Rating: 
Summary: A Refreshing Gift
Review: A refreshing approach to what is often a dry subject. This is so much more than a test preparation book, this is a book about life and creativity and values and how important those things are in becoming a happy, fulfilled person. Every parent should read this book -- and every student as well. It's about balance and focus and big picture goals. As it happens, practicing the seven simple principals will likely bring you close or closer to a perfect score. The beauty is that the score is not an end in itself, but a means to more opportunities for a rich and satisfying life.The author stresses that self-motivation, creativity and curiosity are critical -- all things that can and should be encouraged from very early ages. This far-reaching study truly confirms what many of us would like to think. Using the characteristics of the perfect score students, Fischgrund illustrates that success is not driven by money or privilege but by developing passions and focusing on the big picture. This is a book I will recommend to all. What a gift.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting but not helpful
Review: As a student who scored a 1600 on my first try, I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, I commend Fischgrund for sending a desperately overdue message to parents: TAKE IT EASY ON YOUR KIDS! Micromanaging your kids' lives will not make them get a perfect score. There is no need to send your kids off to private schools, test prep centers, and private tutors. (I went to a public school and took one practice test two nights before the exam. I attribute the results more to luck than anything else...luck and that enormous painting of John Lennon right in front of my seat at the test center.) And while you're at it, don't read books like this looking for some secret formula; read it because the topic interests you. High school students are already so sleep-deprived and stressed out; it's better to let them spend Saturday morning sleeping in than at Kaplan. The SAT is not a be-all and end-all. An extra 10 points is not worth the burnout. On the other hand, I feel Fischgrund makes some grave mistakes by inferring causation from correlation. For instance, perfect score students are more passionate about learning, a theme he repeats several times using slightly different phrases. Well duh! It's easy to be passionate about learning if, from a young age, the teacher has always rewarded you with good grades, and concepts have come easily to you. The SAT does tap into a certain type of ability that some people have more than others. I am NOT talking about intelligence--I don't feel that intelligence is a singular word; everyone has strengths and weaknesses. I'm simply saying that, for the narrow fields the SAT tests, there are individual differences that are either present at birth or created by the end of elementary school. When a young child excels in academics--possibly from factors as random as a teacher's style or personal biases--there is a greater chance that he or she will become intellectually curious and passionate. If, instead, the child becomes cynical about school--often for totally understandable reasons--that attitude is extremely difficult to reverse later on because it self-perpetuates. So yes, it's true that perfect score students are intellectually curious and passionate. But can that really qualify as a "secret of acing the SAT?" If so, you could write another book: "The 7 Secrets of Becoming the World's Greatest Violinist." Secret One: Love to play the violin. If you interviewed the world's greatest violinists, I'm sure they'll all say they love to play the violin. But as someone who could never play in tune, I can assure you that nothing could have made me love the violin. I was bad at it; the teachers told me, and the judges told me even more. Another factor Fischgrund mentions is the prevelance of two-parent households among perfect score students. Again, correlation does not equal causation. There could be a third factor involved, such as the absence of major family crises (e.g., death or major illness in the family) that reduces the divorce rate and also gives the student more mental capacity to focus on academics. In addition, having two parents around does NOT necessarily mean a supportive family network. More than one perfect score child I know has parents who are still married just for the sake of saving face to other members of their religion or culture. But the one "secret" I have the most problems with is the first one: Perfect score students are self-confident. Keep in mind that these students were interviewed AFTER they found out their scores. If you had scored a 1600 and were just reminded about it by the interviewer, wouldn't you be self-confident too? In fact, a lot more self-confident than you probably would be a few years down the road when no one cares about your SAT scores, and certainly a lot more self-confident than you were the morning of the test. Finally, I take major issue with the irony of this book. Here is a book telling you that perfect score students don't place that much emphasis on the SAT and are instead interested in learning not for a test but for wisdom. But at the same time, the book is marketed as a book of "secrets" filled with directives for parents to follow so that their kids can achieve that elusive score. Hypocrisy, anyone? (or maybe just a clash between idealism and capitalism...) Conclusion: Love your kids and give them positive feedback when you see improvements. But don't do it for the SAT; don't do *anything* for the SAT. Contrary to what this book may imply, parents can do way more to make their children kind, compassionate, and responsible than they can to make their children score higher on the SAT. Trust me--a perfect score is not All That.
Rating:
Summary: A Simple Roadmap to Follow to prepare and succeed
Review: As I was reading this book with 1 student in college and 2 teenagers at home, I found many answers to questions that I have had about preparing my kids and helping them to improve their scores. At our house the SAT becomes a huge focus for at least 2 months before the test. Tutors are hired, computer programs are installed, Mom and Dad are screaming to study more and get off the phone.
However we realize that by 12th grade we can not really help them very much. If we have done our jobs as parents correctly then they should be "ready" based on accumulated knowledge and life experiences.
