Math SAT book- the best one you've used

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
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<p>Well, let me help you! The question was about the BEST books available. Not about something with a truly limited --if any-- usefulness. </p>

<p>Preparing for the SAT is all about relevance. That is why students should stay away from tests prepared by glorified amateurs, and especially amateurs who are quite confused about the material tested on the SAT. Dr. Chung’s book is one of the worst book in the genre, as his tips are mostly irrelevant and his tests pure junk. Unfortunately, his book is not unique, as there have been similar books peddled by the SAT “gurus/buffoons” who have a lacking command of English. </p>

<p>Further, one of the worst --to stick to the theme of worst-- proposals and suggestions is to practice solving problems that are MORE difficult than the typical SAT tests. And, if anyone believes in that utterly misguided and USELESS idea, there would be MUCH better sources than a typo-marred junk of a book. All one would have to do is dig into a GRE or GMAT book, but that will still be a waste of time and efforts for the … SAT PREPARING STUDENT! Practicing for the marathon by running a bunch of 400 meters hurdles does not make sense, does it? </p>

<p>Students often report that the biggest handicap in preparing for the SAT is not finding enough time … so what waste the precious time on a horribly misguided book that has little to no relevance to the actual SAT and contains horribly written tests … when there are much better books (think Gruber of Maxximum SAT) and optimal tests (TCB only) available. </p>

<p>While Chung’s book is better ignored, the truly curious could check the free pages on Amazon in an elusive quest for one useful tip. Even it is akin to a blind hog finding an acorn.</p>

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<p>Xiggi, I think your argument is irrelevant. I bought the book and finished it and it increased my score in ~12 days dramatically. I think you’re actually over analyzing Dr. Chung’s. What I am looking in a book is for it to increase my scores, nothing else is relevant. I do not care how many typos are in the book; I do not care about the extremely hard practice tests that do not resemble the real SATs, but what I do care for actually is for it to increase my score, which it did.</p>

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<p>Honestly, I find that the many of the prep books vary in their helpfulness depending on the person.</p>

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<p>Au contraire! Did you happen to have missed the OP’s question?</p>

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<p>Going through sections comprehensively is hardly the same as offering 50 tips and 20 worthless tests. That is why some have pointed to Gruber’s as a better option.</p>

<p>Inasmuch as there might be a gem or two in the Chung book, it remains that it is light on relevance to the real test and fails entirely in terms of … providing useful explanations. Did you not struggle to understand the examples despite having spent much time on … trying? </p>

<p>If you were to go back to my (now very old) suggestions, you’d see that I recommend acquiring as many books as one can afford and use them as references when the needs arises in the preparation. And in case of doubt to come here and ask for clarifications. </p>

<p>Obviously, not ALL books are good – some are actually execrable. It so happens that Chung’s is closer to the latter. It is a niche book and not a very good one to boot!</p>

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<p>Well obviously everything that’s posted here is an opinion and nothing more. However, I would strongly suggest using Dr. Chung’s to supplement the Blue Book and possibly the Gruber’s as well, though I’ve never actually personally used it. Dr. Chung’s may contain a few typos here and there, but is overall a very solid prep book for the math section of the SAT. It isn’t meant to be a comprehensive hand-holding guide to the math section, but instead focuses on one of the most important parts of the test- the hard questions. The philosophy holds that the easy questions are easy and the hard questions are, well, hard. By testing the difficult and tricky material and making sure it is comfortable and solid, the easier questions should in turn become a breeze. If you carefully go over your mistakes and review exactly why you got each one wrong and keep that error in mind for the next test, your score will improve dramatically. To use Xiggi’s running analogy, it’s far better to, let’s say, run a mile at a faster pace during practice so that in a race, it will be easier and more comfortable to do. Same goes with the SAT essay. It may help to write the essay in less than the suggested time in order to mimic actual testing conditions because believe me, it doesn’t feel like a full 25 minutes when you’re writing the essay on the actual test. Dr. Chung’s isn’t meant to coddle and hold you in the safety and comfort of easy SAT questions; it’s true value is in its compilation of the most difficult SAT math questions released that help to make the test taker more confident during the test.</p>

