<p>Hi,</p>
<p>Which book is the best for obtaining a good score on the SAT II Biology. I was thinking of Barron's, Princeton Review and the official study guide. Other suggestions are welcome.</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>I think your choice is perfect. Barrons is the best for detailed notes (though you should still have a basic background of biology)(I recommend getting the cd rom edition to get 2 extra practice papers because Barrons has questions that are only slightly harder than the official SAT’s) while Princeton Review has some nice questions and is useful for getting basic concepts. The Official study guide of course is good too because it gives you actual questions set by the collegeboard. To be honest these books are all you need. Though I highly recommend learning out common animals and what phylum or class (if in the phylum chordate) they belong to as you will most likely be tested on them.</p>
<p>Regarding some book choices I think you should stay clear of, Kaplan would be on the top of the list because the test is too unrealistic. The book goes into too much detail (e.g. 1 page of info when all you need is 1 sentence) and the practice test questions are too specific and the data analysis info is like critical reading… There was a question with background information for a data analysis question that flooded one whole column of the page (each page has only 2 columns of text + questions).</p>
<p>Hindsight1, thank you for your reply. If you could only pick one book out of the Princeton Review and Barron’s, which one would you?</p>
<p>I have read a number of online reviews online about the books. The general sentiment appears to be that the Princeton Review provides a very generalized review of the book, whereas Barron’s is more in-depth and prepares you more adequately for the test. I am definitely aiming for an 800 (I’d be happy with 750+) - I am already A Level (equavelent to IB) Biology so I should be fine with most of the information.</p>
<p>I used Kaplan only because it was at my library and I didn’t have to buy it, but I thought it was very good. It was very detailed and contained pretty much all the info. you would need to score very high on the test.</p>