Hi. I have a daughter in 10th grade. A girlfriend who tutors SAT recommended us to buy the Blue book that is the 2nd edition as well as getting the New SAT book with 4 official tests. She claims that the tests “haven’t changed that much” and my daughter should still practice the old SAT using the blue book. Is her suggestion correct or is my daughter going to be wasting her time? Also, where can I find detailed answer explanations for the blue book that is now outdated? Thanks for your help!
I wouldn’t bother with the old book. When I started working with students last summer on the new PSAT format, I scrapped my ENTIRE PSAT curriculum that I had used for a decade and cobbled together a mashup of ACT strategies as well as some new strategies for specific styles of test questions. Since taking the SAT in May, I have only further resolved that ACT strategies work for the SAT Verbal sections. Old test reading had sentence completions (vocabulary questions) along with a mix of short, medium, and long passages. The new test has 5 passages that are a consistent length and NO specific vocabulary section.
As for the math, the old and new SAT’s are significantly different. Most notably the new test is 1/3 no calculator, and there is now a much greater emphasis on interpreting data and other graphs and less of an emphasis on basic geometry (coordinate geometry excepted).
This SAT tutoring girlfriend, in my opinion, doesn’t know what she’s talking about. The old and new SAT’s are MUCH different.