Better than teachers sat and act preparation program

Each college or university weighs standardized test scores differently, he added, and undergraduate test scores measure very differently than scores from graduate school-level standardized tests, such as the GRE, LSAT and MAT.

The LSAT is like a sprint that you trained months for, but a law school final is the sprint at the end of a long marathon. Jessica Weaver, a Richland, Pa.

Well, we answer that question right here. Here's why this SAT prep books guide is far better than others you might find online:. I believe we've built the best SAT prep program available. It diagnoses your strengths and weaknesses and gives you a structured all-in-one guide, combining the best aspects of the SAT books below so you can know exactly what to study at every point in your prep.

I want to stress that you don't need a prep program to do well on the SAT. In fact, writing this guide could lose us some customers if you decide you don't need a program after all. If, however, you're not interested in managing 10 books and would rather have an integrated program that's customized to your learning style, check out our SAT prep program now. Want to improve your SAT score by points?

Tired of wasting time prepping in ways that don't work? We have the industry's leading SAT prep program. Built by Harvard grads and SAT full scorers , the program learns your strengths and weaknesses through advanced statistics, then customizes your prep program to you so you get the most effective prep possible.

It's the best prep program available right now. Best of all, we guarantee your money back if you don't improve your score by points or more. First, this guide is for students who are serious about test prep. You need to be motivated to get a high score , and you need to be willing to put in hard work. Getting through these books will take dozens of hours simply because the SAT covers so much material. If you plan to study just five hours or so, your choice of book won't make much difference.

In this case, it's best to focus on taking an official SAT practice test and reviewing your answers. With such little prep time, your score won't go up much in the end, so don't expect any miracles. You'll need to put in serious work to actually get the score improvements you want, though. In the following sections, we explain the best ways to get the most out of each SAT book we recommend. Secondly, this guide targets students who want to improve their scores by more than points.

To consistently score this much higher on the SAT, you'll need more than just tricks; you'll need to understand the actual content being tested, that is, the underlying math concepts and grammar rules. Don't bother with ineffective "tricks" that simply make you feel as though you've learned something when you actually haven't. If you're only looking to improve your score by 50 points or so, however, it's possible for you to do this just by retaking the SAT , especially if you've taken the test only once.

Lastly, to improve your score through SAT prep books, you'll need to have an excellent study strategy. It isn't enough to just read a book cover to cover—you must focus on your weaknesses by brushing up on the content you struggle with the most. Unfortunately, many students spend dozens of hours poring over one book after another without improving their SAT scores. Because they're not understanding what their weaknesses are and aren't focusing their time on their weaknesses.

Without learning how to attack your weak spots, you won't improve your SAT score! It might sound obvious, but it's pretty hard for many students to do this well. It's also how I designed our online SAT program to do all of the hard structural work for you. Ultimately, if you're serious about SAT score improvement and want to study with top prep books, this is the guide for you. For this guide, we're going to divide our picks for the best SAT books into the following categories:.

Although older SAT practice tests do share some similarities with newer ones, you'll waste a lot of time studying for the wrong topics and questions if you don't know exactly how the old SAT differs from the current SAT. Therefore, always use books that target the current SAT that is, books published in or later , such as the ones listed below.

You can also use our online SAT prep program to learn more about your specific weaknesses and how you can improve them. These are the books I believe all test takers should have, regardless of their SAT scores or what skills they need to improve. This is an extremely high standard to meet—in fact, there are only two books out of dozens I've tested that qualify for this title.

We introduce them below. We've written at length about the importance of official SAT practice questions. As you might know, the SAT is a bizarre exam that tests concepts in ways you've never seen in school; thus, you must train with realistic questions in order to accurately learn the patterns of the SAT.

At present, there are 10 official tests. These aren't exactly a "prep book" in the standard sense, but altogether they make up quite an important resource not too different from a book. Each test contains real questions given to actual students on previous administrations of the SAT. Without a doubt, the quality of official questions is far better than that of questions written by unofficial sources such as Kaplan or Barron's.

Even better, all official SAT practice tests are free! Make sure to print them out to get the realistic on-paper testing experience. Unfortunately, the book itself isn't sufficient, and even with the practice tests above you'll likely need supplemental help as I explain below.

What it does have, though, is so good that I believe every student studying with SAT prep books should read it. But what does this mean exactly? This compensation does not influence our school rankings, resource guides, or other editorially-independent information published on this site. Beth co-founded and formerly served as an educator and executive director for Opus in Louisville, Kentucky , a nonprofit organization aimed at preparing high school students for a successful college career through a comprehensive ACT course.

