The College Panda's SAT Math: Advanced Guide and Workbook

This SAT math book is very well-organized, making it easy for students to follow and practice effectively. My child worked through the book twice over the break, and it really helped build confidence. The clear structure and variety of problems made a big difference. Highly recommended for anyone preparing for the SAT!

Very useful as a guide to practice for the math section of the SAT. Explanations are clear, and there are very few if any errors. A student who works through the entire book will have a very good grasp of all the topics needed to do well in the SAT math section.

This is the only test prep series my daughter uses to prepare, and she has stated "It is the best;I LOVE it!" Especially useful is the straight forward, no nonsense, nuts-and-bolts approach of organizing the chapters by concept and providing ample practice problems with varying difficulty levels. As a homeschool mom, I appreciate the functional approach, ease of use and effectiveness for self-paced study. I also appreciate the well-gathered data and analysis of the actual SAT the author provides to aid students in their test-taking strategy. My daughter used the original SAT Math: The Advanced Guide for a brief preparation for the PSAT10 because this new guide wasn't available at the time. She is now using this New SAT Guide in preparation for the PSAT in the fall and the SAT next spring. Once she gets going on the practice problems, she can't stop! We love the specific tips and techniques suggested for solving the respective problem types. She's so motivated to get through them in an effort to improve her math score, which tends to be her weakest area. The boost in confidence that I see is well worth it and gives mother and daughter peace of mind! This guide is not just for "Top Scorers" but goes a along way in prepping all college bound students to put their best foot forward.

Most SAT prep books out there have a common pattern in their structure: Give the readers a ton of general information, and then proceed to have them practice the knowledge they learned in that chapter. The advantage of this teaching method is that the readers can gain plenty of background knowledge to help them fundamentally understand concepts and applications. However, the main problem with it is the amount of "noise," or unnecessary information that a typical test-taker will end up studying. Although it's useful to know, it is also technically not required to do well on SAT Math. Nielson Phu seems to have known this, which is why he decided to write a prep book that merely shows the readers how to handle each of the specific problems they'll generally encounter on the SAT. He says that SAT questions should be "a simple reflex, something you know how to handle instinctively because you've seen it so many times before."Instead of stuffing the pages with fluff, Phu gets right to the point of how to solve problems, and spends a minimal amount of time on basics. He usually teaches everything by starting with an example right on the first page of the chapter. Some chapters are even made up entirely of problems and how to solve them. This no-nonsense, straightforward way of studying can not only be a time saver, but can also provide a simpler, less intimidating way of viewing math problems.You may argue that it is more beneficial for a student to know why they're doing what they're doing when they solve problems, but, strictly in terms of their performance on the SAT, it does not necessarily help. Some students (like myself) prefer a more specific and concrete way to look at math. And, frankly, even the most drone-like uninteresting knowledgebase like that is all that is really needed to get a good score. It's like learning to bake a cake. As long as two different people follow the same procedure for baking the cake, their knowledge of why certain ingredients are needed to bake it is irrelevant. The result is still the same.That being said, students who are attempting to get into MIT or Cal Tech are obviously much better off fully understanding the intricacies of mathematics if they wish to get ahead, which is why I wouldn't feel comfortable recommending this book to everyone. Its blunt and superficial way of teaching is not suitable for those looking for a deep comprehension of math. But if you want a concise crash course to the test, this is the book for you. Just be prepared to do some self teaching because some of the answer explanations in this book are a little too short, and can make it difficult to understand why you should do certain things to solve them. Of course, by contrast, more mainstream books have a bad habit of using overly complicated ways of saying "it's right because it's right," rendering their explanations equally unhelpful.

The first copy was damaged, and Amazon shipped a replacement quickly. My kid says this book is very good and has high-level practices.

I bought this book, as well as the three other College Panda SAT books which I loved, and it was incredibly helpful. I read this book from start to finish in about two weeks and would highly recommend it to high schoolers aiming for a high score on the SAT math section. The book consists of 28 chapters, one for each topic covered on the new SAT, and a 29th chapter with the answers and explanations to chapter exercises. Each chapter has a few pages explaining the math concepts. These pages don't have paragraphs of writing, making it very easy to read, and have example questions to test you as you learn. At the end of each chapter, there are chapter exercises to help you master the material and make sure you can apply what you have learned in that chapter (they are very helpful and allow for extra practice). This book is very organized, easy to read, and often teaches you helpful math concepts that will save you time on the SAT.