Customer Reviews

Increase Your Score in 3 Minutes a Day: SAT Essay

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I, being a normal adolescent, tend to procrastinate. As the SAT was looming over me and steadily approaching in a week's time, I quickly searched for a quick and easy lifesaver and chose this book. 3 days before the big day, I scoured the contents and followed the tips. The result? A perfect score on the essay (which is odd considering I'm a terrible writer--thus I attribute my good grade to this book.)

Now this isn't the "end all be all" to SAT essay books, but you do have to realize no book can really "teach" people how to write. Good writing comes from a combination of guidelines and tips (which this book provides), reading what the graders are looking for and "good" essays (which this book provides), and most importantly, practice (which only you can provide).

I paid more than $800 to attend a Kaplan course to prepare for the SAT and PSAT and I came out of it feeling like I had wasted my money. For any sane student who has more to do than flip through thousands of pages of nonsense this is the book for you. At first I felt that preparing for the SAT would be more difficult, but if you follow what the authors tell you, you will see almost immediate progress. For a money conscious person like me, I especially enjoy the multiple applications of this book, which means that it won't be sitting on the shelf after I get into college. I will definately use this book to help me in my writing in the future. A reasonable study program that won't bore you to death, What more can anyone ask?

I didn't read the reviews about this book and thought a 4 and 1/2 stars is a good enough for me to give it a try. To my surprise, when I finished the book, it didn't give me any strong idea how to write a good essay. Lots of quotes were taken from famous writers, but these are just rubbish, it won't help me to improve my writing and scores. If what other 1 star reviews said is true, they should be ashamed to put the same reviews in all online store to get higher review points.

I ALMOST bought this book until I read all the reviews for it on this site and noticed that they were ALL FAKE.

I decided to get this book which I saw at a store and it was a lot smaller, and easier too read than most other SAT books. When I got my score back, it was 30 points under perfect. This is the best SAT help out there, and I reccomend it 100 percent. This book is exceptional.

This book is not very useful. It targets an audience that is probably already proficient at writing essays. High school students who need help with the essay need something simpler and more to the point of writing the SAT essay. The title of the book is deceptive. It made me buy the book.

I was impressed by the customer reviews until I saw the 1-star review. Just for fun, i looked this book up on barnes and nobles and it turns out that there's the SAME EXACT review on their site as the 5-star review that shows up first on amazon. PLUS theyre all from California...and they all review this book series. They probably asked all their loser freinds to give them good rating. How lame. Now i really wont buy this book, even if it's actually good.

For many of my students, the SAT essay is the most difficult part of that formidable test. Wanting to get a different perspective on how to help these students and being interested in reading sample essays and their evaluations, I purchased this book from Amazon sight unseen.

There are many things about this book that I like: the humor, the short chapters, the insightful recommendations, the example essays and the analysis of these essays from different perspectives. I can't say that I learned a great deal from this book, but it did bring important topics to the forefront and proved to be a great refresher course on the SAT essay for me.

Though it's tempting to read but one chapter a day and contentrate on that one lesson, doing so would entail stretching out the reading for almost two months. I found it more beneficial for myself to read two or three chapters a day.

Based on my experiences working with high school students, I think only the most motivated of students will actually read the entire book, stay the course, and benefit from the lessons within. A student also must have a basic understanding of the writing process to incorporate the tips of the authors into his or her own writing program.

For my own purposes I found it best to apply specific principles proferred by the authors to essays previously written by my students. I'd recommend this same strategy to prospective SAT candidates who are studying independently with the help of "3 Minutes a Day."

This is a worthwhile book, one which teachers and serious writing students may find themselves returning to again and again.

I would have liked more examples of relevant topics in the advice chapters, but this would have lengthened the chapters and the book. I guess expecting the perfect book is like expecting a 6 on one's SAT essay.

The positive reviews are overwhelmingly "sock puppet" copies across the internet. For example, google together "lollydolling" and "SAT"--it's the same review everywhere, and nothing else.

There is no such word as lollydoll, even with your girlfriend.

My daughter is fifteen years old and scared to death of writing her SAT essay - even though people say she is an excellent writer! Tackling such an intimidating thing seemed a difficult task for her... but it turned out to be much easier than expected. This book gave simple, easy steps to slowly progress in writing and understanding of the SAT essay. 3 minutes a day gives plenty of tips on what to expect, what to avoid, how to prepare, and helpful ways to "up" your essay scores. If you are looking for a book that gives you basics without all the extra complicated reading, this is the book.