Peterson's Sat Mat Flash: The Quick Way to Build Math Power for the Sat-And Beyond (Peterson's SAT Math Flash)

Rating:
Summary: SAT Math flash - a compact math workbook
Review: SAT Math flash is a great book if you are the type of person I am. Someone who knows how to do all the math, yet doesn't score extremely high on the math section. This book primarily tests your ability to reason math, not your knowledge that the area of a circle is pi r squared (like some SAT prep books do). This book is a great workbook. It is not divided into sections like Barron's workbooks, so you can go through as if you were taking a real test and find out what's wrong. The explanations are in depth yet concise. The questions are in the medium-difficult range. This book is perfect for someone who needs to figure out what's wrong with their reasoning, not for someone who needs to learn the actual math. It is also recommended that you already have some strategies in mind when you use this. This book is comparable to taking an SAT math section, then having all the answers and explanations there for you, but it focuses on the harder parts of the test...pick it up, you'll like it.

Rating:
Summary: SAT Math flash - a compact math workbook
Review: SAT Math flash is a great book if you are the type of person I am. Someone who knows how to do all the math, yet doesn't score extremely high on the math section. This book primarily tests your ability to reason math, not your knowledge that the area of a circle is pi r squared (like some SAT prep books do). This book is a great workbook. It is not divided into sections like Barron's workbooks, so you can go through as if you were taking a real test and find out what's wrong. The explanations are in depth yet concise. The questions are in the medium-difficult range. This book is perfect for someone who needs to figure out what's wrong with their reasoning, not for someone who needs to learn the actual math. It is also recommended that you already have some strategies in mind when you use this. This book is comparable to taking an SAT math section, then having all the answers and explanations there for you, but it focuses on the harder parts of the test...pick it up, you'll like it.

Rating:
Summary: Terrific preparation for the math portion of the SAT.
Review: SAT Math Flash provides a very accessible guide to the variety and difficulty levels of the math problems on the SAT. Described as "including" two complete tests, in fact representative sections of typical questions in the 3 SAT math formats--multiple choice, grid-in, and quantitative analysis--comprise the entire book. Consequently the reader gains practice with the content as well as the style of the SAT. Each right-hand page contains 2 math problems; on the back of the page are clear explanations of the answers. These solution guides are the best I've seen. The author avoids cutesy tricks (that carry their own burden of one needing to remember how they work), and sticks with straightforward math, algebra, and geometry. The author's explanations are so clear and make such simple sense, that they give the reader tremendous reassurance. In addition, the author refers to the frequency of a type of problem and cites the concepts and formulas behind every problem. I rated SAT Math Flash at 9 rather than 10 only because the book is so good that, at 142 6 x 9 pages, I wish it were longer. Still, the other books are so huge in their gross attempts to cover too much, that they are depressing, overwhelming, and slick in their explanations. If one could buy only one prep book, I think this is it. I suspect that if one did the problems in this book over and over until the concepts and formulas were embedded, one could go into the SAT with confidence--certainly half the battle! But author Crystal is so good, I'm looking for his other books: SAT SUCCESS and PANIC PLAN FOR THE SAT.