Cracking the SAT: U.S. and World History Subject Tests

The Princeton Review has done a pretty good job with this prep book for the SAT US & World History Subject Tests. The book manages to cover over 200 years of US history and several thousand years of world history in just about 450 pages. Furthermore, the concise review is presented in a very conversational tone that is easy to read and surprisingly captivating for what can otherwise be relatively dull content. In addition to the main content, the sidebars, charts, and other additional content provide very helpful summaries of key historical points (major treaties in US history, major economic panics, major world religions, etc.) that span multiple eras and emphasize the types of trends that often appear on the tests. While it makes for a quick read, the brevity of this book is its main issue - this book can only be used as a review of major concepts and events and not as a comprehensive review of either US or world history. The fact is, it's simply impossible to do any sort of an in depth review of hundreds/thousands of years of history in just 450 pages. For this reason, the book provides little help for the "factoid" questions; in the summary of how to answer each type of question, the book offers somewhat concerning advice for the factoid questions: "Damage control." When it comes to map-based questions, the book explains that they are difficult and that guessing is often the best strategy. The book's strength is in its handling of the greater themes, patterns, and trends throughout history. The "era"-based approach to evaluating questions provides an effective way of answering questions with little historical knowledge. Furthermore, the questions on the practice tests resemble the types of questions that appear on the actual test. More importantly, the answer explanations do a phenomenal job of explaining why the correct answer is correct, the line of thinking that arrives at the correct answer, and why the other answer choices are incorrect. While there are only two practice tests for each of the subject tests, the quality of those tests certainly makes them worthwhile. All in all, while it may be difficult to score an 800 with only the historical information in the book (some of the practice tests contain material not in the review), this book does an excellent job summing up the main points and ideas, while providing very detailed and helpful practice tests.

Book received quickly and in perfect condition. Used this to review for NYSTCE in Social Studies. After 15 years away from college, this served as a nice, concise overview of history. Excellent test-taking tips also given. I occasionally consulted additional maps online for a visual reference to the material.