PARENT'S GUIDE TO COLLEGE ENTRANCE EXAM

Rating:
Summary: Been There, Read It
Review: A bunch of nonsense from "experts" who claim to be in the "business" for years, which probably means they went to ETS.ORG and read about SAT's and SAT II's and then went to a few colleges' websites to learn about admission dates and guidelines. The book is a real snoozer, empty of vividness, insight, or help. If my parent read this and then tried to relay this drivel to me I would sue for Child Abuse. Pay attention in class, go to a few websites, consult the trained help who have expertise at your school, study vocab, and leave this where it belongs: in the No Sale area in your Shopping Cart.

Rating:
Summary: Been There, Read It
Review: A bunch of nonsense from "experts" who claim to be in the "business" for years, which probably means they went to ETS.ORG and read about SAT's and SAT II's and then went to a few colleges' websites to learn about admission dates and guidelines. The book is a real snoozer, empty of vividness, insight, or help. If my parent read this and then tried to relay this drivel to me I would sue for Child Abuse. Pay attention in class, go to a few websites, consult the trained help who have expertise at your school, study vocab, and leave this where it belongs: in the No Sale area in your Shopping Cart.

Rating:
Summary: Not much help
Review: A silly and skimpy book by 2 "experts"--just like I am an "expert" at sitting on a couch or driving around lost in New Jersey--that does not get into anything in depth or with elan or with brevity. The long winded generalizations make this book apparently palatable to everyone, but in essense, thanks top its lukewarm advice, banal hints, and skimpy overview of test and its history, make the book come off as no help to anyone at anytime. A chapter on minorities taking the sest and racial bias, a chapterr on genderr issues, a chapter on reading strategies for the individual passages of Critical Reading, would make this book at least worthwhile opening, if not actually buying. Study vocab, take some sample tests, and buy a book on Geometry. And then, savor the opportunity to test your logic and relax. You are just a kid once.

Rating:
Summary: Invaluable!
Review: An exceedingly satisfying book that helped me and my two daughters get through the Tower Of Babel that is today's College Prep journey, "College Entrance Exams," is also the only book out there that combines pragmatic advice about test taking with real-life concerns about savings in time, money, and pressure. The book is lucid and clear with many examples: study guides for kids; best Web Sites; a fine Glossary; technical analyses of tests' measurements; the ACT; using shortcuts; checklists for measuring students' readiness; and the process of education and preparation.

At the center is a huge chapter on that wooly and baggy monster, the SAT, which according to the Blumenthals is a Marathon Race of Reasoning. Strategies and illustrations abound here. Advice, in fact, is everywhere: Should my child get a tutor? How many times does a child need to re-take a test? Are all scores counted equally? What DO the scores mean? Do I have to go insane with worry?

The answer to the last question was and is a thundering NO, thanks to this book. Compact enough to get through at one extended reading but packed with enough information for many re-visitations, the book allowed me to free myself from ignorance and my kids from apathy. In my circle of friends I am now considered some sort of expert thanks to a book that calmly and rationally describes and defines the realities of the modern high school student's world.

Rating:
Summary: AT LAST!
Review: At last! A book that guides parents step-by-step. This is perfect for the overwhelmed parent; it provides detailed information that I haven't been able to find anywhere else. It is also useful in helping parents, students, and their counselors set up a sane, common sense testing schedule.

Rating:
Summary: HELPFUL GUIDE
Review: I'M THE PARENT OF A JUNIOR WHO WILL BE TAKING THE SAT IN APRIL. THIS GUIDE WAS SO HELPFUL BECAUSE IT PREVENTED ME FROM SIGNING MY SON UP FOR GROUP LESSONS WHICH WOULD HAVE BEEN INAPPROPRIATE FOR HIM. THE SECTION OF THE BOOK ON CHOOSING A PREPARATION TAUGHT ME THE RIGHT QUESTIONS TO ASK MYSELF, MY SON, AND PROSPECTIVE TUTORS, WE CHOSE ONE-ON-ONE TUTORING, AND WE'RE SO PLEASED.

Rating:
Summary: boring, bland, and bogus
Review: like most married couples this book is a trifling idiots' paradise: peruse this tiny nugget of rotten wisdom and come back duller and dumber than before. Theu should pay you to take it off their hands; the unsold copies must be filling up the garage.

Rating:
Summary: Answer: B. Waste oif Time
Review: Too general to instruct, too bland to entertain, this soporific release from a husband and wife--or corpse and corpse--induces ennui, not edificxation. All books on the subject are more helpful: those books will have more sample test-taking strategies, will illustate more re colleges' relationship to score, and will break down exactly what a 1200 on a SAT means: the number wrong, the weaknesses inherent in such a score, the levels of Un iversities that will either laugh or accept. There should be something on the new SAT's (in 18 months) and the supposed racism that is built inside these questions. A history of ETSA, an overview of ACT's, and any reference to the MANY contreoversies that thse tests evoke would also flesh this slim and stupid volume out. This book would fit comfortably at the bottom of a parrot's cage, but be warned: animal may lkaern to speak like a smug lawyer who never had one original thought.