SAT Prep Black Book: The Most Effective SAT Strategies Ever Published

Our three kids went through Barrett's SAT Prep Black Book and raised their scores significantly. Since we are in the Southeast, there's more focus in our area on the ACT. I wrote a detailed review of the ACT Black Book, as that's the one my kids spent most of their time and energies on, but the SAT Prep Black Book was every bit as good. Some students may do better on the SAT, some on the ACT, and some on both, so it's probably worth trying both if you have the ability. Most colleges will look at scores from the ACT and the SAT, and there's a conversion chart online which will convert the scores from one to the other. I think most college admission offices will use your higher score when considering admissions and scholarship funding. One of my 3 kids did better on the SAT, the other 2 on the ACT, but they all 3 took both. Barrett's books improved all 3 of their scores on both tests. One of the things I loved about Barrett's Black Books is that he takes one through the exact standardized questions, step by step, and digs into what the test makers are really asking. He goes through the test makers' material and walks one through the thinking behind the actual questions, not made-up problems. The section on essay writing that Barrett teaches improved my kids' overall writing skills. They learned to write organized essays quickly (even though the SAT no longer requires students to take the essay portion of the tests). This is a particularly helpful skill to have in college, especially if one is in a class where a professor assigns essays weekly (or...gasp...daily). Essay writing is also a valuable skill to have when applying to colleges and filling out scholarship forms ad nauseam. Having improved their scores through using Barrett's techniques, my kids received tens of thousands of dollars in academic scholarship money, per student. They received multiple admission offers. All 3 ended up at their first-choice universities. If you are looking into an Ivy League or another elite university like Stanford or MIT, just a slightly higher score can potentially make the difference between an acceptance letter or rejection letter. No guarantees, of course, but Barrett's techniques can give students a definite edge. His teaching methods cannot be found elsewhere that I have seen. A college degree is worth pursuing, especially now. There are so many lifelong benefits that college offers, beyond classroom learning. However, college costs are unbelievably high. So, my thinking was, "Why spend any more for college than necessary?" A higher test score potentially translates into more acceptance letters and more scholarship funding. Dollar for dollar, Barrett's Black Book was the single BEST return on investment of any Amazon book I have ever purchased (SAT, ACT, or both, if you need both like we did, since each one is test specific). Buy the SAT Prep Black Book (and/or the ACT one, as the case may be) today and start learning what Barrett has to teach.

Amazing test prep. A weekish before the SAT I realized I should probably study, so off I went to Amazon to find a book - there was no class, tutor, or online video that I felt could really help me in the amount of time I had left. I saw the Black Book at the top of the page, but after hearing it had 600 pages immediately looked for another option. I read online about the best books to use and eventually came back to this behemoth. Okay, 600 pages or not, I guess this was the book. I got the book that week before my first SAT, and, while trying to read 600 pages seemed impossible, actually reading the book wasn't as hard as it initially seemed because the way they write is easy to understand and engaging. Plus, probably over half of the pages were walkthroughs of the first four practice tests so there wasn't actually 600 pages you have to read every line of. The walkthroughs, though, were invaluable as they helped me understand how to work through all of the problems multiple different ways (you can see how others might answer that you never thought of, and that might actually be better). If you don't have a lot of time before the test, or you don't want to read all 600 pages, you can just do one or two of the walkthroughs and that will reduce a lot of pages. For me, each night I read one test section's material/tips, did the first practice test on that section (I printed the practice tests out myself-they aren't in the book), and then scored it and evaluated how I could improve using his walkthroughs. This meant that after four days I had read about the reading, math, writing, and essay (the book is structured in that order) and had finished the first practice test. After that, I did one whole practice test and reviewed it using his walkthroughs for the next two nights. At this point, my score hadn't improved a lot since the first practice test, but each time I had encountered new problems that I wasn't sure about and after looking at the walkthroughs felt confident in being able to do next time. On the day of the test, I felt much better about my timing, skills, and the test's structure overall because of Mike and Patrick's book. One of the questions I had gotten wrong and reviewed in a walkthrough the night before actually appeared on the test! Not yet sure of the score, but I can say it didn't seem as hard as I thought it would be solely due to their solid advice and practice walkthroughs. 10/10 recommend to anyone, whether you have a lot of time to study or not! Update: The first SAT I took (June 2018), the one I wrote this review about originally, I got a 1500. I wanted to take it one more time, but I then procrastinated studying again and with one week left reviewed the book and took the remaining practice test that the book covers. I also looked back over the printed practice tests I did the first time, finding where I commonly made mistakes. For the August 2018 SAT I got a 1530. This book was amazing not only for how to think about the test, but also just to review concepts for both math and grammar.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This SAT prep book is huge, detailed, and packed with proven strategies and practice questions. You can tell it’s a solid resource that has helped a lot of students. Unfortunately, no matter how good the book is, it can’t change the fact that I hate the SAT—and this book didn’t help me feel any better about taking it 😂. Still, for anyone who wants thorough prep, this is a great choice.

