Customer Reviews

Hack the SAT: Strategies and Sneaky Shortcuts That Can Raise Your Score Hundreds of Points

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I remember taking this SAT 2 yrs ago. :) It was a very helpful book in conjunction with others and practice tests.

Gives you a good headstart and mental focus that you need.
Shortcuts that you never thought of are in here.
When you need more time, these tricks can help. :)

This book is truly a mixed bag. On one hand, it's funny, easy to read, and contains some smart tips. On the other hand, it contains very few examples and some embarrassing errors, which caused me to question its accuracy.

I applaud the author for writing a concise SAT guide that is accessible to the typical student. However, I would strongly advise readers to use this book in conjunction with the College Board's own preparation guides. On its own, this book does not provide adequate background material - or examples - for the average reader.

Unfortunately, my friend turned me on to this book after my parents blew a couple grand (at least) on a high priced SAT tutor. The information in this book was not only as accurate as that given by my tutor, but also was much easier to understand. The study tips really helped to build my confidence and were easy to remember. I would honestly recommend anyone thinking of paying a private tutor for help beating the system look at this book first - it's awesome!

My daughter liked this book. It is a good SAT prep book if used as an ADDITION to the other books that focus on actual practice tests. There's no substitute for doing actual questions & tests as practice. Easy for teenagers to read; author relates well to teens, so it's not "preachy".

I absolutely LOVED this book! I was wary about the length at first, thinking that there wouldn't be enough information, but in the end it was perfect! It was very straightforward, and all the tips were explained in just enough detail as to understand the material. I also enjoyed the short section in the back about college admission; this section was fantastic! If you, or anyone you know, are taking the SAT, this is the book you want to get!

This book is written by a fellow Harvard Grad who lives and works as a private tutor in New York. It's in the same vein as "Up Your Score": a lighthearted, humorous take on the SAT. Instead of trying to tackle everything on the test, Mr. Schrefer instead focuses on providing quick, useful tips and shortcuts, with a particular emphasis on the math section. All in all, it's worth the ten bucks.

This is not a perfect book, but the reason that it deserves five stars is because it is an excellent book to get started with. I took the SAT 25 years ago and I remember sitting down with the Barron's SAT guide, and wondering how I would get through this unfriendly, phone book sized beast. The Barron's approach to problem solving was dry and methodical: reading it would trigger narcoleptic attacks. I was disappointed that the Barron's approach did not seem concerned with presenting solutions that could be completed in one and two minute time spans (skipping and combining math steps can change a three minute question to a one minute question). This book is a practical, light-hearted and casual view of the Test which makes it easier to follow along and more importantly FINISH.

There are a few typo's and I hope the author has a chance to issue a second edition of this book. For folks who are taking the test, I would suggest bringing a set of foam ear plugs (available at drug stores) to the test. I sat next to someone chewing gum, coughing, sneezing and nervously tapping her pencil.

This gives a great start to studying, as it makes the SAT seem like a game that can be mastered. It captures the "big idea" of the whole test, rather than scaring the students who read it about all they do not know. Use this in combination with practice tests; the author recommends that the only other book you need is the one by College Board (The Official SAT Study Guide). I just started studying and definitely recommend this. Not a boring read, either!

My son read this book and enjoyed it. He is 16 years old and he does not usually read a lot of books unless required. He stated that this book was funny and he feels it will be helpful when taking the SAT test. Get this book for your child to read and they will not complain about reading it like other prep books. There were some errors in the book, but the author mentions them on his site at www.eliotschrefer so it's all good.

My son looks forward to reading other books by the author, since he has a very interesting writing style.

I found this book while buying an SAT guide for my nephew, and spent about an hour reading it. While I was impressed by the rates the author charges his students to tutor them (hundreds!), I wasn't impressed with the book. The book seems overly obsessed with scores and scoring higher. I scored the equivalent of above 2300 on the SAT and got into every college I applied to --- including Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, and the top small colleges --- but reading the book with its intense focus on scoring made ME nervous.

The mentality that the author is coming from seems pretty typical of the prep school crowd, at least the ones that I went to college with. And prep school kids do need to do more in order to stand out; it's much easier to get into H/Y/P from the great public high schools of the Midwest than from Eastern prep schools. And prep school kids seem to have this whole stigma against the good public universities, so they regard attending them as a failure, whereas from my Midwestern high school we just saw it as normal and going to an Ivy as a bonus. I don't envy them. But the mentality is intense and neurotic enough to drive anyone crazy.

As an example, he suggests that everyone take the test preferably three times, unless they get a high score to start with, and he gives a whole schedule on which to take the tests so that you have multiple tries. He gives suggestions for which subject tests it's easiest to get a good score on. Some of the practice questions are even about the SAT itself. And periodically in the middle of a hint, he'll say things like, "There's a lot riding on this test." In case you're not feeling enough anxiety already.

People do best on things they find fun. It seems to me that the best way to study for the SAT is to look at it as a puzzle and a challenge, and try to enjoy it. Focusing on scores seems like a way to get nervous for no reason and not to enjoy studying because you're focusing on an abstract thing far in the future. Better to enjoy the present moment.

I'm now an alumni interviewer. Last month I attended a session with admissions officers giving us an introduction to alumni interviewing. We looked at a few real applications (anonymized), and spoke frankly about the merits of each case, using honest language such as "This applicant sounds like a real tool.", debating about whether the applicants seemed to have social skills, and looking at the extent to which the applicants had taken advantage of their high schools' opportunities. It really is true that admissions officers think carefully about the whole person. Scores alone won't get someone into college: a top school could fill their entire entering class with 2400's several times over. Scores are just a signal. High scores and low grades means that the applicant wasn't trying. Low scores and high grades mean that the applicant may not test well, or that their school grades too leniently. And then admissions officers move onto reading the letters and essays.

Of course it is important to study for the SAT, but focusing on scores seems like a bad way to do that, and a good way to get overly nervous about it. In the end, I bought the Laugh Out Loud guide to the SAT --- it's written by a PhD and comedy writer and it seems to communicate a better spirit of fun. My hope is that it will give my nephew a good feeling about the SAT that he can maintain while taking a dozen practice tests in the Official SAT book.

No matter what, just have fun.