Fifth Edition, The Ultimate Guide to SAT Grammar

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 THINGThe 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that were removed, but their explanations, their emphasis, their core understanding of what drives the new exam, are outdated.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.

This guide has been through several generations, and though the content hasn't changed all that much over time, it hasn't had to. Meltzer's books are the definitive guides for standardized test grammar.

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I have the paperback which is a great resource. But I needed a digital version, and so downloaded it to my Kindle for Mac app, as well as on my Kindle itself.It is UNREADABLE because it is SIDEWAYS. Sideways on my laptop and sideways on my Kindle. Also sideways on my Samsung tablet, and when I rotate the tablet, the image is just sideways on the rotated tablet. Ridiculous!

I love the content, but I hate the fact that the book does not tell you which chapter you are in on the header or footer. Because you do not know which chapter you are in, moving around is not easy. You have to flip through pages to find the next chapter, not knowing which chapter you are in until you get to the next (or previous) one.

This book is overall good for grammar knowledge and understandingFor struggling student I recommend this book with lots of optionsLike practice material and everything

Good

Good book to use for test prep.