SAT II Biology- PLZ answer!

hyunsook
Sun, 25 May 2008 01:28:48 +0000

PRINCETON REVIEW!!! 2 800s say that their scores are better than my 730. This is mostly advice my guy friends at school have given me. I’ve ignored it and well, ended up with that 730, when I studied harder than both of them combined. Study effectively. Lesson learned.

Here’s our thoughts:

Barron’s overprepares you.

PR is also a great refresher.

Doesn’t really matter E or M. You should prepare for both. On test day you can decide which one you want based on which section’s questions you know better. To my knowledge I no review book explicitly split the chapters down to E or M. (I’ve looked at Sparknotes, Barrons, Kaplan, Patterson and PR in case you’re wondering).

Oh I forgot. Most people chose E. In terms of scoring, the M scores tend to have a higher percentile than the E scores. Overall it doesn’t matter which one you pick, since the score is likely to be the same. No, one is not harder than the other. The M curves are rumored to be “better”? but that’s not true since that only affects your percentile. (This last statement was subjective btw).

I used multiple practice books and stuff, but none of it helped. Based on REAL expereince, I’ve noticed that the SAT questions were the most similar to Princeton Review questions. I should have memorized the data there, but I didn’t memorize the simple charts and got those questions WRONG.

I would suggest you first analytically tear apart the Princeton Book, thoroughly (roughly 3x). Then I would take as many practice tests as I can get my hands on. Score them. See how well you did. GO OVER YOUR MISTAKES. This is the part most people miss. If you get something wrong and you don’t go over it, you’ll get it wrong again and again. Most likely this will trip you up on the actual test.

PLEASE, PLEASE NEVER use Patterson tests. They’re often very difficult and full of information YOU DON’T NEED TO KNOW. Plus out of the multiple review books I’ve looked at, this book had the most errors. Kaplan tests are also equally misleading. They make you feel good, but they’re very easy and very unrealistic.

In addition to a review book, you will need a textbook to crossreference reviewbook facts that are often wrong. In fact I’ve never seen an error-free book before. Review books tend to have a lot of errors because test-prep companies do not take the time to hire good editors. One of my teachers who formerly taught for Kaplan said, when he was getting hired, he was forced to take that their practice test, even though he had a PhD. He took their test and scored a 780. He said that can’t be and showed them the error, and Kaplan knew. They also DIDN’T care. lol.

Textbooks on the other hand, have hundreds of college professors editting them. So it is almost NEVER wrong. I used Campbell. Me encanta el texto de Campbell. It reads very well with lots of pictures. Plus its THE TEXTBOOK for Biology. It is likely that’ll be the same textbook for AP Bio and college as well.

This should take you two weeks of intense prepping.
That’s all I have to say.

and Good Luck.

P.S. Feel free to PM me about questions. I’m planning on retaking it in October. Me encanta biologia.