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Rating: 
Summary: Engaging, but many words seem basic
Review: A year ago, I added this book to my wish list on a whim. I had heard that the SAT verbal was very difficult, and I thought I should study for it. I was surprised to actually receive the book as a birthday present. Recently I picked it up and began looking at it. I love to read, and I scored 760 on the SAT II writing test; English is my strong point. Nonetheless, I am no genius, and I was surprised that I already knew a good portion of the words.Each page of this book features a few amusing paragraphs with brief exercises to teach ten or so of the few hundred words which the author feels are likely to appear on the SAT verbal. When I read the table of contents, I shuddered. I really don't care much about the Backstreet Boys or Brad Pitt's girlfriends. However, on closer inspection I discovered that many of the topics are historical anecdotes written with the author's dry humor. Topics include Watergate, prison overcrowding, Hunter S. Thompson, and Barry Goldwater. The book is very engaging, but I know many of the words (such as condone, culpable, nefarious, aspired), so I think I will read it for entertainment and only do exercises for unfamiliar words. The exercises consist of multiple choice (after reading the word used, what does it mean?), paragraph writing (use these four vocab words to write a tv news report about Chicago's 1968 riots, for example), and definitions (after reading the word in context, what does it mean?). A glossary in the back of the books is included for reference. There are 61 different topics in the book.
Rating: 
Summary: hm...it is a waste of time
Review: hi! i am currently a high school junior in New York. After goint throught this book, it made me think "damn, i just wasted my time". This book may seem interesting and fun but for a student who will take the SAT in a matter of months, it is an absolute waste of time. The vocabulary is far too basic, and the activities are not efficent. I strongly encourage people not to buy this book!
Rating:
Summary: hm...it is a waste of time
Review: hi! i am currently a high school junior in New York. After goint throught this book, it made me think "damn, i just wasted my time". This book may seem interesting and fun but for a student who will take the SAT in a matter of months, it is an absolute waste of time. The vocabulary is far too basic, and the activities are not efficent. I strongly encourage people not to buy this book!
Rating: 
Summary: Very funny! My son actually read it .
Review: I bought this book because my son's Verbal scores on his practice SAT showed he needed help. This book gives you a list of important SAT vocabulary words and a bunch of vocabulary building activities that are so funny, the whole family got into reading it aloud. I know this book helped my son because he really read it. I learned a few new words myself! Seriously, I never could have gotten my son to study as much as he did if we hadn't found this book. I highly recommend it, especially for kids who don't like to study.
Rating:
Summary: Learning through stuff we care
Review: I loved this book because I learned words through about stuff I cared about such as history, music and movies. It was not as painful lecture giving by my very obiese prep teacher. It certainly beat the heck outa reading those EXTREMELY dull passages in practice books from other companies. I really liked this book and I enjoyed reading it because it was very intresting. I do not read a lot of books, but this book I read from cover to cover and what I achived from it was a 200 point boost in my SAT score! My score went from 500 to 700 in less than 2 month! All I did was read about stuff I actually cared about!
Rating:
Summary: My teenager loves this book!
Review: My daughter is a huge music fan. I tried everything to get her to turn off the "noise" and study for the SAT. At my wit's end, I bought Verbal Velocity on a whim and to my surprise she has buckled down and will be ready for the exam this fall. Not only is she using the book, she and I finally connected through the noise. It is a godsend!
Rating:
Summary: not worth it
Review: this book is not worth it, especially 15 freakin bucks, which is worth one of those 800 pages books...or with 15 bucks i could have gotten me a copy of 10 real sats! the words are too basic, and the book doesnt really help u understand vocabulary... i already knew most of the words
Rating:
Summary: Awesome!
Review: this book really helped me out on the practice sats ive been taking
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