The Princeton Review, a test-preparation company, must stop using claims about improving Scholastic Assessment Test scores that have appeared on thousands of advertisements, an arbitration panel has ruled.
The panel was convened at the request of Kaplan Educational Centers, a rival company that also prepares students for college-entrance tests. The two New York-based companies agreed in 1993 to create the panel to resolve advertising disputes.
The panel ruled this month that the Princeton Review cannot advertise that its average S.A.T.-score improvements are 110 to 160 points. The claims were based on studies that “do not have the degree of reliability and/or projectability necessary to support the claim,” the panel ruled.
The Princeton Review must also reduce score-improvement claims for four graduate-entrance exams, the panel said.
