Customer Reviews

How to Prepare for the SAT II: Physics (Barron's SAT Physics)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I've bought this book because of the high reputation Barrons has maintained in the SATs world. I recently took the June 01 Physics SAT II, and I now reflect. This book does cover most topics in detail; however, it fails to provide accurate model exams. Because the College Board has never released any copies of SAT II physics exams, Barrons was forced to put together the tests and the book blindly. Anyway, I read this book three times thoroughly and I have an A average in physics at school. This book is a big disappointment for this subject test.

In fact, I went to [a store] the next day to see if any other prep book had an accurate model exam. Guess what? I found the Princeton Review book so accurate that it had about 14 similar questions from the test. So, buyers beware. Don't buy this book because you'll just screw up a SAT score. For this subject, buy the Princeton Review version. But, for biology and chemistry, use Kaplan.

The topics are very well explained, detailed and full of exemples. But the kind of practice tests and sample exercices is far away from the SAT II test reality. While the book contains exercises that need mostly hard calculations and deep knowledge of the subject, the test is based on the most important physics concepts and reasoning, and calculations are rarely needed. Some answers to the practice tests are also wrong and badly explained. Anyway, if you don't rely on exercises, but instead on the concepts the book explains, you'll surely be able to get a high score, just like I was.

This book has poorly written, overly extended sentences making the information hard to understand. To top that off, calculations are made wrong in this book. An actual answer to a calculation was 68, the book claimed it was 77, and to make it even worst the books multiple choice answer was 80. I am in the middle of studying with this book and I'm EXTREMELY dissapointed...

When I first bought this book , I thought that being Barron's it would be really good. But i found some very sub standard questions compared to the real physics sat2. Some topics are even out of the syllabus!!! To anyone taking the physics sat2, i wouldn't ever recommend this book as it just isn't good enough!!!!!

Lucky for me that a friend of mine gave me his Princeton Review book the day before the test, because that one review helped more than the 3 weeks I spent with this horrible book. Not only are many of the answers in the book wrong, but the test is nothing like the SATII. The questions are much harder in this book and almost every question requires calculations. On the test, you are not even allowed a calculator, and almost every single question is conceptual. This book also gives you an evaluation of "good" or "fair"; it doesn't even have conversion tables of raw scores to the 800 point scale so you can evaluate yourself. If you need a book to prepare you for the Physics SATII, definetly get the Princeton Review "Cracking the Physics SATII" or anything else, just NOT this book!

For anyone who wants to do well on SAT II Physics (in other words, 700-800) please follow my advice and save your money. The book gave irrelevant facts and examples that will only cause confusion. The best way to study for this test is to take AP Physics B and prepare for the AP exam. Take the test in either May or June when the AP exam is given. The people who write the AP also write the SAT II; the tests are identical. Get the "Real SAT II's" and go over the questions in it. Also, get as much information on the AP questions and go over those. If you comprehend the stuff on these tests then you will be fine. By the way, hurry when you take the test. It is fast, rush through it. So that's my advice, to solidify you reassurance in it I will mention that I got a 5 on the AP and a 790 on the SAT II. Its not impossible, just don't waste your time with this absurd book.

The convoluted explanations and completely inaccurate practice tests make this book pretty near worthless. The two weeks I spent going through it were a waste of time. Now, I'm going to buy the PR book and use that for review.

This book is for a laugh. If this is your last week or so in preparing for the test and this is the only resource u have, I will consider urself "screwed". Its true that this book is concise, but it is so abridged that if u don't already know the material, you will end up staring blankly at the pages and trying to find other references. Personally, physics puts me to sleep, but this book just makes it even worse. The quality of the print is so bad that it drags u into a hypnotic state. Also, some questions contain wrong answers. When reading the book, if u already know some physics, u will find that they cut out a lot of important stuff and the topics r not organized properly in the book. If u want to score high and go into some elite but expensive university, I urge u not to buy this book; even reading this wasteful editorial is more useful than reading the book. This book is a symbol of evil and should not be trusted. I'm dead serious about this. Go get princeton or watever; leave this book to your last choice. Out of pity, I gave this book 2 stars. Its just sad, very sad. If its not for my kindness, this book properly rate negative 2 stars. Wish u test takers good luck and score an 800 like me =)

While its practice problems may not exactly represent those on the actual test, they get you acquainted with the format and the types of questions you will likely encounter. My suggestion is to use this book to study for the modern physics portion of the exam, which some regular textbooks don't cover. For mechanics and E&M, use your own resources instead, as the barron's study book cover some trivial and unimportant information that will only serve to confuse you. Certainly don't just rely on this book to study off of.

This book is a TERRIBLE review book. I took introductory physics this year (I'm in high school) and I have a B+ average so I was expecting a decent grade. The questions they ask you in this book are NOT the questions you see on the test. They are much harder and involve more problem solving... the thing is, on the real test, it is mostly conceptual, with very little problem solving (thus, you are not allowed to use a calculator). I ended up not being very familiar with the questions they asked and I got a 580, which I'm very disappointed with (and it's kind of pathetic considering I took physics for a whole year!). There are tricks to EVERY SAT TEST. Most of the other books tell you what to look for and how to eliminate answers, etc. This book expects you to learn information, which is pretty darn impossible, even if you have taken a physics course. Look for a book that explains how to solve problems without having to know everything physics related, because I know there has to be a way. I am taking this test again and I am DEFINATELY not using this book!!!!