12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent strategies, with hard tests., July 5, 2009
This review is from: Gruber's Complete SAT Guide 2010, 13E (Paperback)
I work for a tutoring company. With my employer's permission, I use this book after my students have exhausted all of my company's prep materials.
This is an excellent book for SAT tutors; a average-to-good book for students using this book as their sole source of preparation; an excellent book when used in conjunction with the SAT exams published by the College Board.
This book teaches critical thinking strategies which are essential for not only the SAT, but other examinations you will take in high school and college. I cannot recommend the strategies highly enough. Other SAT test prep books teach you tricks. The Gruber book teaches you thinking strategies which will serve you for years to come.
I will focus especially on the math content, as that is what I usually use this book for.
-Critical Reading Section-
The questions in the review tests are a little harder than the actual SAT. The critical thinking strategies are useful.
The vocab list is extensive, and perhaps a touch overly difficult, but it would be a good list for a student to work with if they want to do very long term preparation (12+ months plus) for this test.
-Writing Section-
The writing section is an afterthought, in terms of content review other than the practice tests. The section on writing a good essay is helpful (see below), but the guide lacks numerous practice questions for the multiple choice writing questions. The practice test questions are a touch harder than the actual SAT questions.
However, this book has a section on writing the essay which would be helpful for many students. It also has a section on grammar that should be required reading for every high school student in this country. Grammar is not taught extensively in schools anymore, and this book gives you a back to basics course in the subject.
-Math Section-
Math Practice Test Questions- Unlike the SAT, the questions sometimes seem to be randomly placed within the section. An entire section can be very easy, and the next section can be brutally tough. The questions are tougher-to-much-tougher than the actual SAT. (Students using this book on their own should be made aware of that.)
Questions on the practice test are linked by a numerical code to the content review (covered below) as well as the general math strategies (covered at the start of this review). As such, they can serve as a reminder of the general math principles that the were just part of a specific test question. It's helpful if you get the question wrong, or omitted, and can even be helpful if you get the question correct.
Math Content Review- Excellent. If anything, it overprepares you for the test. It covers some areas (such as set theory, and certain geometric formulas) that are not covered on this test. This section can be a godsend if you are weak in this subject.
After each content review section, there are 50 practice questions which cover what you reviewed. These questions are much harder than what's on the test.
-Summary-
This book prepares you for a test that is more difficult than the actual SAT. But the strategies it teaches, as well as the essay review and grammar review sections mentioned in this book, are worth their weight in gold.
This book should be used in conjunction with the book of SAT exams published by the College Board. (The Official SAT Study Guide) You will likely score higher on those more realistic practice tests than the harder Gruber practice tests.
-Addendums-
The 10th, 11th, and 12th editions of this book are 99.95% the same as the book under review. If you can buy a copy of those books (at what I assume would be a very inexpensive price), you are getting this book.
Another, less effusive way of saying the same thing: This book hasn't been really updated in at least 5 years.
But that's a personal quibble of mine. You should buy this book.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Gruber's SAT 13th edition nearly identical to the 10th edition though, May 3, 2010
This review is from: Gruber's Complete SAT Guide 2010, 13E (Paperback)
All previous reviews to previous editions of Gruber's SAT pertain to the Gruber's Complete SAT Guide 2010 13th Edition only because the Gruber's 13th edition is nearly identical to Gruber's 10th edition. I find Gruber's SAT prep books to be very comprehensive. However, I am disappointed that the 13th edition is nearly identical to that of the 10th edition. Closely comparing the 10th edition to that of Gruber's 13th edition I came across the following differences;
1) Gruber's 13th edition has some more multilevel approaches to the Solution problems than that of Gruber's 10th edition.
1) There is some deviation between the two Math strategic diagnostic tests. In Gruber's 13th edition two new problems appear. Number 1 & 4 in Gruber's 10th edition do not appear in Gruber's newest 13th edition.
2) The reading passage example one on page 138 in Gruber's 10th edition has been replaced with a new reading passage example one on page 138 in Gruber's 13th edition.
3) Gruber's 13th edition has a new logical reasoning problem on Page 725 which does not appear in the 10th edition.
4) On page 869 #14 geometry triangle problem has been placed with another kind of triangular geometry problem.
Bottom line: If one owns the 10th edition then do not bother purchasing the 13 th edition. A previous reviewer
states that Gruber's 11 edition is identical to the 10th edition. If one does not own the 10th or 11th edition
then by all means purchase this 13th edition. Gruber's SAT is still a solidly reliable SAT prep guide at a very reasonable price.
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