<p>What are best test prep books for -
SAT II Chem
SAT II World History
SAT MATH I and MATH II </p>
<p>PR , Barrons, Spark Notes ( online ) or any other suggestions -
Thx.</p>
<p>Im taking both Math 2 and Us history. I bought barrons and a collegetestprep.com standard+custom test subscription for both. A lot of people have recommended both, but I think im gonna spend most of my time on the collegetestprep subscription. Especially since there isnt much time left, collegetetsprep would be better cause it will point out what you topics you are doing well in and what you need to improve in, so it will help you improve on those specific topics.</p>
<p>How similar are the tests on the collegetest prep.com site to the ones in the book from college board ?</p>
<p>For math2 and US history they are very close to the college board standards, the question formats and types are very similar and the difficulty might be a bit tougher for those two subjects, but it’s the best prep material i have tried so far. They offer programs for chem, math1/2, however they don’t have anything yet for world history. [About</a> SAT Subject Tests, Format, Sample Questions, QBank](<a href=“http://collegetestprep.com/SAT-Subject-Test.aspx]About”>http://collegetestprep.com/SAT-Subject-Test.aspx) check out the sample questions under the info for each subject(click on the left menu). I signed up for both standard and custom. Their custom stuff is pretty cool, it will let you practice specifc chapters/topics, I havent seen that with any other prep company yet. I used a discount code: “SUMMER20”, got 20% off. Good luck on your tests</p>
<p>How was it compared to the free tests on Spark Notes ?</p>
<p>I haven’t tried the free tests on spark notes yet but thats definitely something Im going to look into for extra practice on top of the collegetestprep stuff. I dont think sparknotes has an analysis thing like collegetestprep. From the reading iv done on CC forums I havent heard that sparknotes is great, so ill leave it till the end for extra practice if i have time.</p>
<p>So how were the subject tests ? Since you have taken the actual tests, which prep route would you recommend ?</p>
<p>My son prefers Princeton Review prep books. He thinks the Barron’s are too detailed and provide more information than necessary. A lot of CC posters seem to think the same. My son also complains that Barron’s doesn’t explain their correct answers as well as PR. It’s like, “2+2 = 4 because if you add 2 and 2, the result is 4.” He thinks PR does a better job explaining the route to a correct answer to a missed question.</p>
<p>That being said, he did use both Barron’s and PR to prep for Math 1, Math 2, and Chemistry.</p>
<p>First, he studied and read only the sections he thought he needed from the Princeton Review books, and then (spread casually over about 2 weeks), he took the sample tests out of both Barron’s and PR.</p>
<p>If the tests showed a particular weak area, he read the appropriate sections from PR first. If PR didn’t provide quite enough explanation on that subject area, he read the Barron’s section on the same principles.</p>
<p>In no case did he read any book cover to cover. He didn’t think it was necessary.</p>
<p>He prepped for Math 1 and Math 2 beginning about 2 weeks before the tests, and rather casually. He felt like he already knew his math pretty well.</p>
<p>He prepped for World History and US History mostly by just taking sample tests. He felt the AP classes and AP test prep for those courses prepared him well enough.</p>
<p>He prepped for Chemistry by studying over a 5 week period and really reading several different sections in both prep books. He hadn’t had Chemistry in over a year, and the class he took was not an AP class. So he felt like he had to really study for that one.</p>
<p>Results: 800 Chem, 800 World History, 780 Math 1. He’ll get back his Math 2 and US History results later this month.</p>
<p>Thx SimpleLife. Did your son look at the online tests from Spark Notes. How were they compared to the actuals tests ?</p>
<p>No … sorry, bis. He did not even look at Spark Notes. He heard they were much easier than PR and Barron’s. He never bothered to check them out.</p>
<p>He was originally discouraged, while studying for his first two Subject Tests – World History and Math 1, because he was surprised to see that he was missing so many on the practice tests in those books (particularly Barron’s). But he did learn a few things from the start. (1) World History has a huge curve – so lots of missed problems still equated to a 780-800, and (2) Barron’s tests were harder – he generally missed more on a Barron’s test than a PR test. So he always saved a PR sample test to use as his last possible practice test (say, for the Thursday night before the Saturday actual test date) – because he found the PR tests to be more representative of the real thing… and his PR scores were always higher, which boosted his confidence before the real test.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>