KALLIS' Redesigned SAT Pattern Strategy + 6 Full Length Practice Tests (College SAT Prep + Study Guide Book for the New SAT) - Second edition

I tutor high school kids as well as work at an SAT prep academy. I have taught SAT with Princeton Review, Kaplan, and the Collegeboard for years but I don't think I'll be going back to them. I was introduced to this book by a fellow teacher and I love it! It's a great book to use as a teacher and would definitely recommend for students who is self studying the new SAT. I recommended to several other high school tutors and the academy I work for and they love it too. My academy director wants to use the book for regular SAT prep classes here!! It's that good! From what I can tell, has little to no errors in terms of text and the design of the book layout is simple and easy to be acquainted with. Loving the divided sections of the book into question topics in the SAT and the thoroughness of the book. Way to go KALLIS!

Got this book for my cousin's kid. There is no way of getting a good score unless you learn and understand the material. The book gives concise and easy to understand step by step explanations to questions. It's a great overall prep for the SAT test, without the overly wordy, boring, explanations you normally find in test prep books. My cousin had a difficult time explaining subjects to her son, especially since English is her second language. So far she has found this book a great tool that they can go over together to help prepare for the new SAT test. No one likes to study but she has even found him taking the book with him to school to practice in his free time. Looking over the book before I gave it to them, I wished I had such a book to help me when I took my SAT's.

I've been a professional tutor for many years, and I've been running a tutoring company for the better part of a decade. We're all scrambling to find the best review book for the redesigned SAT. Thus far, nothing has proven exceptional, but this book is leading the pack, for now. As any good tutor will tell you, the first book you purchase should always be the official exams from the test maker: in this case The Official SAT Study Guide, 2016 Edition . However, these 4 exams (plus two more) are also available for free on the College Board's web site. The strength of this book is the 6 practice exams it includes, complete with answer explanations. Because there are only 6 real exams currently available from the College Board, practice exams are still a valuable component of new SAT prep books. In a few years when more exams are released, prep company exams will be irrelevant because tutors will already have access to tens of real exams, as is the case with the ACT and the old SAT. As for the negatives: However, many of our tutors and students find the Kallis practice tests more difficult than the actual College Board exams, particularly the reading sections. The answer explanations are often extremely short and sometimes lacking, a critical oversight common to most prep books. The lessons chapters of the book are fairly robust. However, typically only two or three sample questions are included with each concept, making targeted practice of weak areas more difficult for students. We are still looking for alternative books to find one which can fill this role the way 5 lb. Book of ACT Practice Problems does beautifully for the ACT. Right now we are sampling The New SAT: 1,500+ Practice Questions , and we will post our review shortly. Please feel free to reach out to us by googling "Elite Ivy Tutors" if you have any further questions about test prep. We will be starting a blog soon which compares prep books and also offers general testing tips. [NOTE: below I detail a more specific gripe I have with the book. It's very long and only relevant for professional tutors and overachieving students.] A more specific flaw is that the Kallis grammar lessons go into too much depth. As a grammar nerd I love it, but as a tutor I recognize that it's a "waste" from a test perspective. I actually feel that most prep books (and tutors) don't go into enough depth: they fail to identify essential jargon like independent clauses, run-on sentences, etc. However, Kallis goes the other way -- preferable to the alternative, but not optimal. Not every grammar rule is tested on the SAT, and only questions with one DEFINITIVE answer can be tested. Therefore, "recommended best practices" for writing and GENERALITIES are irrelevant. A few examples: - On page 77, discussing semicolons, Kallis says that it's usually preferable to use a FANBOYS conjunction instead of a semi-colon if the relationship between the independent clauses is not SELF-EVIDENT. This is a good guideline for your high school English class, but completely irrelevant for the SAT and can only lead to confusion and overthinking. In all my years of tutoring, I've never once seen a test question from the College Board (or ACT) which asks you to choose between a semi-colon or FANBOYS conjunction for a correct answer. The College Board can't ask you whether two clauses are "sufficiently self-evidently related" that a semi-colon would be preferred to a semi-colon. It can only ask questions which have an unequivocal correct answer: all incorrect choices must be DEFINITIVELY wrong. The simple lesson is that, for SAT purposes, semi-colons are IDENTICAL to periods. If a period is correct, so is a semi-colon, and vice versa. It's that simple. (Obviously the word following a semi-colon is not capitalized, but this hardly needs mentioning.) If a random student approached me on the street and asked for one SAT tip, my response would be just that: "Semi-colons are IDENTICAL to periods." That one easy-to-remember sentence will earn you 20-30 SAT points immediately, without any studying. I even tell students they can cross out semi-colons and turn them into periods on the writing section. To add a little more jargon and elaboration to the Kallis discussion, the point is that two independent clauses can be joined by a semi-colon or a FANBOYS conjunction. There's no need to distinguish between the two options. - On page 79, discussing the different ways to form appositives, Kallis says that em dashes are used for EMPHASIS and parentheses for SUBTLETY. (Commas are not even mentioned in this section, though they should be.) While interesting and true, this point is also irrelevant for the SAT. The point is that em dashes, parentheses and commas can all be used to create appositives, and all are EQUALLY correct. All three below are correct: The SAT tutor (an Ivy League graduate) was never late. The SAT tutor, an Ivy League graduate, was never late. The SAT tutor - an Ivy League graduate - was never late. The SAT will often give an incorrect choice which is wrong because it mixes and matches punctuation, using a comma and an em dash, for example. The SAT tutor, an Ivy League graduate - was never late. (WRONG) - On page 72, discussing comparative words, Kallis says "MOST words with two or more syllables are preceded by more or most" (as opposed to adding -est or -er) True? Yes. Interesting? Definitely. Irrelevant? Yes. First, students may become confused by trying to apply this tendency as a rule that has many exceptions (easier, noisier, etc.). Kallis does technically specify that the syllable guideline is only true most of the time, but that won't stop students from getting unnecessarily confused. There's no value in teaching that guideline because students will never be asked to construct the comparison themselves from scratch; they will never need to choose between "more clear" and "clearer", for example. (In this case, both are technically correct, so a testmaker could never ask this.) The relevant test taker point is really that comparisons are formed by either adding the word "more / most / etc." or by adding the -er / -est ending, but NEVER both. For example, one question from a real exam gives the choices A. far more busier B. far busier C. more busier D. most busiest Students following the Kallis guideline might be tempted to choose A, C or D by thinking that "busy" has two syllables and thus likely uses "more/most" in its comparison form.

