What are the best SAT preparation books/.pdfs/etc to purchase?

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Perhaps you should purchase a dictionary and a thesaurus while you're at it and learn meanings and synonyms of as many words as humanely possible.

Personally, I only studied the official SAT guide, but then again my scores weren't exactly stellar either. However, it's also probably the most frustrating and tiring 'test' I've ever given, and I've given many many exams and tests. How many passages can you bear to read? How many obscure grammar mistakes can you find? How many blanks can you fill with words most sane people haven't hear of? The test is supposed to measure what you learned in high school, but the only thing it measures is very basic Maths, English and mainly how well you prepared for the test. As English is of rather high level, people with English as a second language like me are at a huge disadvantage. But some people with the help of the right tutor can even overcome that barrier.


Hmm... looks like I started going severely off topic. Ah well, what I would recommend is that you get hold of an older edition of the official guide. This will probably have different sample tests than the version you have. The more practice, the better.

*Dude, you'll be making a grave mistake if you don't practice enough. While doing practice exams over and over might not necessarily improve your vocabulary or Math skills by much, your stamina (like I said before and as you probably know, it's a rather tiring test) and time management will definitely improve by a lot. Trust me, get every bit of practice you can, especially if you're aiming for a 2200+ score. I'll give you a small example. When I gave my AS levels I only had 5 practice papers for some exams and 4 for others in both Chemistry and Physics as a new course had been introduced by the examination board. I managed to pull an A in both, but just barely. 1 year later, the class following me had 7 practice papers for some and 6 for others. 2 papers, not much of a difference right? Wrong. Many kids in that class easily pulled off As and their scores were well into the top ten percentage while I was the only kid who managed to get As in my class, and even then I was only a few marks away from Bs.

What I'm trying to say is, don't underestimate the power of practice, get as much of it as you can. Be sure to do a sample paper once every few days. It really makes a world of difference....Show more