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Rating: 
Summary: Betta Sco Fo Sho
Review: This book is absolutely amazing. I originally bought two other brands, but this has the most complete and specific details and really tells you everything you need to know for the SAT II.
Rating:
Summary: Helped Me Ace the Test!
Review: This book is simply amazing. It really goes into the specifics that are often tested on the SAT II. It has great practice problems at the end of each section, and actual SAT II's from the past with explanations for each of the answers. In addition, the book gives helpful test-taking strategies. After reiterating my previous knowledge of U.S. History with this book, I got a 790 on the SAT II. It helped so much! My only warning is that it is quite long and is not good for last minute review or cramming.
Rating: 
Summary: Wasn't so impressed
Review: This book offers a very comprehensive review to US History, and I do recommend it for anyone who wishes to take the SAT II. However, I have two major issues with it:1) This book, although it contains all of the facts, is poorly written. In addition to the myriad of mispellings (and there were A LOT) and some inaccurate facts, the authors neglect simple writing mechanics that we all learned in 7th grade, such as avoiding repetition and varying sentence structure and word choice. I might seem nitpicky, but you will see what I mean when you read it. The unacceptably low quality of writing of certain chapters provides an exceptionally dull read, a problem when your goal is not to fall asleep but to absorb its contents. It's as if this book was rushed to press without a single decent editing. Yes, it's that bad. 2) The scale provided for the practice tests is misleading. Out of 90 questions on the test, according to the Kaplan's scale, a raw score of 81 is still an 800, and a raw score of 60 is a 710. (Raw score, for standardized test novices, is [# right answers] - [# wrong answers / 4]. Therefore, if you get 64 right, 16 wrong, and skip the rest, your RS is 60.)
The week preceeding the SATII, I took a few practice tests and scored consistantly in the 770-790 range. I felt that I was completely prepared to get a similar score on the actual test. I walked out of the SATII feeling that I did even better than on the practice ones; on a history test problems are either right or wrong (there's no possibility of careless mistakes such as on a math exam), so I had a good feeling of how I did. I was shocked, therefore, to recieve a 710 on the test. I know that I got more than 2/3rds right, and considering that this was the 5th SATII that I have taken, the 80-point discrepancy can not be blamed on poor test-taking skills or nervousness on test-day. The Kaplan's scale is waaaayy off and gives a false sense that you're going to do far better than how you really do. Still, I recommend this book. However, be warned that this book is poorly written and edited and has a scale that is inaccurate and misleading. Good luck on the test!
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