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When I got my scores back I was a little shocked. 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. 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 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. So it is a good book I guess, the reading techniques were really helpful. 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).
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 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). But WARNING: do not get overconfident when taking the test (which I think was what happened to me).
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. 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 am a fairly good test taker so this book dives right into the deep end instead of wasting time telling you no-brainers. This is definitely my type of book.
The price is there and the material is great. Reviewing many test prep books, especially SAT books I find that Barrons and Grubers are the best on the market.
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. I didn't like the pre-2008 edition of this book for many reasons. Which is why I'm glad I'd sold the book and, thanks to the hype, at a good price. Finally, with the pre-2008 edition, the organization of the lay-out is so messy that it is actually hard to follow. 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.
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. 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.
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