Participative budgeting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Participative budgeting - Essay Example In the case where Costa Rica, Chile and Mauritius were selected to investigate the performance of pro-poor outcomes, evidence showed that the project was indispensable not only to strengthen democracy in the countries but also to ensure that the most pressing needs of the population were reflected in the government spending (Liao and Zhang, 2012). Methods like public meeting, focus groups, simulation, committee and surveys have been used so that the citizens can participate in the budget adoption (Jason et al, 2009). However, public meetings are not very good at giving citizens direct influence but they can be used as forums for preliminary information sharing (OToole and Marshall, 1988). Citizen participation in budgeting, brings out potential goals like informing decision-making, educating participants on the budget, gaining support for budget proposals, influencing decision making and enhancing trust and creating a sense of community. In Brazil, the state and civil society have always been much more intertwined that the liberal conceptualization. Capitalism was implemented in Brazil by the Portuguese patrimonial state with loyal court as the center for the power (Novy and Leubolt, 2005). In Porto Alegre as all over Brazil, neighborhood movements emerged in the 1970s. Residents mainly of irregular, poorer districts rebelled against the government lack of interest in acting for their benefits. Participatory budgeting involves direct and indirect democracy since there is sharing of power with the people and thus it will satisfy the basic needs like in Brazil where improvement in education was seen (Mirko, 2014). Participatory budgeting was an attempt to elaborate an alternative model of governance. The strategy showed legitimacy in strengthening civil society in the local forms of socialism. Social innovation and an open

Letter to Lady Macbeth from her husband Essay Example for Free

Letter to Lady Macbeth from her husband Essay It has been a long time since I have seen you and I am missing you terribly. I hope that you are well. I am coping fine but I have been through quite a lot of trouble in a short space of time. Please let me inform you of my perturbed state and the strange, strange things I have encountered. Banquo and I fought a savage battle against the barbarian Norwegian army and the rebel Scottish lords. I was given the opportunity to come face to face with a rebel; MacDonald. As expected, I did not shake his hand nor did I bid farewell to him. Instead, I unseamed MacDonald from the nave to the chops and I fixed his head upon our battlements to declare our righteous victory. Obviously, I did not feel an ounce of fear or nervousness because I knew I was doing the right thing. The fire of my courage and braveness shone through and it was I who succeeded in battle. Whilst Banquo and I were on a heath near Forres, we came across three, peculiar weird sisters. At first, Banquo and I became rather confused as they slightly resembled women although they possessed beards and looked almost like trolls. He assumed they were not inhabitants of the Earth. Much to our amazement, they somehow had known our names. They then went on to make predictions that Banquos sons would become kings and that I will become Thane of Cawdor and later I would become king. The moment that I heard this I became fascinated and I demanded for more information. I, honestly, could not believe my ears. Did my ears deceive me; Did I really hear that one day I, Macbeth, would become King; How was this possible? I wanted, no needed, to know but much to my dismay the three sisters had vanished. Despite the fact that I am not in line for the throne, this was all I could think about. After the sisters had disappeared, we were greeted by two of the Kings men, Angus and Ross. They told me that the king had heard of my success in battle. They then announced that I was now Thane of Cawdor. I was extremely shocked and then asked how this could possibly be true as the Thane of Cawdor was still alive. They told me that he will be losing his life because he betrayed the king. I could neither understand nor comprehend this. Maybe, just maybe, the sisters were speaking the truth. But how can I become king? King Duncan is currently on the throne and he is well and healthy. The only possible way I can become king is if I The terrifying thought of what I have to do is eating away at my soul. Maybe I may have to murder King Duncan in order for you and I to be crowned the King and Queen of Scotland. God knows, how I am going to achive my goal. Please support me and help me make this possible.

