Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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121 of 122 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent resource, July 1, 2004
By A Customer
I am a high school English teacher from Portland, Oregon who is putting together a program for my school on the new SAT I. I have looked carefully through all of the books on the new SAT I (REA's, Kaplan's New PSAT, the Fiske Guide) as the well as the old "standards" (Princeton Review, Kaplan, Up Your Score, Barron's). I have also talked to many of my best students and my colleagues with high-school age children, and the consensus is pretty much unanimous: McGraw-Hill's SAT I is the only one that seems to provide just about everything students really need to prepare seriously for the new test. The biggest problem, I've found, with books like Princeton Review, Up Your Score, and REA, is that they repeat the same test-taking "tricks" that have been around for decades, and really don't help most students all that much. (Sure, it's kind of nice to have a simple rule for when to guess on a multiple choice question, but isn't it better to be able actually to solve the problems?) Princeton, Up Your Score and REA just seem to be battling each other to be cute and clever with their delivery, but that's not what kids need. What students need is lots of practice coupled with smart feedback that recognizes their common mistakes. The flashcards-although there aren't enough of them-are very cool in pointing out the common errors that students make on SAT I math problems. (I made a bunch of them myself, sad to say.) The McGraw-Hill guide uses a method that really focuses on the reasoning skills that are the basis of the SAT I, AND ACTUALLY TEACHES YOU THOSE SKILLS!! Unless you have looked at all of these books as I have, you don't know how refeshing that is! The "College Hill Lesson" format is incredibly clear and easy to follow, and helps students to actually become better readers, writers and problems solvers. The vocabulary lessons are ingenious: not real cutesy, like in Up Your Score, or just a dictionary, like in Barron's and Gruber's-just read it and you'll see what I mean. The practice tests are great too-a little bit harder than the real thing, as the description says, but I much prefer that to the alternative. Also, the tests "feel" much more like real test than any tests except for those in "Real SATs." For the first time in ten years, I'm excited to have a text that will actually work for my kids!!
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39 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Book, WONDERFUL organization, helpful tips, June 17, 2005
While it seems at the start of the book that it is very anti-Princeton Review/Kaplan, it has good reason. Throughout the early chapters, the book constantly emphasizes the "cracking" the SAT I is not the way to do well on the test. It uses the analogy (an analogy that I thought was pretty good) that just like in baseball, a baseball player would not memorize every single scenario in which he/she could experience in a game. Instead, they would memorize the fundamental skills and practice the more challenging skills in the game. Additionally, the book uses the analogy of running a marathon to taking/studying for the test and gives good insight in how to prepare for the test.
The book is very organized. For people (like me), who aren't very good partitioning work over a given time span and like to do things the night before, this book is wonderful in that it charts out exactly what you need to do over a 10 week period and basically gives assignments throughout those 10 weeks. If you don't have that kind of time, it also has a 2 week "crash course" that will get you through the minimum of which you need to know.
The verbal section is very helpful in that it gives a person groups of 10-15 words with similar parts (for example a group of words with the syllable -con-) and gives the person helpful tips in how to make flashcards to effectively glue the words to the person's brain. This seems to me much easier than memorizing a 400-800 word list placed in alphabetical order.
This book boasts a large number of practice tests which is infintely helpful. Finally, the essay section gives much good insight.
Overall:
Like most high school-ers, I have studied for numerous standardized tests (mostly SAT IIs) and used Princeton Review, and Kaplan methods. While it is important to buy one Princeton Review/Kaplan (Barron's usually has too much information, and is very time consuming, if you have that kind of time, they work well) in order to see their view of how to "crack" these tests, it seems as though they simply copied the sections of how to crack the tests from one book to another as the books covering different tests offer almost no explicitly new information that one didn't pick up from a book covering a separate test. Because of this, it is important to stay away from these books for the SAT I if you have already used them for a different test. If you haven't used them already, it is probably a good idea to try one of them (Princeton Review is more entertaining to read if that matters, Kaplan usually has more pertinent info), and pick this book up as well. As mentioned above, this book will help you to learn the actual knowledge, while the other books will give you important tips on how to 'crack' the test (while one shouldn't rely on their tips to take the test, they are actually helpful). This is the best SAT I prep book I have found.
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35 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing Results, December 13, 2005
The bottom line with a book is the kind of results it gets. I used the Gruber book, the RocketReview book, the Princeton Review book, and the McGraw-Hill book to prepare for the SAT in November. Without any question, the McGraw-Hill book is what made all the difference for me. It's hard to point out all of the ways that this book is superior to the others. The lessons are so unbelievably clear, and well organized, and they are always are followed up with lots of practice so you know you get the concepts. It also covers EVERYTHING, and not just a bunch of test-taking tricks like the Princeton Review and RocketReview books do (don't be fooled by the slick bells and whistles! :) )The Gruber and Barron's books are very comprehensive also, but they are much less clear, and a lot of the review isn't really relevant to the SAT, so that part is kind of a waste of time. I just got my scores back--after dedicating myself to using the "College Hill Method" (which I can't really explain but it works) my scores went up 70 points on reading, 130 points on math (!!) and 150 points on writing!!! THANKS!!
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