[Student Reporters] Varying Viewpoints on SAT Academis

With the ring of the bell that marks the end of the school day Junior Elis Lee of Crescenta Valley High School hastily packs her schoolbag and hurries off to her mom's car that is heading for downtown Los Angeles. She takes out flashcards of the fifty words she needs to master for this week and starts cramming them into her memory all the while munching down on a small snack for she will not be back home until 9:30 p.m. Lee attends a pricey SAT academy where she takes weekly classes to improve her writing and math skills for the SAT Reasoning Test.

Over the past few years the competition for college admission has gotten extremely competitive. With such competition many students are turning to SAT academies to improve their SAT scores which many hope will give them an advantage for college admission.

"A generation or two ago test prep was essentially a good night's sleep and a good breakfast. Today it really has become ubiquitous. Students have become much more aware of how effective and how important it is. College admissions has become so much more competitive over the past several years that students' parents are looking at every edge they possibly can get." said Carina Wong spokeswoman for Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions.

SAT academies and test prep classes are raking in enormous sums of money but whether such academies actually improve students' scores is still up for debate. Many individuals point out that the growing number of such academies and the students taking these classes clearly show that the prep classes are indeed helping students improve their score.

"SAT classes have really helped me improve my score. When I took the actual SAT test my score jumped quite a lot from my first practice test. I didn't get the best score but I did improve my scores and I am satisfied with my scores" said Lee.

While many claim that SAT classes are extremely beneficial others claim that SAT academies do little to help students and students can improve their scores effectively on their own without spending such great sums of money. Many of these students also feel that the SATs are not quite as important as many individuals make them out to be. When going through college applicants colleges and universities base most of their decisions on the student's grade point average and personal statement essay.

"I'm not taking any SAT prep classes. The SATs are important but I think that keeping up with my school work and maintaining good grades at school is much more important" said Cody Sibulo a junior at Crescenta Valley High School. "I'm taking the test in March and I am going to prepare by taking a practice test online. I think I'll be able to just fine on my own without taking any classes."