SAT Literature Subject Test: The Best Prep Books

Update: I've added material to the Background Knowledge section of this post.

The SAT Literature Subject Test, like SAT Critical Reading, is very difficult to write practice questions for. Each question has to be properly tricky while still having one objectively correct answer and four others that are unambiguously wrong. The College Board's tests do this far better than third-party practice tests do.

You'll need a hybrid study plan: College Board tests combined with content review from a third-party company. Here's a list of the best prep books.

The Official Study Guide for ALL SAT Subject Tests

This book has the only officially released SAT Literature practice test available.

Pros
If you're going to take several Subject Tests, you need this book anyway.

Cons
The answer explanations only cover the answer choice that's correct for each question and ignores the incorrect choices. If you want to prep effectively, you have to be able to explain to yourself why each of those choices is objectively wrong.

College Board Online Practice for SAT Literature

You need all the official practice you can get for this test.

Pros
These are official questions, and they're free!

Cons
There aren't enough online questions to form a full practice test, and they're easier than the questions you'll see on the real exam.

Ivy Global Online SAT Literature Practice Test and Answer Explanations
Ivy Global, which has published fairly accurate SAT practice tests, has a downloadable SAT Literature practice test.

The test itself is realistic, but it has answer key errors. (The online explanations contradict the key at the back of the test.)
#26 is D, not A
#27 is A, not D
#43 is B, not D

Here are my own answer explanations for two questions for which I thought Ivy Global's explanations were not very clear:

For #4, the poem describes a train rushing through the city's great gaunt gut, which literally means a large, thin intestine.
(A) doesn't match the idea of an intestine,
(B) points to criminals that aren't in the poem, and
(C) is problematic because there's no support for the word efficient or for whatever the subway is supposed to be digesting.
The word viscera in (E) works, but the words bloated and distended don't, as they suggest a swollen stomach and not a gaunt one.
(D) is the answer, as "sprawling" matches the idea of a long intestine, while "cheerless" matches the words weary, sick, heavy, swallowed, and moans.

#8 is tough because of the vocabulary words in the answer choices:
(A) doesn't work because the word bucolic refers to the pleasant aspect of countryside life, and most of the imagery in the second half of the poem is ocean-related.
(B) is wrong because there's so suggestion that the wind will end up escaping the subway in the future. Just because it "wants" to doesn't mean that anything will happen.
(C) contrasts concrete (actual) realities with surreal (bizarre, unrealistic, dreamlike) fantasies. Unfortunately, the metaphor of a subway as a human intestine (a strange description of reality) is more bizarre than the picture of wind gently blowing palm trees and ships (a fantasy grounded in reality).
(D) is wrong because the poem is talking about the wind desiring to be somewhere else, not about some imagined war between humanity and nature.
(E) is correct: everything the wind touches in the first half of the poem is either human or human-made, while everything in the second half of the poem describes the setting the wind would like to be in.

Kaplan SAT Subject Test Literature

This is the only prep book I've seen with well-written content review practice questions. The 2017 edition is identical to the 2015-16 edition I'm reviewing.

Pros
Considering how inaccurate and confusing unofficial questions tend to be, the ones in chapters 1-7 are actually pretty good. The only poorly written question is problem 2 in chapter 4.

Cons
This book will overprep you slightly: you probably don't need to know the term anastrophe, for example, although it's helpful to be familiar with the idea that poetry can change a sentence's word order to make it fit a poem's rhyme scheme and meter. You don't need to know a sonnet's exact rhyme scheme, although it can be helpful to be able to identify a sonnet and to recognize that its main point is always contained in the last two lines.

The practice questions in chapters 1-7 are well-written, but the answer explanations are unhelpfully short.

Avoid the diagnostic test and the practice tests. which have poorly written questions that will make you legitimately confused about which answer choices are correct.

Ivy Global's SAT Subject Test in Literature: Study Guide & 6 Practice Tests

Ivy Global's content review chapters aren't as good as Kaplan's, but the Ivy Global practice tests are better.

Pros
I worked through all of the content review as well as the first three practice tests and didn't run into any issues except for two questions on test #2 - pretty impressive for a subject that's hard to write practice questions for.

The tests' answer explanations are thorough and accurate.

Cons
This is a big one: the practice questions in the content review don't have answer explanations. Good luck trying to review your work on your own!

If you need explanations, go through the content review in the Kaplan book before taking Ivy Global's practice tests.

Errata
On the second practice test, watch out for #16 (nostalgia requires positive feelings about the past that aren't present in the passage) and #33 (it seems to me that both self-interest and pride are valid answers, as self-interest isn't strictly incompatible with consideration for others' feelings; you just have to consider your own feelings before those of others).

The Official SAT Study Guide, 2018 Edition

The Critical Reader: The Complete Guide to SAT Reading (Erica Meltzer)

Yes, I'm recommending regular SAT books. The new SAT's Critical Reading section is tricky enough to help you train for the SAT Literature and AP English tests. Here are the differences:

	New SAT Critical Reading	SAT Literature	AP English Literature multiple choice
Passage Difficulty	Medium	Hard	Hard
Question Difficulty	Hard	Hard	Very Hard
Time per Question	75 seconds	57 seconds	65 seconds
Curve	Brutal	Hard	Forgiving

Neither SAT Literature nor the AP test has the SAT's tricky Supporting Evidence questions ("Which choice provides the best evidence for...").

