CEEAE's Review of McGraw-Hill's SAT 1

Prep. Book Reviews

McGraw-Hill's SAT 1 (2nd edition)
1/13/06 - Composite Review

REVIEW SUMMARY
CONCLUSION
Excellent book. If you have a lot of time to prepare for the SAT and could buy only one book for SAT preparation, McGraw-Hill's SAT 1 may be the one.

THE GOOD
-- Enormous, copious, even voluminous amount of practice
    problems for all subject areas and question types
-- Every practice problem has a solution and a concise
    explanation
-- Solid and comprehensive review of math, grammar,
    writing, and other applicable areas
-- 5 excellent practice tests are provided in the book
-- Excellent reinforcement of material both in conceptual
    terms and application.

THE BAD
-- Very long (almost 900 pages)
-- Not easy to read
-- The efficiency and effectiveness of the College-Hill
    Method for SAT preparation are open to debate
-- Practice test questions, while inline with what is tested
    on the SAT, could be phrased more SAT-like
-- Practice essay topics were great for practice, but could
    be more closely aligned with actual topics
-- Practice tests are 9 sections (the missing section is fine
    to omit since it does not count toward the student's
    score, but students may be confused when they take
    the actual test)

FULL REVIEW
Chapters 1 & 2 are provide a pretty good foundation on which to begin a study for the SAT. Chapter 2 takes the form of a series of questions and answers. The provided answers are very sympathetic to College Board, and to a certain degree seem almost as though they originiated from College Board themselves. Of course, we disagree with some of the statements, but until we actually get the data from College Board (don't worry we're not breathlessly awaiting a response) we cannot explicitly disagree with the information contained in the first two chapters.

COLLEGE HILL METHOD
The next chapter introduces the "College Hill Method". This chapter provides a solid foundation into the theory behind this method, and at least at first glance it makes eminent good sense. It argues for development of problem solving and reasoning skills. We agree that it is important to develop problem solving and reasoning skills, but there are strategies and methods that can be employed to maximize one's SAT score that should be mentioned in any preparation book. Overall, we completely agree that there are no shortcuts in life, and the SAT is no different, but if there are methods to simplify and demystify SAT problems, then any responsible book should impart these strategies also.

EXCELLENT REVIEW
The book then progresses to general study skills and then to the a review of SAT-type vocabulary. Next up is a review of material and "strategies" for the Critical Reading Section. A multitude of "strategies" are presented for the reading comprehension subsection as well as the sentence completion question type. Next up is a review of the relevant areas of mathematics for the SAT accompanied by conceptual questions as well as practice problems. Though these questions do not pass for SAT questions, they are excellent questions for practicing the mathematics material presented. Next up is the Essay, which receives the most comprehensive treatment we have seen thus far: excellent analysis and voluminious practice is provided. However, about 65% of practice essay topics were apt choices for the real SAT, but the other 35% were excellent for essay practice and developing good writing skills. Although the essay topics were clearly more than adequate for SAT practice, they did leave a little to be desired as topics that may be featured on the real SAT. Finally, a review of the material tested on the multiple choice Writing Skills questions is covered and again excellent examples and copious practice is provided.

PRACTICE TESTS OR THE REAL THING?
Finally, there are 4 practice tests at the end of the book. These tests were excellent in terms of the material they covered as well as the distribution of concepts tested. However, we again found that the questions tended to not be as SAT-like as they could have been. On the practice test, many questions were very straightforward, but this is not the case on the real SAT.

ONE LAST NOTE:
McGraw-Hill's SAT 1 states multiple times throughout the book that you cannot learn strategies in order to find the best way to solve each type of question. We strongly disagree with this statement, and would love to show the authors of this book the results our students have achieved using these so-called "less effective" methods.

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