SAT Self-Study Materials (From A Tutor's Perspective)

craiggonzales
Mon, 29 Jul 2013 05:57:12 +0000

Hi all,

I’d really love comments and feedback on this thread – It’s a new way for me to introduce ideas to a larger SAT-specific audience & I am sure I have missed some excellent resources.

Full disclosure: I am not a student or parent or counselor; I am an online SAT tutor based in the UK (used to be based in Bangkok… before that Texas). I am writing this to give students my opinions on self-study prep material

Many students ask me about self-study and why a student would want to work with a tutor. A tutor or group class is good because you have a structured study and feedback on your questions. Ultimately, I think that is it … feedback and structure. The knowledge or strategies are well documented and either free or inexpensive. And because of forums like college confidential, feedback is usually free and “fast enough”. You do lose the face-to-face and possibly the overall structure, but self-study can be VERY effective if you have the right materials and a method of feedback.

I’m going to suggest 6 study guides. Other than the Official Guide, all are independent books and courses. These materials focus on VALUE (quality vs cost) and FEEDBACK (smaller content creators are easier to reach).

1 The Official Guide - Blue Book: This is standard. Obviously. The reason you want the blue book is because no other prep material has questions this comparable to the real SAT. You have 10 tests in the official guide (+ 1 if you do the DVD). I recommend using 7 as real tests and 3 as homework practice sections.

Most books/materials below this recommendation all have copious references to the official guide. This is the main reason self-published tutors eschew bigger companies. Excellent books/companies like Barron’s, Princeton Review, and Kaplan tend to ignore the Official Guide in deference to their own practice tests. That’s generally a bad idea.

Math

2 Pwn The SAT Math Guide - Mike (available on his website pwnthesat[dot]com or amazon[dot]com): I think math is a difficult market to enter. There are a lot of people pretty good at math and there are really only so many ways to teach the material.

Mike, like Chung and a few others, focuses on the two biggest strategies (plugging in and backsolving) and then covers the academic knowledge.

There are 4 reasons I recommend his book over others for math self-study:

(1) He includes humor. Math can be horrendous. Mike made his questions funny.
(2) He includes a reference to the blue book. He created a table explaining every strategy & knowledge necessity for every question in the blue book.
(3) He answers every question, for free, on his blog’s Q&A page. (That’s epic! “I don’t understand #5 on page 77”… and he will definitely answer you.)
(4) I know him. I like him. I trust him. He genuinely cares about helping students. SAT Tutoring is not his main thing… it’s his extra thing to give back.

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CR

3 The Critical Reader – Erica Meltzer (available on her website TheCriticalReader[dot]com or amazon with a bit of searching). Erica’s book is a bit more expensive than the rest of the books/courses on my list, but it is fresh and excellent. Unfortunately, it’s only available to students in north america (copyright issues). The bonus is that she is as close to the real thing as I’ve seen. The reason the critical reader is better than big brand books is because she runs through the reading in the same way an excellent tutor might.

She knows that reading comp is not about elimination techniques, really. Obviously, you’ll need to eliminate extreme answers and deal with scope… but before you can employ those methods you truly need to understand what the heck you are reading.

That’s why she treats reading in the same way I would when I taught non-native English speakers. Paraphrase, speed read, understand the question, pull out the meaning, extract the tone, know what the heck is going on… painstakingly if necessary.

When my students want to study alone, I recommend TCR. But, I have about 3 reasons for really recommending Erica’s book:

(1) It’s better than anything I’ve seen on reading comp.
(2) I know her. I like her. I trust her.
(3) She will help you if you ask. She is very responsive via email.

4 The Direct Hits – From Direct Hits Publishing (available on their website or amazon). I like The Direct hits, but I have reservations about word lists. So I’ll deal with those reservations and then I’ll explain why I like them anyhow.

Vocab is important. But, word – meaning is less important than knowing how to use a word. The great thing about memorizing vocab is that eventually you’ll be able to use more words. The downside of all this is that vocab lists don’t actually teach you how to use the words. They simply give you a list of words, definitions, quizzes, and a bit of mnemonic.

The reason I like the Direct Hits (and I am sure there are a few others) is because they put a lot of time and money into researching the SAT. Their book tends to be the 300-500 “most common” SAT words. I suppose they have a database that is constantly updated as material is released and then sorted based on frequency. In principle, that’s it. But, it’s cool. And if you memorize those words, you’ll increase the likelihood of knowing what the heck is asked.

Like I said, I’m a bit wary about simply vocab lists, but I think the psychological benefit students get from memorizing words coupled with the research that DH puts into their book makes this a solid find. But, I also have 2 reasons for trusting and recommending DH:

(1) I know and trust the owners of Direct Hits. (Notice a trend? Tutors recommend books from individuals they trust.)
(2) The book is put together really well & is already in the 5th edition… so it seems to be updated often.

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Writing

5 The Ultimate Guide to Grammar - Erica Meltzer (Her website & amazon). Okay, so erica gets 2 spots. That’s simply because she is ubiquitous in the reading/writing SAT scene. The Ultimate Guide To Grammar has a very silly cover and a very serious inside.

There are a lot of grammar guides available. But Erica’s is the best in terms of SAT self-study. She explains the few things you’ll need to know in a clear and concise way, and she provides enough practice to really solidify your understanding.

SAT Writing is neat because… frankly… it might be the easiest to improve. You may not be great because you use your ear instead of your brain matter, but once you learn the set of rules, you just follow them and succeed. It’s straight forward, actually.

I like this book because:

(1) I know and like Erica. I trust her.
(2) Her grammar book is what I use in my private tutorial sessions.
(3) She covers the “you must know this” and the “it would be nice to know this” perfectly. Some students don’t need 800, so some students shouldn’t freak out about ,which vs that or idioms if they struggle to identify verbs and the tense of said verbs.

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Overall Technique/Strategy Explanations

OnlineSATClass – By the Online SAT Class team (//* Full Disclosure … this includes me, so I’m slightly biased … *//) Available online on the website (onlinesatclass [dot] com)

This is basically a video course that runs through all the math, reading, and writing strategies and knowledge. If reading about plugging in is boring, you can watch a 30 minute lecture on plugging in. By the end of each video, you tend to get an understanding of the method or tactic. You’d then go into the respective book (Pwn, DH, TCR, Blue) and do some practice.

While I am biased, I recommend this video course for self study for the following reasons:

(1) It’s like 10% the cost of almost every other online SAT course.
(2) Unlimited feedback in their wiki/forum
(3) There are quizzes and homework sheets with practice problems, but nowhere as thorough or as many as any of the previously recommended books.



Conclusion

The SAT is this elephant; it’s a tangible thing that you can see and prepare for in a relatively short amount of time. For that reason, you tend to put too much emphasis on it. Tutors and prep companies have taken honest advantage of that. And I get it… students NEED a 2250, or whatever.

But if you are determined, hard working, and willing, you can easily use the internet and the affordable books/video courses outlined above to really understand the SAT.

And ultimately, these guys almost all provide unlimited feedback, questions&answers, and updates, as well as knowledge - tactics - techniques. These folks write blogs, record interviews, and genuinely want to help students.

Do you have any comments or suggestions? Did I miss anything? Are any of these books completely horrible/did I totally mis-interpret something?

Please let me know, as it will help others on the forum and it will help my future students.

Craig