The more forgiving the curve, the easier it is to overprep and get a perfect score. On practice tests, I usually get 52/52 correct on Critical Reading (a 400/400), 59/61 correct on SAT Literature (an 800), and 51/55 correct on AP English Literature (a 5).

You can download SAT practice tests for free online or read my reviews of SAT prep books.

AP English Literature Released Exams

If you want to challenge yourself, take the multiple choice sections of official College Board AP English Literature tests. The passages are similar to those in SAT Literature, but the questions are much harder, and they don't have any answer explanations.

You'll find a few complete released exams along with a wide selection of free-response questions at the AP English Literature Web site. Here are direct links to the complete exams:

2012 AP English Literature exam

1999 AP English Literature exam (As of 3/23/19, this link is broken. I'll keep the link on this page for now in case the College Board decides the make the test available again.)

1987 AP English Literature exam

You can also find sample multiple-choice questions starting at page 12 (PDF page 16) of the AP English Literature Course Description booklet.

If you're really serious, you can purchase more released exams from the College Board's catalog or from Amazon.

Background Knowledge

Understanding how Western thought has developed from medieval times to the 20th century is critical to finishing the SAT Literature test on time with a score of 700+. Here's a reading list designed to help you get that knowledge as quickly as possible.

I've already mentioned Kaplan SAT Subject Test Literature as a useful way to review the test's content and question types.

Sophie’s World is an engaging, readable introduction to the history of western philosophy. If you can identify how a difficult passage interacts with a major viewpoint like Christianity, Romanticism, or post-modernism, you'll be able to read much faster.

Read as many of Shakespeare's sonnets as you can. (My favorite is #130.) Get familiar with the way sonnets use meter, rhyme, and couplets as organizational tools. If you struggle with sonnets, read the couplet at the end (the last two lines) in order to figure out each sonnet's main point and return to the beginning with that information in mind. Sonnets tend to be about love or death - and sometimes both.

If you prefer to listen to a podcast, subscribe to The History of Philosophy and Christian Thought (taught by the late Dr. Ronald Nash, a professor at a Christian seminary). Listen to episodes 16- 19 (on Augustine) for an overview of medieval thought and episodes 24-27 to learn about Renaissance and Enlightenment rationalism and empiricism.

Books to Avoid

Unlike the Princeton Review's normal offerings, Cracking the SAT Literature Subject Test has confusing, poorly written questions throughout the entire book.

Barron's SAT Subject Test Literature will overprep you with a plethora of literary terms you don't need to know. The Level 1 vocab list at the beginning of chapter 5 is pretty good, but the Level 2 and Level 3 lists are a mixed bag. Why are sarcasm, imagery, and conflict in the Level 3 list, with ballad, sprung rhythm, and antiheroine in Level 2?

Going for a Perfect Score

To get a perfect score on the publicly released SAT Literature practice test, you need to get 59/61 questions right. That's like getting a 97% on a comprehensive 12th-grade English final.

This article contains everything you need to get an awesome score, but if you'd like personalized help, you can sign up for in-home or online tutoring.

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SAT Chemistry Subject Test: The Best Prep Books

Update: I've added an Errata section to my review of For the Love of SAT Chemistry.

As a credentialed teacher with an M.S. in chemistry, I've noticed that some SAT Chemistry study guides are great, some are so-so, and some must be taken deep into Mordor and cast back into the fiery chasm from whence they came.

Let's start with the great ones:

The Official SAT Subject Test in Chemistry Study Guide

If you can only afford one book, get this one. It has two official practice tests and answer explanations.

Neither of these tests is a copy of the one in The Official Study Guide for ALL SAT Subject Tests, so you should get both books if you can.

Pros
Official material is a true confidence builder. Every question you get wrong contains skills you need to practice.

Most prep books have poorly written questions, answer key errors, and questions that are unrealistically easy, difficult, or off-topic. If you get questions wrong or run out of time on unofficial tests, you'll have trouble figuring out whether the fault lies with you or with the book you're using.

Based on the raw-to-scaled score conversion tables in the book, raw scores of 80/85 and 76/85 will get you perfect 800's on the first and second practice tests,

Cons
There's no Kindle edition, so you'll have to plan ahead and order a physical copy from Amazon.

The Official Study Guide for ALL SAT Subject Tests

This book has an official chemistry practice test that isn't the same as the two in the dedicated chemistry guide (above).

Pros
If you're going to take several Subject Tests, you need this book anyway.

Cons
The test questions in this book are easier than the ones in the dedicated chemistry guide, and the curve reflects that difference: to get a perfect 800, you need a relatively high raw score of 82/85.


Strategy for True/False/CE Questions

1. If either the first part or second part of the question is false, don't bubble in CE. For example, neither "All elephants have four legs BECAUSE elephants use their legs to eat peanuts" nor "All elephants have five legs BECAUSE elephants use their legs to walk" deserves the CE mark.
    
2. Mark "CE" if the second part of the sentence is a good reason to believe that the first part is true. For example, "The back side of the moon never faces the Earth BECAUSE scientists have never observed the back side from the Earth's surface" should be marked CE. Strictly speaking, this is not the correct way to use the word because, but it will get you the right answer on SAT Chemistry tests.