This book made me feel better about the support and resources that I have provided as a parent such as the impact of a nuturing home environment. It reinforced some things that I knew already(importance of reading and intellectual curiousity)but it also gave me a greater appreciation of the role of peers, friends, and schools on my kid's development and interests.
I also realized just how "normal" most of these high performers really are. This book has many interesting profiles that really give you a sense of what drives these kids to succeed. These kids are not all nerds or naturally gifted...they are many times "all-arounds" who excel at many things and do not just have their head in a book. These are the type of people, the role mdels, that I want my kids to see and read about.
So read this book for you...to better understand what the priorities should be in your home with your kids, and ask your kids to read the book so they can better understand what is really important in life ( beyond good grades and just scoring 1600).
Rating:
Summary: A very helpful Book
Review: As the parent of two teenage children I am always looking for ways to encourage my children to do the best they can in school. I have just finished a new book, 1600 PERFECT SCORE, The 7 Secrets of Acing the SATs, which I strongly recommend as a new insight to achieve this goal. I like the fact that Dr. Fischgrund did not speak in generalities. Rather, he gave specific advice to parents and kids on how to achieve better SAT scores and grades. His interviews with these high achievers gave me a new perspective on kids who get a perfect score on the SAT. The stereotype of the "academic nerd" is just that, a stereotype. These high achievers are dynamic and well-rounded. There is no one "type". Read the interviews and see how they view themselves. I now realize that they could be any one of my children's friends. I think we parents and our teenage children need to have evidence against the argument that kids who do well in school will be social outcasts and will be doomed to spending their lives in labs. This book gives us proof that success is attainable and comes in many forms and these kids are demonstrating only one of theirs by acing the SAT. Bernard Mlaver, M.D.
Rating:
Summary: A very helpful Book
Review: As the parent of two teenage children I am always looking for ways to encourage my children to do the best they can in school. I have just finished a new book, 1600 PERFECT SCORE, The 7 Secrets of Acing the SATs, which I strongly recommend as a new insight to achieve this goal. I like the fact that Dr. Fischgrund did not speak in generalities. Rather, he gave specific advice to parents and kids on how to achieve better SAT scores and grades. His interviews with these high achievers gave me a new perspective on kids who get a perfect score on the SAT. The stereotype of the "academic nerd" is just that, a stereotype. These high achievers are dynamic and well-rounded. There is no one "type". Read the interviews and see how they view themselves. I now realize that they could be any one of my children's friends. I think we parents and our teenage children need to have evidence against the argument that kids who do well in school will be social outcasts and will be doomed to spending their lives in labs. This book gives us proof that success is attainable and comes in many forms and these kids are demonstrating only one of theirs by acing the SAT. Bernard Mlaver, M.D.
Rating:
Summary: One path to the 1600
Review: Fischgrund's book is interesting. And it's a nice change from books that give the same long list of "take practice tests. Here's the vocabulary that's likely to show up. Here are the sort of math problems that they give. Here, time yourself and do this. Now do this. Now do it again. Now let's talk about the perils of blind guessing. Have a good night's sleep and a healthy breakfast!" And, perhaps naturally, I'm interested in the idea of what makes up a perfect SAT scorer.
I got a 1600 SAT, first try, in 1997. (Technically, second try, since I'd taken it five years before.) There were some things I had in common with Fischgrund's subjects -- I had a supportive, two-parent household, I'd been an insatiable reader since before kindergarten, I was given the freedom at my public school to independently study what I felt like studying, and I took advantage of it.
I also had a well-developed sense of self-loathing, far from "confidence", and, had I been born five years later, probably would have been on Prozac or one of its cousins all through high school. My social circle largely evaporated outside of school and scheduled activities -- I didn't have a supportive clique or friends as such. I was acquainted with failing to excel: my math teacher that winter tried to get me to drop her class for something easier, and plenty of things I put my hands to fell apart. I didn't much believe in luck, either creating my own or letting it come to me. I never took a practice test or opened a test prep book.
And furthermore, when I went into the testing room in spring of my Junior year, I'd had a pretty severe case of mononucleosis for over six weeks. I still felt awful and couldn't make it through a full school day without going to the nurse's office to sleep for an hour. I had no hopes for my score. In fact, I fell asleep at several times during the test.
And you know what? That probably contributed to my doing as well as I did. I walked into the test room with the attitude of "Whatever. This doesn't matter much. I can always retake it."
If you're reading this, you might be a teenager -- but you're more likely to be a parent. So I just want to tell you -- be realistic. Think about your kid. Fischgrund touches on this, but it gets subsumed by the way that the book is geared toward Getting The Best Test Score Possible, and it needs to be restated strongly and often. If your kid is prone to test anxiety, you'll know it by the time she/he is in high school. Don't go nuts about how important this test is and how it'll determine the rest of your teenager's life -- schedule it for junior fall rather than spring, and then let your kid go into it without pressure from you. If your son or daughter doesn't fit the characteristics outlined in this book, don't try to force them -- and don't fall into the trap of thinking that these "secrets" are either necessary or sufficient.
