Debbie Stier

I won this book in a Goodreads First Reads giveaway and boy, am I glad I did.

I didn't think a book about the SAT would be so fascinating and enjoyable, but this was. Debbie's journey to take the SAT in hopes to motivate her son was very personal and very dedicated. I enjoyed every moment of it. It's inspiring me to go back and learn the math that always felt out of my grasp during elementary and high school. This is a must-read for high schoolers preparing for the SAT, educators, particularly high school teachers, and tutors. There are many prep resources mentioned in the book and I'm looking forward to checking them out! Wish there was something like this for the GRE!… (altro)

This review is also on my blog.
So, I realize this is a bit off the beaten track for this blog. "Where's the YA?" you ask. "Or at the very least MG like last week's review?" Well, bare with me on this one. I'm a high school junior, okay? I saw a review of this book at Tea Time With Annie Kate and knew immediately that I needed to read it. And I did. And now I'm going to review it.

This book is part memoir, part how-to guide. The story of Debbie's path to understanding the SAT intertwines with revelations about her relationship with her children and her approach to parenting teenagers. I'm going to break it down into the two components and review them separately, but if you want the short version, here it is: high schoolers, read this book only if you want to start panicking about the SAT! If you do want to start panicking, then this is a good place to start.

First, the personal story line. Debbie is one of those super-obsessive moms who latch onto something and don't let it go. It gets a bit much for both me and her children (who revolt at the idea of Kumon lessons and move in with their dad) somewhere around the middle, but she pulls out strong at the end of the year/story. It was nice seeing that relationship, and the very promise that she loves her son so much she takes seven SATs to motivate him is pretty neat.

As an aside, how much money has this lady got? She spent half the book buying various test prep sources, the fate of which she describes on page 98:
. . . my shelf of rejects bulged ever wider until I had to move the forsaken books to a larger space downstairs, and then ultimately, when they outgrew that room too, to the big bookshelf in the sky.
Anyway, on to the SAT portion. I know very little about the SAT, but she knows a ton. She tried just about every resource there is out there and weeded out quite a few bad ones. It's extremely intimidating reading about the amount of prep that goes into taking that test - for some people at least. How can I compete with private tutors and hours spent poring over old tests like they're the new Bible? I suppose the answer involves a huge amount of work, and I'm not exactly thrilled about beginning. However, when I do I'll be sure to use this book (and the website that goes with it) as a resource. My biggest fault with the book? No "cheat sheet" in the back. An appendix summarizing good study techniques and bad ones would have been so helpful. Fingers crossed that's on the website.

Lack of appendix aside, this book is chock full of every SAT prep tip imaginable, about everything from what snacks to bring (she recommends dark chocolate, water, a sliced red apple, and Listerine strips) to how to motivate a teenager to study (parental enthusiasm and involvement). The results she came to at the end of her trial and error experiment don't seem exotic or crazy; they scream "experience" more than most SAT "tip" books. By the end of the year, Debbie saw the SAT as one big puzzle she would never be able to crack. She had fun trying, but she just didn't have the math background to do it.

The biggest take-away I got from the book is to take the SAT multiple times, so it's not do-or-die the first few times. I'm going to peruse her website a bit more to see if there are any more specific tips I can glean (the book is good, and the tips are put together in gray boxes to separate them from the rest of the narrative, but it's still a pain to find anything in it). I'm not going to say this is the be all and end all of SAT prep advice books, because I don't know enough about the SAT to know that. I do, however, know that this is a good place to start my journey to the SAT.… (altro)

Debbie Stier? What a mom! Her underachieving son prompts her to figure out a way to light his fire toward being accepted into a top college. The way she comes up with is helping him score big on his upcoming SAT. And how to do that? She decides to jump in and take the test herself. Seven times. Yes, seven times in one year. And, in the process, she tried every single possible SAT-score-enhancing practice method. This book is full of ideas for ways to do better on this all-important test. The Perfect Score Project is a must-read for anyone with an SAT in one's future.… (altro)