Reddit mentions of The Official SAT Study Guide, 2018 Edition (Official Study Guide for the New Sat)

Do not get overly stressed about your first SAT. You can retake it as many times as you want, and you can always improve. You are not on any sort of time limit, for the test or for your future. The best way to prepare for your next attempt is by working through the official SAT study guide produced by ETS, who also produces the SAT test (shocker). You can find it here: https://www.amazon.com/Official-SAT-Study-Guide-2018/dp/1457309289. If you work through the exercises in the study guide, I am very confident you will improve your SAT score for next time.

Alright, since you're not going for any electronic resources, I'll list a couple of books. Your main problem seems to be English in general. While the books might help you, I recommend reading a lot. Try historical and scientific articles online or even in a book. Read a couple of classics by Charles Dickens or Victor Hugo.


1- Kaplan https://www.amazon.com/SAT-Prep-Plus-2018-Strategies/dp/1506221300
This book has exceptional EBRW practice and thorough explanation with multiple methods of approaches. The math section is alright, but I feel that it is a little easier than the actual test.


2- Dr. John Chung's SAT math book. https://www.amazon.com/Dr-John-Chungs-SAT-Math/dp/1481959794
A phenomenal book. It has challenging question in the math section that will over prepare you. If you can get a 700 on his tests, you're set up on getting an 800 for the math section.


3- Barron's New SAT 28th edition https://www.amazon.com/Barrons-NEW-SAT-28th-Sat/dp/1438006497
Great book for learning the entirety of standard English convention and reading strategies. The EBRW questions might be a little easier than the actual thing, but the information it provides is meritorious. The math section also has some challenging problems that will over prepare you.

The official SAT study guide (alias blue book.) https://www.amazon.com/Official-SAT-Study-Guide-2018/dp/1457309289
This is the best book to test all you've practiced for. After you complete all other books, take all 8 practice tests. This will prepare you well.


Now for some tips:
1- Focus on your writing section more at the begining. Getting 44/44 in this section while missing 10 on the reading puts your score at 740-760. It weighs more.

2-Write some essays and have someone check them. It'll help you spot mistakes easier.

3-Calm down, you can always take it again.


Good luck!

Do not take the actual SAT just to see how you do. Many colleges request the full testing history and will see your first score.

Instead, do one of these official practice tests from the College Board:

https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat/practice/full-length-practice-tests

My recommendation is to print it out and do it on paper. However, the most cost-efficient option is to purchase the Official SAT Study Guide, which includes the 8 practice tests (it's $19 with ~1000 pages, and you save a lot on printing costs). It can be found here:

https://www.amazon.com/Official-SAT-Study-Guide-2018/dp/1457309289/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1524454802&sr=8-1&keywords=official+sat+study+guide+2018+edition

I highly suggest skipping the CollegeBoard's "study guide" (the first ~200 pages or so), as most of it is fluff that won't help you. Instead, take practice test 1 as a diagnostic.

Then, sign up for Khan Academy practice. Khan Academy will help you tremendously considering the position you're at now. They have skill levels from 1-4 for all math concepts. If you have the time and dedication, level up for the math as much as you can. However, KA math is best used as content review/practice and not as practice for the actual math questions. The questions tend to be phrased awkwardly and are not identical to those you will encounter on the SAT.

Instead, once you have a solid grasp and conceptual understanding of the Algebra II topics, sign up for UWorld (free code on the sidebar) and complete as many math problems as possible. Reading and writing are phenomenal on KA and much better than UWorld, though, so I recommend KA for that.

If you have the time and dedication, you can easily achieve your target score of 1450. You still have several months left, and you will be shocked on how quickly your score will go up. Don't waste your money on tutoring services; you'll be able to increase your score far more on your own.

Space out the official practice tests by about 2 weeks. They should be completed under real timed conditions and serve best as diagnostics for how your studying has been paying off. If you don't see an improvement on subsequent practice tests, then something is wrong with the way you're studying. Do not use the practice tests as merely practice questions, because there are a plethora of practice questions available to you on UWorld.

Once you feel confident with your score on the official practice tests, then take the real SAT.

Good luck!

I bought this Panda math book, read all of it, and worked 75% of it.

For the English, I just did a little online Khan Academy practice because my English score was already pretty high. I definitely concentrated a lot more on math.

I also used the normal SAT book, which is pretty helpful too.

If your practice or PSAT scores are really low (like below 1200), I'd suggest you get tutoring instead.

But I don't think the SAT is very difficult. It's very repetitive, so the more practice tests you take and questions you study, the more you'll be prepared for the actual test because it's just regurgitating concepts.

