Sherwood Test Prep

I took Sherwood Test Prep’s GRE class in San Jose and found it extremely helpful. Over the course of a month or two, I raised my GRE practice test scores considerably. I felt confident and prepared on my test date and got the scores I needed to apply to the UC system.
The instructor was thorough and friendly, made class fun for being there on a Sunday morning. He even spent extra time outside of class to answer my questions. My verbal scores were good, but I needed a lot of help on my math. He took the time to break down the problems so I really understood the strategies and formulas to solving the more complex problems on the test.
His approach to teaching the test involved covering the technical skills first and then we spent the last class learning how the test is designed so you can strategize your approach on test day. That really helped in learning which parts of the test to spend the most time on, how to scan through the verbal passages quickly and efficiently, and patterns to look for in the math section.
It was a great class at a very reasonable price!

Worst experience. Don’t bother to spend your money to this company. Worst customer service and teacher.
I called the CS for refund but the lady told there is nothing we can do and it is personal reason. It’s not personal reason but i am not satisfied with how the teacher taught. I felt wasting my $ 500 bucks to this company for nothing. It’s better i studied by myself.
If i could give 0 star i would.

I have been scheduled for a few months now to take a GRE course this coming Sunday. Just received an email stating that the class has been cancelled due to the fact that they do not have an instructor. So angry. If they have had this class scheduled, you would have thought they would have already someone to teach it. Then they try to move me to another class, but that class will end way pass the date of grad school applications are due. So helpful… Would not recommend them at all…

I have had the worst experience with this company. I will never utilize their services again and am disappointed I paid the amount I did for the course. I initially registered months in advance to the GRE prep course in Chico, CA. Four days before the course began I received an email from Sherwood explaining that the course was cancelled due to a shortage in instructors. They offered a $ 150.00 driving discount to take the course via the same dates in Sacramento, 92 miles one way from Chico. I explained that my GRE test date had already been scheduled and I knew of at least 3 other people taking the Chico course; why not have an instructor from Sacramento commute instead of making all of us students arrange this? Not to mention $ 150.00 would no way cover half of the gas it would cost to drive 6 times to and from Sacramento. They were short, unhelpful and unwilling to consider the distance; I asked to speak with a supervisor, to which 2 weeks later I am still waiting his phone call, as well as the $ 150.00 driving discount that was to be applied to my account in 10 business days. Way to be on top of it Sherwood!
Considering my GRE test date had been scheduled and I was in no way interested in taking the GRE during the fall semester I decided to make the commute to Sacramento. The teacher is nice and somewhat helpful by following the manual in the book; even though she was unable to solve a math problem during review. Luckily one of the students in the class was able to fill us in on the steps (awesome). The class is not over yet and as I am trying to be hopeful and optimistic I do not see it improving. Sherwood did not treat me like a customer but instead like an ignorant college student, I will not recommend them to anyone. Buy a GRE book and dedicate your summer to your studies, take the practice tests, read the sample stories and save yourself $ 500.00!

I live in Providence, RI and I have tried to take the GRE prep class twice now. The first time I attempted to take it I was notified two days before the class started that the class would be canceled. They offered me a full refund or a spot in the next class, unfortunately I had already rescheduled my vacation to accommodate the class times and was unable to attend the next class. I will say that they did refund my money as promised.
The next class I signed up for was also canceled, except this time no one from the company bothered to let me know that it was not going to be happening as scheduled. I had a very hard time getting in contact with someone from the company to check on the status of the class and if I hadn’t taken the initiative to contact them myself I would have never known that they were no longer offering it. I spoke to a representative and she said that they will refund my money and said a confirmation email will be sent to make sure that happens. So far, I have received no email.
I am not a recent college graduate and in order to accommodate these class times (twice) I had to rearrange my work schedule and a vacation only to find out very last minute and on my own that my classes had been canceled. Not only was this a huge inconvenience but it has delayed me from taking the GRE for almost a year.
I have found this company to be very unreliable and very unprofessional and would not recommend it for anyone.

SAT prep class raised my daughters score 120 points.

I would strongly encourage that no one ever sign up for a Sherwood Test Prep class. I had completely packed my college stuff up and was ready to go back to school ten days early in order to start a Sherwood Test Prep class that I had registered for two months in advance. The night before I was set to leave, four days before the class started, they emailed me saying the class was cancelled and that I could either get a refund or switch to their class starting on October 5^th, aka the day of my LSAT which their class was supposed to be preparing me for. I am now completely screwed and frantically trying to find another class via Princeton or Kaplan. This is a terrible situation to be in and I would never want someone else to suffer this, so please, please do not use Sherwood Test Prep.

