<p>I have 4 months left until my first SAT ( May 5th) and I have bunch of different books but I am confused what should I pick for my preparation ( I have no tutor because of financial reasons):</p>
<p>General:</p>
<p>Acing The SAT 2006
Barron's How To Prepare for the SAT
Nova's SAT prep course
McGraw-Hill's 12 Practice tests, also 5 PRACTICE TESTS
Gruber's Complete SAT guide 2009
Gruber's SAT 2400
Fiske's Nailing the New SAT
CliffsNotes SAT Cram plan</p>
<p>Maths:</p>
<p>Bob Miller's SAT Math
Peterson SAT Mathbook
Cliffsnotes Mastering the New SAT maths
Mc Graw-Hill's SAT MATH
Nova's SAT MATH BIBLE
Gruber's COMPLETE SAT MATHS workbook</p>
<p>Reading:</p>
<p>Peterson's NEW SAT CR WORKBOOK
Cliffsnotes Mastering the new SAT Critical Reading test
Barron's Critical Reading workbook for the SAT
Gruber's Complete SAT reading workbook</p>
<p>Words:</p>
<p>Princeton Review world list</p>
<p>Writing:
Cliffsnotes Mastering the new SAT writing
Peterson's new SAT WRITING WORKBOOK
Gruber's Complete SAT writing workbook
Barron's writing workbook for the new SAT</p>
<p>So this is the situation: I have completed Gruber's Complete SAT guide and I am halfway through Barron's lists of 3500 basic words ( I do IB but I manage to study for SAT every day , at least words) . I have a question what should I do now? Should I do another general book like Barron's complete guide, or should I do books for each separate section of the SAT ( I mean completing Gruber's CR,Maths and Writing workbooks, after that completing Barron's CR,MATHS,writing Handbooks and so on)?. Which plan would you guys adhere to? Which books are the most valuable, do you have any advice how to make a schedule and which books should I complete first and so on?</p>
<p>According to my knowledge so far, practice tests in Barron’s complete guide are generally harder than the normal tests. So you should only try this book after you are sure about your performance for full tests in the Blue Book (or Princeton review, etc.) This works for me so far.</p>
<p>About the general guide, I suggest Silverturle and the Blue Book. For detailed (section) practice, I think the books you have are enough if you manage to look through all of them carefully.</p>
<p>You should look for more tips from this page and definitely read more books and magazines for both vocabulary and examples for essays. </p>
<p>Make sure to get the college board second edition official blue book. It’s on their website it definitely has the best practice tests since its from the makers.</p>
<p>Why do you have so many books? Quite frankly it looks like you’ve been wasting your money. All you need is a new Blue Book 2nd Edition, Barron’s 2400 SAT (or something like that, and Critical Hits (1-200 and 200-400). You might also want to purchase the Barron’s ACT 36 ( it helped me for the English part).</p>
<p>All the other books you have seem like a waste of money and time. Read the books I mentioned and try to do a practice test from the book every week–preferably a Saturday morning (to get you accustomed). It is imperative that you memorize the 400 critical hit words. I memorized most of them and got all of the word choice questions correct. Most of the questions had at least one answer from those words. </p>
<p>Thanks, I got all these books for free so I did not waste money ( my friend passed them to me after he was done with SAT, I know it is a big bunch, he really wasted money) and I am still confused what to use and how. I have already ordered the Blue BOOK! Hmm… I will try googling Direct Hits, haven’t heard of this one.</p>
<p>Once you finish a small handful of books, which you have almost completed, then the only thing left is to take practice tests over and over again because from then, it’s just applying your knowledge to the test and enduring the pressure of the short time allotted. </p>
<p>And even then, you shouldn’t try to take practice tests every other day. Take one practice test per two weeks. During the first week, review your practice tests and make sure you know everything about why you got the questions wrong. The second week, take individual sections and work through them without timing yourself (as the weekend [or whenever you take the practice test loom up start timing yourself to get into the mode of timed test]). One section per night and reviewing it is better than taking the entire test over and over again.</p>
<p>The books I mentioned are not necessary, but merely helpful due to the tips and shortcuts they give. However, you do need the critical hit books. They will save your life and will guarantee you a 400 just by getting all of the word choice questions correct. I got a 740 due to getting all of those correct and getting a lot of the reading correct (this depends more on how well you understand what you read and how easy the passages are for that test date). </p>
<p>The blue book is your savior on your road to a great score. Read it over once, take a test, and see what you did wrong. Make sure you understand what you did wrong and how to correct it so you don’t do it again. After this, read the book again at least once more and continue taking tests and going over them. This will ensure you get a great score come the SAT test date. One last thing: start on test 4 and go from there. Save test #s 1,2,&3 for the end since they are official tests from previous years and will give you a better view of how you will do on your test. Good luck and get to studying! Lol</p>
<p>Not necessarily. I don’t really know what’s in that book, but if you feel that it is helping you, than by all means continue to use it. I’m just saying that you should focus more on the blue book, the tests in said blue book, and the critical hits books (2 books).</p>
<p>Some of the words in the first volume are words that you will already know, but there are a few that you won’t know. So yes, I suggest buying both volumes. It will help you score about 400 points right off the bat if you get all 19 questions right.</p>