SAT Prep Resources

The Official SAT Study Guide – College Board, 889 pages

ISBN 0-87447-718-2

There are 8 full-length practice tests – written by College Board so this is the same scope
and level of difficulty of the actual exams. It would be nice if these could also be scored
online. Good examples of scored essays. The sentence completion section only has 1 (15)
question review so I find the vocabulary review weak and a supplement to this book is
not available. The size of this book makes it cumbersome.

The Princeton Review Cracking the SAT 2007 Edition, 592 pages
ISBN 0-375-76545-X

Has a vocabulary list by “theme” that I am currently using. At first I thought these words
might be too easy but found that this is not the case. It is a manageable amount of vocab
for the semester course. There are 3 full-length tests but not any vocabulary review
exercises.

Kaplan SAT Strategies for Super Busy Students 2006 Edition, 347 pages
ISBN-13: 978-0-7432-4706-1
ISBN-10: 0-7432-4706-X

A short practice after each section. This book has the 21 Most Common Grammar Errors
and the 10 Math Traps. I really like the Math Traps as well as the 100 Essential Math
Concepts. The Grammar was harder to use. The Root word section to build vocabulary is
well organized. One full-length test.

Barron’s Critical Reading Workbook for the SAT, 265 pages

ISBN -10: 0-7641-3381-0
ISBN-13: 978-0-7641-3381-7

There is a dictionary style list of 800 SAT high frequency words (80 – 10 word lists) as
well as a comprehensive prefix/stem/suffix list. The sentence completion review includes
12 quizzes, 4 each of 3 levels of difficulty. There are also 3 levels of difficulty of
Reading Comprehension. Three Critical Reading Tests.

Kaplan – The New SAT Critical Reading Workbook, 337 pages

ISBN 0-7432-6032-5

10 Sentence completion reviews (I used all 10). The long and short reading
comprehensions are good but I don’t think they are as difficult at College Board. I used
several to practice active reading and test taking strategies. I don’t like how the
vocabulary word list is organized. The root list looks ok. Two Critical Reading tests.
The Princeton Review Reading and Writing Workout for the new SAT, 200 pages
ISBN 0-375-76431-3

There are vocabulary flashcards on perforated cardstock in the back of the book. I did
laminate these. There are 5 short sentence completion sets and short and critical reading
passages. I did use the Essay section and several of the prompts in class. There are not
any practice tests.

The Princeton Review Math Workout for the New SAT, 260 pages
ISBN 0-375-76433-X

This seems more like a textbook with a quick quiz after each topic. Problems sets are
broken down into easy/medium/hard. Questions look more like College Board than some
other resources. This would be great for Math only.

Vocabulary Cartoons, Learn Hundreds of SAT Words Fast with Easy Memory
Techniques, 341 pages
ISBN 0-9652422-8-5

Reviews about 300 words with a cartoon/mnemonic format with word used in example
sentences. A matching and fill in the blank quiz style review follows every 10 words.

It would be nice if they had some sort of cumulative review after every 50 or so words.
These are cute and the students do enjoy them.

Vocabulary Cartoons II, Learn Hundreds of SAT Words Fast with Easy Memory
Techniques, 341 pages
ISBN 0-9552422-6-9

(Same as above)

Kaplan SAT Math Flashcards, A Borders Exclusive

ISBN-13: 978-0-7432-8753-1
ISBN-10: 0-7432-8753-3

These are printed on perforated cardstock so they may be separated (and laminated). The
answer and explanation is printed on the reverse side. These problems do utilize many of
the basic skills but I find most of them too easy and not to the same level of difficulty as
the College Board questions. I may just be overly critical because they could definitely
help some students.

English Vocabulary Quick Reference, Crutchfield, Roger, 364 pages

ISBN 0-9659138-0-5
Workbook by LexaDyne Publishing, Inc.
These were used in Loudoun’s Entomology course and if your school is not using them,
they should be in your bookroom or in storage somewhere in the County. This is a
dictionary style reference that breaks words into roots. The workbook does have
vocabulary but it is really root based. Some of the exercises might be helpful. Not sure
how much this would overlap with the Entomology course.

The Official SAT Question of the Day Calendar, College Board

I have the 2007 edition and I use three questions as a daily warm up.

Kaplan – The Procrastinator’s Guide to the SAT & PSAT, 243 pages
ISBN 0-7432-3511-8

I haven’t used but it looks like a concise guide of techniques.

"20 Outstanding SAT Essays" – from College Board

There are 20 essays that received top scores on the SAT writing section that I read with
my students and then investigate them to see what techniques or tools they used to
receive that top score. It is an amazing resource.

Barron’s Simon’s Saga for the SAT*1 Verbal by Philip Geer, 488 pages
ISBN 0-7641-2200-2

These are a series of short stories about going to college and college life with vocab
words in bold followed by definitions, fill in, T/F, and matching. Review question at end
of book.

Vocab Rock Musical Prep for the SAT* and ACT Keith London & Rebecca Osleeb
ISBN –13: 978-0-7689-2305-6
ISBN-10: 0-7689-2305-0

This comes with a CD. The songs are more rap/hip-hop. 12 tracks. Song lyrics are given
with definitions, synonym match, sentence completions, synonym sentences, then they
read an article and answer questions.

The Tales of Edgar Allan Poe, A Kaplan NEW SAT Score-Raising Classic, 426
pages
ISBN 0-7432-6468-1

Classic stories with vocab in bold and definitions on facing page. Glossary of vocab also
at end of book.
Fast Web College Gold The Step-by-Step Guide to Paying for College by Mark
Kantrowitz, 301 pages
ISBN-13: 978-0-06-112958-2
ISBN-10: 0-06-112958-5

This is a book for parents explaining financial aid. Includes scholarship information. ( I
have not read this)

The Princeton Review Paying for College Without Going Broke, 2007 Edition,
Chany and Martz, 316 pages
ISBN 0-375-76567-0

This is a great book for parents explaining financial aid.

Web Resources:

Thanks for the vocab exercises - I have found a website that has some great SAT words
and worksheets in pdf format. Here you go:
http://www.digitalchalkworksheets.com/sat/satvocab.html

After starting the year with sentence completions and touching on passage-based reading
(following the on-line course in order of the lessons), I have decided to "stick with my
strengths" and jump ahead to math for a little while. Today, I am doing an arithmetic
review (basically borrowing a chapter from the Princeton Review) to gauge what my
students "remember" from previous math classes. I also have them do an SAT Question
of the Day (we start every class with one and talk about it as a group, sharing how each
student went about solving the problem) and also do daily vocab work (they get a list of
words of the day and go on www.dicationary.com to get 3 or 4 definitions of each word).

Suggestions for on-line course:

When the quizzes are scored, it would be nice if the level of difficulty were indicated.

The report section could be more user friendly.