I cannot believe I put faith in Sherwood for a LSAT study prep course… this is the second time I have signed up with them for a study course and BOTH times have been cancelled! DO NOT SIGN UP WITH THEM! Sherwood has to be the worst LSAT prep course available due to the last minute cancellation and LACK of instructors! Ridiculous. They may have cheaper prices, but they do not HAVE instructors, so what’s the point! Now I’m behind schedule for my LSAT thanks to them. AVOID!

This course was a COMPLETE WASTE of my time and money!!! I thought it would be a good idea to take an in-​person class to help motivate me to study, and so I could brush up and re-​learn some math skills. I was wrong. It was so discouraging that our teachers had no clue what they were doing. We had students in the class constantly correcting the teacher’s math and verbal reasoning «techniques».
Why did I pay $ 500 to go to a class taught by people who don’t even have the skills I was hoping to acquire? RIP-​OFF!!!
Do not take this course if you need to learn anything!!! ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE!!!

I haven’t even started the class yet and already I’m disappointed. I was signed up for a six week class in San Francisco starting on Sunday ⁷⁄₁₇. On Wednesday I got an email telling me that the class had been canceled. I was unhappy but they told me I could take the same class in Berkeley so I didn’t consider it too big of a deal. Today I got another email telling me that there was a scheduling conflict so they could only offer five sessions. I like the idea of affordable classes but this is ridiculous. Even though this is cheaper than Kaplan I still paid a lot of money for this course and I expect to get what is promised. I still plan to take the class and it might be fine, but if you are thinking about signing up for one I would recommend looking elsewhere.

If I can give this company 0 stars, I would. Unilocal should allow this. I wish I could add that empty chair in the Chronicle movie section — actually no chair at all would reasonably show how dissatisfied I am with the company.
From what I know, if you get a good teacher (apparently Dr. Bradley, who does not teach at Fort Mason by the way, is awesome according to the other review), you got a good class. However, if you’re like me and my classmates who had a terrible teacher (and by terrible, I mean 15 – 30 minutes late EACH class for 5 weeks in a row, forgot her notes frequently to a point she skipped an entire section one week, never came through on promises of finding answers for problems we couldn’t solve… etc.), the company doesn’t care about your dissatisfaction. They have your money, so they sent me off with a «thanks so much for your constructive criticism, good luck on your test» after having a darn good reason why I deserve a refund for this very useless class.
To make things worse, they told me that contacting the BBB is useless because, and I quote, «We are members of the Sacramento BBB and Mr. Sherwood knows many of the people who work there.» Basically, they can’t be held accountable because they have special connections to a supposedly neutral company. Great thing to tell your dissatisfied customer.
When I spoke with my teacher, she told me that she was ill-​prepared and was not trained properly especially because she had to do most of the preparations herself. I am not unreasonable. I am not expecting her to have ALL the answers right away, but the company should have provided her with ample resources to answer our questions (which to this day, still have not been answered), instead of having her rely on her genius 16 year old brother, who is too busy with his new girlfriend. This seriously happened.
I expect the company to train and prepare their teachers well, and provide them with good resources. They should also hold her accountable for wasting at least 2.5 hours of our time for not being on time (when the rest of the class was able to make it on time). I don’t that’s too much of an expectation to have — and a very valid reason why we should all get a refund because they did not meet their end of the bargain.
I’ll save you $ 400. Buy the Barron’s GRE Prep book (which is great, and different from what this class will give you). Go over different section using the schedule listed on the Sherwood Prep website
. First week, take the online practice test they give you for free on the CD (or download online) when you register for the test. Take a paper practice test either from the ERB GRE book (which has actual old tests, but terrible explanations) or another book you already have each week for 6 weeks. Take the 2^nd computer test the week before your scheduled test.
I just described exactly what I got out of this class. With proper motivation and work habit, you can get exactly what we got out of the class — on average, someone in our class pointed out that we probably spend around 10 – 20 hours a week studying for the test. I spent an exceptionally a large amount of money ($ 400 is nothing to sneeze at for me) for a pointless product, and trust me, motivation and study habits were there. Barron’s GRE book also has some great tips (better than what Sherwood gave us, which was actually more TIME CONSUMING). I think there are classes for cheaper at City College and even UC Berkeley has some evening classes for about that amount. You’ll probably have better luck going through an university, who will know exactly what they’re looking for when they look at your test scores and applications.

$ 400 for a 6-​week GRE prep course. Sounds do-​able, considering the outrageous $ 1000 Kaplan asks.
Well, having made it through six weeks and attending each class for three hours on Sunday, I’d say it’s worth it for a narrow breed of people. You must be committed to going each week, and doing the assigned homework. You must need this in order to motivate, not simply to teach. You must be willing to take what you learn in class as a foundation, and work on it throughout the week. You must not expect to do as little work as possible and be spoon-​fed a higher GRE test score.
I’d say that it’s worth it, if you meet the above points. I needed motivation above all things, but I also learned a lot of hints and strategies that otherwise would have remained unknown.
I’d highly recommend taking this course.