CEEAE's Review of SAT 2006, Premier Program

FULL REVIEW
CONTENTS & STRATEGIES
The first thing the reader notices is Kaplan's radically different approach to SAT preparation. Kaplan attempts to integrate material from the book, CD, internet and mobile devices. This technology intensive approach is appealing to technophiles such as the authors of this review. However, whether it is called text or content, it is the substance that matters not the media of conveyance.

Not only does Kaplan deliver its lessons by multiple media, but it delivers quality material. Each lesson is bookended by an introduction and a summary. This type of repetitive review of material is a great way to commit the material to memory. Section one covers strategies and material germain to the entire test. Section 2 concerned Writing Skills subject area. While this section was well-organized, we found it to be a bit deficient in substance and breadth. The next section, section three, turns to the Critical Reading subject area. The Sentence Completion strategies are spot-on as are the Reading Comprehension strategies. We appreciated the "Serious Skimming" technique, but felt that a superior recommendation would be to encourage active reading. With active reading, the reader is consistently asking herself questions such as: "what is the author attempting to convey?" or "why was this essay written?". However, this section also features a strategy called passage mapping.

While we definitely agree with passage mapping, we think that the Kaplan book overused this method in their illustrations. The consensus reached by the CEEAE reviewers is that there should be some annotation and notes in the margin, but only a few notations are needed. Indeed anything more than one notation per paragraph of text results in a cluttered passage which typically hinders the student instead of helping her. Hence, while we do not disagree with the method we do disagree with its prolific application as advocated by the authors of this book.

4 PRACTICE TESTS
Subsequent to this section are four practice tests. These tests feature excellent writing skills questions. Indeed, the writing skills questions on these exams are the most accurate we have seen thus far. The reading comprehension questions also appear to be accurate in scope and distribution. Also, every question has an excellent explanation waiting for the reader should the reader need to access it. Finally, answer sheets are also provided for each of the exams.

ISSUES
We do, however, have a few reservations about these exams. While the math questions are very accurate in terms of difficulty and material covered, they lack the obfuscatory elements typical to many actual SAT questions. Additionally, the vocabulary on the Sentence Completions is a little too basic. However, virtually every book, including The Official SAT Study Guide, featured Sentence Completions with vocabulary that is more basic than that on the real SAT. Finally, the tests only consist of 9 sections since the tests do not feature an Equating section. This is not a big deal since every book reviewed omitted the Equating sections on their practice tests as well. The only product line that includes the Equating section in each practice exam is Princeton Review's Cracking the SAT, 2007 Edition or Cracking the SAT, 2006 Edition.

COMPREHENSIVE vs. PREMIER PROGRAM
The main difference between the Comprehensive and the Premier Programs is that the Premier Program comes with a CD that contains 5 tests and provides access to monthly additions and mobile software. Click here for CEEAE's review of Kaplan's SAT 2006, Premier Program.

CONCLUSION
If the reader is searching for a single SAT preparation book, Kaplan's SAT 2006, Comprehensive Program is an excellent choice. The text is concise and effectively conveys the material. The tests need a little more polish to be considered truly accurate, but are more than adequate for most students.

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