<p>I’ve never taken a SAT, Subject Test, ACT or AP Exam in my life and I have no idea how hard they’ll be. And when I did the SSATs I did no study at all so I don’t know how hard review books are. But basically how hard are the Princeton Review, Kaplan and Barrons books compared to the real AP exams? Because as I’m entering as a sophomore at Andover, I’m thinking I should take a couple of exams mainly the SATs, SAT IIs Physics and Math and AP C Physics and AP BC Calculus. So I have taken some review books and just wondering if they are generally harder then the real Board exams or should I expect the exam to be that difficult?</p>
<p>Well, it’s difficult to come up with an accurate metric by which to compare the different tests because many factors, including one’s strengths/weaknesses, nerves on test-day, state of mind, and, of course, question difficulty, play into determining a test’s relative difficulty. </p>
<p>However, here’s my opinion of the difficulty of each test relative to the official exam: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>Official SAT Study Gide: These tests are made by college board and are about the same level of difficulty as the real deal. </p></li>
<li><p>Barron’s How to Prepare for the SAT, 23rd edition: Much harder than the real thing. </p></li>
<li><p>Princeton Review’s 11 Practice Tests: Slightly harder than the real thing. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>-Kaplan 12 Tests: Yuck. Inaccurate crap.</p>
<p>Shore, dont even bother with review books for the SAT if you can. There are 8 official tests in the official book, 6 more in the online course, and about 7-8 QAS tests that have been previously administered. That should be plenty of practice - and all of it is exactly as difficult as it really is. </p>
<p>AP tests are a little bit more limited in terms of official material, though you can get the free response questions from the past decade or more online free from CB.</p>
<p>SAT2 tests have very few “official” tests…so for these you probably should stick with PR/Barrons/Sparknotes.</p>
<p>The poor books from Kaplan for the SAT has kept me from getting them for SATIIs/APs/etc, really anything.</p>
<p>which one is better, Barron’s how to prepare for the SAT or Barron’s 2400 SAT?</p>
<p>imo…in general barron’s books are harder than the real thing…pr is pretty close to real thing…& kaplan’s tests contain a lot of mistakes & aren’t really reliable</p>
<p>the 2400 SAT book had some good tips - I think they design it for “high achievers” but its not too much different from their other one.</p>
<p>Yes, you do need review guides…the official materials are a must, but they don’t have any strategy. You need to understand the test too, not just do practice tests.</p>
<p>I have Cracking the SAT from Princeton Review and a bunch of their SAT II and AP books. They are pretty close to the real tests. I haven’t tried Barron’s but most people here seem to say they’re a lot harder than the real tests, at least for SAT I.</p>
<p>Don’t use Kaplan!!! much easier than the real tests and has lots of mistakes… lol mhmm, i think Princeton Review series are good, just right for the tests… however Official Guide is extremely important for you to get to know the test format… study the OG and learn some strategies!</p>