Recommendations for PSAT and SAT prep books?

[Anonymous]

A friend of mine is lower-income and has a teenaged daughter who will be taking the PSAT this fall. I know they don't have the money for a prep course (neither do I), but I'd like to gift the daughter with a couple of good review books for the test, and again for the SAT. (This is how I studied for the PSAT, SAT, ACT, GMAT and GRE and did well on all of them.)

Any recommendations? I believe I used Kaplan and Princeton Review back in the day.

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Get her the blue book put out by the College Noard. That has real tests that were given in the past. She can borrow tons of prep books from her high school if she's in MCPS. That's where my daughter got a lot of her prep books for standardized tests and for her college search.

[Anonymous]

Agree with the blue book.

I have an entire bag of SAT, ACT, SAT2 prep books to freecycle. And our high school college guidance office has shelves and shelves of prep books. There are also some online tests available including I think at the SAT site itself. I think our MCPS HS website also has some links to online test prep resources.

[Anonymous]

Universal consensus is that the "blue book" referenced earlier, issues by the College Board is THE way to go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Universal consensus is that the "blue book" referenced earlier, issues by the College Board is THE way to go.

Can someone post a link?

[Anonymous]

I have been thinking about this, too. My kid wants to start prepping this summer though she will just be in 10th grade in the fall. Can someone verify that a 10th grade score is solely for practice and does not go to anyone but the test taker? Or does the school get the score, too?

[Anonymous]

The SAT is completely changing this year, so the old prep books may not be helpful. Some have said it will be more like the ACT, so reviews for that test may also be helpful for the SAT this year.
This will be an interesting test year. Students will be entering a more even playing field: no one will have access to previous tests in advance, since it will be the test's first administration.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The SAT is completely changing this year, so the old prep books may not be helpful. Some have said it will be more like the ACT, so reviews for that test may also be helpful for the SAT this year.
This will be an interesting test year. Students will be entering a more even playing field: no one will have access to previous tests in advance, since it will be the test's first administration.

PP is correct. Oct 2015 PSAT is new revised test that reflects new SAT test which starts early 2016. So test prep books may not be as useful as before.