Customer Reviews
The absolute best preparation guide for the serious student 
2008-07-15
The big name test prep companies such as Kaplan, Princeton Review, and Sparknotes, to name a few, tend to focus on "tricks" to try to beat the test. What these tricks really are, unfortunately, is just a collection of common sense strategies such as Princeton Review's vaunted "Joe Bloggs" stragegy which is just "cross off answers that the average student will pick." They do give a review of the material -- and don't get me wrong, these books are good -- but they're not aimed toward someone who wants to master the material. They simply aim to allow you to maximize your score as painlessly as possible. Okay, there is a valid reason to publish books with that aim -- most students don't want more than that.
Barron's How to Prepare for the SAT, on the other hand, is the complete antithesis of the standard preparation book. Written in true textbook style, it's the ultimate guide to the SAT. It's all here and if you're really, really dedicated to that high score to get into that shiny, prestigious university, then Barron's is just what you need.
The first section, strategies, just goes over a bunch of test taking strategies -- much like the ones found in the aforementioned books. Then, the subject matter begins.
Critical reading, widely considered the hardest section to study for, is given just the right treatment here. First, the book gives a myriad of general reading strategies (luckily, the book advocates reading the passages unlike, *ahem*, other companies). Then, as any good book on how to read would do, it gives the reader a multitude of practice passages that are much harder than the real thing (excerpts from great literary works, such as Dickens' "Great Expectations", are present) with many SAT-like questions. Don't be discouraged if you find the passages and questions difficult and you get some wrong -- answers and explanations give you a good understanding of each question and you'll find yourself applying what you learned from your mistakes to other SAT practice tests (Barron's or otherwise). After working diligently through the exercises, your skill in SAT reading should go up considerably (but you must do the practice tests as well to get the full benefit).
The sentence completion section is also well done. There's not much you can teach about sentence completions other than the usual strategies that are in every book. What Barron's does do, however, is give you two sets of 50 questions each to work on, so that you become extremely comfortable with the format of the questions and how questions may be worded.
On the topic of critical reading, Barron's includes a list of 3500 words. Yes, that's three thousand five hundred words. According to the book, it's an eclectic bunch drawn from a vast multitude of sources -- past SATs, great literary works, essays, etc.
Clearly, most people have neither the time nor the inclination to go through every one of the 3500 words (and, quite frankly, it's unnecessary). So, what this book does is give you a list of "High Frequency" words (words that have appeared on several SATs) and a list of "Hot Prospects" which are words that Barron's feels are likely to appear soon. These much shorter lists are worth memorizing and have proven extremely helpful to me and others who have taken the SAT. But if you're ambitious (or your vocabulary is severely lacking), then going through the 3500 word list WILL remedy any vocabulary weakness on your part. I find that going through the list not only helps my performance on practice tests, but it makes me seem much more eloquent in every day life and in my writing. Who can go wrong here?
Anyway, the next section is the writing/grammar section. As a student, I've never really been exposed to grammar taught formally. Before I'd taken the SAT (and before I'd read this book), I picked up enough grammar to be able to identify errors well (I scored an 800 on the writing portion in December), but I still didn't know proper terminology and couldn't guarantee that I'd get an 800 again, so I've found that going through the writing section, although it's a bit dense, to have significantly increased my grammatical erudition and I am confident that I'll get an 800 again.
Finally, the math section is a great refresher of the basics. In fact, it's much better than all of the other "refreshers" in other books to the point that it'd pass as a decent elementary mathematical textbook. It covers the entire gamut of mathematics, from the essential, but oft forgotten, arithmetic to the (relatively) advanced algebra 2 and geometry concepts. The nice thing, though, is that at the end of every review section, there's a whole slew of extremely well designed practice questions that require no more than elementary skills, but force the reader to truly think and apply what he or she has learned. While the questions are MUCH harder than the SAT, the questions are great for building mental tenacity and will make you think the real test is a "breeze".
The practice tests -- 7 in all, including the diagnostic -- are really, really difficult. The reading passages are denser than those on the SAT and the mathematics questions require a fair bit more insight and ingenuity than those found on the SAT. However, don't be discouraged when your scores aren't stratospheric if you're aiming for such a score on the real thing -- just try to build your skills so you can solve the Barron's problems then you'll have no difficulty on the real thing. As a wise man once said, "You cannot see heaven unless you've gone through hell" (paraphrasing, of course).
In short, this large, but inexpensive book is really all you need for the SAT (the Blue Book, of course, for real tests is highly useful, too). If you diligently work through this book, learn a bunch of new words, practice your reading skill on the passages, work through the writing and math questions, and truly extract every last bit that this book has to offer, you will do your ultimate personal best. Which, as you may find, is almost boundless.
premier SAT study guide 2007-06-19
What is there to say? Barron's provides simply the best preparation manual for the SAT. It not only familiarizes one with the test, but it is also packed with tips on how to get through some questions faster and how to "beat" some tricky questions.
The CD-ROM, which replicates taking the test online, is a godsend. However, save taking the CD-ROM tests until after you've read through the book in order to give yourself a more accurate idea of how you'll do on the test and where you have to really concentrate your efforts.
It's Good Stuff 2006-11-02
In my personal opinion, I thought this book was great! It provides various tips on ways to improve your scores, along with practice exercises for each section. All Mathematics and English concpets are thoroughly visited with both review and practice. Even with the new Writing section, there are tips on writing the essay along with sample essays and practice topics. The best part? If you don't feel comfortable doing it on paper, you can simply do it on the computer! The Cd-ROM includes all the excersizes and tips. It's a great way to practice and improve your scores!
Ok book, but better books are readily available 
2006-07-16
The following is an abridged review of one found on CEEAE dot org:
Although most of the glaring errors found in the previous edition (Barron's How to Prepare for the New SAT) have been rectified, this book is only marginally recommendable.
Anyone well versed in SAT preparation will first note that practice tests in this book are not very SAT-like. The SAT features some very convoluted questions. While the material tested on the SAT is not that difficult, the questions are difficult due to their convoluted phrasing. Hence, to provide accurate test questions, the practice tests must feature questions that are similarly convoluted. Barron's book, however, features questions that test the same material as the SAT, but the questions themselves are not very SAT-like.
The other major point is that this book is written like in a textbook or reference book. Some may prefer this presentation, but most students will prefer the more approachable format found in Princeton Review, Kaplan, or Up Your Score (there are others but we decided to only name a few). The books mentioned in the previous sentence are formatted like a conversation between student and tutor, rather than blocks of text-based material. If you prefer the textbook-like presentation of material, we recommend McGraw-Hill's SAT I over Barron's.
On the positive side, Barron's book has an excellent and comprehensive review of all relevant material for the SAT, and a plethora of reinforcement problems. Also, this book comes with detachable vocabulary flashcards at the end of the book.
Note: This book as well as more than 20 other SAT prep books are reviewed and ranked on CEEAE dot org Every book review has a direct link to its page on Amazon, so you can read the reviews, view the rankings and then return to Amazon to purchase your selections.
