<p>Hey guys, hope it went well for you all. Now, while it's fresh in your minds, honestly which guides worked well, which didn't, and if you had it to do again and the whole summer, how would you ideally prepare. Thanks and good luck on your scores.</p>
<p>take it after an AP.. works wonders</p>
<p>also, if i had all summer, I would take the time to try more practice tests prior to the exam. practice tests are your best friend.</p>
<p>PR is good for a "quick flip-through review"
Meylani wins (do them all, not just 5 tests like i did)
(did not use Barrons, but i heard it went well for barron users)</p>
<p>Oh i'm sorry, i thought you mean sat ii subject tests in general.</p>
<p>for IIC, get familiar with what your calculator is capable of.. this will make or break you since you need to be fast and accurate</p>
<p>and of course practice tests.. i used barrons.. the quesitons in barrons were like 100x harder, so i felt good about today's test :P</p>
<p>If ur a math wiz use barrons, otherwise use PR.</p>
<p>Princeton Review and Sparknotes are both good primers on the basics. Barron's provides the most advanced and detailed formulas and techniques; however, most of these are useless on the actual test. The Barron's practice tests were very good, since they were harder than the real test (it made the real test seem easier and go faster). Meylani's practice tests were very good as well, but his new book (15 realistic tests) has a number of grating errors in the answer key.</p>
<p>My biggest piece of advice, however, is to buy a Ti-89 and learn how to use it. With the proper skills and programs, you can use it to rapidly solve many seemingly hard problems and greatly speed up your performance. As someone who scored in the range of probably 790-800 (won't know until the 20th), I can honestly say that at least 50 points of that is due to the Ti-89. Probably more.</p>
<p>honestly, i couldnt have survived if i didnt have a couple programs for math IIC...used barrons which i thought was alright but at times frustrating. wish i had taken it in january AFTER calculus...and not 6 months after not having any math. i think june and january are great times to take them, esp if you are on a block schedule so its right after you learn the material and its fresh in your head and you don't need alot of prep</p>
<p>I didn't feel that I used a lot of programs on the 2C today, just one for 3D distance.</p>
<p>definetely take SATII's in May or June, at the end of the corresponding course (sigh.. just like my guidance counselor said... now wonder she's hired.)</p>
<p>thanks. more thoughts?</p>
<p>How much does a Ti-89 cost? And is it worth to buy it only for the math 2c if you already own casio 9850B</p>
<p>The Ti-89 costs about [url=<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0001EMLZ2/qid=1117978531/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/002-1378382-9056029?v=glance&s=electronics&n=507846%5D$142%5B/url">http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0001EMLZ2/qid=1117978531/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/002-1378382-9056029?v=glance&s=electronics&n=507846]$142[/url</a>], although you can probably find it for less.</p>
<p>I'm not entirely familiar with the Casio, but a quick glance at the product website suggests it's worth upgrading. The Ti-89 can solve virtually any algebraic equation (including those with limits and sigma notation), simplify expressions, do limits, do summation, vector operations, etc. The guidebook / manual is more than 600 pages thick, and I've personally only begun to touch the surface of what it can do. It also has a variety of downloadable fully-featured applications. It's real strength is in calculus, though, and if you're ever planning on taking an advanced calculus course, you'll find it indispensable.</p>
<p>what about a Ti-84???
how much does that cost and how more worse is it?</p>
<p>Ti-84 goes from $107 to $132.</p>
<p>In my opinion it's far inferior for the Math IIC, unless you can do tough math in your head very quickly (which some people can). It's also decidedly mediocre for AP calculus.</p>
<p>Always use a TI-89 for everything. It's the best calculator, with the most intuitive menu system/OS - it just makes sense. It's easy to use and great for everything but Stat.</p>
<p>spartan is right...well for statistics i upgraded with this neat all in one organizing program. It organzies all my stats stuff in one thing and deals with it in its own folder and the functions are in nice menues etc etc...no 2nd 5 stuff lol</p>
<p>I bought a TI-84 and am thoroughly content with its performance on the SAT iic exam. I found the app "polyfinder" to be very useful in obtaining the roots of polynomials. Yet, my friend owns a Ti-89 and says it is the best thing ever. the "solver" function helped him score an 800 math iic. So if I were you, I'd spend the extra money to get an 89. I'm going to have a disadvantage next year on the AP calc exam because of it.</p>
<p>PR is good. I uesd an old Kaplan book (from 1995?) but the format of the book was really helpful. </p>
<p>I totally grasped the concepts and was pretty accurate with the problems...however, my downfall was time. Work on doing all problems in about a minute, accurately. You have to think fast and on your feet. I was ahead up until the 20 minutes left mark...I started mucking about and overanalyzing, and I only got to #43 (out of 50).</p>
<p>I used a TI-83 silver edition, because I've had it forever and I'm used to working with it.</p>
<p>As for books, I have mixed feelings about Barron's. If you're aiming for a high score and want a book that goes over all of the tougher questions, Barrons is it. The practice tests are very challenging. It's good to use for practice, but definitely don't take your scores from that book too literally. Also realize that some of the topics in the Barron's book VERY rarely show up on the actual test.</p>
<p>A book that is good if you already have another one is the REA book. The review is very brief and inadequate, but the practice tests are good and pretty similar to the real thing.</p>
<p>I highly reccomend buying a TI-89. Chances are, you'll need it in the future anyway, so why not buy it now? For the SATII and Calc APs it has significant advantages. The F2-Solve function is a huge timesaver. Instead of graphing two equations and finding the intersections, you can just put them into solver. The TI-89 is worth getting and learning how to use, even though it might cost a lot.</p>
<p>I only used Sparknotes and it did me wonders! There are quite a few errors in the book, but the tests are pretty accurate.</p>
<p>I tried using Barrons for a while until I realized everything was ridiculously hard! I would use this book if you had plenty of time to study (you'll probably over prepare... but that never hurts).</p>