Best Coaching and Study Course for the Psat/Nmsqt

Rating:
Summary: Save your money
Review: Last fall I used this book to study for the PSAT. I found it to be of minimal value. There were loads of mistakes and the practice tests did not accurately reflect the actual exam in level of difficulty. Friends of mine who have the same grades that I do used other books and did much better than I did. I can't totally blame the book, but I did work hard and don't feel that this book helped much at all. I would definitely recommend that you try something else

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Preparation
Review: This book is an excellent preparation for the PSAT. It actually gives you a good guide to the verbal section (in my mind the hardest part ofthe PSAT), something all those other books lack. As good as or even better than the Barron's book. Get this book if you're serious.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Section for Writing Skills
Review: This book is the best preparation guide for the PSAT. Its advantages: -Excellent Writing Skills review: A very comprehensive review of English grammar and American Standard Usage, focusing on parallel structure, tense problems, punctuation, and other aspects of grammar. -Hard Practice Tests. Actually, the 3 practice tests are harder than the real PSAT (though I only took the real test once). For example, the practice tests have an entire extra reading article for Section 3 verbal, which made me run out of time during the practices. However these helped me gain speed and the real PSAT without the extra passage was much easier.

The book also has some minor disadvantages: -Like most other books on SAT/PSAT preparation, the verbal preparation sections are not very useful. For example, it describes the reading portion of the PSAT, but does not really help one's score. (The real best way to imporve one's reading, for example, is by reading widely over a long period of time). -Math typos and missing diagrams. The typos are minor, since any insightful test-taker can prove to themselves that he/she are right (or wrong). In one of the practice tests, a diagram for a question was missing.

Overall, this is an excellent book and the only valuable source for really getting some improvements on the PSAT.