Hello, are there any books that you recommend and will lead me to the right path to get a good score on the SAT and ACT?
“The Critical Reader”, PWN the Sat Math Guide, and for writing just look up the complete list of sat grammar rules on the internet (It’s not a book, but it’s all you need).
Those are great books, but also try the ultimate guide to SAT grammar.
Blue book. For the tests. Absolutely essential.
Agree with all the books suggested above
AverageFail: when you say “The Critical Reader”. Did you mean? The Critical Reader Paperback – April 6, 2013
by Erica L. Meltzer (Author). is that right? sorry…just want to double confirm and get right book.
For the ACT I suggest The Real ACT Prep Guild which is published by the actual ACT creators.
Yes, that’s the book.
For practice questions and tests use the official SAT Study guide from Collegeboard and the Real ACT Prep Guide by the ACT test writers.
Up your Score, the Underground Guide to the SAT/ ACT.
The books are written by college kids who got perfect scores. They’re full of basic test strategies.
I will warn you: they try VERY hard to be relevant to high school kids-- they overflow with pop culture references. But once you get past that, the strategies are solid.
In addition to books, you might want to check out @SATQuantum’s website. There’s a fee for the good info, but the explanations of math problems could be well worth it.
The Unofficial SAT Word Dictionary is amazing for vocab! As for SAT math, I found the Barron’s SAT math book to be extremely helpful 
@CHD2013 Thank you for the kind words.
@sss6775 I love the The Unofficial SAT Word Dictionary! Some of the example sentences are really funny - thats like one of my favorite prep books.
I remember reading somewhere about this app that takes your text messages and automatically swap out regular words with SAT-level words, so you can learn while you text. It sounds neat, but I can’t seem to find it anywhere. Has anyone used anything like it and know what its called?
@laurenlucelucca. Have you tried direct hits volume 1&2?
@jr12317 I did buy Direct Hits, and enjoyed using it. I didn’t feel stressed out while using the book, which I guess is why it was enjoyable However, I don’t think they have an app though… or am I missing something.
No, haha you are right. @laurenlucelucca
I haven’t heard about that app, but it sounds enjoyable.
I was looking up at amazon and saw “black book” for SAT; has anyone tried it? A review says “blue book” (official SAT study guide) is essential to practice tests.
I am also interested in this topic - but now everyone have so many different suggestions I am wondering what’s the best one - or is it just that actually studying some or any materials more important than which book to use?
The best book to prepare you for the SAT is the blue book. It depends on what are you failing?
@ILikeplants I totally hear you. Sometimes I get overwhelmed by study suggestions too - especially since my parents are always talking with other parents, so I always hear about how X used Y to study and then got a 2350 and I’m like but I’m not X and I dont know if Y will work for me!
Anyways, I would say part of how I evaluate the effectiveness of study materials is how much I am able to learn with it without feeling stressed out. That’s why I liked the Direct Hit books (and why I’m interested in that app that does the texting thing) - I learned a bunch, without feeling like it was a chore.
Best of luck to you!