Can you review without Answer Explanations?

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
1

<p>Hi,
Ive done a lot of practice test reviewing from Barrons and Princeton Review with the Answer Explanations. Some people have told me you can review WITHOUT answer explanations after taking the test by just looking at the answers. Is this possible? Is it as effectual? My score range is around 2100-2200.</p>

<p>Basically Im looking at:
"Fake" tests by McGrawHill, PR, with Explanations Vs. Real CB Test without Explanations</p>

2

<p>Use the real tests. This is why you have RR and Gruber’s: so you can categorize the questions and understand your mistakes. NEVER use those fake tests.</p>

3

<p>^You’re really big on pushing towards using real SATs, but I think it can be helpful to use the fake ones, in a way.</p>

<p>Anyway…I used the PR tests with the explanations, and it helped me a lot when I was first bringing my scores up to understand why I was getting the questions wrong. Now, I’m just using the Blue Book tests without explanations, and using Gruber’s and my other books when I don’t understand an answer. I’m finding it helpful, also. I think you really just need to expose yourself to as many questions as possible, regardless of whether you have explanations or not.</p>

<p>My personal opinion is that you should start studying with the fake tests and explanations when you’re just beginning and eventually move into the real SATs without explanations.</p>

4

<p>I agree that you should never use fake tests. There’s really no reason: 10 tests from the new BB + 6 from the online course + 2 from the booklets they give out every year = 18 real tests, more than most people will go through.</p>

<p>You have a few options

  1. Buy the Testmasters explanations to the BB
  2. Ask on here
  3. Look at the question until you can really convince yourself why you got it wrong and what’s wrong with the other answer choices.</p>
5

<p>I agree with Bigb - real SATs are the way to go. Once you finish the given 8 or however many “fake” tests, you will be used to the “fake” type of questions, and then once you move on to take the “real” ones, you will realize some questions are significantly different in style and difficulty levels. Get used to what you are going to see on the test day as soon as possible. </p>

<p>You can resort to fake tests once you run out of everything, but I recommend using the real SATs as long as possible. There are a lot out there - The old blue book, 7 practice tests from CB from the online course, QAS, RS, the new blue book that will be coming out, those newspaper type practice booklets, etc…</p>

<p>EDIT: @jamesford, the online course has technically 7 tests because it gives you a PRETEST.</p>

6

<p>In a way, not having answer explanations can be helpful, especially for CR. It forces you to really look at the question and figure out for yourself how to get the correct answer, rather than relying on a canned explanation that may or may not pinpoint the particular reason you got it wrong.</p>

7

<p>I reviewed with the blue book, without explanations.</p>

8

<p>I dont have RR or Grubers to help me with understanding it. Do you guys actually improve when you review without explanations?</p>

9

<p>112358 said it perfectly. Not having explanations really forces you to analyze your mistakes meticulously. This is what will get you points on the real test. Not, “Oh, yeah, that’s dumb. I would have gotten that if I had just stared at it for a few more minutes. Next question.”</p>

<p>Besides, you have TONS of real CB Materials. </p>

<ol>
<li>BB</li>
<li>OC</li>
<li><p>2 Practice Tests (1 is same as OC test, so it’s only 17 tests there)</p></li>
<li><p>Old PSATs</p></li>
<li><p>QAS Packets from friends</p></li>
<li><p>Red Book</p></li>
</ol>

<p>You’ll have well over 20 tests worth of materials if you look through all of those. And if you studied right, you will NOT need any more tests. In fact, I had 26ish tests available to me. I used up 12, and got a 2300. Trust me, you never need to look at PR and Kaplan. Those books are crap. Period. With a capital “P.”</p>

10

<p>I reviewed BB tests without Gruber’s, RR, or any sort of explanations and worked my way from 2250 to 2400.</p>

11

<p>cool thanks 112358 you helped a lot</p>

12

<p>Haha my school’s after school SAT class “teacher” used Kaplan’s 11 test, Barrons, and Bluebook. Not surprisingly, all three were quite different from each other and I ended up with a humiliating score on my SAT on the REAL SATs.</p>

<p>Use the blue book for tests and maybe Barron’s math workbook to learn some of the concepts again.</p>