According to Kaplan, this book is designed “for students who don’t want to spend their whole lives preparing for the SAT test”, the intense, highly competitive college entrance exam that can stress out even the most confident student. As an SAT prep tutor, I have seen many students go in and try to “wing it” – meaning they take the test with no preparation. Big mistake! The key to increasing a student’s score on these exams is to learn what types of questions will be on the exam beforehand and then practice strategies to answer those questions using the knowledge and skills developed throughout the school years. Practice, practice, practice! This book,
SAT Strategies for Super Busy Students, can help students do just that. The ten steps outlined in the book include:
Step One: Understanding the SAT
Here is a good explanation of SAT exam format, scoring, and general test-taking strategies.
Step Two: Understanding the Critical Reading Section
Kaplan shows its Four-Step Method on how to approach Sentence Completion questions, “Clue Words” to look for, and how to answer the tough questions. Plus nine practice sentence completion questions with Answers and Explanations.
Step Three: Reading Comprehension Questions
This section provides tips on how to get a high score and includes practice reading passages with Answers and Explanations.
Step Four: The Essay
Kaplan shows a four-step method for essay writing, how essays are scored, and gives three sample essays and their scores.
Step Five: Multiple-Choice Questions
Here are various methods to identifying sentence errors, improving sentences, and correcting paragraphs. Includes practice questions with Answers and Explanations.
Step Six: The 21 Most Common Grammar Mistakes
This section identifies common errors and how to avoid them.
Step Seven: Comprehensive Math Review
A basic overview of the math section, including basic and advance math concepts.
Step Eight: Strategies for Acing the Math Section
Here is Kaplan’s five-step method for tackling those tough math questions. Includes several practice problems and their solutions.
Step Nine: Math Traps
Math traps and how to avoid them. Includes ten practice problems and their solutions.
Step Ten: Dealing with Test Stress
How to tackle test anxiety.
After student reviews these ten steps, they can take the full-length SAT practice test provided in the back of the book. Includes the Answers and Explanations and how to score the practice exam.