Kaplan New SAT 2005

Rating:
Summary: Solid, but not the Best
Review: I am a high school English teacher, working with a colleague who is a great math teacher to create a program on the new SAT I for a very competitive public high school in Oregon. Over the years, we've looked carefully at just about every SAT I book ever published to use with our students. The new Kaplan book is solid, and is far superior to comparable products by the Princeton Review, REA, Barron's and Up Your Score. However, for our purposes we chose "McGraw-Hill's SAT I" over even the Kaplan guide. It provides more and better practice for students than Kaplan, Princeton Review and Barron's, which we have used in the past, and delves into the reasoning skills of the SAT I far more than the others have. The practice tests in McGraw-Hill have the real SAT I "feel" which is enormously important (and lots of them). The main drawback with Kaplan's books, this one included, has been the lack of solid diagnostic practice for students. The McGraw-Hill provides far more of that, in addition to great flash cards that focus on reasoning skills rather than mere memorization. I was impressed with the McGraw-Hill guide's approach to critical reading, writing and vocabulary building, and my colleague has given high marks to the math portion. The Kaplan guide is solid, and I recommend it to many students, but I recommend they try the McGraw-Hill guide first.

Rating:
Summary: Don't bother...
Review: I am really amazed at how little substance they managed to pack into such a thick book. There are very few practice questions and I found the math questions easier than the old SAT. Also, there are numerous errors made by Kaplan throughout the book. They really sacrificed quality with this publication. I'll be waiting for what the Princeton Review puts forth later this year.

Rating:
Summary: so easy to use!
Review: I found this book to be so helpful because it really explains alot about the new changes and goes into great detail to give you strategies to answer those question. Especially for the new essay, they have lots of sample essays and a good outline to follow when you practice writine yours. I recommend this product to anyone who is trying to take the SAT. It is so easy to use.

Rating:
Summary: Not great...
Review: I regret buying the Kaplan guide to the New SATs now that the College Board SATs guide is out. This book was made before anyone even knew what the new SATs were about, so there are some obvious things that are wrong with it. For example, all the math questions are way to easy and were not like any thing like the new PSAT questions (which I took this year). I also found several mistakes with the answer key/reasoning. My advice: buy the new College Board guide instead.

Rating:
Summary: Know Their Stuff
Review: Like most ofher 16 year olds, I'm kinda freaked out about the new changes in the SAT. It sounds like the test is going to be a lot harder than the old one. Lucky for me, I got the Kaplan book and it looks like I may be wrong. They make the new changes sound really manageable and they explan each section really thoroughyl. They don't just tell you what the questions are like, they tell you how you can score high.

That's gonna be a big help because I just have to get into my first choice school. I used Kaplan for the PSAT and did awesomely well.


Rating:
Summary: boo
Review: pretty crappy & lots of mistakes. no help at all as usual with kaplan.. get the princeton review book instead!

Rating:
Summary: --READ--
Review: this book is worthless without the CD-ROM. get the one with the CD-Rom

Rating:
Summary: Formerly afraid of the essay
Review: When I heard that the essay was going to be added to the SAT, I was terrified. I am not that good at on the spot writing. But after using Kaplan's book, I feel much better about it. They provide a quick and effective method to use when you write your essays, and they really help you figure out how to manage your time. In fact, they give you a step by step method for every minute you have to write your essays.
The book also includes some really good grammar information that I found to be really helpful for not only the essay, but also on the other parts of the writing section too. They really explain things well, and if you are studying for the SAT, this is a really easy to use and friendly book. I feel more confident that I might be able to actually get a good score.