Cracking the SAT Chemistry Subject Test

This is a good all-around study guide. It contains content review, useful strategies, and decent practice tests.

Pros
The first two practice tests are very similar to real College Board tests, and there are no answer key errors. The third one, however, contains a few poorly written questions (#104, 37, 38, 56, and 62). You may want to use that one for untimed practice.

The book's helpful content review chapters can keep you from feeling lost. The Chemistry Subject Test covers a broader range of topics than you're likely to learn in your high school class, so content review is a must.

Cons
You'll need a calculator to do some of the practice questions in the content review chapters. You're not allowed a calculator on the actual Subject Test, though, and the full practice tests included in the book are very doable using mental math.

The Princeton Review is all about giving you what you need and not one iota more. Since this book is meant for the Subject Test, you'll need to get an additional study guide if you're planning on taking the AP test, which goes into greater depth and has some additional topics you need to know, such as laboratory chemistry and reaction kinetics.

For the Love of SAT Chemistry (Chris Reddick and Michael Cerro)

This book is geared at about the same level as The Princeton Review's, but it focuses less on textbook-type content review and more on practice problems and answer explanations.

It's an excellent place to start if you like inductive learning. If you prefer to review content in an organized way before starting practice questions, go with The Princeton Review's book.

Pros
The material, including the four practice tests at the back of the book, closely mimics the content and feel of real College Board questions. The answer key is mostly accurate.

Cons
After grading each practice test, you'll be left with a raw score (out of 85 total points) without any way to convert that into a scaled score (out of 800). The scoring instructions and conversion table are waaaaaay back on pages 9-10. Follow the directions carefully: you need to remember to deduct 1/4 of a point for each answer that's incorrect!

Errata from Practice Test 2
#107 is written in an unclear way; don't penalize yourself if your answer doesn't match the book's.
#64 doesn't provide enough information for you to solve the problem, so don't worry if you get this one wrong.

Errata from Practice Test 4
#112's answer should be "T, F, no CE."
#39's answer is correct (C), but since a solution of copper(II) nitrate is blue, not colorless, choice (B) is unnecessarily confusing.
#40's answer is not (C): an ion can't take on a visible color by reflecting ultraviolet wavelengths, which are invisible to the human eye. (D) is a better choice because absorbing more light at some wavelengths than others also suggests that some wavelengths are reflected more than others.

SAT Chemistry Subject Test Problems (Christopher Bozza and Dr. Steve Warner)

This bank of practice questions has the best answer explanations I've seen in any chemistry book. The questions target exactly what's on the Subject Test, and the answer explanations are about two pages long per question.

Pros
This book has the same format as Dr. Warner's SAT and ACT Math books. You can jump right in and start working without having to wade through preliminary reading.

The practice material is very similar to real SAT Chemistry Subject Tests.

The problems in this book are arranged by topic and difficulty level, so students who don't need any content review can jump straight to the chapters that contain what they want to work on.

Cons
Most of the content review is in the answer explanations, so you can't treat this book like a textbook. You really have to engage with the material to receive the maximum benefit.

Errata
#56 on page 81 is worded in an unclear way (and therefore not answerable).

The answer to #110 on page 153 is (B), not (A). The book's answer key is mistaken!

#151 on page 205 is unrealistically difficult. Although you'll need to know how to do unit conversions for SAT Chemistry, you won't have to convert between amperes, coulombs, and moles.

#39 on page 225 has two correct answers: (C) and (E).

#68 on page 233 expects students to (1) figure out that lanthanum has a larger radius than potassium, and (2) go against their intuition that potassium should actually be more reactive, since it's an akali metal that reacts violently with water. Those expectations go against students' experience with metals' reactivities and would not show up on a real test. #71 (below) has a similar problem.

The answer to #71 on page 234 is (B), not (E). Potassium is more metallic than barium based on its Mohs hardness and its reactivity with water.

#83 on page 238 is unrealistically difficult: vapor pressure is related to boiling point, since a liquid boils when its vapor pressure becomes equal to atmospheric pressure. Students shouldn't be expected to know which of the liquids in the list has the highest boiling point (and therefore the lowest vapor pressure). The book's answer is wrong anyway: bromine, octane, and nitrogen trichloride all have boiling points that are higher than 100°C and therefore have lower vapor pressures than water does.

#88 on page 240 is also unrealistically hard. The correct answer should be (C), not (D), since Mg(OH)₂ is not a strong base due to its poor solubility in water (0.00064 g/100 mL at room temperature).

#94 on page 241 has two correct answers: (A) and (C).

#125 on page 250 is problematic because the nitrogen atoms in the NH₂ groups have lone pairs that can be delocalized into the benzene-like rings through resonance. Those nitrogen atoms are likely to be either sp²-hybridized or somwhere between sp² and sp³. For this reason, (B) is a better answer than (D).

The second sentence of #130 on page 251 should read "saturated hydrocarbon," not "unsaturated hydrocarbon."

The answer to #136 on page 253 is (B), not (D).

#145 on page 255 has two correct answers, (A) and (B). RbCl and RbF are both soluble in water, while PbO and PbS are insoluble. The soluble salts will produce equal numbers of ions, causing the light bulb to glow with equal intensity, while the insoluble salts will produce negligible concentrations of ions, making the light bulb very dim.

