<p>I'm reading through the grubers prep book and Barrons 2400 and I'm looking at some of the strategies and think it would be a waste of my time to learn some...</p>
<p>My question is basically, how many of you found all these commercial prep book strategies truly did help and which ones were they?</p>
<p>I use a few. </p>
<p>If there are variable in the problems, I throw in some numbers for them. Definitely helps.</p>
<p>Another thing I find helpful: + and - signs when doing the sentence completions. + means that it is accordance with the sentence, and - is when it is going against. Kind of stupid, but since I suck at them, it ‘guides’ me a bit better. </p>
<p>And I try to eliminate as many answers as possible. 
(But isn’t that what everyone does?)</p>
<p>Strategies from Barron’s and the like can be helpful, but the best prep is to take BB tests and come up with your own strategies that work for you. Everyone approaches the test differently.</p>
<p>i used most except the essay part</p>
<p>when i took the SAT both times i only had two examples for my essay
for ex there was this q about whether being famous is good or bad and so i compared the burmese monks (who were last year protesting for democracy) against britney spears (who over-used her fame, etc) and ya…i scored 11</p>
<p>so…just a lil proof that u dont always have to follow the 5 paragraph format</p>
<p>yea,i use most except for the essay part and writing in the “gist” for CR…i should probably do that, but i haven’t had that much time to make that into a habit…
i definitely plug stuff in for math, thuogh…</p>
<p>yea… those are basically the ones i use, i think alot of people do, but im talking about like the princeton reviews only read the top and initial paragraphs then go to the questions… do you find many of these help?</p>
<p>to lsfii2
yes, i follow the reading strategy…with the whole read the top and initial paragraphs
i also use another strategy where i read the first and last two sentences of each paragraph…that seems to help too
personally, i think it all depends on the passage…that pretty much dictates which technique i use…but they are all pretty helpful</p>
<p>has anyone tried actually writing the “GIST” of each paragraph on the side? or do most ofyou just do that mentally</p>
<p>I thought three of the Gruber’s Math strategies were particularly helpful:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>When a problem requires you to plug in all of the possible answers, start with choice E! </p></li>
<li><p>If possible, eliminate obviously-wrong answers right away. I.e. if they ask you for a prime answer, and 6 is one of your choices, cross it out!</p></li>
<li><p>Simplify problems as much as you can before working them out. I.e. 2^2 x 3^2 x 8^2… eliminate the ^2s! </p></li>
</ol>
<p>Common sense is really the best strategy, IMHO.</p>
<p>i try and get the gist of each paragraph summed up in my head… i dont bother writing it down… i find that if i have it in my head it adds to my overall understanding of the total passage…</p>
<p>What I’ve learned about these strategies is that they’re mostly useless.</p>
<p>It’s good to know them because once in a while they do come in handy, but knowing the tricks and strategies barely helps.</p>
<p>For some people the strategies are mentally beneficial, they give you more confidence in what you do, so I’d recommend that you learn them and if it helps you than use them, and if not just remember them in case you draw a blank.</p>
<p>The only one I found really useful is scanning CR questions before reading the passage and marking any lines or quotes they reference.</p>
<p>can’t say whether or not they worked but i’m confident i got 2000+ w/these strategies</p>
<ol>
<li>marking every line reference in cr & answering q’s while i’m reading the passage. </li>
<li>for finding sent errors in writing, i read thru the sentence fast to first “hear” the error. if nothing seems wrong, i check for noun-verb errors, idioms, etc.</li>
<li>math - realize nothing needs a calculator so if a problem is getting to be longer & drawn out, think of a different approach b/c you’re clearly doing it wrong.</li>
</ol>