Mike Barrett - SAT Prep Black Book: The Most Effective SAT Strategies Ever Published

Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four hours sharpening the axe.
- Abraham Lincoln

The approach youre about to learn from the SAT Prep Black Book has helped many, many people score much higher on the SAT than they thought they could. Im confident it can help you, too, if you make a sincere effort to implement what Im going to teach you.

If you have any previous experience with SAT prep, youll probably find that this book is different from the traditional a dvice youll get from most other sources. That traditional advice is mostly based on memorizing things like vocabulary lists, math formulas, and essay examples. And if youve tried that stuff, or if you know somebody who has, then you know it doesnt work very well for most people.

My approach is different because its based on understanding the design of the test, which allows you to take the vocabulary and math you already know and turn them into a great scoreeven a perfect 2400, if youre diligent enough in your preparation.

Ive designed this approach to be as easy to learn as possible. Youll need to read this book carefully and be thorough in applying what I teach you, but I think youll find it much less time-consuming and much more productive than the traditional approach.

But that doesnt mean youll get the full benefit of this book just from flipping through it!

If you want me to be on your team for the SAT, then you have to give us both a fighting chance. That means reading this book with an open mind, looking carefully at the many example solutions to get an idea of how the principles apply to real College Board questions, going to www.SATprepVideos.com t o watch the free video demonstrations, andabove allsticking with it when you run into difficulties. Ive done my part to help you beat the test by laying bare exactly how the SAT works and exactly where its vulnerable. Now its up to you to read the battle plan and mount your attack.

I can guarantee you that you will encounter real test questions that seem to violate the rules and patterns I talk about in this book. This is a normal part of the processeveryone, including myself, occasionally runs into a question that seems to break the rules.

When this happens, its always because the test-taker has made a mistake.

So its crucial that we remember the design of the SAT cant change, no matter how much it might seem to have changed on a particular question. It will be tempting to think, Oh, I guess this one math question requires me to know trig, even though Mike said that would never happen, or Well, I guess this passage question requires me to think about symbolism, even though thats supposed to be impossible on the SAT. As soon as you go down that roadas soon as you stop playing by the rules of the test and start treating the SAT like something its notyour score will suffer.

So dont do that :)

The Black Book is designed so that a person who didnt know anything about the SAT could read it straight through and learn everything he needed to know. Ive organized it this way based on over a decade of experience working with tens of thousands of people through a variety of formats.

So if you dont know anything about the SAT, or if youve had a rough time using other SAT books and you want to clear your mind and start from scratch, the best thing to do is to read this book straight through, just as its written.

If you dont have the time for that, or if you know that you only need help with a particular section or question type, then youre free to skip just to those sections, of course. But I would still recom mend that you read the following chapters as well:

o Setting (The Right) Goals

o How To Train For The SATMastering The Ideas In This Book

o Only Work With Questions From The College Board!

o The Importance Of Details: Avoiding Careless Errors

o Where To Find Missing Points

o Time Management

If youre reading this the night before the test, or if you only need a few general pointers, then you might choose just to read the sections on the hidden rules and patterns of each question type, or even just follow along with some of the sample solutions in each section to get the hang of things.

But this book doesnt just address the mechanics of answering each type of question on the SAT. It also covers issues relating to planning, performance, time management, perseverance, and the other mental aspects surrounding the SAT. I strongly advise you to read those as well.

The Blue Book that goes along with this Black Book is the second edition of the College Board publication The Official SAT Study Guide . You need a copy of the Blue Book because its the only printed source of real SAT questions, and real SAT questions are an essential part of SAT preparation. The SAT Prep Black Book that youre reading right now will teach you all the rules, patterns, and design principles of real SAT questions, and will show you hundreds of solutions for real SAT questions, but youll only be able to practice these ideas if you have the Blue Book.

I strongly, strongly advise you to follow along with the Blue Book solutions in this book, because seeing the proper approach to the SAT in action against real questions is an indispensable part of your preparation, and will make things a lot clearer.

You can probably get a copy of the Blue Book from a library, but I recommend that you get a copy of your own from Amazon, which usually has the lowest prices. That way you can mark up the copy as you would mark up a test booklet, and you wont have two worry about looking at other peoples notes in a used copy. At the time of this writing, a new copy of the book is selling for around $10 on Amazon. Heres a link where I keep a page with the best deals on the Blue Book: http://www.SATprepBlackBook.com/blue-book .