#149 on page 256 is slightly questionable: HI is larger molecule but should also be less polar than HCl, so strictly speaking, students would have to look up the boiling points of both compounds to know the answer. HCl does have a lower boiling point, so it has a higher vapor pressure. (Recall that something boils when its vapor pressure becomes equal to atmospheric pressure, so high-vapor-pressure compounds boil first.)

#159 on page 260 should say, "Absorption of a photon CAN [but doesn't have to] cause electrons to become excited to a higher energy level." Photon absorption can also result in a change in electron spin (radio waves), molecular vibrational states (infrared), or molecular rotational states (microwaves), so the problem needs to be clear that photon absorption can lead to consequences other than just electrons becoming excited (visible and ultraviolet radiation).

Sterling Test Prep SAT Chemistry Practice Questions: High Yield SAT Chemistry Questions with Detailed Explanations 

This is a huge bank of practice questions. It's useful if you're already scoring 800 and want to challenge yourself some more.

Pros
Sterling highlights the trickiest topics on SAT Chemistry, including amphoteric compounds, flame test colors, solubility rules, and unusual Lewis structures. If you like hard questions, this is the book to get.

Cons
Despite the claim on the book's cover, most of the questions don't have answer explanations.

Since the questions are organized by topic, you have to work on one chapter at a time. There aren't any timed practice tests.

The book covers some topics that are so hard I doubt they'd ever show up on the Subject Test. For example, it expects you to know the exact role of each of the four quantum numbers. You also have to calculate a dipole moment given the size and distance of two separated charges. (!)

Don't use Sterling until your foundation is very solid. Be willing to Google the explanations for topics you don't understand.

Books to Avoid

I'm not sure how Kaplan's SAT Chemistry (2013-14 edition) got its four-star Amazon reviews. The practice questions in the content review chapters are very calculator-based, and the content review includes some difficult AP-only topics, such as zero, first, and second order reaction kinetics and complicated redox reaction balancing involving H⁺, OH^-, and H₂O.

The diagnostic test isn't any better. Out of 85 total questions, two are AP-level rate law questions (#107 and #37), one is an AP-level diffusion rate question (#44), and seven are written in a way that could legitimately make you think there's something wrong with the answer choices (#9, 30, 31, 58-60, and 64). In addition, some of the diagnostic questions are hard to do without a calculator. #69, for example, makes you do a proportion involving the ratio 2/7. (2/7 is about 0.29, in case you're wondering.) Official tests stick to easy fractions like 5/2 or 88/44.

Barron's SAT Chemistry (2009 edition) is even worse: out of 85 questions, the diagnostic test has ten unrealistically tricky questions (#4, 9, 113, 34, 38, 45, 49, 57, 67, and 70) and eight unclearly worded questions (#14, 17, 106, 107, 43, 46, 52, and 56). The 2016 edition fixes questions 4, 17, 113, 45, 52, 56, and 67, but questions 9, 14, 106, 107, 34, 38, 43, 46, 49, 57, and 70 remain problematic.

If you're planning to take the AP test, know that McGraw-Hilll's 5 Steps to a 5 on AP Chemistry (2017 edition) is also really bad. There were so many incorrectly drawn diagrams and poorly written questions on Practice Test #1 alone that I had to quit before I got to the free-response section. I know this book has a four-star Amazon review average, but pay close attention to the negative reviews!

Suggested Study Schedule

Unlike Math Level 2, SAT Chemistry doesn't have many quality prep books. I suggest following the study schedule below.

1. Take the first Princeton Review practice test and read the answer explanations.
2. Go through all of the content review in the Princeton Review's Cracking the SAT: Chemistry. Alternatively, you can go through the first thirteen chapters of For the Love of SAT Chemistry.
3. Read the articles on my Web site about flame test colors, solubility rules, saturation/unsaturation, and avoiding small calculation mistakes.
4. Take the second Princeton Review practice test and read the answer explanations.
5. Go through Dr. Warner's SAT Chemistry practice book. Read the answer explanations carefully.
6. Borrow an AP Chemistry textbook and review your weakest topics. Keep reviewing and re-taking the original two practice tests until your score is 800.
7. Take the official practice test in the Official Study Guide for ALL SAT Subject Tests. Go over the test with a fine-toothed comb. Make sure you understand every question so well that you could stand up and teach it in a classroom.
8. Do the same for the two official practice tests in The Official SAT Subject Test in Chemistry Study Guide. At this point, you should be scoring solid 800's.
9. If you need more practice tests, use the four at the back of For the Love of SAT Chemistry.
10. The week before the real test, re-take one practice test a day. Your goal at this point is to increase confidence, not to learn new material. You should receive an 800 on each of the five re-takes. If you don't, you have a good idea of what to review.

Going for a Perfect Score

A raw score of 80/85 will usually get you a perfect scaled 800 on SAT Chemistry. Even after the test deducts a quarter of a point for every question you get wrong, you can afford to miss four of the eighty-five problems. That's like getting a 95% on a comprehensive high school chemistry final.

The books above contain everything you need to get an awesome score, but if you'd like personalized help, you can sign up for in-home or online tutoring.

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On Big Companies and Free Practice Tests

Big test prep companies offer free practice tests because it's a great way for them to make money.

