Dr. John Chung's SAT Math [Paperback]

John Chung (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 3, 2009 | ISBN-10: 1439234973 | ISBN-13: 978-1439234976

Designed for students preparing for the SAT math exam, Dr. John Chung's SAT Math gives students a comprehensive guide of how to approach SAT questions with its 50 Perfect Tips, while also providing 20 Mock Tests for intensive practice. The book covers in detail all subjects tested in the exam, making it an invaluable resource that enables the student to solve any potential SAT math question. The methods used in the book have been developed by Dr. Chung over a period of 17 years teaching SAT Math. Since starting his own test prep school in NY in 1992, Dr. Chung has successfully helped nearly a thousand students achieve perfect scores on the SAT and the SAT II: Math I and II, enabling them to gain entry to Ivy League schools such as Harvard, MIT, Yale, Columbia, Princeton, and Stanford.

Product Details

• Paperback: 642 pages
• Publisher: BookSurge Publishing (September 3, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1439234973
• ISBN-13: 978-1439234976
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 7.4 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #73,249 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 39 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Poor Editing, Great Content March 31, 2011

By mrpepper

Format:Paperback

The only reason I gave this book four stars instead of five is because of the apparent lack of editing prior to its publication. Typos and misspelled words dot the back cover, and somebody clearly doesn't know how to keep the height to width ratio on pictures while resizing them - Dr. Chung's head cannot possibly be as long as it is in the picture on the back cover. If you're not a stickler for aesthetics, you probably won't care about any of this...

The good part of the book comes once you flip past the cover. I didn't care enough to go through all fifty "perfect tips" before the tests. If you feel as if you know how to attack SAT math problems but just need more practice, I recommend you do likewise. The problems in this practice book differ from actual SAT math problems in that they are more difficult and more conceptual. You will not stumble across any "read the pictograph" problems. Although some problems are relatively complex, the vast majority of the explanations do them justice.

The transition from this book to practice SATs from the CollegeBoard Blue Book should be relatively easy. After taking 7 practice from this book, I noticed that SAT math problems were much easier and I could do them much faster. When I took the SAT for the first time, I scored a 650 on math and I had actually run out of time on the math sections. After finishing seven practice tests from this book I scored a 760 on the math section of the SAT the second time I took it. Also, I had approximately five minutes to spare on every math section of the real SAT.

If you can devote half an hour each day to doing one practice section out of this book, your SAT scores will improve. But make sure that you understand why you got a certain question wrong so that you won't make the same mistake twice.

Want a higher SAT math score? Willing to work? Buy this book!

40 of 45 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars If you want an 800 all you need is this book September 10, 2010

By A. Chai

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I have read through many, many SAT math review books. Most of them have long, wordy explanations about math concepts. Those types of books are useless for students who are already good at math. You don't need to know "how to do a math problem." What you need to know is "how to get an 800 on the SAT." Those are two entirely different concepts. Dr. Chung's book will get you the 800 if you are a student who is already good at math but cannot afford to screw up on any questions. If you don't know how to do the math yet, you should get Barron's.
Here is a testimonial: I gave my son Dr. Chung's book a month ago. He went over it during his spare time. Then, I timed him on a college board SAT practice exam. I was concerned because he was done in about half of the time. I thought maybe he wasn't checking his work. But then I graded it...and there were ZERO wrong answers. That, my friends, is what we are going for. My son said that the book made it just that easy.

22 of 26 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Mastering those stubborn hard to reach math problems May 12, 2011

By Stephen Shay

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I have a 3.3 GPA and fit in the invisible first quartile of my high school class. My SAT ambition was to offset my marginal GPA with a shockingly high SAT score - perhaps giving my application a couple extra seconds before rejection.

I got this book after previously purchasing the Kaplan guide, Barrons and the College Board On-line test prep. I had started with a modest 550 math and verbal and gradually climbed up to the 650 range. (I was still having problems with the high difficulty math problems, and finishing the math section within the slim time limit.

The books starts with fifty tips. These tips could fit on 3x5 note cards and they elegantly capture the most common brain benders. Each tip is followed by three to four practice problems that were typical SAT nightmare problems - a three minute problem with two minutes to finish. Following these fifty tips are twenty practice math tests. The math tests have 3 math sections and resemble the SAT test format; however, these are head bangers. I didn't even bother to follow the time requirements because these test questions start out hard and stay hard.

I took each test with the goal of being able to answer each of the questions and applying the related tip. After five or six tests, the questions became less intimidating. I was able to finish 11 tests and the 50 tips in a three week period. Two days before the test I relaxed and got caught up on some TV and chores. I took the test with time to spare. It felt like an entirely different test - a breeze.

The early tips are very helpful, but there are quite a few typos. You can still get the idea with the typos, and I hope that Dr. Chung can touch them up with a future edition of the book. There's very little writing of encouragement and counseling: the book goes straight to business. Just get to work and the anxiety will take care of itself.