Customer Reviews

McGraw-Hill's PSAT/NMSQT

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

 

 

I am astonished that this book costs less than the Princeton Review PSAT book, but is twice as big and twice as useful!!! I am a 20-year high school teacher in the Chicago suburbs who also tutors students for the SAT, ACT and PSAT, and this is hands down the most effective tool for tutors and students who are willing to do some serious work preparing for the PSAT. Don't be fooled-the PSAT is important, even though it's a practice SAT, because it is used to determine who qualifies for National Merit Scholarships.

The authors of this book, Christopher Black and Mark Anestis, clearly understand how students learn, what mistakes they commonly make, and how to explain difficult concepts in a way that kids can understand. (Princeton Review and the others don't even pretend that they can improve students' reading or math skills, and so they don't.) Even better, "McGraw-Hill's PSAT" provides tone of practice for students who want to work on improving their reasoning skills, and plenty of diagnostic tests with substantial answer explanations.

Whather you are a parent, a student or a tutor, you will want to use this book.

Black and Anestis get it exactly right in this book: the PSAT and SAT are not simply tests of "how well you know how do take multiple choice tests" (as the Princeton Review claims ad nauseum). It's a test of reasoning skills, and only students who improve those reasoning skills can hope to see great PSAT or SAT score improvements. I've been using this book for a full year, and my students have improved their scores by an average of close to 100 points per section (or 10 points per section on the PSAT). Of course, I'm willing to take a certain amount of that credit, but I don't think it would be nearly as easy without this book.

I am a rising senior who used this book last year, and now I'm buying a copy for my little brother. I like the new blog: it's really helpful to students like me who have a tough time staying "in the loop" about the SAT. In my case, this is because I am home-schooled. Thanks to this book I achieved a score of 72 critical reading, 76 math and 80 writing.

I also wanted to echo the sentiments of the previous reviewer and say that Mr. Black, the author, was very generous with his time and has personally given me excellent advice that helped me enormously in my preparation for the SAT and in taking the SAT Subject Tests and GED. I contacted him through his website, and did not expect a personal reply but was very pleased to get one.

Even if Mr. Black were not so generous with his time and encouragement, I would still recommend this book of all the available PSAT guides. I have spent a great deal in the library looking through the different books, and I have found this one to be far more thorough than the others.

Also, I disagree completely with the reviewer who said that this book was "pro-Bush." I think that claim is just bizarre and I would be interested to know why he/she thinks that. I think it's very odd to read that kind of thing into a book that does not discuss politics at all. I guess he'she means that some of the reading excerpts are political in nature, and some have a conservative bias while others have a very liberal bent. I think that is a very good thing, not a bad thing. I also think it is silly to suggest that this reveals a bias on the part of the author.

In short: many thanks for a very helpful book.

As someone who has tutored students for the PSAT and SAT for over 15 years, I must commend the authors of "McGraw-Hill's PSAT" for a truly excellent book. It is extremely well-written and is far more useful to my students than the alternatives by Barron's, Princeton Review and Kaplan.

In contrast to the previous reviewer, I have found the critical reading portion of this book to be exceptionally well written. The previous reviewer seems to believe that the author has a conservative bias, but this shows rather weak critical thinking skills on the part of the reviewer (his claim of an 80 critical reading notwithstanding). I have read this book thoroughly, since I must have a solid recall of the book in its entirety in order to use it effectively with my students, and I can assure any reader that there is no political bias on the part of the author. In fact, the previous reviewer would do well to read the passages on pages 13 and 23 again, and to claim, with a straight face, that they reveal a conservative bias on the part of the authors. The previous reviewer seems instead to have focused on the excerpt from an essay by James Schlesinger on page 24, which is presented as a counterbalance to the more "liberal" argument about global warming with which it is juxtaposed. The previous reviewer seems to be unable to differentiate the excerpted opinions of a national pundit with the views of the authors. In fact, I commend the authors highly for including such politically intriguing viewpoints. That is what a good book SHOULD do, not simply parrot the point of view any particular reader may favor.

