Customer Reviews

Sat 1600

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I am Italian and English is not my first language. However I have to take the SAT to get into college.
At first I was really scared, especially for the verbal part of the SAT.
I rushed into buying all the test prep material that I found, namely Kaplan's Higher score on the SAT, and the Princeton Review's Inside the SAT and ACT Deluxe. They are both softwares.
Additionally I bought 10 Real SATs, the official prep from the Collegeboard.

I learned all the strategies on the CDs, and tried some test from 10 Real SATs. I began with a 1,180, then I got a 1,260, then a 1,480. This was merit of the CDs, of getting more confident, of the strategies, and of practicing on the real tests of 10 Real SATs.

At this point, after you know how you'd score without techniques, how you are going to score with the techniques, it's time to get some extra prep.

I think that in two weeks one can master all the stuff on all the common test prep material. After this you understand that this books or CDs are prapared to get you confident about your potentialities, and teach you some basic and obvious techniques.

At this point I think that SAT 1600 is the ideal book to continue you preparation. It's imporant because it takes the techniques you already leart to the next step. In all the normal test prep materials, techniques seems prepared for the average test takers, and sometimes are not fully explained because the writers fears that the reader cannot understand the technique. This is a big downside to it because learning a technique by heart ubstead that understanding it can lead to costly mistaked during the test.

On the other hand SAT 1600 is a great book because it explains all the techniques you already know a step further. I particularly apreciated that each question is really explained step by step, and the logic behind works, they don't just tell you "because it cannot be anyway else", and you don't understand how to improve yourself. They also tell you what you should think "In your brain". This approach is essential to develop yourself and be able to tackle any question with confidence.

I suggest this book not only to advanced test takers, but to everybody. It's a review of all the techniques you already learnt, plus if you can understand difficult questions, magically you will find that easy ones are a piece of cake. One big problem on 10 Real SATs is that the answers of the 10 tests are not explained. This means that while there is no better source that real test, you need to have some questions explained, and in SAT 1600 I found the best explanations of question. They tell you "Why is this question hard?" and which is the strategy to a question like that.

In the meantime practice with 10 Real SATs. First take 1 test without time restrictions, and see how you do. This is you mental potential if there were no time constraints. After try to take two or three test in timed conditions, but first take all the Verbal sections, and then the Math ones, or viceversa. In this way you focus on one aspect of the test. At this point you will have taken fours full lenght tests, so try to do all the remaining in timed condition and doing the math and verbal sections in the order they come. Learn some vocabulary, also online there are good resources, and the SAT will be an happier place for you.

This book was great. Basicly, there is a profusion of SAT prep boks out there - Barron's, Kaplan,Princeton Review,etc....this book is the perfect amalgam of the important concepts. It says that it has the harder questions, and by comparison, it truly does. Along with 10 real SATs, this book will give you more practice and great shortcuts in order for you to improve your score. There are so many prep books out there, but this one stands out. Great book with the original, amazing Kaplan approach.

This book was very good I read through it the day before the sat's and I got a 1430. However this book should not be used alone. It is best to supplement it with 10 real sat's. Go through a few tests and read this book. This book was extremely helpfull with analogies and critical reading. It helps you see the tricks that are in the sat's. Even if you dont know words, this book will help you easily and corectly recognize speciously correct answers as wrong

This book is meant for the high-scorers. The Math section (Problem Solving, Quantitative Comparison, and Grid-in) is very useful. The same cannot be said for the Verbal section however.

I took a Kaplan course which did not help me a huge amount and I was just bridging 1400 (my goal) because I was getting 1370-1390 on the practice tests. While I wouldn't advocate the strategies listed here, they're worth reading for alternative approaches. The much more challenging problems (compared to standard prep books) were very helpful though. According to the 10 Real SATs practice book my scores raised an average of about 40 points a test which was completely worth the price to me. Just my $0.02.

I'd recommend it for those who have already done other forms of preparation and who are already getting 1250's or above on practice tests.

This book only focuses on the worst of the worst, meaning that no time is spent reviewing elementary algebra or ...guessing strategies like in other books. I found it extremely helpful, as it reviewed most of the common slipfalls for high test-takers and strategies for avoiding them, and also contained a slew of pratice questions at the end of each chapter. Definitely not for the faint of heart, but if you can ace this stuff, you'll be pleasantly surprised on test day. Works best with 10 Real SATs.

Addition: I just got back my June, 2003 SAT score. It increased 90 points from 1510 to 1600.

I really was an all right sat taker. I am primarily a math person, and this book was able to show me areas that i could always improve on. It was great to read through right before the test or stdy for long periods of times. It did not have a high vocabulary list like most books do, but it did have the reading section, and the most help that for once was able to make me excel in the area. i found it to be the best book that i have found for the sat for those who are tired of just reading the same basic strategies over and over again.

I had used this book in the hope of raising my SAT score, but I found the methods and strategies in this book were so convoluted. Other books had much easier ways and much better methods to solve SAT problems. This is a very difficult book to follow and the material just isn't useful. Where a problem or question can be answered in a much simpler way, Kaplan makes it more difficult and sometimes almost impossible to understand or learn. This book is a real waste of time and money! By the way, I also let my math teacher and English teacher see this book and they agreed with me about what I felt about this book. I guess Kaplan's hype and not quality is what sells his books!

This book is really well organized. The first half is English divided into Chapters like the actual SAT is divided. The second half is Math and has a chapter on Arithmetic and Algebra, Geometry, then Tough Word Questions. The section on Analogies had great strategies, especially for those who struggle (like me). The highlighted strategies are useless (Things like "A 1600 Test-taker answers all of the questions"-duh), but the actual content is great. Chapter has a reveiw of that part of the SAT.

If you buy this book, make sure you have a couple weeks to read the book and do the excercises (each takes 10-20 minutes). Use this to improve your score from a previous test or first buy "10 Real SATs" and take one of those tests (in fact buy that anyway-it is the SAT BIBLE). I also recommend a set of SAT vocab cards.

SAT 1600 is excellent for those who already know the strategies and already have a very high score for the SAT* but want to push it up even more. They give you all the more advanced methods and all the hardest questions which aren't mentioned in other kaplan books. This then can tell you your main weakness to why you can't score the score that you want (1400... what happened to the last 200?). It clearly explains why the answer is what it is and gives you reasons (SOMETIMES) to why your answer may not be correct. The book doesn't have a lot of questions for you though unlike other prep books but its great for those who want additional practice.
I would recommend those who want a higher score (and already have one) to use this book as you need to know all the basic strategies to be able to use it.