Everyone here seems to think this is the best math SAT book. I am a tutor and thinking of using it with students. I was wondering what the level of the problems is. Are they is difficulty order? With the materials I have used, mostly real SATs and “Barrons Math SAT Workbook”, I can easily tell by how late in the section they are the approximate difficulty of problems, and their suitability to students of various levels.
I really enjoyed using that book. The author has covered almost everything of math. I read the book carefully and solved each problem until I understand it everything. Yes, on the book, the questions are on difficult order.
I know it is a good book and relatively difficult. I was just wondering the level. Like would it be usable for students with a current score of 600-700. I was wondering the score range, particularly as the questions aren’t obviously sorted by difficulty. For example, I am used to using a similar older book, “Barrons Math SAT Workbook”, but it really only works for students between about 530 and 670 current scores, even though the questions are in difficulty order. With real SATs, I know exactly which questions to assign to which level of student.
It depends from the student. I went from 640 to 800 in one month and half. The student need to focus on what he is failing like counting problems, sequence, triangles, etc. the key is to know the test and then you are good to go. He made on the book some similar question from past SAT tests slightly different but they are pretty the same. Most fof his problem are like level 4-5.
@sattut, I am a tutor as well and often use Mike’s book and can give you some pretty good feedback here. First of all, the questions are numbered according to difficulty: they are numbered as though they were on a section of 20 questions, so you will notice that the numbers jump around and that at the end of each section he may have questions numbered 11, 13, 17, 19, and 20 to reflect that they are medium and hard questions.
NOW, that said, he underestimates the difficulty almost universally by roughly 5 questions in my opinion. So a question 11 is more like a 16 and a 13 is more like an 18. And questions 19 and 20, they are, well…too hard! Not way way too hard but on average a little bit harder than what you are likely to see. Again, just my opinion.
I personally find that the book works well for people who are at around 600+, maybe a tad higher. For people lower than that I often use Phil Keller’s book. I think Mike’s book is too hard for people below 600 - I have even tried on occasion and usually its just too difficult for them.
Hope that helps.