Kaplan New York City Specialized High School Admissions Test (Kaplan Test Prep) Seventh Edition

Answer to what you want to know: yes, it worked for us!My (highly motivated) daughter used this book to help her prep for the SHSAT test and passed the test with flying colors, getting into her first choice of schools in NYC. We did complement this book with some basic test-prep at school, but even they were just using pages from this book.How did she prepare? She worked through the practice problems in the front of this book, and learned how to tackle each type of test question. She spent extra time on the ones she felt least comfortable at. Then she did a few of the practice tests in the back of the book, which were VERY similar to the actual SHSAT test she took a few months later.The SHSAT test is a weird test. It CAN be learned. Even the smartest kid, faced with with this test without preparation, will not do THAT well on it. The question types are strange and can be learned and practice will make a smart kid better at them.I would not say that a below average student could use this book and suddenly pass the test, but a smart kid could use this book to get that all-important high test score to get into a specialized school. Consider it like putting good fuel into a sports car- it will enhance the performance.We also used the Barron's test prep book which was equally good.So maybe a good approach for a self-motivated young student is to use this Kaplan book, the Barron's book, and perhaps some light test prep course in addition. But honestly, if the student used just the two books and went through them completely, the test prep would be unnecessary.

The suggestions on how to answer questions give new information over and above what's given in the other most popular book for the SHSAT, which is Barron's. From what I hear, Barron's is the most trustworthy of the books, so I think that Kaplan does have something to add to the mix. Get both this and Barron's. I really can't vouch for any other SHSAT book (although give me time, there may be another one I find that's helpful). Arguably the single most indispensable practice test, however, is what's posted by the NYC DoE, and is accessible free of charge, which is a sample test (there may even be two of them online). Still, it's just a practice test, and doesn't have strategic suggestions on how to tackle this test.

I got this for my little sister and I've seen A LOT of improvement. She's done a few of the activities and been studying about 30-45 minutes daily for about two weeks now. This is a must have for students that can read a lot. This book isn't for all students. It's for students that can read and comprehend a lot of material.

This book is amazing it really is very helpful and i like how it has different parts of it for the math and verbal nd provides enough practice for each part too. It even has the math concepts in the back for me to learn the math lessons nd basics thats gunna be in the test

this is bull sh888 really caplan its the same information as the other edition I know I bought them and this was my last with kaplan products/books same mistakes nothing corrected just slap on the 7th edition on the book and claim its edited.

The book is great but my daughter has some issues to understand the book. I believe that it is somebody else explain to her will be easy but for her to study by herself is better that the book be more simple with the concepts

This book has great logical reasoning, scrambled paragraphs, and reading comprehension sections. The explanations are very detailed. Also, the scrambled paragraphs are very challenging, and there's about 15 or so of them inside this book. Reading comprehension is good as always from Kaplan. Logical reasoning is on par with the reading comprehension with visual explanations. Now, math is where this book is seriously lacking. The math questions are far too easy, and may not be fully beneficial for the actual test. I was not challenged once when I took the math practice tests. I also believe there were some errors in the book.Overall, this book lived up to my expectations everywhere expect the math section.

This book is a great book to prepare for the Shsat, I am a seventh grader and I purchased this book 2 months before studying itWhen I first got the book I was getting low 60s and now I get an average of 77 per test