They pay marketers, proctors, graders, administrative staff, bondholders, and shareholders - not to mention real estate costs - so you can get a score for free.

In exchange, you've become what salesmen call a warm lead: someone who's demonstrated interest in their product.

There's nothing wrong with this as long as you understand how the process works. Test prep companies offer practice tests, which are valuable to you, so they can get your attention, which is valuable to them.

They pay for this by charging $125-250 an hour for tutoring, ten sessions at a time, paid up front. Their tutors typically make $25-40 an hour, and the difference ($100/hour or more) is used to pay administrative costs and provide investors with a profit.

The breakeven point between teaching at a public school and working as an independent tutor is around $90/hour. Tutors who accept less than half of that amount typically have SAT scores of around 1400-1500. Those are good scores, but if you're paying $150/hour, your score target is probably already at or higher than 1500.

This is not going to change, as these tutors aren't being exploited. Test prep companies have large expenses every month that aren't going to go away if there's a recession. Most workers, including tutors, accept lower pay in order to have their employers shoulder that burden.

If you have time, it's best to take responsibility for your own education. Practice taking the SAT and ACT yourself, then compare the two scores. You can then choose SAT or ACT prep books and study on your own.

If you need a tutor, you have lots of options, including highly qualified independent tutors like myself. Go in with your eyes open, and you'll make a great choice.

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How to Get Straight A's and Prep for AP and Subject Tests at the Same Time

Update: I've added a section titled "Studying Ahead."

Are you wondering how you'll ever find time to study for school and still prep for AP and SAT Subject Tests?

Fortunately, you can do both at the same time.

Reading prep books is a great way to review for the classes you're already taking.

Choosing Study Materials

Once you know which classes you're taking, go online and order several SAT Subject Test or AP prep books for each subject.

Stick to the ones with 4.5- and five-star ratings. The books with the best reviews will have lots of practice problems, good answer explanations, and relatively accurate answer keys.

The College Board publishes a line of books with official practice tests, but those books don't offer much help with strategy and content review.

Of the major publishers, the Princeton Review usually produces the most accurate practice tests. Barron's and Kaplan's practice tests tend to be harder than official AP and SAT Subject tests. Avoid McGraw-Hill, ARCO, and Peterson's materials, as they tend to have poorly written problems and answer key errors.

I've also compiled a list of the best prep books for each subject.

Studying Ahead

Your classes will seem easier if you read ahead and do practice problems at least one week before your teacher covers the same material in class. It takes just as much work to be a week ahead and maintain an A as it does to be a week behind and maintain a C. You'll feel more confident and be more prepared for college.

I was able to get mostly A's during the latter half of my time at U.C. Berkeley because I figured out how to study ahead. Suddenly, instead of struggling through my classes with B's, I was in the top ten percent. Students asked me to lead study groups, professors invited me to offer feedback on the chemistry department's classes, and I got to take graduate classes with PhD candidates. Studying late at night at the library with my friends became a social event; we enjoyed pushing each other to get every problem right on tests.

Use the syllabus or class Web site to figure out what you need to read in order to stay at least a week ahead in each class. If your teacher publishes the homework ahead of time, you can do the homework early and fix any mistakes during class while your teacher is lecturing on the work you've already done. If you don't have access to the homework ahead of time, pick some representative problems in your textbook and AP prep books and check your answers against the books' solutions.

Preparing for Tests

Before each of your school's tests, go through one of the prep books you bought and create a practice test by circling all the problems that look like the ones your teacher gave you for homework. Do those problems and give yourself a letter grade based on the number of problems you got right.

Stare at each problem you got wrong for several minutes and try to figure out how to do it on your own. If you're still lost, read the prep book's answer explanation carefully.

If your grade on that practice test is lower than an A, repeat the process using one of the other prep books for the same subject.

If you want to raise your grade in any particular class to an A, calculate the average grade you need to get on each of your remaining tests and use the method above to make sure you score at least that high on the practice tests you create.

Do this consistently during the entire school year. When you get ready for AP tests and SAT Subject Tests in April, you won't be prepping from scratch, and any prep you end up doing will also prepare you for your school's final exams. April is also a great time to take timed practice tests using official College Board materials.

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SAT Math Level 2: Seven Key Strategies

Here's a list of strategies to get your Math Level 2 score into the 750-800 range.

1. Skip questions as often as possible. If you can't figure out how to solve a problem within 10 seconds, skip it and come back after you've finished question 50. Remember that there's a 0.25-point guessing penalty, so you can miss 5 questions or skip 7 and still get a perfect 800.
    
2. Start by eliminating choices that are clearly wrong. If you can cross of three or four choices, don't bother to solve unless you see a very quick 30-second solution. Smart guessing is faster than solving.
    
3. The extra time you gain from guessing will keep you from feeling rushed near the end. Don't rush on questions. It's better to skip two and do two carefully than to rush on four.
    
4. Remember to use your calculator's functionality. Most graphing calculators can do inverse trig functions, imaginary numbers, absolute value, systems of equations, and conic graphing.
    
5. Use your calculator to store numbers into x and then regenerate complicated expressions so that you don't have to keep typing those expressions over and over. Storing into x also eliminates having to use parentheses when you plug in negative numbers. (In order to re-create an expression you've already typed in, click the up arrow until the expression is highlighted and then press Enter twice.)
    
