How to Prepare for the SAT II: Mathematics Level IC

This book was very useful in style and content. I had to take the Level IC because most of my colleges required it, but my teacher didn't know much about the test. The ETS guidebook summary only included a few questions and a very general overview. So I was really nervous until I got this book. It contained everything I needed to get ready for the test and feel well prepared. I was comfortable on test day, very pleased with my test score and happy with my college acceptances. One thing I liked especially was the way the author explained things. At times I felt as though he was talking directly to me. After reading one chapter, I began thinking he must have had fun writing this book. I can't say I always had fun preparing for the test, but I was very relieved when I sat down to take the test and realized I had done the right things to get ready.

Review:I really liked the flexibility of this book and the way you can use it to adapt to any review schedule. I loaned my copy to a friend who only had a few days. She worked through the chapter on problem-solving strategies and studied the test-taking tips distributed throughout the book. I had a couple of weeks and spent a lot of time on the model tests. The person who recommended this book to me started reviewing a few months early and went through most of the review chapters. She was excited about the book because all of the review chapters incorporated multiple-choice questions into the text. All three of us felt we got more than our money's worth (especially because we were all sharing the same book). The three of us recommend the book highly, even though each of us used it in a different way.

Review: One of the great benefits of this and other Barron's books is the help they provide in sorting out good advice from bad. Here are three examples of bad advice you may get related to preparing for the math SAT II Math Level IC test. 1. Are you better off using your textbooks for test prep rather than a test-prep review book? Try this experiment. Go get your arithmetic, algebra one, geometry, algebra two and trigonometry books (if you can find them) and put them in a stack in front of you. (Don't get your precalulus text. Precalculus is tested on Level IIC not Level IC). Now put this Barron's guide next to the stack. See? Even if you had time to review all five books, again, they do not contain sample Level IC tests for practice and they offer no advice on handling multiple-choice questions. But they do contain lots of things not tested. Classroom texts are unbeatable for presenting information during classroom study as you are learning a course. They are neither as effective or as efficient as this carefully designed review guide for test preparation. 2. Should you prepare by reviewing how to derive formulas and prove theorems? It is great to understand the foundations of math principles and how formulas are derived, but only the applications of the formulas, properties and procedures are tested. Even if you know how to prove, say, that the slopes of perpendicular lines are negative reciprocals, it is the fact, itself, and itsapplication that are tested. Good review guides like this one help you to focus on what is tested so you don't eat up valuable time reviewing things not tested. 3. Do you need to master one specific form of mathematical notation? Notation varies from teacher to teacher, textbook to textbook and country to country. Each mathematician seems to develop his or her own favorite style and can get downright snooty about someone else's presentation. As this book notes, ETS avoids thenotation controversy by keeping the notation as simple as possible, even avoiding mathematical notation as much as possible. That means you don't have to master the same notation as your teacher and your textbook (even in the unlikely event the two agree all the time) to do well on the test. This book takes you carefully through presentations while avoiding all but the most basic and easily understood notation, just like the questions and answers you'll find on the Level IC test. Ihighly recommend this book for its great advice and easy to read presentations.

With the Princeton Review, Kaplan, and all the other known brands to choose from, I chose Barron's "How to Prepare for the SAT II: Math Level IC." It proved itself to be the "Students' #1 Choice." The dianogstic and practice tests were thirty times harder than the actual test. (I took the test June 2000.) I finished the test in the first thirty minutes, leaving me half an hour to check my work. There were some errors in the answers; however, I still recommend this book for students that are preparing for the Math IC.

This has to be one of the most comprehensive and detailed preparation books I've ever tackled down yet. It is absolutely amazing! The tests are made actually HARDER than the real SAT MATH IC test so if you score around the 600's on the practice tests, you will do fine on the real thing. My honors math teacher is actually requiring us to purchase this book and complete, claiming it to be the finest he's ever seen. Do yourself a favor and pick up this book now if you plan on taking Math IC. You definitely will not regret this purchase, I assure you!