Essay --

Trust is defined in the dictionary as believing in someone. Trust is what everybody in the world desire, or should desire from one another. It is the key part of establishing a good friendship. Trust is what keeps a relationship with family good, and works as a magnet to keep the bond alive. Without trust, there is not friendship, and without friendship, there is no love. Trust is very hard to gain, but very easy to lose. To gain someone’s trust, it might be a very difficult and painful road especially if you love that person. To be told you are trusted is a great feeling, but you should never take advantage of that trust. The second you take advantage of someone’s trust, that relationship will weaken and demolish as a result of distrust. According to my second story, the girl knew that her boyfriend cheated on her and decided to leave the relationship. All the trust that she had in him was destroyed as a result of a reckless action. This story is a good example of the consequences of distrust, and how it affects a relationship. On the other hand, having somebody to trust is a wonderful feeling. It provides us support by enabling us to share secrets, stories, and other events. The feeling of being trusted might possibly be one of the best feelings a person can encounter during his lifespan, it makes us happy and strong. Trust gives us the power to help somebody by having a small talk with them about something they need help with or need advice on. In my fifth story, Stacey failed her math test and she is scared to tell her parents due to the consequences she might encounters. She couldn’t find a good solution to the problem. Her friend Ann passed by her, and started a conversation with Stacey to find out the problem. After Stac... ...shelf and immediately came up to me to ask me why the shelf is empty. I couldn’t blame it on someone else because it is my responsibility. I was given a warning but I learned no to trust anyone. It was a bad experience for me because every person likes to fulfill their job requirements in order to prove something to their bosses, but this time, I fell short because I trusted someone who cannot be trusted. Expectation has a lot to do with trust. I expected my co-worker to do what I told him and by doing this, I trusted him. These two seem to tie into each other. Part of trust is having the expectation that someone will do right and be towards you. It is why you feel safe around them. Trusting that person makes you feel more comfortable in that environment, but for me, I learned to not trust or expect anyone to help me at work because they want to be better than me.

Discuss ethical considerations related to research studies at the cognitive level of analysis Essay

Discuss ethical considerations related to research studies at the cognitive level of analysis There are plenty of ethical considerations connected to research studies at the SCLOA, for example the right to withdraw, deception, knowledgeable agreement and excessive stress or harm. For example, Festinger’s â€Å"When Prophecy Fails† observation of a doomsday cult has ethical invasions of deception as well as knowledgeable agreement. Festinger and his group of researchers invade a doomsday cult that thought that the world would come to an end on December 21st and aimed to see how they would react when it wouldn’t end. By pretending to be one of them, Festinger violated the ethical thought of asking for their authorization and consequently, since it was a secret observation, he also cheated them. They were incredibly upset when he said who he really was; to be an undercover researcher. It is most likely that Festinger would not have been able to earn a full understanding of the cult’s behaviour and how it played into the social recognise theory if he had not cheated them, as he was observing them on their normal day without any effects influencing their behaviour. However, he cheated on ethics. This is a matter with other observations at this level of analysis as being secret that tricks them and is unethical if they aren’t in a public place, during undisguised influences their natural behaviour that is precisely what you are trying to study. Milgram’s study on people’s willingness to do authority also is an invasion of ethics in terms of cheating, but also with excessive stress or harm and even the right to withdraw. Members that participated were asked to ask a number of questions to someone they were only able to hear and to give a number of electric shocks every time the other person, who was normally only a tape recording, would give an answer to the question incorrectly. The voltage of the shock would be increased per incorrect answer. Although the members that  participated delivering the shocks weren’t able to actually hurt someone, they still became more and more stressed every time the person on the reco rding would sound more hurt or even stop saying something. The whole point of this experiment was to be able to see how far someone would go when carry out authority so some people, when forced by a calm researcher, would deliver shocks that were marked as lethal. When the experiment was over, the people who had done it all the way to the strongest shocks were questioned and told that they hadn’t actually harmed anyone. Nonetheless, they were still tricked and were stressed by the cries of pain or silence that showed that the person was dead. Moreover, the long-term effects of this study on the members that participated, is that they know that they are capable of hurting someone or even killing them, which may traumatize them. Nonetheless, the experiment was controlled, and so was artificial and lacked ecological acceptance. Also, it was done on other people who had sound like they had mental health problems, so this experiment can be easily generalized and used for the SCLOA as it studies how others influence one’s behaviour. As mentioned before, however, Milgram had some problems with the right to pull back, which Zimbardo’s â€Å"Prison Study† also had. Milgram made it able for people to leave if they became uncomfortable; nonetheless, his aim for this study made him to become more uncertain and made them continuously to stay. This is not the case with Zimbardo’s study. In his study, he randomly chose mentally healthy members that participated to the role of a prison guard or a prisoner to search the role of dispositional and situational factors in behaviour. Nonetheless, over the course of this study, Zimbardo and his members that participated became so involved in their roles that they were made to that not only the prisoners were humiliated, physically punished and felt violated and in danger, at some moments they were forcedly undressed and given a piece of clothing that covered little of their private parts; however, they weren’t able to be let out of the study. Only one member that participated with the role of a prisoner was released because of a severe state, but the others members that participated who screamed and cried to be released, couldn’t be released. On top of the excessive stress and harm inflicted on the prisoners and   guards, who might have been traumatized by their actions during this study, none of them could leave the experiment. The researcher was not Zimbardo himself, he became absorbed in his own role as the prison officer, and consequently he is biased when analysing his own study. Overall, this was an unethical study, even though; fortunately the members that participated were questioned and offered psychological counselling because of the long-term effects. It is obvious that deception, knowledgeable agreement, the right to withdraw and undue excessive stress or harm are ethical considerations at the SCLOA. It is frequently hard to keep away of such ethical violations at this level, though, as in order to study someones behaviour and how we are influenced by others in their natural state, the existence of a researcher may affect this behaviour. Therefore, questioning is important in sensitive ethically risky studies such as Festinger’s, Milgram’s and Zimbardo’s studies. However, when studying someone’s behaviour, a researcher must stay a secret, for example, not becoming affected by the group, and keep paying attention to the rights of the members that participate; being denied the right to withdraw has no excuse.

