Up Your Score: The Underground Guide to the New Sat and Psat/1994 - Softcover

Colton, Michael; Rossi, Paul; Berger, Larry

9781563055058: Up Your Score: The Underground Guide to the New Sat and Psat/1994

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1563055058 ISBN 13: 9781563055058

Publisher: Workman Pub Co, 1993

Shows how to prepare for the new SAT test, and offers advice on improving speed and timing, making educated guesses, remaining relaxed, and maintaining concentration

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The following text explains "How to Practice" for the SATs:

We didn't put many practice problems in our book. This does not mean that you don't need to practice. It simply means that we didn't want to make up fake SAT questions when there are thousands of real SAT questions that have already been published by the ETS. Other, flabby review books contain tons of practice questions, but a lot of the questions are totally unlike the questions that are on the real SAT. Also, in many books, several of the given answers are wrong! The four of us got so frustrated with the questions in these books that we decided not to make the same mistake ourselves.

So, our advice is to practice on real SAT questions. However, there's a catch. The ETS has meanly not made many complete new SATs available for students to practice on. In fact, as this book goes to press, there is only one new SAT I available. The ETS did this to give people who are taking the test in 1994 or 1995 the shaft, but we at Up Your Score will now guide you to practice test heaven anyway. Here's what you do:
1. Get the booklet Taking the SAT I, published by the College Board. It should be available from your guidance counselor for free. It contains the one complete practice test in the new, format. There should also be a booklet Taking the PSAT which will contain some practice questions, or maybe even a full PSAT.

2. Get the book Introducing the New SAT published by the College Board. This book has the same SAT I in it that the free book has, but it also has more than 80 other real SAT questions strewn throughout. This book does a good job going over each question type and is surprisingly well written, especially given that it was written by the College Board. However, since it is the official guide, it doesn't tell you how foolish the SAT can be, and it doesn't show you any of the tricks on how to beat it.

3. This is the most important piece of advice: there are many editions of the book 10 SATs which were published by the College Board. These books contain real SATS. Unfortunately, the SATs in 10 SATs are the old format, not the one you'll be taking. However, since the changes only apply to a few problems, it is still extremely good practice to take the old tests. Just make sure you know what the changes are. If your local bookstore can't get hold of this book, check your school or local library or ask anyone you know who might have studied for the SAT before 1994.

4. If you really want to get test-taking experience, one option is to sign up for a test early in the year, take it just for practice, and then cancel your scores immediately (just tell the proctor you want them cancelled at the end of the test and it won't go on your record). For example, if you plan to take the test in May or June of 1994, you could sign up for the March test date, take the full SAT 1, and then at the end of the three hours cancel your score. This will give you experience with the new SAT I format in a real SAT atmosphere, but it does cost $20 and there's no way of knowing what your score would have been. Plus it kills a Saturday morning.

5. If you are going to take the SAT in 1995 or later, there may be a new book with multiple SAT Is in it by that time. Ask your guidance counselor, or call the College Board.

Review:

Your kids will score big on this one: Add Up Your Score to your burgeoning shelves of SAT study guides. Kids will thank you for it. -- The American School Board Journal

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