The Official SAT Study Guide: For the New SAT
by The College Board
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Book Reviews of The Official SAT Study Guide: For the New SAT
Book Review: Excellent for SAT/PSAT review
Summary: 5 Stars
The SAT examination is a test of a different character; it purports not to test a given set of skills pertaining to a specific subject, rather it claims to measure one's "readiness" for college-level work. In many aspects, this is true: learning a bunch of facts will not increase your score drastically. However, the key to success on the SAT is the knowledge of a few basic facts and a plethora of practice. This book will provide both.
The Critical Reading review section of this book is necessarily devoid of much factual review (other than your basic test taking strategies), but contains much practice. And, if you think about it, how else can you study for a reading test than by practicing?
The mathematics review section is extremely good. It has sections for arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and miscellaneous topics. Every item that can be tested makes an appearance in this book. In addition, there are plenty of problems at the end of each section review, as well as a final math practice set. Reading this section will remedy any basic math weakness.
The writing section of this book is also extremely good; It has numerous drills and real practice questions to help solidify the writing rules given. If you master the writing review section of this book, you're, in essence, guaranteed to score a 700+ on the writing section of the real exam.
Finally, the real meat-and-potatoes of this book is the set of 8 practice tests that is included. Doing all of these tests under timed conditions will dramatically raise your score as you will learn the test better as well as solidify your knowledge of the topics by putting them to use.
Do note that those of you preparing for the PSAT should also grab a copy of this book. Not only will you be prepared for the PSAT, but you'll also become prepared for the SAT. One of my students and I dramatically raised our PSAT scores with this book -- you can too.
EDIT: I just got my December 2007 scores and I scored a 2340! It's all thanks to this book :)
Book Review: You'll need it, but you'll need a good review book too.
Summary: 4 Stars
Everyone knows that you need this book to get "official" SATs to practice with, because the College Board doesn't seem to let any of the other books publish their tests. Stay away from the knock-off tests in Princeton Review or their kind (like Rocket)-they AREN'T real SATs and they're full of mistakes. Even the tests in the "Official Guide" are a bit quirky, though, because the answer key only gives score "ranges" like "640-720" for an SAT math score. If I spend 4 hours taking a practice test, I want to know EXACTLY how well I did, not approximately!! Two other big drawbacks to this books are that the answer key contains NO ANSWER EXPLANATIONS, and the lessons in the book are very weak.
So, if you're serious about improving your score, and you're willing to do some work (like I was), you'll need a good review guide to go along with it. The best one by far is "McGraw-Hill's SAT I", but be SURE to get the second edition. The great thing about it is that when you take a practice test, it gives very detailed explanations of each answer, as well as REFERENCES to CONCEPT LESSONS that are excellent. It teaches you with a very effective method and gives lots of practice. I particularly liked the lessons on percents and negative exponents, which I ALWAYS had trouble with, and the lessons on Reading Comp, which realy helped me. It also has GREAT vocab lessons.
Take the tests in the "McGraw-Hill" book (which aren't real SATs, that's the drawback, they're a little bit harder) about 2 months before your SAT, then use the answer key to point you to the lessons you need to review. Then take the tests in the "Official SAT Study Guide" to see how you're improving (except remember that you'll only get that annoying "score range" which can be pretty wide). I did this before the October SAT, and my scores improved by 420 points overall, and just found out that I was accepted at my top-choice college. To see improvements like that, you ABSOLUTELY NEED the combination of books. I hope this helps you little ones!! :))
Book Review: Not enough in this Official Study Guide
Summary: 4 Stars
Upon first glance, the questions in the practice tests are not as difficult to solve as the ones on the actual SAT and do not have explanations for the answers given. Other books published by Kaplan, Barrons, and the Princeton Review have questions that test your skills more and their practice tests have explanations for the answers to each problem.
Moreover, the Official Study Guide lacks a vocabulary list of the most common words found on the actual SAT. It would be better to purchase a book with a vocabulary list and perhaps even vocabulary flashcards for your personal use. (You never know when you'll be stuck waiting in line for something with nothing to do). It's very important to have a vocabulary list overall because so much of the test involves knowing words and their definitions/ role in sentence structure.