I waited for it to come out for a long time. I was a big fan of the earlier edition. This edition is even better, in my opinion. Some parts discuss general ideas related to studying for the SAT, such as time management and how to guess in the most effective way. Then, the book covers the different sections, such as the reading, math, and writing. For each section, the authors provide complete analysis and solutions for every single question in four SAT's available from the College Board. These solutions are presented in a way that makes the thought process very clear. The solutions also include alternative approaches most of the times, so you really start to understand how many ways there are to do a question. In my opinion, these detailed solutions are the things that make this book really the best for SAT preparation. They make it so you are basically sitting in the authors' mind while they dismantle test after test. (The authors' explanations are much better than the explanation from the College Board. The authors cover why it's so important to have good explanations for real SAT questions in the early part of the book.) My only small quibble is that the explanations are for questions that can only be got from the College Board, but this has to be this way, because you need those questions no matter what and it is illegal to copy entire questions from the College Board, so they have to refer you to the College Board questions. You should also know that it is possible to download free copies of the questions from the College Board site, so you don't have to buy the College Board book, but you can if you want. Overall, it is the best book for the SAT I've seen that just fully explains every facet of the SAT, and it provides hundreds of demonstrations against real test questions from the SAT, making it unique in my experience. It gives the reader full confidence that they can defeat anything they see on the real SAT. Even though it has a lot of pages, it is clear and concise and easy to read. It also has little hints of humor, which I appreciate!

The second edition of the SAT Black Book by Mike and Patrick Barrett is a real find. The authors provide many effective strategies for dealing with all the sections of the SAT. They have a coherent plan from which they never stray. Their clear and flowing conversational style of writing enhances the readability of the text, but it is the obvious value of their strategies and the compelling way in which they present them that turns the SAT Prep Black Book into a page-turner. Any time they seem to go off on a tangent, they do so for a clear purpose and immediately snap back to the point at hand. In the beginning of the book, they offer very simple ideas for the student to keep in mind while doing the reading test: The College Board can’t afford to be ambiguous, there is only one answer for each question, and the correct answer can be found in the text. To me, those ideas constitute such an effective strategy, that if the remaining 542 pages of the book were blank, I would not have asked for my money back. Far from blank, those remaining pages take the students on a guided tour of hundreds of real SAT questions in which they are given front-row seats to the authors’ thinking process and endless opportunities for practice. The book further ingratiates itself with the reader with small details. The spacing, the variety of fonts, and the very white pages contrasted with the black print all make the book more inviting and easier to read. On every page, I can feel that the book has been a labor of love for the authors and that they have a genuine concern for the futures of their students. I sincerely thank Mike and Patrick Barrett. Their innovative ideas and the brilliance of their explanations will redound to the success that both my students and I are sure to enjoy for years to come.

This book distills the SAT almost down to a formula in terms of explaining how the test questions are designed, how the multiple choice answers fit into the test question designs, and how to identify the likely correct answer (which helps as a double-check for your solved answer, or in some cases which allows you to determine the actual correct answer without even having to solve the question). Don't let the small font size put you off. The intro material is very useful for overall strategy - time management, guessing, how to think like the College Board, etc. Then there are chapters for each of the SAT sections, such as reading comprehension and math. Each of those sections has something like 20-30 pages summarizing the categories of questions that the SAT asks, specific strategies, and then walkthroughs of the questions from the SAT practice exams that you can get from the College Board. So even though the Black Book is pretty thick, the reading parts are maybe only 1/3 or even 1/4 of the whole book. The rest are the walkthroughs. The summary of the required grammar and the required math IMO also helps to demystify the SAT. You don't need to know calculus to ace the test and you don't need some huge vocabulary either.

I think this book has great information but sometimes hard to read due to the fine print. Given that it has all the walkthroughs for 4 SAT practice tests - it has to be printed small but I think the rest of the book where strategy is presented, I wish it would be bigger print. At least it is printed on nice white paper and not newspaper like material like the 8 real SAT practice tests printed by the College Board. So I use this in conjunction with the real SAT practice tests for my son mainly for the walkthroughs - I think the discussion of the reading section can be helpful, but still difficult for an untrained test taker to figure out the right answer even after reading the correct answer and explanation to the reading passages. This book has a lot of recommendation for strategy with how to approach test taking but difficult to read through for a teenager, but you can't use this book to review on the actual math or grammar topic in depth - you would need another book like College Panda Math or Writing or Erica Melzer to help with the details of learning the material if you are weak in certain subjects of math or grammar/writing. I don't expect my son to even want to read the details - I read it to get the overall idea of what it is trying to say. You can't use this book alone. I would only get this if you have dedicated student who can use/buy more than one prep/resource

