<p>I bought the Official Blue Book, Princeton Review, and 10 Princeton Review practice tests. However, I've read that I shouldn't waste my time with the Princeton Review tests and just try to collect some official tests. Can anyone post a link to where I can get these real tests. Also, is it advisable to take the Princeton Review tests for practice or do they hurt more than they help? Also, what books are essential to building a summer, self-study SAT prep program?</p>
<p>I got 1920 on the May SAT and took it again today. I felt much better and hope for at least a 100 point raise with minimum prep inbetween May and June.</p>
<p>Edit:
Also, what is Grammatix, I've heard about it a lot here and I would like some information on this prep program.</p>
<p>The blue book has real SAT tests. If you can find the book, "10 Real SATs" - a red book containing 10 SATs given out before, that would help to (10 Real SATs has sections that are no longer being tested - just ignore these, the other sections are still being tested).</p>
<p>Princeton Review: Some people say these help, some don't. I would play around with the Princeton Review questions AFTER you do the questions from the blue book. If you find that your first PR scores are not consistent with your blue book scores, stop.</p>
<p>Grammatix is a strategy guide - some people feel that this guide is very effective, while some feel that it is more detrimental than helpful. I personally felt that grammatix was excellent. I got my book at:
<a href="http://www.lazystudentsway.com/satentry.php%5B/url%5D">http://www.lazystudentsway.com/satentry.php</a>
You can also get grammatix at:
<a href="http://www.grammatix.com/%5B/url%5D">www.grammatix.com/</a>
BUT some people said that they never got their copy when they ordered it from that 2nd link. I've had very few problems with lazystudentsway - they were quick to have the problems solved and I got my copy 2 days after ordering it. They offer a hardcopy, but some people here have said that their hard copy never came. I would suggest you get the downloadable e-book just to stay on the safe side. </p>
<p>Real SATs: If you need more tests than what the blue book and the red 10 real SATs provide, you can find one more SAT from the collegeboard website once you sign up for an account there. If you sign up for the collegeboard SAT prep course, you get (6? not sure about the amount) more SAT tests. I personally feel that the blue and red book provide more practice than what I need, and I wouldn't sign up for the course. The collegeboard also offers 1 SAT question a day into your email (for free) -
<a href="http://www.collegeboard.com/apps/qotd/question%5B/url%5D">http://www.collegeboard.com/apps/qotd/question</a>
Sparknotes also provides some extra practice tests - some people here say those are good.
<a href="http://www.sparknotes.com/testprep/newsat/%5B/url%5D">http://www.sparknotes.com/testprep/newsat/</a></p>
<p>Monstrose's last post in the Xiggi method thread also has some nice info in looking for real tests:
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?p=2458181#post2458181%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?p=2458181#post2458181</a></p>
<p>I think that the best "studying" for the SAT is to take as many practice tests as possible. Look over your answers and try to look for patterns appear on the tests (The grammatix guide was essentialy made up of the patterns that the author found on the SAT tests).</p>
<p>The Blue Book tests are "real" in the sense that the CB created them, but they are not "real" in that they were never actually administered. I'd describe them as CB "beta" tests, which is to say they are still better than PR's or Kaplan's (which I <em>might</em> use for practice if I had to but I definitely wouldn't trust the scores they predict). In my experience, the Blue Book tests are virtually indistinguishable from the real tests, but since they were never actually administered, they don't give exact scores, just ranges. </p>
<p>Besides the 8 Blue Book tests, there are 6 more CB "beta" tests available if you pay ~$70 for the CB Online Course. One of these six was originally available as a free download, so you may be able to find someone who already has it. It's the one with the essay topic about competition. My experience with the tests from the online course is that they seem a bit less "real" than the blue book tests, but they're still far better than PR's or Kaplan's tests.</p>
<p>But there are several real SAT's that have already been released. The first, from March 2005, is the one that is currently the free download from CB. The other two (from Oct 2005 and Jan 2006) were only available to those who took the tests on that date and paid for the Q&A service. Maybe you can find someone who has them. Also, both the Saturday and Sunday tests from May 6th/7th are being released as Q&A's in about two weeks.</p>
<p>So, to summarize, CB has put out 8+6=14 "beta" tests that you can get for a total of less than $100, a real test that you can get for free, plus four more real tests that were administered on "Q&A" dates. That's a total of 19 tests.</p>
<p>If you still need more, then go with the suggestion to use old SAT's (from Real SAT's, search on Amazon) for math and reading practice. Finally, you could use PSAT's. The new PSAT debuted in 2004 and there are now 6 of them. There's the free one from the registration bulletin, the Sat and Wed versions from 2004, and the Sat and Wed and make-up versions from 2005. All of these have been officially released and you can order them individually from CB. Enjoy.</p>
<p>where to download that past tests?</p>
<p>The PSAT tests...I have them except there are NO ANSWERS!!
So, can someone send me the answers, from a score report, or if someone purchased them can we share some of the answers.</p>