<p>Many experts on the board have voiced how the usage of CB questions is the way to approach SAT Prep. Numerous students get attracted towards taking hard Barron tests so they can prep using a higher standard. This is NOT wise. You are trying to PRECISELY master CB questions and Barrons will not help you with this. In fact, I haven't seen a single expert on CC say otherwise. It is one of the few things they agree wholly on. If you want to improve, do NOT turn to questions made by external sources. There are 8 tests in the BB, 6 given out in the Online CB SAT source, and many more that can be found. You can even use old SAT Prep books by the CB and ignore the analogies and quantitive comparisons. Please feel free to comment. Remember this advice is for the SAT Reasoning Test (SAT I) and does not apply to SAT IIs considering the scarcity of CB SAT II pratice tests. Even if SAT IIs, try to stick to companies KNOWN to be good at mirroring CB techniques.</p>
<p>So what did you score on the SAT using only CB questions for your prep?</p>
<p>I agree with about 95% of what Amu is saying. The CB tests are obviously a great way to practice for the SAT because it is exactly what you can expect when test day comes. However, sometimes I need to only practice hard questions because those are the ones I miss. I believe that the Barron's CR practice sentence completions (all 240...took me about 5 days...lol) really helped me zone in on the harder questions I had been missing with the CB tests. Hope I helped someone...</p>
<p>um thanks mr. obvious</p>
<p>I totally agree with Amu. Collegeboard tests are essential to doing well on the exam! </p>
<p>I will say, however, that practicing other companies' questions will definitely not hurt you, considering that SAT questions in general test only so many formulas. I also dislike how Collegeboard makes most of their tests almost inaccessible to the public. I wish they'd release an abundance of exams to feed the hungry :x</p>
<p>There are enough tests out there to satisfy the hunger. 8 BB + 6 Online + 6 QAS (Easy grab) + 10 Old SAT = 30. So you are looking AT LEAST 30 Pratice tests. If you are aggressive it can easily be higher.</p>
<p>Amu</p>
<p>I'm sorry but what exactly is 8 BB and 6 QAS (Easy grab) </p>
<p>and how can you find those 10 OLD SATs?</p>
<p>By buying the old official book.</p>
<p>@Amu: Sure but I wouldn't call the old 10, 'practice tests'. At most they're practice questions. There's no writing; there are useless analogy questions in CR sections and equally useless quantitative questions in Math.</p>
<p>Moreover, there's no algebra 2 and the CR passages *tend to be easier to read.</p>
<p>*as far as I have heard</p>
<p>There are 8 pratice tests in the Blue Book (Official guide to the SAT by College Board)</p>
<p>There are at least 6 offical tests you can buy that were given on specific test dates. Many people give them out for free. However, you would be doing this at your own risk. I do not endorse this act in any way.</p>
<p>714nD1: It brushes up your skills for the new SAT if you can pick up on their techniques, despite their being differences in the two formats. They might even be better than Kaplan/PR tests for the new SAT. I don't see what is so hard about ignoring the analogy and quantitive. All combined you can probably get the equivalent of 7+ pratice tests</p>
<p>Still waiting to hear what you scored, Amu...</p>
<p>I haven't taken a real SAT yet. I'll let you know after I take it in October.</p>
<p>the tests in the princeton review are crap, i got 30% of the math wrong, but i did take a practice CB math section, and i onyl got the last one wrong, thats because it was a really tricky question. i basically got it right, but they were asking for the percentage, and i just found the percentage out of 1</p>
<p>other tests are good to get your mind stimulated and practice sitting down and concentrating for four hours, but don't use the practice exams as a precursor of your performance</p>
<p>Did i use precursor correctly?? lol</p>
<p>^^no, actually :) i think "indicator" is what you wanted.</p>
<p>this is the way i always explain it to people: there may be companies that make tests harder than the SAT, but that doesn't necessarily mean your SAT score will benefit from their questions. performing on the flying trapeze is also significantly harder than any part of the SAT, but it doesn't make any sense to prepare for the SAT by practicing the flying trapeze, does it?</p>
<p>once you have the basics of math and english down (and the vast majority of cc'ers have the basics down), answering SAT questions correctly is a matter of learning the specific and unique feeling of real SAT questions. from a certain perspective, a 3rd-party practice question is no more similar to a real SAT question than the flying trapeze is. answering a Barron's question is no preparation for the best way to answer a CB question.</p>
<p>and not that it matters, but my score was a 2380. i never used a non-CB question to practice with.</p>
<p>I've been studying with Princeton Review and Kaplan practice tests...is this wise? p.s. I need a big score increase too...100-150 points :-/.</p>
<p>^^^ it's not what i'd be doing. i'd be using only real CB questions if i were you. some on this board would disagree, but that's my take on it.</p>
<p>Looking through the CB Questions in the blue book they all seem a LOT easier than the PR ones. The Kaplan ones are in some strange arcane language so I can't understand it. Havent looked at barrons yet</p>