College Confidential
» CC HOME » FORUM HOME

  College Confidential > College Admissions and Search > SAT and ACT Tests & Test Preparation > SAT Preparation
New User

Welcome to College Confidential!
The leading college-bound community on the web
Join for FREE now, and start talking with other members, weighing in on community polls, and more.

Also, by registering and logging in you'll see fewer ads and pesky welcome messages (like this one)!
Discussion Menu
»Discussion Home
»Help & Rules
»Latest Posts
»NEW! CampusVibe™
»Stats Profiles
Top Forums
»College Chances
»College Search
»College Admissions
»Financial Aid
»SAT/ACT
»Parents
»Colleges
»Ivy League
Main CC Site
»College Confidential
»College Search
»College Admissions
»Paying for College
Sponsors
SuperMatch - The Future of College Search!
CampusVibe - Almost As Good As A Campus Visit!
Reply
 
Thread Tools
Old 12-26-2008, 11:11 AM   #1
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Salem High '09 -> UVM '12
Posts: 1,701
FAQ: I'm out of BB tests -- what do I do?

Relax! First of all, if you've taken every blue book test out there, you've become QUITE familiar with the types of questions that the CB will ask you. Many people say CB materials only -- and I agree if you can use CB materials only -- but if you've gone through the BB, the following become useless to you:

- 10 Real SAT's
- Any QAS from 1995-2003

Why? Because CB recycles questions, passages, etc. from them. So...no good. What do you do now?

Obviously getting ahold of most current QAS booklets is illegal. But do note that on the CB website they offer a full practice test for free. Furthermore if you BUY the SAT Online Course by CB, you get an additional 6 exams! (All made from recycled 10 RS and some original questions -- but no overlap with BB). I really do suggest you buy it -- it's worth the money you spend unlike some other test prep books out there.

Now, if you're out of online course tests AND you're out of BB, then buy old PSATs. CB sells three of them. Buy them and treat them like gold, because that's precisely what they are.

Then if you're out of PSATs (whew! you've taken a lot of tests), then go and buy the Princeton Review's 11 Tests. It's harder than the real thing, but the questions aren't so deviant from CB materials as to render them useless.

If you're out of PR, then buy Barron's "How to prepare" book (get the 2007 edition: it has more tests than the 2009) -- its tests are really good, too. Then once you've exhausted that...well, I suppose you could use Kaplan.

Hope this puts an end to the hundreds of threads about this!
Arachnotron is offline   Reply   
Old 12-26-2008, 11:29 AM   #2
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Where e^x=0
Posts: 164
Good post.

My opinion is that once you've done all eight tests in the blue book AND all six tests in the online course, then that's plenty of practice and you shouldn't need any more. The main purpose of doing practice tests is so that you can get to understand the nuances and tricks of the SAT that the College Board will throw at you. So you should try to balance those 14 tests over the 3 or however many times you take the SAT (I realize a lot of people work all 14 before their first SAT, sorry if you are one of these people).

I am a firm believer in not doing any practice tests that aren't made by the College Board. Not even as a last resort.
ajwchin is offline   Reply   
Old 12-26-2008, 12:08 PM   #3
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Out of my mind. Back in five minutes.
Posts: 3,139
Don't use kaplan. Their tests aren't even accurate!
anhtimmy is offline   Reply   
Old 12-26-2008, 12:18 PM   #4
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: NY
Posts: 279
You can also use the Official SAT Practice Tests given by College board. There's five of them right now: 2005-2009.
Dagol12 is offline   Reply   
Old 12-26-2008, 12:26 PM   #5
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Michigan
Posts: 1,968
^There are only 2 different tests out of all the practice tests released.

But yeah, good post, although I would reccommend real CB materials before going to any of that other PR and Barron's crap. Personally, I would do every PSAT I could get my hands on. I really don't trust those test companies. For writing, CB releases their essay prompts. You can find them online with a simple google search.
Bigb14 is offline   Reply   
Old 12-26-2008, 12:27 PM   #6
Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Eastern Europe ==> Bulgaria !
Posts: 505
Ok but can we use practice tests by Barron`s , Princeton Review etc just to practise for the essay ?I mean,can we just use their essay prompts ?
Ivan_Stanchev is offline   Reply   
Old 12-26-2008, 12:34 PM   #7
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Michigan
Posts: 1,968
^Why would you, when you can find every official prompt released in the past 3 years?

Preparing For SAT Test

at the bottom. If you do all of these prompts, I don't know why you would ever need to touch PR or Barron's
Bigb14 is offline   Reply   
Old 12-26-2008, 12:40 PM   #8
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: NY
Posts: 279
@Bigb14
College board releases practice exams every year. They have released one every year since the new SAT began.
Dagol12 is offline   Reply   
Old 12-26-2008, 12:43 PM   #9
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Michigan
Posts: 1,968
^There are only 2 tests between those years though. For a lot of years they just re-release an old practice test. For example, the 06-07 practice test is the same as the 08-09 practice test.
Bigb14 is offline   Reply   
Reply

Bookmarks

Thread Tools



All times are GMT -4. The time now is 01:39 AM.




Copyright 2001-2011, Hobsons, Inc., All Rights Reserved