The book is divided into four separate sections: one on understanding the SAT at a high level, and then one section each for Reading, Math, and Writing and Language. Of all books on the market, this book aligns most closely with my personal philosophy on the SAT and how to succeed on it. It’s influenced the way that I think about teaching our students at PrepScholar. Some of the concepts in this book were things I understood intuitively when I took the SAT and was studying for a perfect score, but the author articulates them in a crystal clear way in this book. ![]() While most books focus only on test content and somewhat useful strategies, this book gets down to the brass tacks of how to understand the SAT, and what high-level strategies you need to succeed. This means that your strategy should be to rule out all incorrect answer choices, which is important on SAT reading. You learn that every answer must be unambiguously correct, or else students would complain that their incorrect answer is correct. It needs to test basic concepts so that it can be administered nationwide to all students, but it also needs to make it difficult, so it distorts the questions in a weird way. You learn that the SAT is designed to be a predictable, standardized test. What does this mean? Here are a few examples: What you’ll get from the Black Book is a way to think about the SAT. It has its drawbacks, and you’ll definitely need supplemental help and more prep programs, as I explain below. This book made it onto my list of Best SAT Prep Books for good reason. While this doesn't automatically reflect poorly on the book - after all, even the best companies need substantial marketing skill - it suggests that his heart and focus is on marketing, not on helping you prepare for the SAT. "I used my knowledge of SMM, SEM, and SEO to push the book's Amazon page to the top of Google's natural results for a variety of competitive search terms, and to maintain those results through the Penguin 2.0 update. I crafted the book's Amazon description to maximize sales conversions while optimizing its on-page SEO factors (as much as possible within Amazon's on-page limitations)." This means that some amount of his book's success is due to marketing skill. However, a little known fact about Mike Barrett is that he is a professional marketer by trade. The quality of his writing leaves no doubt that he's an expert on the SAT. Mike Barrett describes himself as a test-prep expert "who has been tutoring people for standardized tests ever since he was in high school." He offers mostly online tutoring through his company Concierge Tutoring. What are the book's main pros and cons?.Who's the author, and what is his or her experience with the subject matter?.When I consider the quality of a book, I think about a few important questions: But if you decide that you don’t want to manage 10 books and want an integrated complete program that customizes to your learning, check PrepScholar SAT out. In fact, writing this guide may lose us some customers, since you might decide that you don’t need a program at all. It diagnoses your strengths and weaknesses and gives you a structured all-in-one program, combining the best aspects of the books below, so you know exactly what you need to study at every point.īut I want to stress that you don’t need a program to excel at the SAT. I believe we’ve built the best prep program available right now. One disclaimer: I’m co-founder of PrepScholar, an online SAT/ACT prep program. Other sites, especially and, get paid for featuring books and get a kickback when you buy a book they recommend. I don’t get paid for these recommendations, and I don’t get paid if you buy these books. I’ve studied dozens of books for SAT prep, and I review the books that I come across. Other writers often don't have the expertise to differentiate between books, and they recommend books as an afterthought (and you can probably tell). I’ve worked with students at all levels, from people at a 800 level to people aiming for a 1530+. I like to think that I know what I’m talking about. I scored two perfect scores on the SAT and have worked personally with thousands of students prepping for the SAT. To be transparent, here’s why you might be able to trust this review more than others: Because your SAT score is important, follow the wrong advice, and it might be too late to improve your score. When you get advice on the internet, it's important to understand why you should believe the advice you're receiving. Also, find out how to integrate this book as part of a complete prep program (because, as we'll explain, it's nowhere near enough for most students). Read this guide for a detailed review of the Black Book's strong points and weaknesses. The SAT Prep Black Book's first edition was one of the best resources for SAT Prep, and its second edition continues that legacy.
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