Corte Madera, CA -- (ReleaseWire) -- 12/19/2019 --The SAT Myth, that being that the SAT test is essentially uncoachable and a person cannot significantly raise their SAT test score by taking a prep course, began being promulgated by the SAT's owner, College Board, at least as early as 1965 and continued to be promulgated by College Board at least as late as 2001:

"increases in scores on the SAT that may result from coaching are negligible." - College Board (1965)

"The evidence collected leads us to conclude that intensive drill for the SAT, either on its verbal or its mathematical part, is at best likely to yield insignificant increases in scores." - College Board (1965)

"Unfortunately, by the time most students begin to worry about admission tests, it's too late to do much about the results. Preparation should begin well before the letters S-A-T or A-C-T are even mentioned." - College Board (2001)

"Some students simply have modest abilities in the areas being tested. Their test scores probably won't improve if they take a special preparation course. In fact, scores might even go down." - College Board (2001)

Recent research titled "Calculating SAT Test Prep Course Return on Investment: A Reanalysis of the Systematic Scientific Literature Review" proves the SAT Myth to be patently false. All scientific studies on the effectiveness of SAT test preparation courses were analyzed to find SAT prep's true effectiveness (the average point change per hour). The scientific studies complete with both known average point change and known average course length (complete scientific studies) yielded an average gain of 3.29 points per hour with the independent complete scientific studies yielding an average gain of 6.42 points per hour and the College Board/ETS complete scientific studies yielding an average gain of 2.84 points per hour.

For many years, the two most prominent prep companies have been Kaplan and the Princeton Review. Kaplan began as a 64 hour course in 1946 (a 3.5 month course) and Princeton Review is on the historical record as being a 64 hour course in 1992 (a 1.5 month course). The new research reveals that a 64 hour course would yield an average gain of 210.56 points per the analysis of all complete scientific studies and 410.88 points when only considering the independent complete scientific studies.

The research can be downloaded for free here.