6. Because you skip questions on this test (but not the SAT), hold off on bubbling until either the proctor calls, "5 minutes left!" or you finish question #50. That keeps you from making bubbling mistakes after you skip questions. It also ends up saving time. You can always go back and check the skipped questions after you bubble.
    
7. The week before the test, focus on re-doing the practice tests you've already taken. Using the strategies above, you should start to get scores in the 750-800 range.

If you have time to study, check out my list of the best Math Level 2 prep books!

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SAT Physics Subject Test: The Best Prep Books

Use the books below to aim for a perfect score on the Physics Subject Test.

The Official SAT Subject Test in Physics Study Guide

If you can only afford one book, get this one. It has two official practice tests and answer explanations.

Neither of these tests is a copy of the one in The Official Study Guide for ALL SAT Subject Tests, so you should get both books if you can.

Pros
Official material is a true confidence builder. Every question you get wrong contains skills you need to practice.

Most prep books have poorly written questions, answer key errors, and questions that are unrealistically easy, difficult, or off-topic. If you get questions wrong or run out of time on unofficial tests, you'll have trouble figuring out whether the fault lies with you or with the book you're using.

Based on the raw-to-scaled score conversion tables in the book, a raw score of 58/75 and 59/75 will get you perfect 800's on the first and second practice tests,

Cons
There's no Kindle edition, so you'll have to plan ahead and order a physical copy from Amazon.

The Official Study Guide for ALL SAT Subject Tests

This book contains a unique official College Board practice test.

Pros
Official material is a true confidence builder. Every question you get wrong contains skills you need to practice.

Most prep books have poorly written questions, answer key errors, and questions that are unrealistically easy, difficult, or off-topic. If you get questions wrong or run out of time on unofficial tests, you'll have trouble figuring out whether the fault lies with you or with the book you're using.

Based on the raw-to-scaled score conversion table in the book, a raw score of 59/75 will get you a perfect scaled score of 800.

Cons
This book has only one Physics practice test and along with a few warm-up questions.

Cracking the SAT Physics Subject Test

This is a good all-around study guide. It contains content review, useful strategies, and decent practice tests.

Pros
The practice tests have no answer key errors. They're very similar to actual College Board tests.

The book's helpful content review chapters can keep you from feeling lost. The Physics Subject Test covers a broader range of topics than you're likely to learn in your high school class, so content review is a must.

Cons
The Princeton Review is all about giving you what you need and not one iota more. You don't have to know every topic covered on the test to score an 800. The book's content review is incomplete in a couple of areas; this might have been done purposefully to keep students from over-prepping. You can still Google the explanations for the those topics.

Barron's SAT Subject Test: Physics

This is another good all-around study guide. Instead of scattering practice questions throughout the chapter text like the Princeton Review does, the Barron's guide completely explains each topic in textbook format and puts all of the practice questions at the chapters' ends.

Pros
The Barron's book has the look and feel of a physics textbook, and its detailed explanations can be helpful as a supplement to your school's textbook.

Cons
The downside of completeness is the potential for information overload. You don't need to understand every topic on the Physics Subject Test: a raw score of 59/75 will get you a perfect scaled 800.

Physics Mastery for Advanced High School Students: Complete Physics Review with 400 SAT and AP Physics Questions (Tony Rothman and Steve Warner)

As the title suggests, this is an all-in-one prep guide for SAT and AP Physics.

Pros
The topics, language, and problem-solving approaches in this book are fairly advanced. If you're taking AP Physics, this book can be very useful as a supplement to your school textbook and as a study guide for the AP test.

Cons
This book does not resemble Steve Warner's SAT and ACT Math workbooks: in those books, Dr. Warner targets specific tests, and his practice questions realistically reflect the topics, formats, and difficulty levels of the official tests. This book tries to prep you for SAT and AP Physics at the same time, and the questions are much harder than anything you'll see on the SAT Physics Subject Test.

Sterling Test Prep SAT Physics Practice Questions: High Yield SAT Physics Questions with Detailed Explanations

This is an excellent source of extra practice questions.

Pros
Unlike Sterling's SAT Chemistry and SAT Biology books, the SAT Physics book contains answer explanations for almost all of its questions.

It contains four diagnostic tests, followed by banks of practice questions that are organized by topic.

Cons
This book doesn't have any organized content review. If you're not a superstar in your physics class, start with the Princeton Review's book and move on to this one if you need the extra practice.

Books to Avoid

Peterson's SAT II Success: Physics has some very badly written questions. It's not just the answer key is wrong: the questions themselves are written in a confusing way. Avoid this book at all costs.

Going for a Perfect Score

A raw score of 59/75 will usually get you a perfect scaled 800 on SAT Physics. Even after the test deducts a quarter of a point for every question you get wrong, you can afford to miss thirteen of the seventy-five problems. That's like getting an 83% on a comprehensive high school physics final.

The books above contain everything you need to get an awesome score, but if you'd like personalized help, you can sign up for in-home or online tutoring.

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AP Environmental Science: The Best Prep Books

Although AP Environmental Science is said to be one of the easier AP classes, the APES grade distribution shows that only about 8% of students receive the maximum score of 5.

APES requires less depth of knowledge than AP Chemistry, Biology, and Physics, but it asks for greater breadth: the topics tested span ecology, chemistry, politics, history, and economics. If you're well-read, however, you'll can prep without having to memorize lists of seemingly disconnected facts.