Picked this one up based on reviews. Glad I did. I’ve been using it with my students (I work as an SAT tutor), and the grammar section is—without hyperbole—the best grammar guide I have ever worked with as a tutor. It’s not easy to explain the difference between something as simple as “who” or “whom”. But try to find a simple explanation, and a clear example… you’ll be more confused than when you started. Don’t get me started on past and present participles, or subjunctives and mood. But KALLIS does a pretty darn good job of it. The math section is also great, but I’m more experienced with math so it was the grammar that really stood out. Very happy with this resource.

I own a test-prep academy and am very familiar with all the changes on the new SAT. I have also used all the new products from all the major companies such as Kaplan, Princeton Review, etc., and have found that, while none of them is without its errors, none is completely useless either. Of course, I am not surprised that many smaller companies are taking advantage of the early state of conditions with the test's recent release to make extraordinary claims of having the only superior product and claiming that many of the other companies rushed to print not having done the requisite research. Anyone who has taken a class in basic marketing can surmise the "truth" present in such dubious claims. That being said, I have found in all fairness that this book hits the mark in many ways and misses it in many others. Overall, the format of the Reading and Writing and Language Tests (i.e., the question types and frequency) adhere quite accurately to the format of the new test. Yet many of the "correct" Reading Test multiple choice responses require assumptions on the part of the reader that the real test will not. And, the math on these practice tests is much, much harder than those on the actual SAT. So, would I recommend this book? Yes, I would. I would recommend it as much as all the other major companies' SAT test prep books, which are imperfect but altogether helpful when used realistically for what they are worth.

There’s not a lot out there for the SAT Redesign. The big companies have their books and courses of course—reliable if not dull. KALLIS’ book is different. It’s clear in its explanations of concepts and provides copious examples. That’s what its about, right? Getting the questions right. My son has taken a couple of the practice tests (one without a timer, and two under the clock), and he says he feels way more prepared. He’s never been a super-strong test-taker, but he’s committed and says he has already learned way more than in the course we paid for last summer. Very happy, five stars.

This is just what I needed for the high school I have been tutoring for the SATs. My student has been preparing for the SATs for a while now and when we both heard that the test is going to be reformatted, we went on the hunt for the right and updated book to study with. This is very well made and put together. The changes from the previous version of the SATs are transparent, well-written, and the 6 practice tests are beyond great! As an instructor, I highly recommend this to all the high school students studying for the SATs! :)

We were recommended this book by my son's college councillor as my son got an excellent score in the PSAT and he needed the extra push in getting a top score in the SAT reading and writing sections (which are his lowest scores). This book is details and tackles strategies for all parts of the SAT by my son concentrated on reading and writing. SAT results are coming out soon and this is his first SAT test. I'm hoping that he gets a top score! fingers crossed.

Good book to prepare for SAT.

Good just the way the cover says. It's referred by a friend

Passage are good. Some questions are not very clear. Quite a few typos.

Must buy if you are a SAT aspirant

The book was damaged when it came to me