The Ultimate Guide to SAT Grammar - by Erica Lynn Meltzer5th Edition

Description

The fifth edition of "The Ultimate Guide to SAT® Grammar" provides comprehensive coverage of all the grammar, rhetoric, and data-analysis concepts tested on the redesigned SAT® Writing and Language Test, and includes more than 300 new in-depth explanations to practice questions. Dozens of exercises help students move from studying concepts individually to applying their skills in a passage-based context. Includes a complete index of Writing questions from the eight exams in the College Board Official SAT Study Guide, 2020 Edition, arranged both by category and by test. Review: Hands Down The Best Study Resource For The New SAT's Writing & Language Section - My name is Mike Wright, and I'm the owner of a small test prep and college counseling boutique in the SF Bay Area. Since the release of the New SAT in 2016, I have conducted an ongoing and thorough review of all the available prep resources (textbooks, Khan Academy's online course, 3rd party prep courses, etc.) to ensure my own tutors and students are working with the best tools available. This review will go into some detail, but here's the headline: Erica Meltzer's Grammar guide is unparalleled as a study resource for the New SAT's Writing & Language section, and it is one of the very few SAT textbooks that is written accessibly enough to realistically serve as a self-study guide. ------------------ Most newcomers don't recognize just how rigidly predictable the SAT is designed to be: to function as a STANDARDIZED exam, the writers must ask a similar number of questions about the same list of concepts from test to test. For instance, if the August exam had 14 questions on subject-verb agreement while the October exam had none, the SAT would fail to generate consistent scores for students across test dates. All the best test prep organizations understand this, and break down previous exams to learn which concepts occur most frequently, generate the most wrong answers, etc. BUT HERE'S THE THING The SAT's core structure changed dramatically in 2016. The College Board redesigned the test (including the Writing & Language section) from the ground up, and in doing so they rendered all previously-written prep resources obsolete. The vast majority of SAT textbooks currently on the market -- I'm talking Princeton Review, Kaplan, all the big players -- are simply touched-up versions of their old resources. They mooostly cover all the core concepts, and mooostly cut out the concepts that were removed, but their explanations, their emphasis, their core understanding of what drives the new exam, are outdated. This is especially noticeable in the Writing & Language section, where the test's emphasis has shifted dramatically (away from raw vocab, and toward a deeper understanding of context and writing structure). Erica Meltzer's suite of books, and her Grammar guide in particular, are the shining exception to this rule. She has clearly taken the time to design a complete, thorough guide specific to the New SAT (rather than repackaging her ACT guide, or her old SAT guide). This guide covers 100% of the grammar and writing concepts included in the new exam, and does not waste a single page on concepts that are now outdated. Her writing is excellent and clear throughout, her practice problems are impressively close to problems on the official test, and (most helpfully of all) her included Appendix linking every question from the first 8 official New SATs to chapters in her book is a fantastic tool to help students appreciate the test's deep structure. I would highly recommend this book to any student or educator preparing for the SAT. Review: It was very helpful - The book helped me a lot with perfecting my English for the SATs. It improved so much so that from 1120, I jumped to a 1400 with no tutors for English.