Barron's How to Prepare for Sat II: Math Level IIC (6th ed)

If you have taken intermediate algebra or pre-calculus and want to go for Math IIC test, this book will give you a great help.


This is one of the best books I've come across...   June 24, 2001
8 out of 8 found this review helpful

This book is an invaluable resource for those taking the SAT Math Level IIC. The review section is very complete and covers just about everything that the test may cover. There are very few books that can capture the essence of the SAT tests but this one does just that. It starts out with a diagnostic test and points you out to the areas which you may need to review. The best part of this book is the fact that the practice tests are incredibly difficult compared to the real test. I was getting around 30/50 on each practice test which made me a little apprehensive about taking the test. The only downside to this book is that there is no scale to find out what your score would be (this is only a slight drawback). After I received my scores I could not believe that I got a 790 (I even left about 5 problems blank). So if you aren't doing very well on the practice tests don't worry because you will do just fine on test day.


Great prep but be prepared to be depressed   June 27, 2000
10 out of 11 found this review helpful

The main advantage this book has is that its problems are a lot harder than the problems on the real test and their explainations are sometimes very weird. Doing problems in this book made me extremely depressed and I was prepared to take the test again, the night before I took the real SAT II I scored a 650 on one of the practice tests in Barron's and that didn't set me in a good emotional mood for the test the next day. But yesterday I received my score and to my surprise I scored a 800! So if you are around the high 600's in the practice tests in this book, you'll have no problem acing the real test. Good luck!


Over-prep is always better than under-prep.   July 13, 2004
Chang-yeon Kim (Stanford, CA USA)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful

Barron's is notorious for its overkill with practice tests in its prep books, and this one is no exception. Some would say that this is an evil spellbook that conjures horrible academic nightmares, in which the dean of admissions of the college of your choice laughs at you for missing 7+ on your Math IIc. But fear not! Like everyone else says, the real thing is nowhere as hard as what is found in this book. Don't be daunted by the endless formulas that it recommeneds you to memorize; the Math IIc is a conceptual test, NOT a memory based one. A lot of the content in here is a waste of time; stuff like cis and the binomial theorem for coefficients never appear on the actual test. But hey, it's always good to feel over-prepared than feel like you're missing out.

What's so great about this book though is the number of practice tests included - a whopping 9. Kaplan's version, the only alternative that I really recommend, only has 4 tests, two of them for Math Ic (although its tests simulate the real deal much, MUCH more accurately... a good strat is to buy both books and take Kaplan's practice tests after you're done with the Barron's. It'll give you a pretty good idea of where you stand with the actual test). Since Collegeboard doesn't have a "10 Real SAT II Math IIC," your only source for a good workout is this book. My only complaint is with the solution sets... EVERY SINGLE one of them has a freakin mistake. Like, it says it's B when the real answer's D and the numerical answer in its OWN explanations correspond to D... it annoys and scares the hell out of you when you're checking your answers. Grr. Other than that, there is no other book you can turn to if you want to be 99% (absolutes are always dangerous) prepared for the Math IIC.


Great prep book for people who have enough time and effort   June 23, 2004
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

The first time I took the SAT Math IIC test I got a 650. I wanted a lot higher. I am good at math and I know how to do almost all of the problems on the Math IIC test, but I was not fast enough to complete it.

Barron's is a great prep book because they give harder problems than are on the actual test, so you will be really prepared. I took a practice test once a day about a week before the exam and I flipped through the review section. I made sure to time the test, since time was a major issue for me. It is very challenging to finish the Barron's tests (don't expect to do too well on them, I kept getting mediocre ratings), but if you go as fast as possible you should get somewhat close to finishing(if you have 8 or less problems to do than you will probably finish the real test).

On the real SAT II test, I got a 770! That is 120 points above what I got before!

If you make sure to practice going quickly through the problems on the practice tests and look at the review section, you should do fine on the actual SAT II test. Of course, this is assuming that you know almost all of the information presented on the test already.

This book is great for people who have some time before the test and who want challenging problems that are harder than the real ones. If you want a quick study fix and an easier test book you should probably not get this book. I thought the book was very thorough (maybe too thorough for some people), and the review sections are quite good, but they are made for review, not for learning new info. If you do not know the information presented you may need to look at the examples for a while in order to figure out how to solve problems.

All in all, a great book for people who really want to do well on the SAT II Math IIC test and can handle the tough problems and have enough time to study.