Effectiveness of SAT prep books?

[ness93]

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So this upcoming school year, Im going in my junior year and I'm planning on taking the SAT test in December for the first time. I haven't been to any prep class so I've been relying on practice books. The problem is that as I'm taking some of the practice from the Princeton Review book, I havent been scoring so well, especially in writing and critical reading. So I purchased two new book: Rocketreview and Gruber's New SAT that focuses alot on technique.

Has anyone used these books before? and if I just continue practicing from practice books, does it really help your score?

I've taken some practice tests and I've scored around like 1800/2400. I've heard that the actual SAT test is harder than the practice tests so how can I get my score to be around 2200 at least?

 

[EyEnStein 07]

Just comes with practice identifying where your going wrong. Learn the tricks for grammar and writing. You dont really need a prep course..i took one, it was only good for practice exams for timing. For CR memorize mass vocabulary words. Math just practice...The more and more you take try to find all your mistakes. Dont just retake another test, thats not going to help.

Also i think the best books to use are TPR 12 practice tests and Collegeboard Blue book.

 

[schrizto]

I only used the CollegeBoard Blue Book and got a 2210 the first time I took it.

 

[futuredocDB]

I only used the CollegeBoard Blue Book and got a 2210 the first time I took it.

wow. thats great! did you just read it from to back and take the practice tests?

 

[schrizto]

wow. thats great! did you just read it from to back and take the practice tests?

I only used the practice tests. Didn't read any of the rest of the book.

 

[futuredocDB]

haha. nice!
any other tips for doing well? i'll be talking it either in december or january

 

[manu101]

When you do the tests in the official CB book, make sure to analyze each and every question after you take and score the tests. Even the ones you get right. You'll start finding patterns in the questions and answers that can help you answer future questions of that type.
For critical reading, it's important to realize that the answer has to be somewhere in the passage and even the slightest deviation from the passage and its main idea makes the choice incorrect.

 

[orthomyxo]

So this upcoming school year, Im going in my junior year and I'm planning on taking the SAT test in December for the first time. I haven't been to any prep class so I've been relying on practice books. The problem is that as I'm taking some of the practice from the Princeton Review book, I havent been scoring so well, especially in writing and critical reading. So I purchased two new book: Rocketreview and Gruber's New SAT that focuses alot on technique.

Has anyone used these books before? and if I just continue practicing from practice books, does it really help your score?

I've taken some practice tests and I've scored around like 1800/2400. I've heard that the actual SAT test is harder than the practice tests so how can I get my score to be around 2200 at least?

I took a quick glance at the College Board blue book, but I found it extremely boring and just decided to wing it. I didn't quite get the score I wanted but I still got into my top choice 😀. If you really want a high score though you should brush up/practice everything you learned in algebra and possibly pre-calc and you better memorize a buttload of vocab words.

 

[erum2000]

is the college board blue book the same as the college board official study guide for the sat?

 

[Hopes2BMD]

Has anybody here taken the SAT Subject Specific Tests in Chemistry and Math Level 2 and which books do you recommend as the best for the preparation of these 2 tests?

 

[Genetic]

Has anybody here taken the SAT Subject Specific Tests in Chemistry and Math Level 2 and which books do you recommend as the best for the preparation of these 2 test?

I'm not sure about Chemistry but for the Math 2C SAT II's I would use Barron's. I am a junior like you and currently I own a copy of Barron's and I'm reviewing and learning a lot.

 

[Hopes2BMD]

I'm not sure about Chemistry but for the Math 2C SAT II's I would use Barron's. I am a junior like you and currently I own a copy of Barron's and I'm reviewing and learning a lot.

Excellent, that's the one I have.🙂
For chemistry I have the Princeton Review one. I've heard that it's great and that it teaches you exactly what you need to know, that it's absolutely enough for scoring high scores on the SAT...on the other hand, I found info that it's not enough for the test...😕
The Barron's book for chemistry apparently has too many unnecessary stuff.