Are you ready to take the SAT? It's hard to know--both the ETS (the folks who administer the test) and the big test-prep schools want you to think it's practically impossible to improve your scores by just sitting down with a book and learning a few tricks. The Unofficial Guide to the SAT offers an alternative, promising no bias and presenting a wide range of methods to get those extra points on your transcript and maybe even help you get accepted into your first-choice college. You'll find it well organized and refreshingly readable, from the introductory self-test and study planner to the closing appendices covering words and math concepts most frequently used by test writers. In between, there's tons of advice on how to pace yourself, read questions and answers, and skip questions when appropriate. It might not be obvious to you that "the obvious connection is usually the right one" in analogies, but you'll learn this and hundreds of other tricks from people who have pulled the tests apart and have nothing to lose from divulging their secrets. Peppered with plenty of actual SAT questions, including the obligatory full-length test, this is one test-prep book that has it all. Irreverent and insightful, The Unofficial Guide to the SAT is a surefire confidence-builder for all college-bound teens. --Rob Lightner