CEEAE's Review of The SAT I for Dummies

FULL REVIEW
FOR DUMMIES?
The first thing the reader notices is that this book is part of the ubiquitous "Dummies" series. There appears to be a "Dummies" book for just about everything, even for walking. So it comes as no surprise that the series would feature a SAT preparation book. Just because it belongs to a prevalent series, however, does not necessarily make it worthy of a student's time and money. Indeed, this book falls far short of its competitors for two main reasons, incorrect test formatting and too few practice tests or reinforcement questions. However, these issues could be remedied in a future edition, and perhaps the "Dummies" authors are working on it as this review is being written. Until then, this is a book to avoid, even though it does provide an entertaining and novel take on SAT preparation.

PRACTICE TESTS - WTF??
The second thing the reader notices about this book is that it is relatively short (about 350 pages). This book's svelte profile is due primarily to a small number of practice tests. There are only two practice tests, which is at least half of the number of practice tests in other preparation books. However, the tests themselves have significant deficiencies. The first is that they consist of only 8 sections (there should be 10 sections, although one section is the equating section so some prep books will feature only 9 sections). The main reason for the deficient number of sections is that there is only one section of multiple choice Writing Skills questions (there should be two sections of them) on each exam. Additionally, this lone section is marked as 35 minutes long, but it is actually 25 minutes long. Further, the questions are in an incorrect order and distribution.

If only the Writing Skills section was incorrect, the authors may have had a favorable, albeit qualified, impression of the book, but this is not the case. The other two Subject Areas, however, are exhibited differently than the real test. For example, the Math section has an incorrect number of questions in two of the three sections, and the Critical Reading sections have an incorrect number and distribution of questions.

The tests do have their strong points. The first is that solid explanations are provided for every question on each exam. The Writing Skills questions seem to be accurate and all of the typically tested concepts are correctly distributed. Also, the critical reading questions and the sentence completions are fairly accurate. However, the Math questions are a little too straightforward and some concepts are omitted from the practice test. Finally, answer sheets are provided for each exam, and the scales tend to be accurate.

STRONG POINTS = STRATEGIES
It would be remiss to review this book and focus only on the sub par practice tests. There are, however, a substantial number of pages devoted to section and question strategies. These pages begin with a "Quick Reference Card" which features some of the most important preparation strategies and tips. Authors of other texts would be wise to emulate this technique. The text of the strategy pages is terse and accurate. It also features two important distinctions. The first is that the author employs humor to facilitate the learning process. This technique is quite effective and at least a little entertaining. Another distinguishing characteristic is that vocabulary is infused throughout the text. Vocabulary is bolded and defined inside the text. Not only is the vocabulary defined, but it also occurs naturally in the text so that the words are presented with appropriate context. It is this context which will probably help the student the most, since the best tool for memorizing vocabulary is the appropriate context.

This part of the book also features some juicy strategies. These strategies are accurate and spread throughout the subject areas. There are, however, two main negatives in this section. The first is that the strategies could be better organized. The second is that there are not enough reinforcement problems. The reviewers felt that there should be more problems following the listing and explaining of strategies, instead of tucking away problems at the end of the section. Additionally, when reinforcement problems were found they were anything but legion in number. Finally, the essay strategies were inadequate and to some degree inaccurate.

CONCLUSION
In conclusion, though this book features a number of good strategies and is written in an entertaining and novel way, we cannot recommend it because of the incorrect format on the practice tests, an insufficient number of practice problems in the text, and too few practice exams.

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