<p>What is the best U.S. History SAT 2 Review book out there? I have taken AP history, but I want to brush up and review a lot this summer so that I can do well on the SAT2 in the fall. Any good books? There is barrons, kaplan, princeton review, sparknotes... so many more... what do you suggest?</p>
<p>AMSCO is a must. Spark Notes was also quite useful.</p>
<p>For U.S. History (i scored a 770 in two weeks of prep + decent teacher+ started with a 560 on practice tests)
Look at the Barron’s book. It is the most comprehensive (though it lacks notes) most especially for the tests (nearly everyone i spoke with in my school said there was a lot of overlap between those seven practice tests and the actual May exam) hence I used this book. Try to go through it chunk by chunk, but it’s REALLY REALLY REALLY important to take practice tests.
For ex my studying consisted of something like this:
Diagnostic Test, read some of book
Test 1, retake Test 1, read some of book
Test 2, retake Test 2, retake Test 1 BREAK
read some book
Test 3, retake test 3, retake test 2 BREAK
read some book
etc. until I got to Test 7
Then I moved on to CB tests from the CB blue book guide.
I took them both in the same manner.
When I finished taking the test I CANNOT STRESS THE IMPORTANCE OF REREADNG EXPLANATIONS and LOOKING UP EVENTS if necessary, or else they’ll never stick.
3 days pretest I was breaking 700. Only 2 days before (I believe it was thurs morning, i scored a 770 on my CB test). 1 day before I looked over q’s i got wrong and went to sleep. </p>
<p>On the June test, there were i think at least 5 questions that directly overlapped with the CB test q’s. Make sure you know and understand these thoroughly (they’re always good candidates). Buying CB tests is also another good idea. (I didn’t do that though I thought 11 tests were enough. I also liked the McGraw-Hill tests they were most realistic besides CB). </p>
<p>note: don’t be too discouraged with the Barron’s because… it’s a lot a lot harder than CB real tests. </p>
<p>or you could try cramming the AMSCO painfully for a long time like my friend. She did well though (790).</p>