<p>I’m an international, so I would like to clarify some things.</p>
<p>As far as I understood, the main purpose of the SAT preparatory books are to give a glimpse at the possible questions and provide some strategies.</p>
<p>Moreover, if I already have a good SAT I. book (Barron’s) don’t I already have enough strategies, or does SAT II. have new things?</p>
<p>As for the study material of the SAT II. subjects, don’t you think it’s possible and cheaper to study it on your own (highschool books, internet, wikipedia, etc.)?</p>
<p>sat II books are greatly helpful because they tell you exactly what you need to know. highschool textbooks will only provide info that is needed in that course. if you can find some cheaper alternative on the internet that gives out free sat II prep, go for it. Also, the sat I and the sat II’s are VERY different tests. you can’t study for one and hope to do well on the other. a while ago there was a thread entitled something like DOLO’s free prep books that had awesome free sat II prep books- but now its deleted. just search on the web for other online books but i’m not sure if they have any free ones online.</p>
<p>agreed-- sat II books are a good investment. They go over the information that is most likely to be covered on the test. SAT I books, however, go over strategies more than sat II books, becase SAT I is based more on the knowledge you attain through high school and how you use it (It’s the questions that are the tricky part), while the SAT II is more directly for what you learned in that course. Using resources such as text or internet isn’t such a good idea, the topics will be too broad for the subject. If you find the test prep books are too expensive, you can always buy used online for a much better price.</p>
<p>Thank you for the advice.
Actually I wanted to know whether they’re even worth reading, if you have the school and internet material.</p>
<p>I live in Italy and here you get university entrance exams for each university course with closed number at each university you want to apply to.
The preparatory books are called “Physics”, “Psychology”, “Economics”, “Medicine”, etc. and cost around 20$ each. But if you buy two books, their content is practically identical (except for medicine) and you realize that you wasted your money only after that -_-
The fact is, entrance tests in Italy focus on logic, maths, reading, etc. and if you want to apply for medicine you also have a few more chapters on physics, chem and bio… hence that’s the only book you would ever need to buy even if you tried applying to all courses in italian universities :)</p>
<p>I simply didn’t want to make the same experience by buying SAT II books for each different subject
So, I hope I made myself more clear this time: Is their content really important in order to obtain full score?</p>
<p>There’s an offer at my international library to buy Barron’s Math II, Physics, Bio E/M and U.S.History for about 10$ each.
Should I buy?</p>
<p>As was said previously, the prep books are made specifically for the test. They include information that shows up often on the tests, the type and format of the questions, AND practice tests. These can’t be found in a general textbook. Although you can use a textbook to help study, a prep book should be your main material.</p>
