<p>I have just started prepping for the December SAT and have been through the entire Math section of the 'Official SAT Study Guide' ("Blue Book") - and understand the majority of the content.</p>
<p>I had a session with a Math tutor (I've never had a tutor before) yesterday and she told me that the Blue Book doesn't contain all of the information that you need to know for the math exam.</p>
<p>She then proceeded to teach me topics that I had never learnt before at school.</p>
<p>I was wondering if she is right - or if she is mistaken and the Blue Book (which I have heard praised many times) does contain everything that will be on the exam?</p>
<p>There are some helpful sections in the front part of the book that will introduce you to the structure/format of the test. However, the best part of the College Board “Big Blue Book” is the 2nd half of the book that contains the 10 full-length practice tests.</p>
<p>There’s a group of high school students that can solve SAT reasoning-style Math problems with no prep at all. Every school has a small number of these students – and it’s not always who you think, i.e…, not necessarily the kids who get the highest grades in math class. Such students have an intuitive feel for the brainteaser/puzzle-based nature of the questions. They can figure out the language of the word problems and can discern the important information from the extraneous.</p>
<p>The vast majority of students aren’t like this, though. They need to learn how to dissect each type of SAT Math question and adjust to the “classic” variations employed by College Board test-writers. That’s where SAT prep comes into play. You have many options for SAT prep: commercially available books (cheapest), prep class (more expensive), and one-on-one tutoring (most expensive). Often times classes can be more expensive and less effective than one-on-one tutoring. Students choose the method of prep based on their learning style, financial resources, time available, and motivation.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>