Wood5440

The SAT CR sections test (some of) one's close reading skills. Anything that exercises those skills is beneficial. Thus, reading Time magazine or The Economist can improve the basic skills necessary to do well on the SAT, even though they do not look like an SAT and are not produced by the College Board. The absolute, doctrinaire insistence that the only material to use for SAT prep must come from the College Board seems to be the result of constricted thinking about the test.

Of course, if one wants to evaluate their improvement and performance on the test, they would be best served to use actual tests. But there is more to preparing for the SAT than evaluating performance. One must learn material and acquire and practice skills as well. The College Board produces good materials for these purposes, but not the ONLY materials, and not always and in all cases the BEST materials for all students.

xiggi

Haha, it seems that interjecting a bit of humor and sarcasm did not go well. Fwiw, everyone means everyone, and that includes me.

I'll repeat that the issue is not one of scoring; it is one of practicing with relevant and calibrated test materials. One can use the multitude of books for tips and tricks. That is not an area where TCB shines. However, using the poorly crafted and poorly edited tests from PR, Kaplan, et al, is not recommended. Especially when there are more than enough released tests available.

SATQuantum

Here I list reasons why Collegeboard's Practice Test should be used exclusively for evaluating performance during SAT preparation:

1) Questions closely adhere to the format and style of test writers and actual exam questions will be along the same lines.

2) The practice test scores have the highest accuracy because they have been tested on a large student population under actual test conditions. That is why a 2200 in an XYZ test prep book may not reflect your actual score.

3) The questions have been tested thoroughly for ambiguity and mistakes via the experimental section in an actual SAT test setting, something impossible for a test prep company to do.

4) It is important to get accustomed to the style and format of the test writers. They are very consistent and since most students have a finite amount of time, it is best spent on actual tests.

5) 60 to 70% of the test(at least in the Math portion) adheres closely to past content and students will have an edge if they have practiced on variations of similar questions from the past.

Kyrix asked me about the source of official SAT questions. Here is the list:

1) 11 Tests in the Official SAT Study Guide 2nd Edition(BB2)[$20]

2) 10 Tests in the Online SAT Course: Free access in few states, and apparently many schools can provide access to students for free. Ask your counselor. Otherwise cost is steep $70.

3) 4 Official Practice Tests release by Collegeboard[Free]. Here is the link: Links to Additional Official SAT Practice Tests from CollegeBoard

4) 4 Official Practice Tests following the old format released by Collegeboard[Free]. Just use these for practice problems and not for full length tests. They are listed in the above link as well.

5) 12 Practice Tests released as part of SAT QAS(2008 to 2012). The previous tests from prior years overlap with either the Official SAT study guide or the Official SAT Online course. These tests are floating on the internet, and Collegeboard supposedly frowns on students sharing these, but I have never understood their stance on not making these public. Are they scared to disclose the current content to a wider audience, or they plan on repeating these questions in those administrations where they don't release the tests? Who knows.

Wood5440

SATQuantum:

I see now that we are fundamentally in agreement. When it comes to evaluation of performance, one cannot beat the real test. Practice and learning subject matter are not the same as evaluation.

gpakistan

sorry this is off topic but what is the experimental section? I always read about them but I still have no clue what they are.

xiggi

>>
SATQuantum:

I see now that we are fundamentally in agreement. When it comes to evaluation of performance, one cannot beat the real test. Practice and learning subject matter are not the same as evaluation. <<<

I will not answer for SatQuantum, but your conclusion cannot be derived from his post about using the official test. I am afraid you are missing the point that the IDEAL preparation phase also relies on official tests. I do not understand what purpose is served from making a distinction between preparing and evaluating as one prepares for the test by practicing with tests and using source materials to refresh or acquire the necessary skills.

The discussion in this thread is about practice tests, and not generic materials.

rspence

@gpakistan, another section that CB throws in there that doesn't affect your score. I think it's used for statistical purposes, including scaling the scores.

kevin56789

where can I find the 40 official tests released by college board? that are actually legitimate and not erroneous like the ones in Kaplan, etc?

Wood5440

xiggi,

xiggi: "I will not answer for SatQuantum, but your conclusion cannot be derived from his post about using the official test."