There are tons of ways to knock the socks off of an admissions committee. SAT scores are only one piece of it. And going to an elite college is no guarantee that you will be happy, or even employed. There is NO one true way to success -- don't be persuaded otherwise.
Rating: 
Summary: Worthless Advice
Review: If your student can use this advice, more power to him/her. _Very_ few people will find it worthwhile. For example, one piece of advice is to have an insatiable intellectual curiousity. Hey, that's good advice . . . for someone who already has it. How exactly do you go about instilling such an attitude in a teenager who is not naturally/already that way? It is obviously possible to _raise_ a child in that sort of environment, from a very early age, but how do you change their approach to learning midstream? More advice from the book: have a strong sense of self-worth and derive your motivation from within. See my comments above for what I think about this bit. It's a bit like telling a 98 lbs. kid to simply "be bigger" in order to do well in sports. Yes, it _is_ possible to work out and get bigger and put on mass or wait to grow larger . . . but that does not help the kid much right now when he or she has to play the game in just a couple of months (or less). Some things in the book, like an appeal for students to read voraciously, are good advice. But it's a bit hard to work your freshman into a frenzy of self-directed learning-for-the-joy-of-it if they have not been raised that way. The book does a wonderful job of telling what you would look for if you wanted to _predict_ which students would do well on the SAT. As for nuts and bolts how to actually achieve a higher score, this book is practically worthless. Go to a bookstore and check it out before buying. If you still want it, come back here and go to town. I think you'll find out that there are other resources out there that will provide more immediate advice. ------------------------- One last note: the questions on the back cover are great examples of how to misuse statistics. For example, one question asks "What percentage of 1600 scorers went to public school?" The answer is (if I remember correctly) about 80%. Impressive, right? Not when you realize that, in 2000, 95% of all high school students attended public schools .... This actually indicates that private schools are outperforming their expected numbers. Other questionable statistics abound in the questions. While you're at it, pick up a copy of "Damned Lies and Statistics: Untangling Numbers from the Media, Politicians, and Activists" by Joel Best to help you spot these numbers abuses.
Rating:
Summary: Worthless Advice
Review: If your student can use this advice, more power to him/her. _Very_ few people will find it worthwhile. For example, one piece of advice is to have an insatiable intellectual curiousity. Hey, that's good advice . . . for someone who already has it. How exactly do you go about instilling such an attitude in a teenager who is not naturally/already that way? It is obviously possible to _raise_ a child in that sort of environment, from a very early age, but how do you change their approach to learning midstream? More advice from the book: have a strong sense of self-worth and derive your motivation from within. See my comments above for what I think about this bit. It's a bit like telling a 98 lbs. kid to simply "be bigger" in order to do well in sports. Yes, it _is_ possible to work out and get bigger and put on mass or wait to grow larger . . . but that does not help the kid much right now when he or she has to play the game in just a couple of months (or less). Some things in the book, like an appeal for students to read voraciously, are good advice. But it's a bit hard to work your freshman into a frenzy of self-directed learning-for-the-joy-of-it if they have not been raised that way. The book does a wonderful job of telling what you would look for if you wanted to _predict_ which students would do well on the SAT. As for nuts and bolts how to actually achieve a higher score, this book is practically worthless. Go to a bookstore and check it out before buying. If you still want it, come back here and go to town. I think you'll find out that there are other resources out there that will provide more immediate advice. ------------------------- One last note: the questions on the back cover are great examples of how to misuse statistics. For example, one question asks "What percentage of 1600 scorers went to public school?" The answer is (if I remember correctly) about 80%. Impressive, right? Not when you realize that, in 2000, 95% of all high school students attended public schools .... This actually indicates that private schools are outperforming their expected numbers. Other questionable statistics abound in the questions. While you're at it, pick up a copy of "Damned Lies and Statistics: Untangling Numbers from the Media, Politicians, and Activists" by Joel Best to help you spot these numbers abuses.
Rating: 
Summary: Helpful and Informative
Review: My twins will be taking the SAT next year and I found this book very insightful, with ideas that I am starting to utilize with my children. This has helped me understand how to help my children perform better on the SAT. A lot of books conatin tests and questions, but this book has given me a different perspective. Well worth the investment.
Rating:
Summary: Helpful and Informative
Review: My twins will be taking the SAT next year and I found this book very insightful, with ideas that I am starting to utilize with my children. This has helped me understand how to help my children perform better on the SAT. A lot of books conatin tests and questions, but this book has given me a different perspective. Well worth the investment.
| 
