<p>My main focus is the reading passages. I have direct hits (i think it's like 250 words total) for the vocab section; i am not planning on memorizing 1000 words lol. so if you could let me know what prep book helped improve your critical reading score the most, i would be very thankful. it'd be nice if you also included your score.</p>
<p>thanks!</p>
<p>i got a 730 CR on the JAN sat for a total of 2220. wat helped me the most was just learning by practicing on indiviudal CR sections/passages. I used the Blue Book and the 10 REal SATs book. if i was gonna go with a PREP book that helped me early on, it would be Rocket Review for answering passage based questions. it really helps u break down and shows you how to eliminate answer choices. but, if u want to hone ur skills, USE THE BB AND PRACTICE MATERIAL ONLY MADE BY THE COLLEGEBOARD BECAUSE THOSE ARE THE ONES THAT ARE THE MOST ACCURATE!!! also, look in to the online SAT course on the collegeboard site. if u r willing to spend some money, they have some tests and CR practice that may help u as well.</p>
<p>I bumped by 680 up 70 points with a combination of some higher level reading (the NY Times, a couple of books, The Inheritance Cycle even) and Barron’s SAT.</p>
<p>I went up 100 points with the Blue Book.</p>
<p>Blue Book is AMAZING.</p>
<p>And I agree, try to use the CollegeBoard material. They’re definitely the most accurate and it teaches you what the CB is looking for. </p>
<p>@aspiring–Doesn’t the 10 Real SAT book repeat some of the same stuff as the Blue Book? I’m reviewing for the SAT again this summer and I did all of the Blue Book. I’m gonna use the BB again because I won’t really remember the passages but it would be nice to have some more CollegeBoard material. If the 10 Real SAT book is completely different, i’m totally getting one.</p>
<p>I got an 800 on CR way back in 2003 (I graduated from high school in 2004).</p>
<p>I used Barron’s SAT book and the College Board book that was out at the time.</p>
<p>In my SAT tutoring (I worked for Kaplan) I have also enjoyed using the College Board book (the “blue book”) as it has the best practice questions and passages. They’re made by the College Board.</p>
<p>I disagree that you can only use materials made by the College Board. Test prep companies such as Barron’s, Kaplan, and Princeton Review spend a lot of money each year researching the SAT and have come up with strategies that are more or less identical to the strategies in the blue book. However, I think that the practice materials in the blue book are superior to other materials. Kaplan, IMO, has the worst practice questions.</p>