Sat II: Mathematics: Levels Ic and IIC (Sat II. Mathematics (Kaplan))

Rating:
Summary: Accurate representation of the real test
Review: For some odd reason, I found it hard to find a book that accurately depicts the contents of the actual SAT II:Math IIC test. However, my search ended when I bought this book from amazon.com. This book focuses completely on the questions one can expect on the real exam and doesn't bother you with unnecessary or outdated material (like what you'd find in Barron's). The two practice tests were some of the best I've found. However, I would accredit my 800 to working with a number of books and working over a good period of time. I would recommend that anyone who is buying this book also pick up The Princeton Review's book and do their practice drill questions. If you have the time and feel you could use more practice, you can give the REA's book a shot. It isn't as realistic as this book, but it makes good practice.

In short, Kaplan is absolutely amazing: make sure its in your shopping cart!

Rating:
Summary: Pretty decent book
Review: I had the baron's one and found the questions in it very hard, even though i was pretty good at math. Got this book and found that it showed the basic essence needed and gave a more realistic
picture (simpler questions) for the SAT 2.

However, if you are rather good at math, this book would slightly
disappoint you. But still, it was worth the purchase.

Rating:
Summary: Great Book for studying for the SAT II's
Review: I was totally freaked out when I had to take the SAT II Math CI last year because I was only in tenth grade. I bought three practice books: Kaplan, REA, and Spark Notes. Kaplan was by far the best. It prepares you well and helps you figure out your strengths and weaknesses. Everyone else in my math class used only the REA book to prepare for the test, and as a result, they all scored lower than I did. Though it would be best to prepare for this test with multiple books (but DON'T use REA - the questions are very unrealistic and there are many, many errors), this book does a good job at teaching the basics. With its help I only got two questions wrong and received a 770.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent book for prepping the SAT II maths.
Review: This book is a really good guide to do well in the SAT II Maths section. It is concise and doesn't overboard you with information which is useless and you won't find on the real test. The book balances out the explaning with a good set of questions at the beginning to tell you what you need to improve on and end to see how you improved. The structure and content of this book is so much better than the Barron's one because the content they give you for the IC level is enough to actually do most of the IIC tesT (which means that the questions they give ya are a lot harder). Kaplan's tests mirror the actual SAT test so whatever you get in the book is going to be most likely ur score for the real thing (not including pressure and stuff). Also the explanations it gives you for each answer is crystal clear and should leave no confusion as they explain it thoroughly so that if you are given a similar question on the test again you should be able to get it correct.
The scaling of their scores is pretty correct. My score started off (currently in grade 9 now) with a score of 480 but it went up to a score of 660 which is a huge increase.
The book gives you the key/main points and formulas you need to know but in the end they twist the questions from the diagnostic from the beginnning of the chpater MAKING SURE u know how to apply the maths that they have just taught you which is good as you aren't going to see the same exact questions on the real thing.
One flaw which the kaplan book does have is that it should offer more examples/questions to give more practice before you actually take the test so that people will no what other questions are expected with that certain formula/method etc.
Overall i would recommend this too anyone hu needs help for the SAT II math (and definitely dont buy Barron's unless if you have LOTS of time to read their explanations, and not do that many questions).