<p>What books would you recommend for a teenage boy looking to improve his SAT vocab?</p>
<p>I recommend 19th century British novels: Thomas Hardy, Dickens, Thackeray, etc. Have him keep a dictionary handy to look up and learn every word he doesn’t know. And most of the stories are pretty good to boot.</p>
<p>I’ve never known anyone who went through a 19th century British novel phase in their teen years who didn’t have an excellent vocabulary for the rest of their lives.</p>
<p>Direct Hits. SAT vocab with examples from popular culture - eg Harry Potter and Lady GaGa</p>
<p>I second Direct Hits. Enough Chuck Norris and the 300 references to keep him interested.</p>
<p>Any books that teenage boys will read are worth their while - try the “Hunger Games” series. My son also read “The Diary of a Part Time Indian - Sherman Alexie.”</p>
<p>A few years ago when my son was studying he wouldn’t look at the regular vocab books but we found some novels specifically written around SAT words. The one we bought was “The Marino Mission, One girl. One Mission. One Thousand words.” I can’t say how much it helped but he did well on the test and he did read through it. The book footnotes all of the SAT words used in context and defines them on the page that they appear. There are also vocab exercises and a word list with definitions in the back ofthe book.</p>
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<p>Despite the fact that it is often recommended, this is a circular approach. It is recommended on the basis that most students who do well on the SAT without extensive preparation happen to be voracious readers. However, those students did not become readers in preparation of the SAT; they did it out of genuine interest. </p>
<p>So, let’s answer the specific question about improving the reading comprehension that is tested on the SAT. Again, although it is often recommended to slave over lists of words, or look for the latest fads and most popular crutch (read Direct Hits,) the reality is that the strict knowledge of vocabulary does NOT play a great role is earning a high score. Understanding the format and traps of the test does. </p>
<p>Investing time outside the direct context of the tests is mostly an exercise in futility, and is quite hard to do. So, should one give hope? Not at all, and the text to read are widely available and pretty cheap. They also happen to the official tests released by the College Board. Even after setting aside a good number of what is called the Blue Book Second Edition (13 bucks at Walmart or Amazon) there are plenty of tests available in the previous editions (First Blue Book, various Red and White editions.)</p>
<p>A student does not even to take the older versions. Have the teenager read the questions critically and look up all words in a dictionary AND look up the answers at the same time. </p>
<p>This will not feel like “prepping” but will be extremely helpful as both the words and the patterns used by TCB/ETS become clearer and clearer.</p>
<p>I’d probably aimed for a two pronged approach. So yes, do as xiggi recommends, but why not try more reading too? I wouldn’t go for the 19th c. novels. I love Thomas Hardy, but I don’t know too many teenage boys who will happily spend a summer devouring them. I’d give them some real page turners. The Hunger Games isn’t a bad suggestion, though I think it is more appealing to girls. For boys I’d suggest Ender’s Game, David Weber’s Honor Harrington books, the Hornblower books by C S Forester, or bestsellers like The DaVinci Code.</p>
<p>Interesting mathmom, two of those were two of my S’s favorites at the time!</p>
<p>Which two?</p>
<p>Ender’s Game (I think there were other’s in that series but Ender’s Game was the favorite it even merited a college ap essay!) and the DaVinci Code (and also Angels and Demons)</p>
<p>The primary source for reading/vocabulary SAT prep should be old SAT tests, as well recommended by xiggi. If additional work is desired, I’d focus on The Atlantic and Harper’s Magazine, particulary the non-fiction pieces in those magazines.</p>
<p>Ditto Xiggi/Illyria. Prep for the test. I also recommend WSJ.</p>
<p>Kurt Vonnegut</p>
<p>Get him hooked on series. My son loves Name of the Wind and its sequel, by Patrick rothfuss. Great action, writing, plot–and by the time he’s done, he’ll have read a couple thousand pages. </p>
<p>If your son doesn’t like that one, any library will have a display of books to suck in that age group. And librarians are very, very good at finding just the right book to compete with your son’s other summer interests. </p>
<p>I don’t think it’s a question of SAT prep only. An important part of college and high school is sitting down to read texts for sustained periods; with all that we have to distract us, it’s getting harder just to sit and read. Getting lost in a book is a great way to focus on that skill.</p>
<p>it’s hard to recommend w/o knowing his interests, but if he’s into fantasy(and most ppl who play WoW or othr like fantasy games might be ok with it) give him Lord of the Rings, Song of Ice and Fire, Harry Dresden, or Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell(?) If history, try Alexandre Dumas(there are EXCELLENT English translations). If Sci-fi, Enders Game works, though I think it’s a little more targeted to younger than HS senior? Issac Asimov’s Foundation series I found much better. If he’s interested in something else, you know what better than I do 
then ask the librarian, or even, his friends, they might read too… 
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<p>Hopefully, this was somewhat helpful.</p>
<p>xiggi: " Have the teenager read the questions critically and look up all words in a dictionary AND look up the answers at the same time." </p>
<p>That’s an interesting approach to studying from the old tests. My S self studied some not alot. His math score went up 140 points. Reading went down 10. I have been thinking that a tutor might make a difference. All we’re hoping for is a 50 point increase. Its clear that studying from the tests as he did it was not effective for reading. But I know he didn’t approach his review this way. Are you suggesting this is an effective alternative to tutoring? I’m in the process of trying to find a tutor. BTW sitting down and studying vocabulary isn’t a option, there is no way that is going to happen. Just to be sure that I am understanding your process, are you suggesting that the student read the questions and answers first, and then read the passages and look up the words? Is the student thinking about trying to learn to recognize the patterens in questions and answers and to understand how that all makes sense rather than just searching for the correct answer when using your process?</p>
<p>Ender’s Game was written as an adult book, but because a kid is the hero it’s been co-opted by the middle school curriculum. The rest of the books in the series are very much adult books. Card has often been interested in the theme of how adults use and do or don’t corrupt children in the process.* Songmaster* is another really interesting book he wrote on the same theme.</p>
<p>“The Hunger Games isn’t a bad suggestion, though I think it is more appealing to girls. For boys I’d suggest Ender’s Game . . .” Mathmom.</p>
<p>Yes, Yes, Yes! My teenaged son LOVED “The Enders Game.” He turned 15 today! Happy Birthday DS’14!</p>
<p>Some books that he might like:</p>
<p>1984 by George Orwell
Ender’s Shadow by Orson Scott Card (tells the story of Ender’s Game from the perspective of Bean rather than Ender)
Brave New World by Huxley
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
anything by Mark Twain</p>
<p>I would not make him read these just to improve his SAT score. Reading will help improve his general reading skills, which in turn should help him do well on the test.</p>