In the spring of my junior year I took the SAT for the first time-- I got a 730 CR 700 W 700 M, but I still wanted to do better. I read all the reviews for this book and it seemed to help many people, so I bought the book about two months before the October SAT. I studied off and on during that time, and I finished the math and reading sections but I only had time to skim the writing section. When I got my scores back I was a little shocked. I had spent most of my time studying the math section and not so much on the reading, but I ended up getting an 800 CR and a 670 M (30 points below my spring score). I got a 670 Writing (an 8 on the essay which was the same as the spring, but a 690 on the grammar multiple choice subscore which was 40 points below my spring score). I wasn't too concerned about the CR sections and just took my time on them and used Barron's piece meal reading method, but I thought that both the math and writing sections had gone really well and was expecting better score. I checked my score report and I still ended up getting the hard questions on the math wrong (even though I had been confident that I knew how to answer them with Barron's methods). I went very quickly while doing both the math and writing because I was confident I know how to do them all from Barron's. So it is a good book I guess, the reading techniques were really helpful. But WARNING: do not get overconfident when taking the test (which I think was what happened to me).

This is definitely my type of book. I am a fairly good test taker so this book dives right into the deep end instead of wasting time telling you no-brainers.

Reviewing many test prep books, especially SAT books I find that Barrons and Grubers are the best on the market. The price is there and the material is great.

I didn't like the pre-2008 edition of this book for many reasons. First, it is replete with with "pep talk," which is time-consuming to read and irrelevant to mastering crucial SAT skills. Second, it is thin on substance, which is why the author has to use extra-large fonts to fill up the pages. The few strategies provided, branded for the "2400 Club," are nothing you can't find in other great SAT books, like the McGraw Hill books. Finally, with the pre-2008 edition, the organization of the lay-out is so messy that it is actually hard to follow. Which is why I'm glad I'd sold the book and, thanks to the hype, at a good price!

This book is riddled with mistakes in its practice sections (notably the writing section) and contains superfluous mnemonics as a "strategy." Incessant use of "2400 clubbers" doesn't help. I'd recommend skimming Rocket Review for writing and reading, Gruber's for math, and a solid practice from Collegeboard's "Blue Book" of released tests as practice.

I just received this book yesterday, and after reading through it, found some of the stuff to be very helpful. There are some insights this book share that others don't. This book is for those who strive for a perfect 2400 on the SAT. If you want to familiarize yourself with the SAT first, then you should read Barron's How to Prepare for the SAT. That book has a lot more information about taking the SAT, but it will only tell you how to guess on the hard questions. Unlike this book, which tells you how to actually handle and solve them.

I took off one star because I thought this book would have more pages (it has 373). Math is a full 171 pages, compared to only 180 pages for the reading and writing pages combined. I would like to give this book 3.5 stars, but by the rules of rounding, that's 4 stars :D

I bought this for my daughter after she received identical scores on two SAT tests. She read this book, did the exercises and guess what? Her third SAT still had the same identical score. She quit SAT's after that.

I think this is a good book for you to prepare for the SAT. The Critical Reading section is good. However, you need to be good at Math to master the Math section in this book because this section is pretty hard and has few tips for you.

So, after scoring a 2040 on the SAT as a sophomore, I was looking for ways to ante up my skills. Barron's 2400 had what someone like me, who knows how to take standardized tests, needs -- practice with the hardest level of questions. This book is useful, but you need to couple it with a bunch of practice tests to test out your newfound skills and strategies (I recommend the official SAT book) in order to maximize your score.

So if you read all the strategies in the book, take lots of practice exams while applying the techniques you've learned, you'll probably raise your score significantly. This strategy worked for me, and it can probably work for you, too!

I got a 2340 on my second try : )