17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good preparation - by a math teacher, December 16, 2006
This review is from: 11 Practice Tests for the SAT and PSAT, 2007 (College Test Preparation) (Paperback)
This is exactly what it says - 11 tests like the SATs with answers and some explanation for each question but no strategy part, and no instruction in the material. If you need a review book or a strategy book, look elswhere.
(the following is only for the math part of the book)
The SAT math section only requires geometry and intro algebra. They are tricky but primarily in unraveling the convoluted wording.
I got this for my son (a bit late I find - some of his class mates started in 7th grade). He is a good student and I was expecting he would zip through the math parts without a problem and we would focus on the verbal part. He started out doing terribly in math sections. There is no math in these questions he hasn't seen so the problem is understanding what the multi-step questions are really asking. Even I get confused by the wording sometimes - so practice, practice, practice because it doesn't matter how good you are at math if you get stumped by the wording.
If these are close to the actual test questions (and I gather they are) there is a lot of work to do to get used to the style of the questions. The explanations for each answer in the book are mostly adequate for self study but I needed to explain a few of them (maybe 1 in 10) so a few questions need some help from a competent adult.
As a HS math teacher I think the real problem in the math problems he got wrong (almost 1/2 of them) is to decipher the convoluted question involved. (If I gave these questions on a test every student would holler "trick question".) Their idea seems to be that you have to solve the problem through multiple steps each of which requires that you understand all the features of, for example, triangles or circles. So even though it is multiple choice you aren't going to be able to easily eliminate two or three answers and make a good guess. They are good questions but they take some getting used to.
I teach this stuff and am fairly good at it, even compared to other teachers, but I took the maximum time to get through most math sections (I got all of them right but you would expect that).
So - I highly recommend this book. Like playing piano or anything else the more you practice the better you'll get.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A father's opinion, April 24, 2007
This review is from: 11 Practice Tests for the SAT and PSAT, 2007 (College Test Preparation) (Paperback)
I bought this book for my daughter and think it's excellent. There are lots of sample problems ranging from easy to difficult. Answers contain explanations which is what I really find helpful(although explanations are not always easy to understand). I haven't seen other books, but I don't feel like I need to look.
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11 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Real SATs? NOT!, January 14, 2007
This review is from: 11 Practice Tests for the SAT and PSAT, 2007 (College Test Preparation) (Paperback)
The problem here is that these are Princeton Review exams that are similar to the SATs, but not as well-written (nor as hard) as those prepared by the pros at ETS. Plus, the explanations for the verbal answers are not terribly edifying (the math answers are OK.) Princeton's own Cracking the SATs is a better book because its practice drills and tips are brilliant (Joe Blog, etc), even though its tests have the same problem. (Note, however, they are far superior to those of Kaplan and Barrons, which isn't saying much.) Recommendation: buy Princeton Review's Cracking the New SAT 2007, and get a free copy of a genuine SAT when you register for the SAT.
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