You can also buy
The Official SAT Study Guide
at the same time and get free shipping on the pair!
Help yourself!
If you can't prep with our great tutors (available pretty much wherever you are!) or don't want to do our effective online course, this is the next best thing! The comprehensive material in our book, honed by more than two decades of actual results, can help you significantly improve your PSAT or SAT composite score. No gimmicks, just time-tested techniques that were previously available only to students of The World's Best Prep Course. Put them to work for you and achieve the score you need to get into the college of your choice!
The book is available only online. Click on the picture to order it from Amazon.com.
"I received this book when I signed my son up for Ms. Manning's course, "World's Best Prep Course." My son's PSAT scores went from 80th to 97th percentile in reading/writing and 91st to 97th percentile in mathematics. The course and the skills taught in this book work like magic. The book focused my son on the problems he was having and gave him solid advice on how to answer the questions faster, make better guesses, and make more intelligent eliminations. Priceless."
-B.B.C, Ashburn, VA
"Boot Camp helped me a lot in preparing for the SATS. I've had a bunch of books and prep guides in the past, but none of them were specific in reviewing what was actually on the SATS. Instead of giving you techniques for enduring the SATs, Boot Camp actually helps you practice and prepare with examples so that when you actually see the real thing, you're not surprised. I saw questions and problems that I went over in Boot Camp and it helped me raise my score by 200 points. I would recommend it to anyone who's serious about doing well on the SAT."
-A.T. South Riding, VA
About the book
Boot Camp For Your Brain™: A No-Nonsense Guide to the SAT has been rated as one of the Ten Best SAT Prep Books by Test Study Guides, which says:
"This study guide is perhaps the most unusual and original among the best SAT prep books. It differentiates itself by taking a "boot camp" approach that aids long-term memorization by deliberate repetition of material throughout the book.
"The manual also uses a captivating, direct writing style and makes studying for the SAT more interesting by conveying SAT knowledge and test-taking skills via motivating tools such as vocabulary cartoons, mnemonic techniques, or a section entitled the "Panic-Level Module."
"This book is designed to make your brain work overtime and it delivers. With its comprehensive and out-of-the-box approach, it clearly has the potential to give your SAT test results a significant boost."
This text, with regular revisions and improvements, has been used as the official textbook of The World's Best Prep Course for the SAT since 1989. While it's great to be able to take a course, not everyone will take one. We've seen students raise their scores using only these materials, and are convinced that this book can help most students, even without the benefit of the full course.
Growing a better brain by verbal and math training?
Why should you develop better verbal and math skills? Obviously, you can see the merits of raising your SAT scores, but are there deeper reasons?
A good vocabulary allows you to think more clearly. Imagine trying to speak if you have a vocabulary of only 100 words. What kinds of things can you say? When children are learning a language, their only words are concrete nouns, or adjectives that denote color or size. The complexity of their thought is far less than that of older people with a more sophisticated vocabulary.
"Both of my children have used the Boot Camp book with very positive results. My daughter got a perfect score in Math and a 690 in Verbal [based on the old SAT scoring system.] My son has increased his PSAT scores 320 points. You can not deny the facts - the Boot Camp book is certainly a winner."
-E.W., Herndon, VA
You are not learning vocabulary words to show off, to create a pretentious display in your writings or speech. You are learning the new words in order to be able to move to the next level of thinking.
Ditto for math. As your problem-solving skills grow, your brain becomes more agile. Now you may not be able to understand what a more agile brain can do for you ahead of time, but after you get the effects, well, that's another ball game. Our brains are amazing! If you try to expand your intellectual skills, you will discover abilities you didn't know you had.
It used to be thought that the brain was fully formed by about age three, and that any intellectual development you hadn't done by then was too bad, since it was too late. But recent research has shown that the brain undergoes another great period of development in the teens and early twenties. So you get a second chance to be a genius, and I mean that only half-facetiously. I suspect that further developments will show that there is capacity for growth at any time. But I think those of you who are in your teens or early twenties should take advantage of this new window of opportunity to improve your intellectual skills. Anything you learn during this period will expand your capabilities.
How the book is organized
Part 1 is a general section on SAT/PSAT prep that describes the test and lists time-tested techniques for studying. It includes a number of important parts, of which the most critical are "MathFacts™ 1-7", "Word Building and Discovery™", and a Latin dictionary. "MathFacts™ 1-7" should be memorized as soon as possible. You should know everything in there so well that you could teach it to others with the book closed. This section includes a set of math problems to do over and over again. These are highly representative of problems that show up on the PSAT and SAT, so your goal should be to familiarize yourself with them and learn how to do them. The answers and explanations follow the problems.
"The biggest strength of the book is its no-nonsense approach toward taking the SATs. It states very clearly what you need to know to get a [perfect score]. No fancy strategies, just plain flat-out knowledge....Considering my scores went up by about 150 points each, that's a pretty good indicator of how helpful it is....Unlike other books I've used, it tells you straight out, 'This is what you have to know so go learn it!'"
-K.M, Indonesia
Part 2 is "Vocabu-toons™", which offers a graphical approach to vocabulary building. You will find this an easy method of studying vocabulary since it groups synonyms and antonyms with goofy cartoons that break up the admitted tedium of learning words.
Part 3 is "Words You Must Know!", a simplified dictionary of nearly 1500 vocabulary words that show up over and over again on SATs. Everybody gets the same sick look when we mention the number of words; it's a combination of eye rolling and "You've got to be kidding!" and "I think I feel sick to my stomach now!" But studying the words really pays off on the test.
Part 4 is a list of the "Top 100 Words", for those who can't stand tackling "Words You Must Know!" in its full splendor. These are the ones that show up very, very regularly on the PSAT and SAT.
Part 5 covers grammar and essay writing, with many examples to help you learn how to write clearly and interestingly not just for the SAT but for college applications as well.
Sample chapters from the book can be found in the Math and Verbal sections of this site.
What's the point of raising my SAT or PSAT scores? Isn't the SAT a silly test?
Whatever your opinion of the test, the reality is that many colleges and universities use it in making admissions and scholarship decisions. As long as this is the system, you have to deal with the SAT.
But, for the record, we don't think it's a silly test. It actually covers a lot of material that will come in handy in college, graduate or professional school, and in your career and life. So learning this material should serve you well, even beyond the test.
A plan
We suggest using our book in conjunction with The Official SAT Study Guide, put out by the College Board. This is the only commercially available source of real SATs; all the other books have fake tests, not ones that have been given for college entrance purposes. So use the real thing!
"Great Investment! Very Helpful. Boot Camp is easy to understand and well written. The Math section helped because it includes exactly what's on the test. (I missed only one problem in the Math section!) The Vocabulary words are helpful. Many of the "Top 100 Words" were on the test. Compared to the cost of [an] SAT prep course this book is excellent value."
-W.K., Orange County, CA
Then set aside time to work on the material, with an emphasis on repetition. If you learn even one new word and definition today, that helps. If you learn even one new math method, that helps. If you are close to the deadline of your PSAT or SAT, you'll need to put in substantial time and learn a lot more than one thing a day. But if you are only a sophomore or junior and you have the luxury of time, you might be able to take it a bit easier.
So, there you have it. The main thing is to get started and don't worry about whether it feels as though you're making progress. If you work hard on the contents of this book, you will find that it helps you raise your scores. It's boring and it's low on the list of things you'd probably like to do, but the payoff can be tremendous.