Wood5440: I see now that we are fundamentally in agreement. When it comes to EVALUATION OF PERFORMANCE (caps added), one cannot beat the real test. Practice and learning subject matter are not the same as evaluation. <<<

SATQuantum: "Here I list reasons why Collegeboard's Practice Test should be used exclusively for EVALUATING PERFORMANCE (caps mine) during SAT preparation:

xiggi: "I am afraid you are missing the point that the IDEAL preparation phase also relies on official tests."

Wood5440: The key word being "also". Testing alone is not enough. If it were, classes would be taught exclusively using tests. There would be no lectures, no assigned reading, no hands on projects, no demonstrations, no discussions. IDEAL preparation includes learning the skills and concepts that the SAT tests, in addition to practice taking the test itself. This is a point that you acknowledge yourself. ...

xiggi: "I do not understand what purpose is served from making a distinction between preparing and evaluating" (see above) as one prepares for the test by practicing with tests AND (caps mine) using source materials to refresh or acquire the necessary skills.

xiggi: "The discussion in this thread is about practice tests, and not generic materials."

Wood5440: I see your view of permissible discussion comments is as inflexible as your view of appropriate practice materials. I thought it appropriate to make the point about the value of using prep materials other than the College Board Blue Book when I saw that the OP took your comments and those of SATQuantum as an indication that all other materials should be avoided....

gpakistan: "thank you! today, i have completely switched to the blue book and pretty much got rid of all my other ones."

Wood5440: It seemed to me that your advice led the OP to throw out the baby with the bathwater.

Wood5440

gpakistan,

When you take the test, one of the seven sections is an experimental section. The experimental section is used by the College Board to test prospective questions that are to be used on future tests. You will not know which section it is, but it is a section that is most likely to contain defective questions. The CB uses statistical analysis to identify those defective questions. They avoid a lot of legal problems that way.

The score you get on the experimental section is not counted on your test, but the experimental section can affect your performance if it comes early in the test and defective questions cause you to become discouraged.

If your test has four math sections and three verbal sections, then the experimental section of your test will be one of the math sections. If you find you have an especially hard time with one math section, it is best to chalk it up to being the experimental section. You can relax and go on expecting the score on that section to be thrown out.

SATQuantum

I personally recommend using the questions from the official collegeboard tests for the preparation stage as well. How best to do that is something not really elaborated in any books or guides. Here is the general format I follow:

1) Establish initial baseline for SAT score using an official SAT practice test.

2) Teach the core concepts tested on SAT using my own notes/videos.

3) Assign homework segmented by topics and level. I use the four practice tests in the Official Guide(#7, #8, #9, #10), but one could use the Practice Quizzes[200 Questions] that are part of the Official Online SAT Course.

4) The first three steps help lay a solid foundation of core concepts. After that it is all about taking practice tests under timed conditions and carefully reviewing mistakes.

The test prep books can be of value in Step 2 as far as teaching the concepts are concerned. Some are of questionable value and others do a decent job. But, I would personally recommend using the official tests as a source of practice problems as well. Of course, the test prep companies have to claim that they have proprietary methods and tricks to conquer SAT, and also fatten their books with tests of questionable value, but those are mostly marketing ploys, and something that is prevalent in all fields(how to eat healthy, how to lose weight, how to get rich, etc.)

Now, if one were to ask me about the SAT Math Subject test the advice would be different because of the lack of adequate number of official practice tests that have been released.

xiggi

Frankly, I have a hard time following this conversation and why there appears to be a disagreement. My point is very simple, and it relates to the uses of tests in both preparation and evaluation of this preparation. If you were to read the bulk of my posts in this forum (good luck with that) you will learn that I do not pay much attention to partial scoring, but place much importance in preparing with the best approach and tools.

As far as source or reference material, there come from a multitude of sources. As far as the test one should use, the conclusion is, however, different as I recommend to use the released ETS/TCB tests above all other synthetic tests.

If you disagree with my recommendation, so be it. I simply share what I THINK is the best.

Again, I am not following your point. Obviously, anyone can start threads in this forum and discuss anything he or she thinks is important. On the other hand, there is no need to introduce strawmen arguments.

Wood5440

The instructive value of this conversation is over. Let's give it a rest.