Customer Reviews

McGraw-Hill's SSAT/ISEE, Secondary School Admission Test / Independent School Entrance Exam

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It is NOT the most comprehensive book on SSAT.
Only thing that stands out from other ssat books is
that this one is made with white paper instead of recycled paper.

PRO:
-Paper Quality of the book

CON:
-They dont have adequate reading comp questions.
-Dont have a vocab list.
-You can't tear off the answers because answers are attached to the problems.
-Their ssat and isse questions are same that my kids cant take both practice tests for practice
(which is doable in other ssat prep books)
-Not enough Math Word problems to solve.
-Math SSAT TEST SECTION is too easy.
My sixth graders are getting 100% on Upper Level SSAT section!
-Weak essay section.

For self study, Princeton is excellent one to begin with.
I would definitely suggest to go through the entire Petersons SSAT book afterwards.
Take practice tests on other SSAT prep books as well (kaplan, SSAT test makers prep booklet)
Make sure you are timing yourself when you are taking your diagnostic test.
You should also go through vocab workshop A~H,
you will be thankful since you will know ALL the words on the exam.
Not only that, intentionally use those vocab words on your
essay.

I bought the Kindle version of the book, hoping to get another practice test for the ISEE, since these are really hard to come by. Unfortunately, the lower level ISEE test in this book has several flaws that make it not truly reflective of the student's abilities. First, the words in the verbal section are WAY to advanced--you can tell that they just took words from their upper level/SAT word bank and slapped them in (I also tutor ACT and SAT for high school so I recognize the "typical SAT" vocab words). Then, the 2 math sections are supposed to be organized into quantitative reasoning, to test students' abilities to decipher word problems along with their math reasoning skills (hence the name, duh) and basic math abilities. In this book the 2 question types are interspersed into both sections, rather than divvied the way they would be in the actual test. We didn't even bother with the reading comp because after the 1st 2 sections (vocab and math reasoning), it was obvious that the test wouldn't be much use to the 5th graders I was working with. Sure, I would prefer a practice test to be a bit harder than easier, but when the level is well beyond realistic, then it's not helpful at all.

It is a comprehensive review to prepare kids in all levels. my kids loved it and will recommend to any tests.