Test prep has been a controversial issue for long time, especially for China. Before I came to US in 1998, I have taken test prep courses at New Oriental School for GMAT in Beijing. At least from my own personal experience, my test prep had been effective. I took the GMAT test soon after I finished the prep and got good score.
While I still believe that the test score somewhat indicates the academic capability-I did finish my Georgetown MBA with good standing, I also believe test score can be improved via intensive preparation right before the test taking place (vs. just reflection of your knowledge level). This statement is especially true for taking any multiple choice type of exam. If you have strong logical reasoning capability, you can indeed learn to first rule out the absolutely making no sense choices and then narrow down the scope of decision and thus increase the chance of getting correct answer. You can land on right answer through logical reasoning vs. full grasp of the given knowledge. At the same time, in real life, most of time when you face problems, you rarely have all the information you need to make decision while you still need to solve problem. In these cases, your logic reasoning capability is critical vs. your knowledge base. Does it sound similar with getting right answer in exam? To me, there is always pros and cons for taking on any position on any given issue. Using SAT as example, test score indeed doesn't equal to your knowledge level. And test prep indeed provides opportunity to gain insights of pattern that you can leverage to get correct answer via logic reasoning. Good or bad, I can't tell. It can be effective and it can be important capability to win in the long run.
While I still believe that the test score somewhat indicates the academic capability-I did finish my Georgetown MBA with good standing, I also believe test score can be improved via intensive preparation right before the test taking place (vs. just reflection of your knowledge level). This statement is especially true for taking any multiple choice type of exam. If you have strong logical reasoning capability, you can indeed learn to first rule out the absolutely making no sense choices and then narrow down the scope of decision and thus increase the chance of getting correct answer. You can land on right answer through logical reasoning vs. full grasp of the given knowledge. At the same time, in real life, most of time when you face problems, you rarely have all the information you need to make decision while you still need to solve problem. In these cases, your logic reasoning capability is critical vs. your knowledge base. Does it sound similar with getting right answer in exam? To me, there is always pros and cons for taking on any position on any given issue. Using SAT as example, test score indeed doesn't equal to your knowledge level. And test prep indeed provides opportunity to gain insights of pattern that you can leverage to get correct answer via logic reasoning. Good or bad, I can't tell. It can be effective and it can be important capability to win in the long run.