I've listed my recommended study resources below:

Cracking the AP Environmental Science Exam

This is a good all-around study guide. Because it focuses on memorization, this book is useful if you have less than two weeks to study. If you have more time, supplement this book with more in-depth resources that will help you understand and retain what you learn.

If you're well-read, you can avoid having to memorize most of this book's content. For example, from chemistry class, you may already know the mechanism by which CFC's destroy ozone, so you won't have to memorize the fact that the chlorine radicals they release catalyze the decomposition of ozone. If you're also aware that they're implicated in both stratospheric ozone destruction (the reason their production has been phased out) and, controversially, in global warming, you'll have historical, political, and scientific contexts to help you remember what you need.

Pros
This book will give you a quick review of the field.

I did the drills without doing the practice tests, then went straight to the College Board's 1998 released exam, receiving a multiple-choice score of 97/100. (A raw score of 75% generally corresponds to a scaled score of 5/5.) I read in a variety of fields for my own enjoyment, though, so my experience may not reflect other students'.

Cons
The Princeton Review is all about giving you what you need and not one iota more. Their book asks you to memorize information because that's faster than truly understanding it. It also means that you won't retain everything you learn.

You might find some of the chapter-end drills to be confusing. I don't think the book goes into enough depth to help you adequately answer all of its own practice questions.

It has a liberal bias that sometimes comes across as, "Well, of course one choice is morally superior to another, and we don't have to provide evidence for that position." That's not surprising in an environmental science book, but the AP test is much more even-handed. It won't punish you for your opinions as long as you provide evidence supporting them.

Christian Shorey's Earth and Environmental Science Podcast

Christian Shorey, a professor at the Colorado School of Mines, created this podcast to supplement his classroom lectures. His lectures are more in-depth and interesting than the bland fare you'll find in AP prep guides.

You can download podcasts and listen to them in your car using the Podcast Republic app and a bluetooth FM transmitter.

Pros
Dr. Shorey knows so much about his field that he tells memorable stories almost like they're afterthoughts. For example, did you know that quantum entanglement can communicate information faster than than the speed of light? What are several ways to die from volcanic eruptions before the lava ever reaches you?

Cons
Dr. Shorey definitely comes across as a scientific realist: observations = facts, facts can't be disputed, and theories are so strongly supported by facts that you'd have to be intellectually dishonest to deny them. If you've taken a class in the history and philosophy of science, you might find his epistemology to lack awareness and balance.

Official College Board Practice Tests

The most valuable official practice resource is the 1998 APES released exam.

You'll find sample multiple-choice questions in the document below starting at page 12 (PDF page 16):
AP Environmental science sample multiple choice questions and answers

The College Board releases the free-response questions every year. The College Board's Web site has commentaries on samples of student responses.

2016 Free-response questions and answers

2015 Free-response questions and answers

2014 Free-response questions and answers

2013 Free-response questions and answers

2012 Free-response questions and answers

2011 Free-response questions and answers

2010 Free-response questions and answers

2009 Free-response questions and answers

2008 Free-response questions and answers

2007 Free-response questions and answers

2006 Free-response questions and answers

2005 Free-response questions and answers

2004 Free-response questions and answers

2003 Free-response questions and answers

2002 Free-response questions and answers

2001 Free-response questions and answers

2000 Free-response questions and answers

1999 Free-response questions and answers

The carbon cycle has some interesting implications.

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SAT Biology Subject Test: The Best Prep Books

SAT Biology E/M is the most difficult Subject Test in the math and science category. This article reviews specialized resources that will help you get a perfect score.

Biology is a complicated and rapidly changing field, and your school textbook is probably out of date compared to both the AP test and the state of science today. As just one example, this article on earwax suggests that the Mendelian genetics taught in high school is oversimplified and out of sync with scientists' actual observations.

While the AP test has recently been updated to emphasize critical thinking and modern research topics, the Subject Test has been stable over the past twenty years. It asks you to have a basic understanding of a very broad set of information. If you need to prep for both, it's best to pick up a high school or college textbook and read it from cover to cover.

The complexity of biology makes it hard to write good prep guides. Unfortunately, most focus on memorization rather than understanding. In the list below, I include non-traditional study aids that can give you the same depth of knowledge as a biology class would.

The Official SAT Subject Test in Biology Study Guide

If you can only afford one book, get this one. It has two official practice tests and answer explanations.

Neither of these tests is a copy of the one in The Official Study Guide for ALL SAT Subject Tests, so you should get both books if you can.

Pros

Official material is a true confidence builder. Every question you get wrong contains skills you need to practice.

Most prep books have poorly written questions, answer key errors, and questions that are unrealistically easy, difficult, or off-topic. If you get questions wrong or run out of time on unofficial tests, you'll have trouble figuring out whether the fault lies with you or with the book you're using.

Based on the raw-to-scaled score conversion tables in the book, an a average raw score of 77/80 will get you perfect 800.

Cons

There's no Kindle edition, so you'll have to plan ahead and order a physical copy from Amazon.

The Official Study Guide for ALL SAT Subject Tests

This book has an official biology practice test that isn't the same as the two in the dedicated biology guide (above).

Pros

If you're going to take several Subject Tests, you need this book anyway.

