Rating: 
Summary: EXCELLENT tactics and strategies for BEATING the SAT I
Review: Hey Amazon readers, hope this helps :)
I'm within the top 6% of my class of 750 students, 3.8 GPA on 4.0 scale, and I walked into my first SAT testing in December of 2003 expecting to walk out with a 1300 WITHOUT studying. When the test was over, I thought I had killed the test. I looked up my test scores 2 weeks later to find out I scored a measely 1080 - Math: 520, Verbal: 560. From January to the end of 2nd semester of my Junior year, I took an SAT Prep course offered by my school (first time that it was offered) as an elective, but because it was a new course, it was split into 9 weeks for each section - math and verbal - and our teachers had to rush and try to teach us from this book - and of course, we never finished it.During 2nd semester, after reviewing a little bit of the math and verbal parts (my math teacher was awesome BTW), I took my 2nd SAT test in May and scored a 1250 - it went up 170 points! My math score shot up because I actually started to look over the Barron's SAT book before the test, Math: 660, Verbal: 590. However, I still wasn't satisfied with this score. After school let out near the end of May, I began to study for my 3rd and final SAT I test scheduled for June 5. That left me with roughly 1 and a half weeks to prepare for the test. I read the ENTIRE book from start to finish and I received my scores yesterday, I made a 1340! Math: 680, Verbal: 660 (I was a little disappointed at first, my desired score was a 1360). My SAT I score went up from the 1st time (1080) to the 3rd time (1340) which is an increase of 260 points. I'm glad that I took the time to study hard, but I KNOW that I could have done much better had I began studying earlier (I didn't take any of the practice tests in the back due to lack of time, and I only got 3 hours of sleep the night/morning before I took the test because my sleep pattern was changed due to it being summer :P ) I'm thankful that I received a decent score and I hope that you guys will use this guide to help you as well. Good Luck! CLASS OF '05!!!!
Rating:
Summary: great IF you aren't disappointed with low scores
Review: well, this book is great.. just great. But, in order to be able to use this book correctly, you need to be able to handle a lower score than what you would like (let me elaborate). Barron's is known to produce test prep materials that are much tougher than the actual ETS tests. It isnt any different with this book. When I took the Tests, I recieved a critical reading score of 610-650, Writing score of 630-690, and a Math score of 600-690. I was pretty frustrated because I had spent over three months working and I didnt really see an improvement in my scores. I finished working on the barron's, completed the seven tests and review exercises. I sat down and pulled another SAT book (the collegeboard official study guide (isbn:0874477182) and did a couple of the writing and critical reading sections. I couldn't believe my eyes - I got a 740-790 on critical reading and 720-770!!! I haven't finished the math sections yet, but I'm very optimistic about the results.. I was aiming for a 2100, but I guess I can go higher now that I did the Barron's!
Rating:
Summary: Great!!!!!!!
Review: This book, at first, stressed me out. The practice questions were to hard! But then I came to notice how much it actualy helped me. Buy this book with college boards to see how you are doing. I am going to get my scores for the Sat I took tommarrow and whatever improvment I make (about 200 points!) I ow to barrons. I only studied for a month. 1130 original. Around a 1330 tommarrow. (Trust me. I have anylized ever question I remember!)
Rating:
Summary: The Best!
Review: This book is one of the worst book I've encountered. It overprepares you. The problems are so hard and the problem difficulty level is like 10(Maximum difficulty level for Actual SAT I is 5). They got some pretty good tips though. If you have lot of time, you should memorize 3500 basic word list just to increase your knowledge. I recommend Barrons Math Workbook, Kaplan Verbal Workbook, and 10 Real SATs.
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