Conquering the SAT: How Parents Can Help Teens Overcome the Pressure and Succeed

Conquering the SAT is unique in that it is for parents rather than for the test-takers themselves (although it wouldn't hurt to share with your high school student). The SAT process is so fraught with anxiety, and parents often feel at a loss as to how to help their students, but Johnson and Eskelsen throw out a very down-to-earth lifeline. I found this book to be helpful because it coupled explanations of the test itself with stories of students' real-life experiences. Having finished the book, I felt less panic, and better equipped to help my son map out a strategy. Wish I had had this book when I was preparing for the SAT!!

Being an SAT tutor, I think this book takes the perfect approach towards tackling the incredibly stressful SAT. This book teaches parents and even students the psychology behind the SAT, and, from this, they can best learn how to prepare for the test and perform well. This book, like any other SAT book, isn't going to magically improve scores, but it will put any willing parent/student on the right path towards improvement. Not only can you use these skills for the SAT, but it probably is a useful approach when tackling any kind of standardized test.

With each passing year it seems that the college admissions game becomes exponentially more stressful. Getting into college is no longer enough. Only getting into the right college seems to matter for too many students, and perhaps more to the point, too many parents. And this pressure to get into the right college has led to compression so that good state universities that an above-average student could once apply to as safety schools have become elite bastions themselves, oftentimes accepting well fewer than half of the applicants who come their way. Among the many factors fueling the competition is the noxious imperative of standardized tests, and for most of the country, standardized tests and college admissions means dealing with the peculiarly monopolistic Standardized Aptitude Test, or SAT. In "Conquering the SAT" Ned Johnson and Emily Warner Eskelsen do not try to elide the fact that the SAT is deeply problematic and that doing well on it is more a matter of succeeding at mastering a game than it is a reflection of a student's intellect, even if a keen intellect is useful in doing well on the test. Johnson and Eskelen also have made the savvy decision to aim their book at parents, who tend to be the driving force for the stress their children feel over the college admissions process. Left to their own devices, the kids will usually be alright, but parents (understandably) cannot help themselves. This book aims to try to alleviate the pressure by assuaging the parental pressure point. As a consequence it ought to be required reading for the hyper-driven moms and dads who have perpetuated the inanity that their kids' success is contingent on an Ivies-or-bust, take-no-prisoners approach to college admissions. The SAT is deeply, disturbingly, profoundly problematic. This book will help to make it, and the college admissions process, less so.

Attempting to penetrate the vast and turbid issue of the SAT and its cultural impact is a daunting and intensely complex task. The test is simply too ensconced in the American zeitgeist to extirpate and examine it thoroughly. Johnson and Eskelsen, however, do a laudable job of critiquing, debunking, and demystifying the test itself, commenting, when applicable, on its affects on the landscape of American life. They offer specific and useful advice for the parents of a generation burdened by the stresses and concerns surrounding the SAT that comes from years of experience working with young students and from a commitment to better understanding the test. This book is invaluable for parents seeking to comprehend the complexity and anxiety associated with this aspect of high school life.

This book should be mandatory reading for any parent whose child is about to embark on the increasingly pressurized process of preparing for the SAT. Mr.Johnson and Ms.Eskelsen, obviously seasoned SAT tutors who genuinely care and understand all of the factors that go into the success or failure of a student facing these rigorous tests, have produced the first book I have found to give PARENTS a better understanding of what the SAT test is really all about, what obstacles different children face that keep them from raising their scores, and how to help your child truly achieve better results and feel less stressed in the process. This book is a must have!