<p>Isn't it obvious that because the problems in there are a lot easier than other test books that it is purely intended to kill your score so you constantly retaking it = they profit more?</p>
<p>A lot of you guys are advocating to me to practice with the blue book, but a lot of the problems are honestly pretty mediocre, and really waste time. I know a handful of you will agree with me, and problems out of other practice test booklets have a lot better and practice-worthy questions.</p>
<p>I don't know if it's true or not, but business is business, and money drives everything in society these days, so anything can happen.</p>
<p>Just would like to see what others have to say about this</p>
<p>I’ve been to a college prep service for about 4 months between my two SATS (2110, and taking the other tomorrow… school district program w. college board) </p>
<p>and my tutor has driven me away from the Collegeboard official books fervently.</p>
<p>When ETS is writing tests, they probably don’t even know what the College Board is going to use them for. When I took the SAT, I found it to be somewhat easier than the Blue Book tests; I felt as though the few tests that I took from the Blue Book prepared me well, and I got every question right.</p>
<p>Why does it matter whether the tests are slightly easier? It’s not like you’re dealing with some subject test whose topics were not fully covered in your prep book. It’s not like it diverts from the form of thinking required to answer the questions, either. Reasoning can be applied to anything regardless of relative difficulty.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Even between different real SATs, some are easier than others. Considering that there are 10 practice tests in the BB, I’d say they all vary in difficulty anyway, especially when you split it further into the three categories (or four if you consider essay semi-separate). For example, for the March 2010 SAT, I found the math to be easier than the BB math (because there’s usually 1 or 2 questions that stump me…not the case this March), the CR to be on par (even though I did worse than I’d anticipated), and the writing to be much harder (even though I got experimental writing, and did better than I thought…except for the essay, which is always freaky and cheesy to me).</p></li>
<li><p>As crazy said (though I disagree and think that harder tests will actually prepare a student better), it’s the same type of questions, the same tricks and coded language, and the same format. At the very least the practice tests should let you know how you’re doing in terms of how quickly one finishes each section (I usually finished each BB test section 5-10 minutes early; this schedule proved to be consistent with the March SAT) and other quirks. Also, by taking practice tests, you’ll be prepared to know whether you should skip questions or not (though I advocate never skipping anyway if you’re a strong tester.)</p></li>
</ol>
<p>well, how about I ask this question:
What were you average BB test scores and what were your real scores? </p>
<p>We could get people to answer that question and see how closely the scores correlate (yea, i know they should be the same, but it would be interesting to see if majority of ppl went up, or if majority went down, or so on). I haven’t written the SAT yet, so I can’t answer.</p>
<p>^Exactly. Therefore, if the problems in the blue book <em>were</em> easier than other prep books, then those prep book questions are harder than the actual test problems. Even the other 7 blue book tests contain many questions that appeared on pre-2005 SATs. I find it hard to see how it wastes time to practice with older exams / actual questions.</p>
<p>Really? I read through the blue book and took a few practice exams over the summer, and got a 2360 (800 cr, 800 w, 760 m) on my first try. It seemed fine to me…</p>
<p>^which tests in the BB? Were all of them on average harder, or just the first three that were actually administered or the last 7 that weren’t administered?</p>