<p>So I plan to purchase one of the Gruber's book and one of the Barron's books for a thorough summer SAT study. Which is better for a 2100+ from a 2020, Gruber's Complete guide or Gruber's 2400, and Barron's SAT or Barron's SAT 2400?</p>
<p>Barron’s is better. Gruber’s is not recommended AT ALL.
At least for Barron’s, you practice with harder materials.
Gruber’s is just not realistic.</p>
<p>Gruber’s is phenomenal for math, not so much CR and W.</p>
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<p>Why practice with overly difficult material if that material will NEVER show up? Barron’s is not realistic, which, according to you, would put it in the same category as Gruber’s and therefore not recommended.</p>
<p>I beg to differ.
When I said that Gruber’s was not realistic, I implied that the content was just different (not in terms of difficulty but the type of questions) from CB Book. I never used Math section for Gruber’s (I did not study for math basically… ), but it did seem a bit overkill from my perspective.
I do know, however, that Critical Reading from Gruber’s is very horrible.</p>
<p>In terms of Barron’s, why should you prepare for hard materials? The answer is that for some students, they need to practice with harder materials to build skills. Theoretically, preparing with harder book would make the real test easier. I used Barron’s for Critical Reading, but not for others. I thought that it was pretty good overall, although the list was unnecessary for vocabulary (just like Gruber’s was).</p>
<p>As in any review, I believe that each book is different to each reader, but this is my understanding of two. :)</p>
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<p>I said I didn’t recommend the CR section, but the math is good.</p>
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<p>Why? Less intelligent students would need easier materials to build skills and work up to the real test. Intelligent students would be fine just working with real materials from the start.</p>
<p>I disagree with the other writers. I was fascinated with the strategies and other material in Gruber’s 2400 book. I also have the Barrons and it just didn’t do it for me and I really didn’t go through it. Before studying with the Gruber book, I got a 1640 on the SAT in November. I then used the Gruber 2400 book and when I took my Jan SAT, I got a 2210!!! So after studying with the Gruber book, I got a 570 point increase with an increase of 200 points in the Critical Reading, 210 points the math and 160 points in the Writing. Not bad, huh.</p>
<p>@Jamesford, let me try to help you understand Grayfalcon89’s logic, one that I know by experience makes perfect sense.</p>
<p>If you practice with Barron’s ACT tests, for example, and know the book fluently, the actual ACT will probably seem elementary. The only way that some people can master some material is by studying another that is a tier of difficulty higher than the one they are being tested on, to be able to find the easier material a joke compared to what they have been practicing with.</p>
<p>After quite a bit of practice with these two tests myself, I must say that I do not recommend doing this if one can help it, especially with CB tests, as they are very hard to mimic from any 3rd party company.</p>