Based on the raw-to-scaled score conversion chart, the practice test in this book is about as hard as the ones in the dedicated biology guide: to get a perfect 800, you need a raw score of 77/80.

Cracking the SAT Biology Subject Test

This is a good all-around study guide. It contains content review, useful strategies, and decent practice tests.

Because it focuses on memorization, this book is useful if you have less than two weeks to study. If you have more time, supplement this book with more in-depth resources that will help you understand and retain what you learn.

Pros

The practice tests are harder than real College Board tests, but the questions aren't badly written. The publisher may have made the tests harder to encourage students to memorize everything they need to know.

The book's helpful content review chapters can keep you from feeling lost. The Biology Subject Test covers a broader range of topics than you're likely to learn in your high school class, so content review is a must.

Cons

The Princeton Review is all about giving you what you need and not one iota more. Their book asks you to memorize information because that's faster than truly understanding it. It also means that you won't retain everything you learn.

Since this book is meant for the Subject Test, you'll need to get an additional study guide if you're planning on taking the AP test, which goes into greater depth.

Campbell's Biology

This book is the gold standard for AP and college-level introductory biology. U.C. Berkeley assigned it in first- and second-semester biology when I was in college.

College textbooks are normally more than a hundred dollars, but you can get older editions used for a couple of dollars. The link above will take you to the 7th (2005) edition.

As you work through each chapter, do the Concept Check questions and the ten-question self-quiz.

Pros

This book will get you an 800 on the Subject Test and a 5 on the AP test if you understand even a quarter of what's in it. It's that comprehensive.

Its explanations are detailed and accompanied by helpful diagrams that are mostly consistent with current research. If you understand what's going on, you don't have to memorize it!

The authors are up-front about the limitations of current science. For example, we observe centrioles during mitosis, but scientists still don't know what they do. A high school biology textbook probably won't mention these limitations, as they would put your teacher in the awkward position of having to say, "I don't know how to answer your questions."

Cons

You need a lot of time to get through this book. It's 1231 pages of college-level writing.

Khan Academy's Biology podcast

To avoid simple memorization, you may need to experience your Biology class a second time. Fortunately, Khan Academy has made its lectures available online as a podcast. You can also watch the lectures on Khan Academy's Biology site.

You can download podcasts and listen to them in your car using the Podcast Republic app and a bluetooth FM transmitter.

Pros

Sal Khan breaks down complicated topics into small, digestible chunks. He has a soothing voice that won't distract you too much when you're driving.

Cons

You may find it hard to get the podcast episodes to play in order on your phone. You can avoid that problem by watching them directly on Khan Academy's Web site.

Khan does not rely on cutting-edge research. He tends to oversimplify topics like a non-AP biology textbook would.

The modern focus on molecular and cell biology is great for the AP test, which was revised a few years ago, but skips over some topics on organism classification that you need to know for the Biology Subject Test.

MIT's Introductory Biology podcast (2005)

This is MIT's introductory Biology course recorded in real time. It's a college-level version of the Khan Academy podcast described earlier.

If you need eye candy, you won't get it here. Most of the slides the professors used in class have been "removed due to copyright concerns." Use another book or podcast as your primary study source and listen to the MIT lectures in the car to deepen your understanding.

Pros

These scientists are relatively aware of the complexities of their field. For example, one of the professors mentions that Gregor Mendel's original research on genetic crosses worked on pea plants and only on pea plants. His attempts to duplicate his results on hawkweeds and bees failed. As a result, Mendel toiled in obscurity, and his work was only recognized as significant after his death.

Cons

As with Khan Academy, the modern focus on molecular and cell biology is great for the AP test, which was revised a few years ago, but skips over some topics on organism classification that you need to know for the Biology Subject Test.

Going for a Perfect Score

A raw score of 77/80 will usually get you a perfect scaled 800 on SAT Biology. After the test deducts a quarter of a point for every question you get wrong, you can afford to miss only two of eighty problems. That's like getting a 98% on a comprehensive high school biology final.

The books above contain everything you need to get an awesome score, but if you'd like personalized help, you can sign up for in-home or online tutoring.

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From the Preposphere: March 18, 2017

Here's the linkfest for this month! Read your heart out.

ACT

The ACT will offer a new July test date starting in 2018. (ACT.org)
This complements the SAT's new summer test date, which will start in August of 2017.

The ACT evolves: harder science and math arrive with May update. (Applerouth)

The national average for the ACT is a composite score of 20. The ACT publishes a list containing all of the percentiles. (ACT.org)

Here's a list of the best ACT books to prep for a perfect score. (SuperTutorTV)


SAT/ACT GRAMMAR

Dangling modifier grammar problems can seem harder than they actually are. (Erica Meltzer)


SAT/ACT ESSAY

Essay tip: Find alternatives to the word "say." (Erica Meltzer)


AP TESTS

Here's a look at the new and updated AP exam offerings for 2017. (Compass)

AP scores have changed as the tests have been updated. (Compass)


COLLEGE ADMISSIONS

Make the most of your college visits with these ten tips. (Applerouth)

What should you do if you're waitlisted? (Applerouth)

MATH

Remember the definitions of sine, cosine, and tangent. (Mathwords)


LIFE

Make the most of the summer while doing what you love. (Applerouth)


LOL

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