Customer Reviews

McGraw-Hill's SAT I, Second edition

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If you want to know why this book is so much better than the other thick SAT books out there, just go to your bookstore and leaf through them all. What's obvious right off the bat is that the McGraw-Hill book is for students who actually want to learn the stuff on the SAT and not just a few quick tricks. Take the practice tests here (what everyone says ius true-they are tougher than the real thing), and then use the detailed answer key to point you to the lessons you need to review. The lessons in this books are very clear and WAY more thorough than the Princeton Review or Kaplan books. It has a great set of flashcards and the best vocab list of any book. But don't take my word for it. Go to your library or bookstore to compare, then buy it here ('cause it's cheaper). I used this book with the College Board "Official SAT Guide" for the October SAT, and my scores improved by 290 points overall. You can do it too without a $1400 Kaplan class!

This book really deserves more recognition than it has. None of my friends had ever seen this book, but I saw the reviews here and decided to get it anyway. I looked through it and simply didn't have enough time to study for the SATs as much as I would have liked, but I think if I were to do it all again, the number one thing I would have changed in my studying would have been to go through this entire book, maybe even twice. I got a 2160, which is okay, but really if I took the time to study the word list (which surpasses any other prep book BY FAR), I'm pretty sure my CR score would have gone up.

If you are a sophomore and are about to be a junior, or a junior who is getting prepared to take the SAT senior year, I recommend doing this entire book over the summer. Then the first month of school go through this book again and get all those vocab words in your head. I didn't study any vocab and I regret it. Everyone I talked to said that because the 2400 SAT doesn't have analogies, vocab wasn't as essential. I think vocab is still important for fill in the blank sections obviously, but also for the passage-reading sections. If you don't know a word in a sentence it really affects you and you just guess on the meaning, which you shouldn't be doing. The vocab list is definitely the highlight of this book.

Another great part of this book is the math section. It teaches you how to do all those math problems by thinking rather than memorizing. My math score went up about 60 points after doing about half of the math section in this book. Again, if I had more time to thoroughly go through this book I think my score would have gone up, and that goes for everyone willing to put the time into it.

This book is thick, and may be a bit much for people who are less serious about the SAT, but if you set up a strict schedule, and study this book, I'm sure it would help. I only went through a little vocab and half the math and even that helped me a lot. I didn't look at the Writing section quite as much so I don't have much to say about that, but the other sections would more than make up for it if it wasn't that good. So, get this book if you are willing to put in some serious hours. Don't get lazy!

Summary:
This is an excellent book, if you have sufficient time and energy to plow through it.

There is an enormous amount of practice problems for all subject areas and question types. Also, every practice problem has a concise explanation. Most effectively, there is a comprehensive review of math, grammar, writing, and other applicable areas. If you need to review a particular area before taking the SAT, then this book is probably for you.

However, if you do not need a comprehensive review of the subject areas on the SAT, you may conclude that this book is not for you. It is very long (about 900 pages), and not that easy to read. It reads more like a textbook instead of a friendly, compact strategy book.

Also, there are only 5 tests provided in the book, but each is very close in kind to the real SAT.

Finally, my only complaint is that the authors state that it is not possible to devise strategies or "tricks" that maximize students' effort. I disagree as do my students whose scores have increased on ALL three sections (Black states on his plog that his students' CR scores dipped on the June SAT). I hope the reader will not view this statement as arrogant, rather as evidence refuting statements made in McGraw-Hill's SAT prep book.

This book as well as more than 20 other SAT prep books are reviewed and ranked on CEEAE dot org. Every book review has a direct link to its Amazon page, so you can read the reviews, view the rankings and then purchase your selections from Amazon.

I'm not against this book, and I think it's pretty good. It's good for your first step of studying the SAT! Also it's good enough to get you a decent score, but if you want to get a high score like 2300+ or 2250, I suggest you read other books also and start studying in your Freshman year instead of Sophmore or Junior year. But scoring 2300 is pretty tough, and by just reading this book is obviously not gonna get you that high. If you're still in Middle School, buy some SAT Vocabulary books and start memorizing. There's lots and lots of words to learn, and you won't get far once you start your High School years because you're going to get a lot more busy!

I was very pleased with this book. It provided very thorough review and gave me a great deal of confidence for a test that was very nerve-racking. I felt more and more confident as I took the practice test and used the worksheets for my problem areas. I was very pleasantly surprised by my SAT score, and I have this book to thank.

Excellent work.

This book is simply the best SAT1 book you can get.
It was recommended to my son by his friend who had 2350 on his first
try of the SAT. The lessons are simply outstanding with good
preparation on essay and math. My son did some lessons in this book and has gotten over 2200 on the SAT in his junior year and is a national merit semi-finalist. You don't need to pay thousands of dollars for SAT prep. Just use this book in conjunction with the collegboard SAT book and you will get the best prepration possible.

I was hesitant about buying this book, but I'm so glad I did. I searched and searched, but this one was the best deal for what you get. I love the study flashcards it comes with. I just stick them in my purse and study them at work or on my free time. The lessons are very detailed and I love the two options for either the crash course or the longer one.
Would recommend this to anyone!