Rating: 
(10 reviews)
Author: Kaplan
Publisher: Kaplan Publishing
Product Description
Includes the most SAT practice available with:
*12 full-length practice exams
*Over 600 math grid-ins and multiple-choice questions
*Over 800 sentence completion and reading comprehension questions
*Over 500 writing multiple-choice questions
*Complete answer explanations
*12 essay prompts, model essays, and a guide to self-grading
5 Comments
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I bought this book solely because it was the only book that offered the most number of practice tests for the SAT Reasoning Test. Generally, I found the practice tests to be solid, reliable and closely resembling the real exam itself. However, I have to say that the vocabulary questions of the critical reading section are much easier than that of the real exam. The maths section is also not comprehensive enough as there seems to be a lack of polynomials and graph-transformation questions. n
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I was irritated by the fact that a surprising number of questions in the later practice tests were recycled from the previous tests, particularly the vocabulary and essay questions. Also, the fact that grammatical errors exist in the critical reading passages pinpoints a lack of editing on the writer’s part. On the brighter side, the explanations provided together with the answers are comprehensive enough except for the sample essays which I found to be overtly simple. In fact, when I compared the sample essays with those provided at the official College Board website, I found that a grade 6 sample essay in this book would at best be awarded a grade 4 according to College Board standards. n
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Notwithstanding the blemishes and imperfections of this book as outlined above, I would still recommend this book as additional practice for any SAT candidate. However, one should still attempt the practice tests in the Official College Board blue book before buying this book.n
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1.)some of the answers do not match with the explainationsn
2.)overly repetitiven
3.) Most of the reading composition topics are the same as the blue book. They just changed some of the words. n
4.) Why buy this when you can get the real thing at collegeboard.comn
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I am a full-time tutor and have several of my students use this book. As with any test prep book not published by the College Board, there a couple of questionable questions. The answers and explanations sections are fair; I have not found a book that offers very good commentary on answer choices. The explanations still give a student the chance to work independently. n
Some questions are modeled after the College Board book’s while others are not. n
Overall, Kaplan 12 is valuable, because it is most important for students to PRACTICE and think critically about their incorrect answers. Where are you going to find more practice?
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My son got a perfect score after struggling with this book. I guess it means it is helpful.
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A while back, for a previous edition of this book, I left a pretty scathing, one sentence review. As I prepare to try to get a perfect score on the exam, I realize that I am in need of practice exams (I exhausted everything else). I had about 10 tests left-over from my earlier ediiton of this book, but I decided that I ought to give the new edition a try. It’s much better!n
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The tests themselves are very good when there aren’t mistakes in the back of the book (explanation answers don’t match listed answers, etc.), but these errors are sparsely distributed.n
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The math sections are sufficiently “tricky” and test reasoning abilities just as the real exam does. The content’s about right, although as a previous reviewer mentioned, there are a few SAT Math Level 1 type questions in here so the content, if anything, is a little more advanced. But if you’re out of CB tests, these are still really good. n
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The writing sections are pretty good, except for the fact that some questions are poorly worded/incorrect, but I’ll excuse them because if you’re making 12 tests, some errors are bound to happen. n
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The critical reading’s a little weird. The passages are…about the same, although maybe written at a slightly lower level, but the questions sometimes have a hint of ambiguity that isn’t there on the real exam or on the blue book tests. All in all, they’re still pretty good, and it’s good reading practice in general. The sentence completions, I’ve found, don’t test as difficult vocabulary as the real thing, but the sentences are a little more difficult to decipher. Meh, it’s okay though. n
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In any case, this is a good set of tests. No, it’s not as good as CB material, but it’s all I’ve left. It’s not half bad.
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