The Nation - News from Feb. 10, 1988

Special classes to improve scores on the Scholastic Aptitude Tests are a waste of time and money for high school students, a new Harvard study concludes. William Fitzsimmons, Harvard’s director of admissions, said a study of Harvard freshmen, comparing students who were coached and those who were not, showed no appreciable difference in SAT scores. In fact, Fitzsimmons said the students who were not coached scored higher on both the verbal and mathematics sections of the test than those who were coached. Spokesmen for two of the coaching firms mentioned in the study--Stanley Kaplan Educational Centers and Princeton Review--said they disagreed with Fitzsimmons. The study was conducted by Dean K. Whitla, director of Harvard’s office of instructional research and evaluation.