Simon, who is the narrator of this book, lets test-takers know that he's a cool college dude who's ready to help everybody get an incredibly fantastic score when they take the new, revised verbal skills section of the SAT. Simon tells students that college time is party time, but first, kids need to do some serious work. That includes expanding their vocabulary so they'll be able to cope with college-level reading assignments. He tells them, for instance: "Well, it's time for you to get to work. You'd better get this pedestrian stuff out of the way, pronto, so we can get to know each other better. Hey, I know the thing looks a little daunting, but I think the meanings are quite explicit." Certain words in that passage—for instance, pedestrian, daunting, and explicit—are set in boldface type. That is the students' signal to look up the word, understand what it means, and comprehend how it's being used in the sentence. Students who read all of Simon's commentaries and understand all boldface words are guaranteed to excel on the new SAT I Verbal. As Simon helps students expand their word power, he finds something to say about most topics that interest college kids—from girls and parties to coping with term papers and doing library research. A short quiz follows each episode. Here's a unique, refreshing approach to vocabulary building for high school students preparing for the all-important college entrance test.
Philip Geer, Ed.M., has taught English language and literature for more than 30 years, and has also prepared students for various standardized tests of verbal ability. He is the author of "Essential Words for the GRE," "Barron's GRE Verbal Workbook," "Wordfest! Your Vocabulary for Lifelong Learning," and "Picture These SAT Words," all published by Barron's. He is the academic director of Mentaurs, an educational consultancy that prepares students for standardized tests such as the SAT and the GRE. He can be contacted at director@mentaurs.com.
