11 Practice Tests for the SAT and PSAT

I used this book along with myriad other SAT books, including; Barrons SAT prep, Barron's SAT 2400, The Sparknotes Guide the Real SAT. I found that this book was one of the more helpful ones. I was skeptical at first to buy this book, as the SAT content can get distorted when it isn't written by the actual SAT writers. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the practice tests in the book greatly resemble the real SAT tests. The answer explanations were very terse, sometimes you wouldn't be able to understand why you got the wrong answer. But that is not the case with all the answer explanations. In order to significantly improve your score, taking practice SAT tests greatly helps. Therefore, this is one of the best resources to use to improve your SAT score.

I bought this book for my daughter and think it's excellent. There are lots of sample problems ranging from easy to difficult. Answers contain explanations which is what I really find helpful(although explanations are not always easy to understand). I haven't seen other books, but I don't feel like I need to look.

The tests are excellent for general practice, and 11 of them are enough for at least 3-4 months. While the questions are not authentically from College Board, they are still better than just the SAT Preparation packet. There seems like a lot of tests(11 of them makes up about 40 hours), but just take a portion of the total and use the rest as practice drills. The extra practice is one of the the valuable parts of this book. The additional features online are also great (and interesting). I only wish that LiveGrader, a feature you can order to have a professional score your essays, is free.

Definitely get this book if you need practice with the new SAT. While it is true that these practice tests are not written by the College Board, Princeton Review does a good job of making their tests pretty realistic. While reading up on strategies and such is helpful, I find that the best way to prepare for the SAT is to take practice tests. That's why this book is so great--10 practice SATs (the other is a practice PSAT) complete with explanations should be more than enough to get accustomed to the new SAT. Plus, it's priced very reasonably. The only reason I gave this book four stars instead of five is because its sample essays were misleading. In reality, the essays are graded a little harder than what Princeton Review made it seem like. For example, their example of an essay that would score a 5 would probably instead only score a 4. Other than that, though, this is a great book.

I've been a private SAT tutor for the last five years and have had experience with pretty much all of the major test prep books on the market. If you're prepping for the new PSAT/SAT this coming academic year, this is the book you want. With 1 practice NEW PSAT and 10 practice NEW SATs it has a TON of problems to a) become familiar with the new SAT, and b) perfect your test taking skills. While there is value in doing "drills" or "exercises," nothing prepares you more for the real thing than doing real problems on real exams. That's what this book offers and that's why I give it five stars. Good luck with the new exam!