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Rating: 
Summary: A Major Disappointment
Review: As a high school Latin teacher, I was delighted to see this book the other day on a colleague's desk. There are many SAT II prep guides which are widely available for other subjects, but I was unaware that any existed for Latin. Naturally, I was pleased to see something purporting to fill a very serious need. However, after I scrutinized its contents, I was disappointed to see that the book was, as other reviewers have noted, packed with errors. It is a sloppy work, hastily prepared, and of dubious value for any serious Latin student. The authors either don't know Latin or didn't bother to vet their own work product. Many of the questions either fail completely to set forth a correct answer or feature an answer that is grossly inaccurate. Who needs a prep book that is filled with these sorts of errors? Preparing students for the SAT II in Latin should not be an exercise in explaining to them why, for a given question in their workbook, none of the answers is correct. I would urge the authors to try again: eliminate the blatant inaccuracies, then publish an edition that has some usefulness for the students who need it.
Rating:
Summary: Unconscionably Bad--A Real Disgrace
Review: I am a graduate student in Classics and am currently helping a student from the local high school prepare for the SAT II Latin exam. No need to summarize at length the defects in this book because they have been detailed in the other negative reviews; my review is meant only to advise the potential buyer that the negative reviews for this book are, if anything, too kind, so egregious are the errors in both the questions and answer keys of this book. The positive/lukewarm reviews should be ignored--even though there is currently no alternative guide for the SAT II this book should not be used under any circumstances. Any student competent enough to recognize the errors in this book does not need to prepare further for the exam; other students will only be badly misled, their knowledge of Latin tainted by non-existent verb and adjective forms, questions for which there is no correct choice among the given answers, questions for which several of the given answers are correct, and translations which indicate only the most rudimentary knowledge of Latin on the part of the compilers. I have contacted the publisher and demanded a revision.
Rating: 
Summary: Good for final preparation
Review: The book has neither a grammar guide nor a comprehensive vocabulary section. However, it is filled to the brim with test questions which will prove very helpful to well-prepared students. But since study guides for SAT II Latin are very hard to come by this book is a must.
Rating:
Summary: Let's Admit it... Latin is Difficult
Review: The SAT IIs in Latin are hard... anyone who has taken them knows that... anyone who will take them will realize this... Although they were more difficult in the past - this book gives an accurate depiction of what to expect. I would suggest going over your answers in this book with a Latin grammar book to help you learn from your mistakes.
Rating: 
Summary: I Wish There Were Something Better
Review: This book is the only game in town for Latin SAT II Prep, and as such, it is serviceable. You should know, however, that it will not help you figure out why your answers were incorrect, nor how to improve your scores except by trial and error. Although the book contains many mock tests, most of them are so old that they don't match the material currently tested. Finally, my class and I found a few errors in the questions. So caveat emptor!
Rating:
Summary: I Wish There Were Something Better
Review: This book is the only game in town for Latin SAT II Prep, and as such, it is serviceable. You should know, however, that it will not help you figure out why your answers were incorrect, nor how to improve your scores except by trial and error. Although the book contains many mock tests, most of them are so old that they don't match the material currently tested. Finally, my class and I found a few errors in the questions. So caveat emptor!
Rating:
Summary: This is a good tool for reviewing for your SAT II Latin test
Review: This is a concise and complete review guide that i would suggest for anyone planning to take the SAT II: Latin. It will help you master anything you never understood, and it will help you touch up your rougher areas with its Q and A!
Rating:
Summary: Unconscionably Bad--A Real Disgrace
Review: This volume is one of the only tools available to prepare for the Latin SAT-II. I recently purchased it to consider ordering it for my Latin III class, many of whom take the test. The book was a serious disappointment. It's one virtue is the number of practice questions it offers; though some of them are from such old tests that they don't provide much benefit for today's test takers. Unfortunately, however, the book is riddled with serious errors that will confuse students. On a single page containing seven questions, I found five substantive errors. For example, as the correct translation of "Pueros prohibui ne domi irent" we are offered "I have forbidden the boys", although the secondary sequence "irent" forces the simple past translation, "I forbade". A question about "celerius navigabant" offers no answer that reflects the comparative degree of the adverb. On the same page there is a use of credo with the accusative, rather than dative case, and the following unintelligible item: "Dixi eum libros quos lectus esses scribere." Numerous questions have no correct answer; some have two; some grammar questions are missing their verbs. The problem goes well beyond typos, though there are plenty of those. In one reading passage, interiacebat, "(it) lay between" is glossed as coming from intericio, "throw between", and violentiam loses its -i-, rendering "quae huic urbi per violentam ignium acciderunt" difficult to construe. This error is compounded by the fact that students are asked to choose the best translation of this sentence in a question that repeats the mistake. An equally serious deficit in the book is the lack of explanatory material. Students will have to consult a teacher to understand their mistakes. The book has the potential to undermine the confidence of capable students, as they fail to answer the many erroneous and misleading questions. If anything else existed, I would recommend that students avoid this book; as it is, students should only use it with the guidance of an experienced Latin teacher, who can also serve as copy editor.
Rating:
Summary: Caveat Emptor
Review: This volume is one of the only tools available to prepare for the Latin SAT-II. I recently purchased it to consider ordering it for my Latin III class, many of whom take the test. The book was a serious disappointment. It's one virtue is the number of practice questions it offers; though some of them are from such old tests that they don't provide much benefit for today's test takers. Unfortunately, however, the book is riddled with serious errors that will confuse students. On a single page containing seven questions, I found five substantive errors. For example, as the correct translation of "Pueros prohibui ne domi irent" we are offered "I have forbidden the boys", although the secondary sequence "irent" forces the simple past translation, "I forbade". A question about "celerius navigabant" offers no answer that reflects the comparative degree of the adverb. On the same page there is a use of credo with the accusative, rather than dative case, and the following unintelligible item: "Dixi eum libros quos lectus esses scribere." Numerous questions have no correct answer; some have two; some grammar questions are missing their verbs. The problem goes well beyond typos, though there are plenty of those. In one reading passage, interiacebat, "(it) lay between" is glossed as coming from intericio, "throw between", and violentiam loses its -i-, rendering "quae huic urbi per violentam ignium acciderunt" difficult to construe. This error is compounded by the fact that students are asked to choose the best translation of this sentence in a question that repeats the mistake. An equally serious deficit in the book is the lack of explanatory material. Students will have to consult a teacher to understand their mistakes. The book has the potential to undermine the confidence of capable students, as they fail to answer the many erroneous and misleading questions. If anything else existed, I would recommend that students avoid this book; as it is, students should only use it with the guidance of an experienced Latin teacher, who can also serve as copy editor.
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