The following are the list of the SAT books that are best-sellers in the market.   I have made a list of weaknesses and strengths, that are of my opinion of each of the books.

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First, let me explain what the SAT is. The SAT is a 10 section exam (total of 3 hours and 45 minutes) consisting of 1 Essay, 3 Math, 3 Critical Reading, 2 Writing and 1 Experimental Section. This exam should not be taken lightly because it is really a high stakes exam for college. Because of the recent competitiveness for colleges and major national universities from the baby boomers, nothing really is a guarantee; having a good SAT score is still very important to show admissions officers a solid foundation. Although the recent policy of Score Choice has come out, this is not a real choice because some colleges have the right to see all your scores. The ACT has real score choice. This exam does not really test if you know what you learned from school, but if you have the ability to analyze information and questions. Except for the Reading and Writing Section, where the student would have to learn grammar and vocabulary, this is a test of how the student could apply the information they learned in school and apply it in new ways (especially for harder questions). But becaue this exam never changes, if student continually takes practice exams, he or she will be better prepared and have more confidence. About 40% of the time, the student should take practice exams or sections, and the other 60% should be about learning the exam (including vocab and grammar). But near the test, it shouldbe more like 80-90% practice exams and 10-20% instruction.

The first book I would recommend would be the Barron's SAT. This book's practice questions and exams are considered to be much harder than the actual SAT, but the formatting and concepts are all the same. This book is for students that really want to increase their score into the 2100-2300 range. This book may be considered tedious because of its difficulty, but depending on opinion, it seems beneficial to be prepared for the difficult questions. Most students will be able to answer the easy questions, but the hard and sometimes the medium questions may be a source of difficulty for many more students. This book addresses practically all the concepts that are going to be on the exam (very detailed), therefore, if a student wants to go through this book, they should at least take 2-3 months apart to complete this book. The other great thing about this book is the vocabulary list; the list boasts of 3000 words, with marked words that appear frequently. There is also a roots and prefixes section as well. This book seems to be a very good value for anyone. If the student has a lot less time (less than one month), but has exceptional abilities, then I would highly recommend the SAT 2400 just to sharpen the student's skills. The SAT 2400 is the Barron's version of 'Advanced Prep'.

In terms of online preparation, the best for any type of test practice is

http://www.studentedge.com/studentedge/default.aspx

They offer several SAT, some SATII Subject Tests, ACT, and even some AP practice exams! They even offer free SAT and ACT prep, which is really a great deal. Even though this site does offer amazing preparation and practice, I would still recommend buying a prep book and using this as a supplement. This is really the only SAT prep online that you should need. If you want the SAT Online Course from College Board, your school may have a code for free access to it.

 The Official Study Guide to the SAT is a very good book for students that want practice. If a student has already finished studying and preparing for the exam, he or she should start practicing as practice is really key for this exam. The format does not change and if a student becomes more aware of the content and format, the student will most likely be more prepared and less worried about the exam. The Official Study Guide is very good for practice tests because they were created by the makers of the SAT (College Board). This is really the best practice you can get (8 practice exams= 24+ hours)! For the most part, a student should leave at least one month for the practice exams; if the student wants to divide up the sections (possibly taking a practice section after learning a set of skills), then this book would also effectively measure progress for the student. If a student wants more practice, then I would recommend the Princeton Review 11 Practice SATs and Kaplan's 12 Practice SATs. Unless the student has more than 8 months to prepare for this exam, I do not think that the student would have enough time to complete 30+practice exams. About 5-10 practice tests should suffice.

If a student has less than 6 weeks to study for this exam, then I would recommend the Princeton Review's Cracking the SAT. This book is highly effective because it gets to the point. The explanations are quite simple and with a little over 20 chapters, the book is very concise. If the student could finish a chapter every 1 or 2 days, then he or she would be prepared for the content of the exam. There are three practice exams in the book. This book also has vocabulary(and roots),but a lot less words. This book should provide a solid foundation for the exam.

If you are preparing for SAT IIs, you can usually trust Princeton Review material.

I would highly recommend is the Gruber's SAT. This book is overtly detailed for the math and grammar sections. For the critical reading, the book is not that detailed, but this book just gets to the point. The vocab list is probably one of the best ones I have seen for the SAT as it covers a lot of word that many people may not know about. If a student may be struggling in math, then this book may be very helpful. The grammar section is so extensive that some of the material may not actually ever appear on the SAT.  The downside with the grammar section is the lack of practice problems after each skill.

When looking at the critical reading steps, the thing I liked the most was when he tries to make us 'go into his head' to see what he is thinking about when he is attacking the questions.  I really like his methods, and hopefully, if you do purchase this book, you may too!  

There are a lot of practice exams (five). They also have the SAT 2400 for students that want to better hone their SAT skills.

 The next prep book I would recommend is the Kaplan's Premier and Comprehensive Books. These books are really the middle between the Barron's and Princeton Review books. Kaplan has slightly more detail than the Princeton Review, but it still is concise. These books are slightly more expensive than Princeton Review and Barrons. These books also seem to be very much in sync with the students.

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