I should point out that, in the authors' larger book, "McGraw-Hill's SAT I," they expand on the idea of playing "devil's advocate" as an essential critical reading and writing skill, and I have used this approach with great success with my own students. The previous reviewer would do well to understand this approach, instead of cursing every argument that disputes his bias.

I actually found one of the authors (Christopher Black) to be very accessible, and had a very pleasant exchange with him contacting him through his website, and have found him to have a very level-headed and thoughtful approach to preparing students for college-level critical thinking and for standardized tests like the SAT and SAT Subject Tests.

I STRONGLY recommend this book to any tutor or student who wishes to take a serious approach to a tough test like the PSAT, particularly those who are tired of the "test-taking tricks" approach so popular in the SAT-prep franchises.

I wanted to do well on the PSAT test, and I bought a review book from literally all the main companies. I have the princeton review, REA, barrons, kaplan, you name it. I would least recommend the princeton review, because it is way too general and brief as always. (it is bad for AP review also) Anyways, I ended up running out of time, so I only used the McGraw Hill prep book.
I know this book is good because I compared it to all the other prep books. It has all the concept reviews plus SIX very good practice tests. This book is a MUST HAVE!!

Although my daughter did well on her sophomore PSAT in 2007, when she was a sophomore, she made 4 errors in the Writing Skill section and wanted to improve her score in her junior year PSAT. I used McGraw Hill's PSAT book to coach her for the 2008 PSAT. It really is worth its weight in gold!!! It contains a fantastic writing skill review categorized in 15 concepts, each of which comes with a 1-page mini concept review followed by additional practice. The 15 concepts are so well explained, so succinctly written, and so user-friendly that make writing skill improvement a piece of cake! After relentless practice with this book (and also with Barron's PSAT workbook) last summer, my daughter not only writes much better at school in her junior year, she did great on PSAT (upper 99 percentile)and a perfect score (80) in the Writing Section! Thank you, McGraw Hill!

Although this edition (copyright 2006) of the book has some useful reasoning skills, it is full of errors and typos in the math section. The errors are so abundant that I found many parts of the book useless and frustrating. I used this book as well other SAT and PSAT books (Gruber, Barron, Kaplan, King, College board) and while all the other books have some typos, this one by far has the most and the College Board book has the least. My favorite book is the one by Elizabeth King called Outsmarting the SAT. She actually takes the SAT test every year and her examples are indeed very close to the actual tests from the college board book.
The English section in this PSAT book is too easy and not representative of the actual tests. Test scores from practice exams in this book can be misleading. Overall, if this book had fixed its many typos and made the English practice portion more representative, it would have gotten a better rating.
If you plan to buy this book, wait for a newer edition. Be aware however that as of August 2009, there is no new edition yet.

First of all, this is a truly amazing book. It changes the way many people views the PSAT. Debunking the myth that PSAT/SAT is designed by ETS merely to test your "test-taking skill"(which is suggested by many mercenary test prep companies/books), the book announces that SAT does another great thing: IT MEASURES YOUR ABILITY TO THINK CRITICALLY! Especially for those who want to excell at college, critical thinking skill is crucial.
Over all, three sections of the book are just perfect! Certainly, they all strongly emphasize the importance of your "thinking" ability.
I cannot recommend it enough. So check it out by yourself!
Hope this help

As an SAT and ACT tutor, I'm always looking for prep books that offer drills of specific concepts with lots of great sample questions and this book works well for that purpose. My one complaint is that there are many distracting typos. The price is right too. Overall, a really great choice for PSAT, SAT, and ACT students. I wish the McGraw-Hill ACT book was also broken down by concepts.

I like the organization. The mathematics section was nicely done, giving a well organized overview of PSAT math; however, I must ding the book because we found 5 errors in the answer sections for two math worksheets. Sloppy, sloppy.

the book is not "like new" as advertized. there were lots of highlighting, writing, etc. in the diagnostic test. the rest of the book was in good condition