Nonetheless, it's good to get a feel of what ETS and the collegeboard expects on the SAT by taking the practice tests in this book. You can catch on to some subtle nuances in the questions (for example, the word "and" often asks for synonyms in fill-in-the-blank questions). However, those nuances are not outright said and the rest of the strategies in the book are pretty mediocre. They're more like the instructions for how to take the test rather than strategies to solve problems, (from the easiest to the most difficult).
A way to get around the weaknesses of this book is to purchase or check out other SAT books from your local book store, Amazon.com, or the library. Work with the Official SAT Study Guide to get a basic understanding of the test(though some of the information offered is redundant). But browse through other books as well and read their strategies to deepen your understanding/ further develop your problem-solving skills.
In conclusion, getting the score you want on the SAT is closely associated with feeling confident on the test day. The more knowledge you have on the SAT, the more confident you'll be. So it's okay to study with many different books.
Book Review: A must-have tool for a successful SAT
Summary: 5 Stars
The Official Study Guide offers the most up-to-date material that can be found on the real SAT. The questions are realistic, and the 8 practice tests are all clevery crafted and resemble the actual reasoning test so much that i found myself wondering whether they were practice or actual tests!!! The scoring guidelines are easy and clear to follow, and unlike other SAT preparation books, they are correct and reflect the real scoring methods; in other words you will find that your actual scores are not so much different from your practice scores with the Study Guide! Before i took my SATs i purchased more than 8 books from various publishers, such as Kaplan, and The Princeton Review, but none of them matched the quality nor the level of the material presented in this blue book...I discovered that most of the other books were rushed, had spelling mistakes, and errors in the answer keys, which combined with the faulty score ranges, provided for an unrealistic and sometimes even impossible scores! The Sat Study Guide is also valuable with the fact that it combines bulletproof tested strategies, and working methods for tackling the different sections of the test! It provides real sample questions and short practice sections, as well as actual essays for refference. When i say real and working, i mean that the methods suggested by the Study Guide are efficient, clever, and yet they leave enough room for each section to be dealt with within the timed requirements (for example - one of the other books i purchased suggested that a full 10minutes whould be spent planning the essay, with additional 2 minutes at the end for proofreading, leaving only 13 minutes to write "the perfect" essay, which is unrealistic and frankly quite impossible!!!) This book is a treasure for any serious SAT test-taker! It helped me achieve scores in the 94th percentile, with one of my sections being in the 99th! It is a must-have for every High School Junior, and thus i rate it with 5 stars, and reccommend it without reservations!Book Review: Get the 2nd Edition of this book - not this one
Summary: 3 Stars
I am an Associate Professor of Mathematics, SAT Math tutor, and author of the book The 32 Most Effective SAT Math Strategies. Every high school junior that will be taking the SAT should have "The Official SAT Study Guide," but make sure to purchase the 2nd Edition - not this one. The second edition has 3 actual SATs. This one does not.
My SAT classes run for about 3 months before the SAT, and I generally have my students do 5 or 6 practice tests (from this book) during this time, although I do believe that 4 is sufficient. I should point out that I do not believe that taking practice tests is the best way to boost your score. The best way to improve your SAT score is to learn all the strategies and shortcuts that are specific to the SAT, and to practice implementing these strategies EVERY DAY for a very short amount of time for approximately 3 months before the test. As a mathematician I can only speak for the math portion of the test. If you are taking a course or working with a tutor, then you should be learning all of the appropriate strategies. If not, make sure to get an SAT Math book that teaches you all the important strategies. To summarize:
There are 3 key components to improve your score in SAT Math.
(1) Learning test taking strategies that are specific to the SAT.
(2) Practicing SAT problems for a small amount of time each day for about 3 months before the SAT.
(3) Taking about 4 practice tests before test day to make sure you are applying the strategies effectively under timed conditions.
When I tutor, I take care of (1) and (2) by using the book I've authored (mentioned above), and additional problem sets I've created which are available for free at my website. I take care of (3) by using the 2nd Edition of the Official Study Guide.
Best of luck to everyone taking the SAT.