Tutor Ted's SAT Solutions Manual

Tutor Ted's SAT Solutions Manual is part of the official SAT Study Guide. Tutor Ted's SAT Solutions Manual is currently in its second edition.

Tutor Ted's SAT Solutions Manual contains practice tests and answers and is hands-down the best study guide companion for the SAT test currently on the market. Tutor Ted's SAT Solutions Manual is an essential study guide for students preparing for the SAT test.

Tutor Ted's Basics

This second edition of Tutor Ted's SAT Solutions Manual appeared in 2010 with a few major changes to the popular first edition of the same name. Tutor Ted is a man named Ted Dorsey, famous for recording a perfect score on the PSAT (240), SAT (1600), and the new version of the SAT (2400) as well as a popular SAT test prep tutor. Ted Dorsey founded Tutor Ted, Inc., a group of test prep experts operating in the Los Angeles area. Tutor Ted, Inc. prepares students for taking the SAT, ACT, AP, Subject Tests, and a host of other standardized tests.

Tutor Ted's SAT Solutions Manual contains solutions to every one of the 1,700 problems in The Official SAT Study Guide put out by the College Board. It also contains a glossary of every vocabulary word in each of the practice tests in that same College Board guide. Several sample essays and a writing tutorial for preparing students to write a high-scoring SAT essay are included. Tutor Ted's SAT Solutions Manual also comes with a guide to prepare your own study time, a study schedule to keep you on target for your test date, and help specific to the PSAT test. Tutor Ted's SAT Solutions Manual retails for about $20, but you can find gently used copies from online bookstores as cheap as $5 as of this writing.

Tutor Ted's Second Edition

The book is currently in its second edition, which adds three practice tests to the seven found in the original first edition--all three practice tests are actual SAT tests that were given in October 2006, January 2007, and May 2007. Having copies of actual SAT tests is a great way to prepare yourself for taking the SAT, and you can study these tests on your own without enrolling in an expensive SAT prep class.

The first edition of Tutor Ted's SAT Solutions Manual came out in 2005, and this new edition (released just five years later) doesn't add much to the original text. The addition of just three new tests earned the book some disappointing reviews. There were over a hundred new versions of the SAT test between the first edition and the second, and for Tutor Ted's and the College Board to add just three tests out of that many new versions is a bit of a letdown.

The other complaint about Tutor Ted's SAT Solutions Manual second edition is that the first few printings of the book are rife with errors. The very first printing has dozens of errors--these were pointed out in a yellow insert for the second printing, but not corrected. For the book's more recent printings, the errors have been corrected. Be careful which version of the book you buy, as you may be buying a book with incorrect answers in the answer key.

Tutor Ted's Review Sections

There are three review sections in Tutor Ted's SAT Solutions Manual, one for each portion of the SAT test. The critical reading and writing sections are generally reviewed as the least-helpful. Most reviewers focus only on the math section, since SAT vocabulary words and writing skills can be learned from other sources. It is difficult to "review" for the writing section, other than to study SAT vocabulary words and brush up on your basic grammar.

When it comes to the critical reading review section, Tutor Ted provides a handful of test-taking tips and practice passages with example answers and explanations. There's not nearly enough critical reading review help even in the second edition of Tutor Ted's.

The star of the show is the math review section. The SAT math test can be troublesome for students who have forgotten their basic middle school and high school math and formulas. There are tons of sample math problems that include examples from actual SAT tests. Many of the example questions are of the bizarre variety that the College Board likes to throw in to make sure students aren't just learning math by rote.

Tutor Ted's SAT Solutions Manual second edition has some flaws, but it is still the go-to SAT test prep book for students who want to score high on their SAT exam.