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: The best out there!
Summary: 5 Stars
First of all I'm a Puerto Rican, so when I decided I wanted to study on the United States, I was completely lost about the admission process. Soon I knew I had to take the SAT, prepared by the College Board. At first I was really scared about the idea of having to take a test completely on English, made for people who use english as their primary language, and having to actually write an essay for them to evaluate me equally to all of the native-english speakers.
But well, soon I was registering for the SAT and 3 SAT II subject tests and start looking for preparation material. I found out about The OFficial SAT Study Guide through this same website, and bought it. Now, almost two months after that, I don't regret my decision. I have been using the whole book and it simply gave me the strenght and confidence to take the test. It covers every single aspect about the NEW SAT including the three parts. Critical Reading (Previously known as the verbal section but now without analogies), the Writing section (Including how to write an essay and how they will evaluate it) and the Math section (without cuantitative comparision and more high school math).
This test covers everythings. It explains how will be the whole process of evaluating the test, the essay, how to prepare for each part and also EIGHT complete practice tests that will give you a very accurate idea of how you will do on the actual test. Also you may access online the exclusive area for the book owners on the college board web site. There you may enter the answers to the tests and it will automatically correct your results and give you the score range you'll be in.
My advice, buy this book, no other book will give you a so accurate idea of the actual test. Good luck to everyone!
Book Review: Too much advertising in this book!
Summary: 3 Stars
I bought this book new off of Amazon. In the first few chapters, it talks about how the PSAT is great (hey...go spend money and take it!), how many people take the SAT multiple times (hey... don't just spend $41.50 for one test, give us $83 for taking two!), AND they have a special chapter for the PSAT. I bought a darn book on the SAT not the PSAT. And plus, any genius can figure out that the PSAT is similar to the SAT. They also try to make the book look bigger and thicker (not to mention wasting ink and paper) by adding at the BEGINNING OF EACH CHAPTER that you should guess on this section, you should memorize the directions before hand (whether it's the reading, writing, or math chapter, it's the same 3 pages of preach).
Basically this book is the same techniques that others teach. I read Princeton Review's book on "Cracking the SAT" (they are funny because they say the SAT is not a real test and I LOVED that book), I read a few KAPLAN books (I bought this 100 page small paperback called "Inside the New SAT" and it's the best SAT book I've read so far because it has these wonderful "KAPLAN'S 10 WINNING STRATEGIES" with boxing gloves around these strategies.
Every SAT book has more or less the same strategies (Princeton Review calls it "The JOE BLOGGS APPROACH", Official SAT Guide calls it "Smart Guessing")
If you want a authoritive guide that's OFFICIAL and everything, get this book. But the Cracking the SAT book I read is the same except they tell you: loosen up, the College Board is a bunch of knuckleheads!
Book Review: The best guide to practice SAT tests, but not on how to crack the SAT
Summary: 5 Stars
This guide is essential for a simple reason. It is the only one that provides authentic SAT questions. When preparing for the SAT, it is critical that you practice with test samples using true SAT questions. All the other companies (Barron's, Kaplan, Princeton Review, etc...) provide imitations of such questions. Some are criticized for being too hard, or too easy. Don't waste your time and use the real stuff, this College Board guide.
Also, this guide gives you access to excellent online resources at the College Board website. These include more online SAT test samples. The most intriguing resource is the one that gives you an automated score of your essay. So, you can test what works or not for this new essay portion.
However, you can't trust the test makers to give insightful strategies about how to handle their own test. That would be like a conflict of interest. Use this book strictly to practice the test and have access to the online tools and nothing else. For strategies, you'll have to look elsewhere. Some of the best sources are from books available in pdf files on sale on the web by companies founded by students who have been extremely successful SAT test takers. One of these companies is Lazy Student's Way. If you want to spend less money, use the Kaplan SAT guide. It is much richer and better in terms of providing strategies than this College Board guide. Either way, you will be well armed to ace the SAT.
Book Review: CollegeBoard book the real deal
Summary: 4 Stars
Like all things associated with the collegeboard these days, their "Official" SAT Study Guide leaves much to be desired in a test prep book, yet because it is the only book with real SAT tests, it's really the only one I would recommend for students to use.
I've been teaching SAT prep for 20 years, and the subtle differences between the real test questions and those made up in publishers' cubicles do translate into better prep for students. The SAT is hard enough without having to suffer the fact that the practice questions you may be working on are not exactly what you will see on the real test. The research and development that the SAT does on test questions provides consistency that other publishers just can't match.
With 8 complete tests included, the Official SAT Guide provides more than enough material for aspiring students, and the tutorials in the front of the book are good enough to help most motivated kids. The weakness of the book is the lack of explanations to go with the answers. One can buy the "SAT Solutions Manual for over $20, but that really is irresponsible on the part of the publishers, or a boondoggle that isn't fair to the consumers. For heaven's sake, include the explanations... isn't hundreds of millions a year enough profit?
But that's the CollegeBoard!
Robert Sposato
Eugene, Oregon
Book Review: SAT Madness
Summary: 5 Stars
I got this book about a month before I took the SAT Reasoning test for the first time. The only other material I used was the material on the SparkNotes website.
I thought practice tests in this book was extremely helpful and dead-on accurate. However, I barely paid any attention to the other things in the book because they were pretty useless and were mostly things that have already drilled in our brains. I didn't subtract a star for this because I felt that the essay examples and the practice tests were excellent.
Honestly, get the book, but don't just rely on SAT prep material or you won't do well. I learned a lot in preparation, yes, but I feel that reading for hours daily has really been what got me a good score on the critical reading section. I took the skills to EVERYTHING I read, not just during school. For the Writing section, same thing. For example, my problem is sentence variation so I made a conscious effort to switch things up in my daily writing (IMs, email, etc). And if you have not taken the SAT yet, realize that the math section does not involve hard math. It's the ability to quickly solve logic problems and trick questions in 25 minutes. You're better off timing yourself on math work rather than obsessing over formulas.