Customer Reviews

How to Prepare for the SAT II: Biology and Biology E/M (Barron's SAT Biology E/M)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I got this book after buying the Kaplan book on the same subject. I find it to be superior, although not as asthetically pleasing, as the Kaplan book. The summaries are very consise, the organization is decent, and overall this book is money well spent if you plan to take the Bio SAT II. One note, though, many of the tests included are rather easy. I for one am not a great student and didn't study diligently at all, yet when I took practice test 1 I got a 680. Not bad; hopefully the publishers at Barron's don't do this to boost one's morale and thus improve the image of the book. If you want hard practice tests, look at the Kaplan book. How realistic they are I don't know, but it seems that one would be prepared for anything the College Board could make up after taking the Kaplan tests sucessfully. Good luck to all.

When I decided to take the SAT II Biology, I also ordered the Barron's and Kaplan test preps. I had already taken the AP Biology test and recieved a 5, and I had the Cliff's AP Biology book as well. I had about a month and a half left before the Dec. exam and opened up the Barrons book to get started. MISTAKE MISTAKE MISTAKE!!! This book is very intimidating, there is way more information that you need to know, for example, the whole section on cancer and other diseases is completely unnecessary. TRUST ME...YOU DO NOT NEED TO KNOW THOSE DISEASES!!! The practice tests reflect the information provided in this book and is more like a "final exam" for those that read the book instead of an accurate model. I shut the book up within two days, thinking yeah right, and I picked up the Kaplan book instead. The Barron's book is also very visually unappealing and goes into too much detail. I would only use it if I had over a year to study and needed to make sure I knew every possible thing. The Kaplan book was a better at giving you the right material, but sometimes the paragraph format of the book takes too much time to read through. At this point, it would be smartest to use the Cliff's AP Biology book to get a quicker easier grasp of the information necessary. Neither the Kaplan nor the Barrons had very good practice tests, so I'd just take both to get a feel for what I need to know.

I read both the Kaplans and Barrons book, and I have to say that is due to the fact that I read the Barrons book, I got a 720 on my SAT. The Kaplan book left out alot of vital information about the human body that the Barrons book included. If you are looking for a brand of books to buy for SAT IIs, Barrons will help you the most.

I used both the Barron's and Kaplan books to review for the Biology E/M. Althought the Barron's book tests are very similar to the actual SAT II, the review in the Barron's book is horrible. I advise that one buy the Barron's just to see how they would score on the test (on both the Barron's and the SAT II, I got a 760), but for the actual subject matter, buy the Kaplan book.

I was getting a B in my honors biology class, and I decided to take the SAT II Biology. My teacher would keep giving us practice tests to do over the weekend and I would keep getting scores of 500-550, and I almost decided not to cancel taking the test because of a fear of getting a 500 on the test. I bought this book and the Kaplan book and I did not really like this book too much because the review was horrible. It was good for the practice tests though. With the aid of the Kaplan book, I managed to get a 660 on the test, so I suggest getting the Kaplan book for the Biology SAT II.

i am very disappointed with my sat II score. my friends brought both the kaplan and princeton book. he got a 780 for a score. i am pretty much on the same level as he is but only got a 690 on the bio sat II. i aced the barron practice tests but upon further inspection, i have found out that the questions from barron are way EASIER than both princeton and kaplan.

This book is really good and covers all of the bases of biology, but I only have a week to prepare for the test, and all of this material is, well, quite overwhelming. I would definitely reccomend this book if you have two weeks or more to prepare for this test. If you have the test really soon like me I would reccomend going with the Kaplan book.

I am not a great studier but i did not find this book covered all the topics on the Sat2. The tests were way too easy. I scored nearly 70 points lower on the actual Sats. Decent book but i think you could find better books out there. There was a ton of information but it was too much for me to cram with yet it didn't cover all the questions on the real tests. The answers were well explained to their practice tests but maybe that was because they were so easy.

This book was ok if u only want an average score. I just took the SAT II Biology E the other day and the questions on the test were BARELY covered in the book. The does have some detailed summaries, but only about 1/4 of the material on the test could be found in the book. and the practice tests were SOOO incredibly easy. Perhpas this was to boost morale so it made the book look like it was a good book......but I dunno. When I take the test again after i take AP bio, i'll use the Princton or the Kaplan.

I was getting a B in my honors biology class, and I decided to take the SAT II Biology. My teacher gave us a practice test one day and I got a 510, and I almost decided not to cancel taking the test because of a fear of getting a 500 or lower on the test. I bought this book and the Kaplan book and I did not really like this book too much because the review was horrible. It was good for the practice tests though. With the aid of the Kaplan book, I managed to get a 650 on the test (which is a long way from 510), so I suggest getting the Kaplan book for the Biology SAT II.