1. Hey! Absolutely always go with the books that are created by the writers of the test. For the SAT that would be this: https://www.amazon.com/Official-SAT-Study-Guide-2018/dp/1457309289/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1510794005&sr=8-1&keywords=college+board+sat+2018
   
   For the ACT that would be this: https://www.amazon.com/Official-ACT-Prep-Guide-2018/dp/1119386896/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1510794029&sr=1-1&keywords=real+act+prep+book+2018
   
   2)You can find all of the concepts tested on the respective web sites for the tests. ACT.org and collegeboard.com
   
   3)That is a way more complex question. First and foremost, I would tell you to not rely on tricks. Tricks are what sell test prep companies, not improve scores.
   

Sorry for the sort of late reply. I'd take it one more time -- something that I think really helped me improve my score was taking official SAT practice tests. You can purchase a booklet of these online (and maybe even find them for free on the College Board website?)

Of course, first go over the concepts that you need to review and make sure you thoroughly understand them (for math especially). Are you struggling more with the math or reading/writing sections?

Then, take practice tests -- the more the better -- under "test-taking" conditions (i.e. timing yourself, no extra resources, no breaks or distractions, etc.). After you take each test, review your answers and try to work through and understand why you got each wrong answer wrong.

Good luck!

Full text:

I’m a Harvard grad with honors and professional tutor/coach since 2002 (SAT, ACT, LSAT, GRE, GMAT). I have attained perfect scores on the SAT and ACT, with every question answered correctly, and 99% scores on the LSAT, GRE and GMAT (see my website for proof). I have been now teaching SAT for 20 full years, ever since I worked as an instructor for Harvard's "Get Ready" community service test-prep program in the fall of 1998. I am the founder of McElroy Tutoring, who has employed over 500 tutors since 2002, and the "r/SATACTprep" subreddit on Reddit, with nearly 1,000 subscribers and growing. I am also the former employer of another tutor with a highly-ranked review of this book that's very similar to mine. In short, I'm the one who wrote the recipe for the jam...but you know what they say about imitation.

The Official SAT Study Guide 2020 Edition (currently $19), despite not having changed much from the 2018 edition, is still the most essential SAT preparation book on the market. This is neither because the book contains useful SAT strategy advice, nor because the answer explanations are particularly helpful or easy to understand—the strategy advice is almost nonexistent, and the answer explanations are sometimes insightful but far too often convoluted, simplistic and/or incomplete. Instead, the book’s primary value lies in the fact that it includes 8 full practice SATs for only about $.02 per page.

How is this book different from the 2018 edition of the Official SAT Study Guide (https://www.amazon.com/Official-SAT-Study-Guide-2018/dp/1457309289), of which you can also read my detailed Amazon customer review (#1 on top) ? The first 294 pages of the book (the portion before the tests) are exactly the same. 6 of the 8 tests are the same—though the order has been reversed. And the two new tests—which show up as the first two tests in the book—are the October 2018 and October 2017 SATs, respectively, which are not yet available for download through College Board but can be found easily with a Google search. SAT practice tests #2 and #4 are gone, though you can still find them easily with a Google search. If we agree to call the October 2018 SAT test #10, and the October 2017 SAT test #9, then the tests are in the order 10,9,8,7,6,5,3,1.

Although 6 of the 8 the tests in this book are indeed free to download from the College Board / Khan Academy websites and print out at home (I expect the other 2 to be available as free PDF downloads soon), the cost of doing so would most likely exceed $19 unless you have a free/low-cost printing option. In addition, there is significant value in having all the tests literally bound together in one place—it makes it easy to stay organized, and since the SAT doesn’t provide scratch paper, you can practice by taking all of your notes right there in the book.

In fact, I would suggest that you buy 2 copies of this book: one for taking notes, and the other to keep blank, so that you can review questions later without bias. This is known as the “blind review” method and it works wonders.

You will notice that there is no Kindle version of this book, but again, you can download PDFs of the individual tests, scoring guides and answer explanations from the College Board / Khan Academy websites for free, which is far easier than the Kindle format anyway. That being said, it would be nice if the College Board would put a PDF of the entire book on its website as well--the first 300 pages of the book do include some useful advice on the essay, for example--though again, that advice could be vastly improved.

Of course, these 8 official SATs are just scratching the surface of what’s out there in terms of official SAT practice material: as of this writing I’ve counted 36 official SATs and PSATs in the new format that are publicly available online—and that doesn’t include other test forms that have been leaked.

Finally, in 2015, I also wrote an exhaustive Amazon review of the original (2016) edition of this book (https://www.amazon.com/Official-SAT-Study-Guide-2016/dp/1457304309), which I’m happy to say is also the #1 review of that book on Amazon. Please feel free to give that review a read as well, and to google “SAT Action Plan: How to Study and Prepare for the SAT College Entrance Exam” for a full list of my personal SAT prep recommendations.

Best of luck on your SAT and beyond,

-Brian