Cheap SAT PERFECT SCORE: The 7 Secrets of Acing the SAT (Book) (Tom Fischgrund) Price

Related Products

Customer Reviews of SAT PERFECT SCORE: The 7 Secrets of Acing the SAT

It all starts with Statistics...
Statistics will show us correlation, but causation can be a difficult thing to tease out from the data. From the get go I had a hard time getting very far into this book after reading the description of the author's data gathering regarding the perfect score students and the control group. It was IMHO not rigorous enough to lead to statements such as "myth shattering" and "results [...] turn the idea of SAT preparation on its head" (granted, SAT preparation is yet another story, but I digress). <
> <
>The author also goes on to imply/state how much influence parents have on the ultimate success of their child. Yes, parents do have an impact on their children, but when it comes to the drive to succeed, a parent's impact may not be as great as we like to think. I highly suggest anyone reading this check out Levitt's "Freakonomics". While the whole book is not devoted to the subject of parents' impact on their children, there is some insightful information regarding children and their success in school/life in chapters 5 and 6 (the "Perfect Parent"). <
> <
>Now as far as the "secrets" go; well they are good general pursuits that everyone would benefit from. To treat them as "secrets" that will help one ace the SAT is dubious.

---

Useless (Review is based on 2nd edition called SAT Perfect Score: 7 Secrets to Raise Your Score)
My mom had recently bought me this book, since it was on sale. As I skimmed through it, I wondered how a book published as recently as 2004 was in the Barnes and Noble Bargain section. Little did I know how right Barnes and Noble was to get rid of this book as quickly as possible. This book did a study on what perfect score students did to get perfect scores and then came up with 7 "secrets" based on the results <
> <
>The book stresses that the SAT is not very important, and that life should not be focused on the SAT. Why then, does the cover yell "7 secrets to raise your score" if it's not a big deal? As a reviewer on amazon.com said, <
> <
>"Here is a book telling you that perfect score students don't place that much emphasis on the SAT and are instead interested in learning not for a test but for wisdom. But at the same time, the book is marketed as a book of "secrets" filled with directives for parents to follow so that their kids can achieve that elusive score. Hypocrisy, anyone?" <
> <
>Let's see what the 7 "secrets" are. <
> <
>Secret 1: They're Self Confident <
> <
>Well duh! Of course they're self-confident. These students were interviewed after they found out they got perfect scores. Suppose you got a 1600 on the SAT. Wouldn't you be confident some guy came up to you and interviewed you, reminding you of how well you did? You would certainly be much more confident now than before you took the SAT. <
> <
>Secret 2: They are intellectually curious <
> <
>I didn't need a book to figure that out. <
> <
>Secret 3: They read quickly and voraciously <
> <
>Again, I didn't need a book to figure that out <
> <
>Secret 4: They develop a core group of passions <
> <
>I don't see how this helps me get a better SAT score. <
> <
>Secret 5: They're proactive <
> <
>That pretty much is a given for a student who got a perfect score on the SAT. <
> <
>Secret 6: They develop a social network <
> <
>I can see how this may help, but I definitely would not classify this as a "secret" that will help me improve my score. I was expecting something more useful in this book. <
> <
>Secret 7: Their real goal isn't to ace the SAT <
> <
>I don't understand. The cover says "7 secrets to raise your score", but one of the secrets is not setting a goal to ace the SAT. So, this book is saying, in essence, that the secret to ace the SAT is to not have a goal to ace the SAT. Does this ring any bells? <
> <
>Overall, this book is highly misleading. All 7 secrets are not really secrets. They are just social habits. The cover of this book should really say: "SAT Perfect Score: 7 Social Habits Perfect Score students have". This book may be interesting to read but has no real academic benefit. I doubt I would do any better on the SAT now than before I read this book. Also, this book doesn't seem to be very professionally made. It doesn't have an index! I find an index very helpful for searching up things you need to know. And since the author thinks that these are "secrets" that everyone needs to know, he should put an index in there, so we can find information on the "secrets". <
> <
>Out of a 1-5 scale, with 1 being the worst and 5 being the best, I'd rate this book a 2, rounded up from a 1.5. It was an interesting read, but I was expecting something that would help me academically. If this book was entitled "SAT Perfect Score: 7 Social Habits Perfect Score Students Have", I would have given it a higher review, because the book is interesting, and I would know that is wouldn't help me in terms of academics. This book is definitely not worth the 13.95 list price.

---

One path to the 1600
Fischgrund's book is interesting. And it's a nice change from books that give the same long list of "take practice tests. Here's the vocabulary that's likely to show up. Here are the sort of math problems that they give. Here, time yourself and do this. Now do this. Now do it again. Now let's talk about the perils of blind guessing. Have a good night's sleep and a healthy breakfast!" And, perhaps naturally, I'm interested in the idea of what makes up a perfect SAT scorer. <
> <
>I got a 1600 SAT, first try, in 1997. (Technically, second try, since I'd taken it five years before.) There were some things I had in common with Fischgrund's subjects -- I had a supportive, two-parent household, I'd been an insatiable reader since before kindergarten, I was given the freedom at my public school to independently study what I felt like studying, and I took advantage of it. <
> <
>I also had a well-developed sense of self-loathing, far from "confidence", and, had I been born five years later, probably would have been on Prozac or one of its cousins all through high school. My social circle largely evaporated outside of school and scheduled activities -- I didn't have a supportive clique or friends as such. I was acquainted with failing to excel: my math teacher that winter tried to get me to drop her class for something easier, and plenty of things I put my hands to fell apart. I didn't much believe in luck, either creating my own or letting it come to me. I never took a practice test or opened a test prep book. <
> <
>And furthermore, when I went into the testing room in spring of my Junior year, I'd had a pretty severe case of mononucleosis for over six weeks. I still felt awful and couldn't make it through a full school day without going to the nurse's office to sleep for an hour. I had no hopes for my score. In fact, I fell asleep at several times during the test. <
> <
>And you know what? That probably contributed to my doing as well as I did. I walked into the test room with the attitude of "Whatever. This doesn't matter much. I can always retake it." <
> <
>If you're reading this, you might be a teenager -- but you're more likely to be a parent. So I just want to tell you -- be realistic. Think about your kid. Fischgrund touches on this, but it gets subsumed by the way that the book is geared toward Getting The Best Test Score Possible, and it needs to be restated strongly and often. If your kid is prone to test anxiety, you'll know it by the time she/he is in high school. Don't go nuts about how important this test is and how it'll determine the rest of your teenager's life -- schedule it for junior fall rather than spring, and then let your kid go into it without pressure from you. If your son or daughter doesn't fit the characteristics outlined in this book, don't try to force them -- and don't fall into the trap of thinking that these "secrets" are either necessary or sufficient. <
> <
>There are tons of ways to knock the socks off of an admissions committee. SAT scores are only one piece of it. And going to an elite college is no guarantee that you will be happy, or even employed. There is NO one true way to success -- don't be persuaded otherwise.