I was a skeptic at first. Could a book really contain the formula to guarantee a perfect score? After going through the process of studying and taking tests I think I can confidently say: Mike's right—the SAT is really a flawed test and the only way to prove your actual intelligence is by learning the intricacies of its design. Each person's learning style is unique, so I think the best way I can communicate the book's effectiveness is through my observations of how well The Black Book prepared me for the SAT. *Reading Section* This was the most valuable part of the whole Black Book, for me. There were so many ways I was mistaught the reading section, like to guess when there seem to be two similarly valid answers. Remember: *there is only one right answer*. Also, his method for systematically going through each question is brilliant. I scored 38/40 on this section for my second sitting of the test. I spent less than two months of serious studying. With more practice, it could have become perfect. If you're decently smart, you can score perfect on this section (or any other for that matter), you just might need to put in enough preparation. *Writing and Language Section* The book’s advice for this section is also crucial. You have to know the very specific rules of the College Board in order to answer the questions correctly. The book’s question answering methodology is also excellent here. With only a little bit of practice dedicated to this section, I scored 38/40 on my second sitting. *Math Section* I am a special case and I hadn't taken a normal math class for over a year when I was studying. I was probably rustier than I could have been, but I still managed to do okay. I scored a 710 on my first sitting. I did not use my time most effectively, but again, with enough practice, I could have improved on that skill and eventually achieved a perfect score. *Essay Section* The SAT’s essay is BS, and to be honest, I did not do well on this section while following Mike’s formula. Both sittings I scored a 6-4-6, receiving the lowest possible score on the analysis section. Could this mean that the essay graders saw through the formula? Or does it mean I executed the formula too formulaically? I don’t know, but I cannot wholeheartedly endorse the advice and methods in this section. *One of the Few Faults in this Book* It took me a long time to get the system of multiple passes down and I still had a ways to go. That was probably my main obstacle to a higher score. I wish there was advice given in the book for how to train to do this outside of taking a timed practice test. All in all, with about a month and a half of hard studying, I put together a super score of 1470, which, with a few (non-athletic) hooks in my application, turned out to be good enough for several top schools, including Stanford. Considering the short amount of time I dedicated to taking the SAT, I owe a lot of credit to this book for helping me figure out the test and achieve an acceptable score (I guess Stanford believes any student with an SAT above 1450 is qualified academically for the university). *Random tips* -I combined this book’s advice with some articles I found on the Prep Scholar blog and that seemed to work. -I kept a Word document of all the questions I got wrong on practice tests and why, and reviewed it as part of my studying. This was tedious but it is necessary when you only have a few official practice tests available to learn from. -If you have plenty of time before the test, just flip through the book in the beginning and get comfortable with it, because it is a beast (albeit a very readable one).

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I think i learned a lot from this book in terms of stategy and learning material. the subject tool box and sat past paper break down of CB rsources is very helpfull. Strongly reccomend this book and would also want to say within one month my score increased by 220 points using this books stategies

The book is enormous and looks extremely thorough. I bought it on impulse for my son’s SAT revision next year, having seen the title and amazing reviews. I *almost* put it to one side without having a look, when it arrived, but curiosity and mild anxiety got the better of me given the sheer size, and I took a peek inside. After flipping through several random pages, suddenly breathing very heavily and reaching for some Vodka, panic had set in. How could I guide my son through this next year? I had no idea the SAT content would be so advanced and extensive. Then a small niggle worked its way forward and I wondered…is this book for a US test, rather than the UK SAT test for 10-11 year olds I had innocently purchased it for? I read the blurb and saw a few references to the College Board (16-18 year old education level here in the UK), but assumed it was just a wider education board that oversees an element of examination in the UK. The panic remained. I have never wished SO hard for a google result to validate my desperate hope…. And there it was - SATs in the US are for young adults soon to apply to college. And breeeeathe. I gently and quietly returned the vodka to the top shelf, and went to make myself a strong cup of English tea. Please don’t make the same mistake I did. I’ve learnt a valuable lesson around impulsivity purchases today, but most importantly, there’s hope yet that I can still help my current 9 year old with revision next year for his UK SAT test, and thankfully I won’t need this amazing book.

I was adviced to get it by many people and glad I bought it. We don’t have many opportunities to study for the SAT exam in my city; however, this book helps me a lot while studying. But eventhough it is a great book, the packaging was pretty bad. It came from another country but it was put in a box without any protections and as a result, it’s arrived a little damaged.

This book is so, so complete; it has everything that a student needs for success on the sat. First, it doesn't use formal language, which makes it so much more relaxing and engaging to study, and it also makes explanations very clear and precise. Second, it tells you specifically which mistakes to avoid, the specific types of mistakes/wrong answers, and the different approaches that un-trained and trained testtakers would take. Third, it gives us specific strategies for specific types of questions and also lists the pros and cons and when to use them. Lastly, it provides a detailed walkthrough of most of the questions on actual practice tests and offers a very detailed explanation on why the three answers are wrong and what makes the final answer correct. All in all, it covers everything you need to know about the SAT and offers a deeper understanding of its structure. Very well written and super helpful! I've yet to take my second SAT but from my practice tests I can clearly see my improvement: I went from a 1360 to a 1500 and I'm hoping to go even higher!