course to improve his standardized test scores.  If you are considering an SAT prep class, I highly recommend Sylvan Learning Centers.

Why Take an SAT Prep Class?

A month or so ago, I wrote about how to increase SAT scores.  Our area has a fairly high number of academically gifted high school students.  In fact, the University of Georgia has gotten so hard to get into that many students are heading out of state because they don't have the grades to get in.  There are other state schools in Georgia, however, UGA is the only one with the major my son wants.  That means he either gets into UGA or we take out student loans to pay for an out of state school.  Loans are not in the budget so even a small increase in his SAT score could make or break his long-term goals.  If your child has their heart set on a particular school, making sure they have the SAT scores to get in can go a long way towards increasing their education options.

What is included in a Sylvan SAT Prep Class?

The Sylvan SAT prep class we took was very thorough.  There is a classroom portion that takes place at your nearest Sylvan Learning Center.  Then, there is an online portion of it that you work on at home.  The recommended time commitment is about 30 hours of classroom work plus about 30 hours of homework.  Plan on at least eight weeks to complete the entire course. There will be an initial SAT practice exam to evaluate where your child needs the most help.  They will get another practice exam halfway through the course to fine tune any lessons they need to brush up on.  We were very pleased with the staff at our local Sylvan Learning Center.  They were incredibly helpful and our class schedule was flexible enough to allow for last-minute conflicts.

Sylvan Prep Online

My son received login information for the Sylvan SAT prep online dashboard.  It is incredibly useful with an area to set up a schedule and see your practice exam scores.  There are also sections for practice work in vocabulary, math, reading, and writing.  There are tons of math videos to watch so that the concepts are clear to understand.  Students choose the difficulty of the vocabulary words depending on their own proficiency.  It is a very thorough program that is easy to use and covers tons of material.

Our Sylvan SAT Prep Experience

Originally we wanted my son to take the Sylvan SAT prep class over the summer so he had more time.  However, he got a full time paid internship and just couldn't turn down the opportunity.  This left him trying to fit the class into a busy school schedule that already involved four AP classes.  Needless to say, trying to find time to do SAT preparation was tough.  If you have a choice, enroll your child in this class over the summer so they can really dedicate a fair amount of time to it. In spite of his busy schedule, my son was able to raise his score by 40 points with Sylvan’s SAT prep!

If your child has their heart set on getting into college and the competition is fierce, I recommend you try Sylvan Learning.  Improving SAT scores increases their chances of getting accepted into the college of their dreams. We had a very good experience with Sylvan Learning. I hope to enroll my daughter in  SAT classes at Sylvan before she takes the SAT.

Learn more about Sylvan Learning Centers

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Diane Hoffmaster

Diane is a professional blogger and nationally certified pharmacy technician at Good Pill Pharmacy.  She has two college aged kids, one husband and more pets than she will admit to. She earned her BS in Microbiology at the University of New Hampshire  but left her career in science to become a stay at home mom. Years of playing with LEGO and coloring with crayons had her craving a more grown up purpose to her life and she began blogging and freelance writing full time.  You can learn more about her HERE.