PSAT / NMSQT -- The Best Coaching and Study Course for the PSAT & NMSQT

My nephew will be entering 10th grade this year. We started using the book this summer. It is really helping him prepare for upcoming course work as well as the PSAT. He feels the book is easy to use and has good explanations.

This book is the best preparation guide for the PSAT. Its advantages: -Excellent Writing Skills review: A very comprehensive review of English grammar and American Standard Usage, focusing on parallel structure, tense problems, punctuation, and other aspects of grammar. -Hard Practice Tests. Actually, the 3 practice tests are harder than the real PSAT (though I only took the real test once). For example, the practice tests have an entire extra reading article for Section 3 verbal, which made me run out of time during the practices. However these helped me gain speed and the real PSAT without the extra passage was much easier. The book also has some minor disadvantages: -Like most other books on SAT/PSAT preparation, the verbal preparation sections are not very useful. For example, it describes the reading portion of the PSAT, but does not really help one's score. (The real best way to imporve one's reading, for example, is by reading widely over a long period of time). -Math typos and missing diagrams. The typos are minor, since any insightful test-taker can prove to themselves that he/she are right (or wrong). In one of the practice tests, a diagram for a question was missing. Overall, this is an excellent book and the only valuable source for really getting some improvements on the PSAT.

This book is an excellent preparation for the PSAT. It actually gives you a good guide to the verbal section (in my mind the hardest part ofthe PSAT), something all those other books lack. As good as or even better than the Barron's book. Get this book if you're serious.