<p>Hey,
I was going through all of the old books that I have, and I found a book, called:
"How to Beat the S.A.T." by Michael Donner.
My dad used this book when he was my age, back in 1986, and he got a perfect score in math.</p>
<p>Has anyone ever heard of this book, or have used it?
He basically says that the test is a game against the test maker.
He gives 17 rules in the book on guessing multiple choice questions (and the higher the # rule it is, the more important it is).
This is also intended for multiple choice questions on other standardized tests, such as the ACT, too.</p>
<p>I have never read an SAT-prep book like this before, so I thought it is interesting.
I have not used the methods yet (I got a 1780 SAT score recently), but I hope it helps.</p>
<p>Thanks for the link.
The 2 reviews on amazon rate it 5 stars, pretty good.
Besides that, I googled around, and I could not find any other reviews for this book.
Maybe it is because it is so old?</p>
<p>yeah I think it’s cuz the book is so old
I’m not sure if you actually read the reviews but you should definitely do that.
IDK I feel like you should just use the Blue Book :)</p>
<p>I think you should first learn all the concepts tested on the SAT, and hone your technique. If you already have the concepts down, then this book can’t hurt. </p>
<p>Some of the example tips the reviewers give are things I’ve already figured out - e.g. reading choices from the bottom ;).</p>
<p>I got a 560 in critical reading, 650 math (really hoped for at least 700), 570 writing with 10 essay.</p>
<p>I am from an intellectual family, where everyone is smart.
My dad went to Carnegie Mellon. I want to get in there as a legacy (H&SS because it is the 2nd easiest to get in to), the only thing that can stop me is mainly the SATs (my GPA isn’t bad, my extracurriculars are great, everything else seems pretty good).</p>
<p>I feel that I am very familiar with the SAT though. I tried all of the practice tests in the blue book. I have had a tutor in critical reading for a whole school year. I even took a week-long course from Kaplan. I have read countless articles on tips and such on improving the SAT. I improved from around 1300 on the PSAT to 1780 in a year.</p>
<p>I feel like the only solution for me is to take the ACT (I will try it when I get the Red Book- I feel that I will do better, since there is no vocabulary section), or study really hard again for the SAT (even though it might be a major pain).</p>
<p>good job on the big improvement 
and good luck~!</p>
<p>Be careful. The SAT has changed drastically since this book was written. A lot of the information will probably not be relevant anymore. For example, certain types of problems that were on older exams aren’t used anymore. Also the difficulty level of the SAT fluctuates over time depending on how well students are performing on it. So if you use this book I wouldn’t take any of the advice too seriously without double checking another source…</p>
<p>I’d be worried about a book that suggests that “A” and “E” are avoided by the test maker. I’ve looked at multiple choice answers from recent SATs as well as 80s SATs: they are consistent with a random, flat probability distribution (20% probability per letter for 5-choice response questions).</p>
<p>I second DrSteve and fignewton. For math, I’d opt for the PowerScore SAT Math Bible instead (in combination with either Gruber’s or Dr. Chung’s).</p>
<p>You should never guess on the S.A.T.</p>
<p>If avoiding “A” and “E” is an actual strategy suggested by this book, then the book is flat out wrong. SATs are designed so that the frequency of each answer choice is completely uniform. This strategy absolutely DOES NOT work on the SAT. </p>
<p>Remark: No disrespect to this book. This could very well have been an effective strategy at the time. But clearly this book is outdated and is no longer useful.</p>
<p>I believe there are a couple rules that are not of use for the new SAT, but most of the rules are for all standardized tests.
This book is for <em>wild</em> guessing, for if you have no idea what the answer is.
Avoiding “a,c,e” is rule 1, meaning it is the lowest rule to follow.
If you are blindly going to guess on a question that you have no idea what the answer is to it- then just try out the rules (in descending order in the book).</p>
<p>I will see what score I will get on my next test, using these rules.
It is just disappointing for me to study so hard for the SAT, and to only get a 1780…</p>
<p>You shouldn’t blindly guess on the SAT. There is a “guessing wrong” penalty of -1/4 of a point. Random guessing will only hurt your score. There is no one rule that will change this. There are some guessing strategies that can be implemented, but these are specific to the current SAT, and most are not standard. </p>
<p>I’m just very skeptical of these rules from the 80’s. I’m pretty sure that the College Board will have avoided most of these tricks by this point.</p>
<p>It might be helpful if you can mention a couple more of these rules that you feel are relevant (not too many - I don’t want you to violate any copyright laws) and I can tell you if they actually are.</p>
<p>Let me reword myself again, sorry…
By <em>wild</em> guesses, I mean like after eliminating a couple choices, and not being sure of which one to choose with a couple of them remaining.
Statistically, it might be better to guess and have the odds of getting it right if you did eliminate some answer choices (just in case you get it right, and get 1 point instead of -1/4)</p>
<p>A couple other rules:
-Try to avoid “None of the above” and “It cannot be determined” unless you are sure
-Choose an answer with the most elements in common with the majority of answer choices
Example: (a) 2.2 (b) 22 (c) 46 (d) 75 (e) 220
-When there are 4 answer choices with one very odd one that has no relation with the 4 choices, it is probably not the answer
-In sentence corrections for the writing section, if you were to guess, pick the shortest or next to shortest answer choice</p>
<p>If you can eliminate even a single answer choice, then I always recommend you take a guess. Your clarification of “wild” guesses makes more sense.</p>
<p>The first strategy you mention is almost similar to one I recommend, but not quite. First, I haven’t seen “None of the above” on any SAT in the last 10 years. I always recommend “quasi-eliminating” the choice “it cannot be determined” on “hard” questions (quasi-elimination is essentially getting rid of an answer choice with 95% certainty). I have never seen this answer choice come out correct on a hard question. But it does come out on easy and medium problems . So this strategy isn’t bad, but it could be phrased a bit better.</p>
<p>Second strategy: I just went through a whole recent SAT. There were 5 questions where this strategy could be applied (most questions either have all elements in common, or none in common). It failed 4 of the 5 times. So this doesn’t seem like a good strategy.</p>
<p>Third strategy: This one was successful on every question for which it applied on this particular SAT (it only applied on a few questions though). You might want to check it on a few more SATs before committing to using it though.</p>
<p>I can’t speak for verbal strategies. My expertise is in math.</p>
<p>Schill22, could you post the rest of the 17 rules? Or at least some others, so that I can get a better feel for what the book offers?</p>
<p>I can speak for the Writing strategy. When in doubt, pick the shortest Improving Sentences answer. The test makers loathe wordiness, which is why this is a good strategy. But ONLY do this if you’ve eliminated at least one answer choice (which you can almost always do in Writing questions).</p>
gl</p>