SAT Prep Black Book: The Most Effective SAT Strategies Ever Published

The book is enormous and looks extremely thorough. I bought it on impulse for my son’s SAT revision next year, having seen the title and amazing reviews. I *almost* put it to one side without having a look, when it arrived, but curiosity and mild anxiety got the better of me given the sheer size, and I took a peek inside. After flipping through several random pages, suddenly breathing very heavily and reaching for some Vodka, panic had set in. How could I guide my son through this next year? I had no idea the SAT content would be so advanced and extensive. Then a small niggle worked its way forward and I wondered…is this book for a US test, rather than the UK SAT test for 10-11 year olds I had innocently purchased it for? I read the blurb and saw a few references to the College Board (16-18 year old education level here in the UK), but assumed it was just a wider education board that oversees an element of examination in the UK. The panic remained. I have never wished SO hard for a google result to validate my desperate hope…. And there it was - SATs in the US are for young adults soon to apply to college. And breeeeathe. I gently and quietly returned the vodka to the top shelf, and went to make myself a strong cup of English tea. Please don’t make the same mistake I did. I’ve learnt a valuable lesson around impulsivity purchases today, but most importantly, there’s hope yet that I can still help my current 9 year old with revision next year for his UK SAT test, and thankfully I won’t need this amazing book.

The book is immensely helpful, it breaks down the common type of questions such as 'Best Evidence' and 'Central claim' questions in the Reading section for example. It also includes amazing strategies to use to answer questions quickly such as Vertical Scanning and other techniques that are not mentioned in any other prep books. This book also includes full explanations of answer to SAT Practice Tests 1-4 but sadly not 5-8. The walkthroughs are very comprehensive, much more so than the college board and Khan academy explanations. Another very good thing about this book is that it helps to train you in the way the test is written and how to understand it instead of just learning knowledge and answering questions. Overall, this book is very very book and I would recommend using it over any other Prep book.

The font are too small.

Good practice book.

This book is for students of the American College Board SAT examinations, which isn't made clear, and if advertised in the UK should be as otherwise it could be confused with the UK SATS, sat by schoolchildren.

I'd really like to leave a 5 star review because the content in the SAT Black Book is absolutely fantastic. However, after paying £14 for a Kindle version (which is more like a poor PDF scan of the book than a properly formatted Kindle book) isn't even supported on my Kindle Paperwhite. The only way to read it is on my phone, where the formatting is awful and the text is barely legible. Had to pay another £30 for the physical version so I can actually use the book. In summary: fantastic content; terrible Kindle version.

Our three kids went through Barrett's SAT Prep Black Book and raised their scores significantly. Since we are in the Southeast, there's more focus in our area on the ACT. I wrote a detailed review of the ACT Black Book, as that's the one my kids spent most of their time and energies on, but the SAT Prep Black Book was every bit as good. Some students may do better on the SAT, some on the ACT, and some on both, so it's probably worth trying both if you have the ability. Most colleges will look at scores from the ACT and the SAT, and there's a conversion chart online which will convert the scores from one to the other. I think most college admission offices will use your higher score when considering admissions and scholarship funding. One of my 3 kids did better on the SAT, the other 2 on the ACT, but they all 3 took both. Barrett's books improved all 3 of their scores on both tests. One of the things I loved about Barrett's Black Books is that he takes one through the exact standardized questions, step by step, and digs into what the test makers are really asking. He goes through the test makers' material and walks one through the thinking behind the actual questions, not made-up problems. The section on essay writing that Barrett teaches improved my kids' overall writing skills. They learned to write organized essays quickly (even though the SAT no longer requires students to take the essay portion of the tests). This is a particularly helpful skill to have in college, especially if one is in a class where a professor assigns essays weekly (or...gasp...daily). Essay writing is also a valuable skill to have when applying to colleges and filling out scholarship forms ad nauseam. Having improved their scores through using Barrett's techniques, my kids received tens of thousands of dollars in academic scholarship money, per student. They received multiple admission offers. All 3 ended up at their first-choice universities. If you are looking into an Ivy League or another elite university like Stanford or MIT, just a slightly higher score can potentially make the difference between an acceptance letter or rejection letter. No guarantees, of course, but Barrett's techniques can give students a definite edge. His teaching methods cannot be found elsewhere that I have seen. A college degree is worth pursuing, especially now. There are so many lifelong benefits that college offers, beyond classroom learning. However, college costs are unbelievably high. So, my thinking was, "Why spend any more for college than necessary?" A higher test score potentially translates into more acceptance letters and more scholarship funding. Dollar for dollar, Barrett's Black Book was the single BEST return on investment of any Amazon book I have ever purchased (SAT, ACT, or both, if you need both like we did, since each one is test specific). Buy the SAT Prep Black Book (and/or the ACT one, as the case may be) today and start learning what Barrett has to teach.

Bien

I think i learned a lot from this book in terms of stategy and learning material. the subject tool box and sat past paper break down of CB rsources is very helpfull. Strongly reccomend this book and would also want to say within one month my score increased by 220 points using this books stategies

I was adviced to get it by many people and glad I bought it. We don’t have many opportunities to study for the SAT exam in my city; however, this book helps me a lot while studying. But eventhough it is a great book, the packaging was pretty bad. It came from another country but it was put in a box without any protections and as a result, it’s arrived a little damaged.

This book is so, so complete; it has everything that a student needs for success on the sat. First, it doesn't use formal language, which makes it so much more relaxing and engaging to study, and it also makes explanations very clear and precise. Second, it tells you specifically which mistakes to avoid, the specific types of mistakes/wrong answers, and the different approaches that un-trained and trained testtakers would take. Third, it gives us specific strategies for specific types of questions and also lists the pros and cons and when to use them. Lastly, it provides a detailed walkthrough of most of the questions on actual practice tests and offers a very detailed explanation on why the three answers are wrong and what makes the final answer correct. All in all, it covers everything you need to know about the SAT and offers a deeper understanding of its structure. Very well written and super helpful! I've yet to take my second SAT but from my practice tests I can clearly see my improvement: I went from a 1360 to a 1500 and I'm hoping to go even higher!