She has more than five years of experience in education, teaching and developing curriculum for public schools and nonprofits in subjects ranging from college test prep to art history to animation to English for Speakers of Other Languages ESOL. If college is in your near future, you are probably feeling a lot of emotions: excitement, determination, and maybe even some confusion or stress. Chances are, standardized college admissions tests might be part of your confusion and stress.

The SAT, required for admission to many colleges and universities, can be quite challenging and also really different from the tests you take at school.

Taking an SAT prep course can help you become familiar with the exam, develop skills and strategies, and ultimately raise your score. If you are already juggling school, homework, extracurricular commitments, and more, online SAT prep can be the perfect way to study for the exam in a way that fits you and your schedule.

College admissions officers often look at these scores together with your transcript, essays, extracurricular activities, and other aspects of your application to decide whether or not you are a good fit and ready to pursue a degree at their school.

If the colleges you are applying to will accept either score, you can take either or both exams. The SAT has three sections…. English, Math, Reading, and Science. Ultimately, the test or tests you should take comes down to you and your skills, preferences, and goals.

Many colleges and universities require a certain SAT score for admissions. Depending on where you want to go to school, you likely need to take the SAT to get into college. Your SAT score can also determine what classes you take: a low score might put you in remedial classes, while a high score can earn you credit for certain core college classes, without having to take the class!

SAT scores are also a big factor for many merit-based scholarships and can help you win scholarships from your school and other organizations.

There are thousands of ways to study for the SAT…. Online prep is likely a good fit for you if you can study with some independence. You might have to take the initiative by working through lessons on your own or logging on to attend an online tutoring session, but this also means you have lots of flexibility.

Many of the courses on this list include access to a tutor or coach that will help you through the course. Online prep is great if you want to prepare for the SAT with a little bit of independence, anytime, anywhere. For this optional writing section you'll not only need to have good reading comprehension skills in order to fully realize the strengths and weaknesses of the author's argument, but you'll need strong rhetorical skills too.

So, if you decide to take this portion of the ACT, you need to be able to effectively compare and contrast different perspectives on an issue as well as give ample evidence to support your opinion. Here are three ways to help you make your decision.

Instead of just guessing whether you'll be better at the ACT or SAT, the best way to decide is to actually take each test and then compare your scores.

Official practice tests are the closest you can get to the real deal. Here's what you'll do: choose one official practice test for each exam and then decide on the days you'll take them. As a reminder, each test takes approximately four hours, so make sure you set aside enough time to complete each test without interruption.

Do not take the tests on the same day or even two days in a row. In addition, make sure that you're taking the tests in a quiet place and are timing yourself accordingly as you would be timed on the actual exams.

Once you've completed both practice tests, calculate your ACT and SAT scores using your practice tests' respective scoring guides and then compare your scores. The easiest way to compare your scores is to convert your total ACT test score to a total SAT test score using our handy conversion system.

Alternatively, you can compare percentiles for your ACT and SAT scores to see on which test your percentile was higher. In the end, whichever test you scored higher on is the one you should ultimately prep for and use for college admissions.

So it's up to you, then, to decide whether you'd like to try taking both tests , or whether you'd prefer to take just one. Another way you can determine which test is right for you is to take a short quiz. In the chart below, check whether you agree or disagree with each statement. If you agreed with most or all of the above statements, the SAT is what you've been looking for. With the SAT, you'll have more time for each question and won't need to deal with a pesky science section or a ton of geometry questions.

On the ACT, you'll never have to come up with your own answers to math problems, and you get to let your opinion shine in your writing. Unless you decide to take both, I suggest taking official ACT and SAT practice tests as described in 1 above to see which test's format you're ultimately more comfortable with.

Lastly, don't forget to find out whether your state has any specific testing requirements. In these cases, it's usually best to stick with whatever test is required for your state so that you don't need to study for the other test, too. Not sure what scores to aim for? Our classes are entirely online, and they're taught by experts. If you liked this article, you'll love our classes. Along with expert-led classes, you'll get personalized homework with thousands of practice problems organized by individual skills so you learn most effectively.

We'll also give you a step-by-step, custom program to follow so you'll never be confused about what to study next. She is passionate about education, writing, and travel. Our new student and parent forum, at ExpertHub. See how other students and parents are navigating high school, college, and the college admissions process. Ask questions; get answers. How to Get a Perfect , by a Perfect Scorer. Score on SAT Math. Score on SAT Reading. Score on SAT Writing.

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