The Best Test Preparation for the Sat II American History and Social Studies

Rating:
Summary: Great Tool, But it Has Some Flaws
Review: My son recently took the SAT II: American History and Social Studies subject test. He got a 780. He also got the highest score on his high school history exam. Besides taking a U.S. History class, he used only this book to prepare. Here are some of his comments below:

The most valuable information was the "comprehensive review course;" short summaries of various parts of U.S. history. Key terms, events, and people are identified and described. General themes are also explained. I found it helpful to go through the book and take notes on everything in the review section.

The book also contains six practice exams. These were not helpful, as they were not anything like the questions in the actual SAT II. There were also a number of errors in the answer key. The next edition of this book should focus on revising the practice exams.

Based on my performance on the test, however, I would say that this book was very helpful.

Rating:
Summary: Great Review Material
Review: Overall, this is a comprehensive review of History. I also found the information to be helpful for my final US II exam.

Rating:
Summary: A worthless review
Review: This book does not review you for the test. The practice exams are nothing like the actual SAT II; they are instead geared to judge how much you remember from the book's review section. Many answers to the questions from the practice exams are simply, a disturbing realization when one applies such knowledge to the rest of the book. The book does offer two hundred pages of detailed, if sometimes confused, historical review, so if one lacks a history textbook, this might do, but if you actually want to review for the SAT II in any meaningfull manner, don't read this book.