Barron's SAT (Book only)

The only circumstance under which I would recommend primarily using the Kaplan book instead is if you are scoring below 1100 on your initial practice tests... In this case, the Kaplan book will probably help you more, as it covers some general strategies that will help you get your score up into the 1300 range, strategies which this book neglects in favor of more sophisticated material.

As always, you'll only get as much out of it as you put in: so use the book regularly, supplement it with outside reading if you have trouble with the verbal section and with extensive problem solving if you have trouble with the math section. But that said, this book provides an excellent foundation for your studies and I highly recommend it.


You don't have to buy many SAT books   June 26, 2002
 20 out of 20 found this review helpful

If you are going to take the Sat I would only recomend you two books:
1. How to Prepare for the Sat I (Barron's How to Prepare for the Sat I, 21st Ed)
2. 10 Real Sat's from College Board (2nd Edition)

The first book will help you too much with vocabulary even though I think that 3000 words are too much too memorize but you'll be able to study from the most important words selection if you don't have enough time. It also have flashcards to play if you want.

It is a good book to prepare you for the math section (with every topic you'll have to cover), so I don't think you will have problems with that in the exam if you take a carefully review of the explanation and do all the math problems to practice, It's definitely good at this, the best I think.

The problem is the reading part of the test, this book won't help you, thats why you have to study from the 10 real sat's book it will give some important advices and it have more difficult tests in this section.

The second book is good but not enough, the 10 real SAT's will help you very much, but in my opinion it's the only good thing it has besides the reading part explanations.

The first book has 7 test to improve yourself, I recomend to do one every week, it also have an answer sheet that will explain how to solve every problem and will tell you which chapter you have to study harder.

Please don't buy every book you find, you wont cover all of them. These are the only two books you need, I guarantee you a good score.


This is the best review book of any kind I ever used!!   May 22, 1999
 34 out of 37 found this review helpful

This book is incredible. I studied with it all spring and took the SAT I on May 1. My scores were 290 points higher than on my PSAT!!!The best part of the book are all the strategies for solving the math problems. Using them, I was able to answer at least 10 or 15 questions that I would have otherwise had to leave out.The practice tests are really good. They are just like the real thing, so doing them is really good practice. If anything, they are slightly harder, so the real one I took in May seemed easier.I would recommend this book to anyone high school student who will be taking the SAT I. My younger brother is in 9th grade and he just started to read it.


Excellent   October 11, 1999
 22 out of 23 found this review helpful

This book is great for studying for the SAT. It has some good tips and advice for you to boost your score. The practices are thorough and well written. After doing my SAT I felt pretty good. However, I did find that the Math sections in the real SAT were not nearly as difficult as they were in the book. But the Verbal sections in the book were not as difficult as the ones in the real SAT. So just be careful.