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<p>^^</p>

<p>If those assumptions were true …</p>

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<p>can someone please explain tip number 27 in dr. chung’s for me?</p>

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<p>PWNtheSAT Math Guide. The book is divided into different types of problems and gives you strategies for solving each. Also, the book is a little harder than the actual SAT.</p>

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<p>I found this book to be a great help and its an easy read for the Math sections:</p>

<p>The New Math SAT Game Plan: The Strategic Way to Score Higher
[The</a> New Math SAT Game Plan: The Strategic Way to Score Higher: Philip Keller: 9780981589602: Amazon.com: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/The-New-Math-Game-Plan/dp/098158960X/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=84T6MRJPWNSS&coliid=I2WUBEE4RIB6I9]The”>http://www.amazon.com/The-New-Math-Game-Plan/dp/098158960X/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=84T6MRJPWNSS&coliid=I2WUBEE4RIB6I9)</p>

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<p>^I tried this book as well, but I feel that it suits those who have < 600. Just my two cents.</p>

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<p>Here is my experience from last 3 months ordeal in preparing Math2 for my sophomore son. Just got the score now - 800.</p>

<p>A little background, he is good in math, took Alg/Trig in 9th, skipped precalc (but that’s a mistake I think) and now taking Calc AP in 10th. He is very good, got A in Alg/Trig and Calc AP 1st Sem is also A. </p>

<p>When he was attempting tests from Barrons – it will take him 90-120 minutes to finish the test if he wants to do atleast 30 correct. If he hurries up and tried to finish in 1 hour, he can barely do more than 20 correct. It was very depressing for him and he thought about quitting the test altogether. I also got Dr Chung book but after 2 tests, it went up in garbage. Even worse than barrons. His scores were 550-600 from barrons/chung.</p>

<p>Being a father, trying to help my son prepare for the test and looking at how he is feeling, was really disheartening to me. I then decided, to hell with barrons and chung, We were in library to pick some book and I found Kaplan Math Sat2. I also ordered PR Math book since he read online PR book is better. This was about 1st week of Jan, only 2 weeks to go for the test. The school is in full session so there is barely any time left for 2hrs of test taking and grading etc.</p>

<p>So we decided that he will just do 15-20 problems in one sitting everyday and concentrate on accuracy and timing. And if time permitted, he will take 1-2 test from the book.</p>

<p>Both Kaplan and PR books were little easier than Barrons and covered the concepts better. I think I found Kaplan better than PR. Also, both books and tests proved to be a morale booster. He was able to finish 2 tests from Kaplan in 1 hour with about 40-42 correct. This was huge improvement over barrons.</p>

<p>On test day, I told him to keep pace with the test, after every 10mins, mark yourself and you should have done 10 questions, try to finish atleast 40-45 questions by end of 50th minutes. Then you can look at the remaining questions and see if you can attempt them without spending 2-3 minutes on each. Or you can use your remaining 10mins to revisit the questions attempted and find any mistakes. Because in our experience, the last 4-5 questions in sample tests used to take 10minutes or more. If the real test is like that, you are better of checking your answers for the 1st 45 questions, then trying to solve the hardest 5.</p>

<p>Anyway, long story short (its way too long – but I hope it helps some students and parents who are/will be going through with this struggle), on test day, he was able to finish the test in 50 minutes, left 2 questions and had enough time to revisit his answers, found 1 mistake, corrected it. Tried to attempt the remaining 2 questions, but gave up and left them blank.</p>

<p>And the result is 800 !!!</p>

<p>So my advise to all, dont give up so easily and dont buy the hype of barrons/chung. The real tests may not be that hard as long as you have drilled down the concepts. Its more of timed test than knowledge test.</p>

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<p>Dr. Jung and Dr. Stephen Warner are THE BEST- especially Dr. Warner.</p>