Lack of Sleep

A) Main point one: The long term effect of lack of sleep is bad judgment and Forgetfulness. 1) Subpoint 1 : Bad judgment is caused by lack of sleep. i. Sub-sub point * Science daily (Mar , 2 ,2007)-research has shown that bad sleep can adversely affect a person's physical health and emotional well-being. However, the amount of sleep one gets can also influence his or her decision-making.A study published in the March 1st issue of the journal SLEEP finds that sleep deprivation impairs the ability to integrate emotion and cognition to guide moral judgments. * The lack of sleep a person will tend to be quick to get upset, stress depressed, mentally exhausted and less energized throughout the day. * This will in turn lead to interpersonal relationship will be affected 2)Subpoint 2 :Forgetfulness Sub-sub point * Lack of sleep also alter our production of hormones involved in the process of thinking and remember something.Therefore when we lack of sleep we will be a quick forget. Forgetful is persistent failure to remember a piece of information and it is difficult to learn a new things. * Forgetfulness nature not only among the elderly, but also between a young people under thirty years due to the lack of sleep. B. Main Point Two: The long term effect of lack of sleep is weight gain and obesity. Subpoint 1 :lack of sleep may lead to obesity, according to a Harvard study. I. Sub-sub point/elaboration * In a trial of 21 men and women observed in a sleep laboratory ,those who allowed to sleep only 5. hours of sleep in a 24 hours period over 3 weeks had a slow metabolism and a reduction in insulin production, those changes can lead to weight gain and increase blood sugar according to research published in the Journal Science Translation Medicine. Subpoint 2:Mechanism that involved in explaining the connection between sleep and obesity. I. Sub-sub point/elaboration * mechanism involved in regulating metabolism and appetite are beginning to explain the connection between sleep and obesity.During sleep our body will secrete hormones that help to control appetite ,energy metabolism and glucose processing. Obtaining too little sleep upsets the balance of those and others hormones. C. Main point Three:Depression is an effect that is caused by lack of sleep. Subpoint 1 :Depression is caused by lack of sleep. I. Sub-sub point/elaboration * In a  study of 18,980 people in Europe conducted by Stanford researcher  Maurice Ohayon, MD, PhD, people with depression were found to be five times more likely to suffer from sleep-disordered breathing. Sleep problems develop depression may indicate that sleep disorders and depression have similar causes or risk factors. * Research shows that children with depression who experience a lack of sleep or who sleep too much are more likely to have longer and more severe episodes of depression. 2. Subpoint 2:Depression can affect our health. I. Sub-sub point * When sleep is disrupted or inadequate, it can lead to increas ed tension, vigilance, and irritability. Physical or emotional trauma and metabolic or other medical problems can trigger sleep disturbances.Poor sleep can lead to fatigue. Eventually, you find yourself in a vicious cycle of inactivity and disturbed sleep, which causes both physical and mood-related symptoms. II. Sub-sub point/elaboration * Patients may suffer from a range of insomnia symptoms, including difficulty falling asleep, difficulty staying asleep, unrefreshing sleep, and daytime sleepiness. * People with insomnia have a 10-fold higher risk of developing depression shows by research. * Depression affects all types of people from all over the world.For older adults, higher rates of depression and sleep problems may be explained in part by higher rates of physical illness. Among women, motherhood and hormonal changes throughout the life cycle (menstruation, menopause) may contribute to higher rates of depression. iii-Conclusion A. Brakelight As a conclusion, B. Summary if you are struggling with sleeping disorder, you should start searching help from the doctors because as you can see the effects of lack of sleep such as depression, gain of weight, and poor memory obviously will affect your life.If you keep thinking that sleeping disorder is not even matter to you, now you already knew the consequences caused by it. C. Tie Back to Audience It is much more important to us as a student to have enough sleep to keep us active all day. Try to imagine if you do not get your 8 hours sleeping time per day, what will happen when you wake up the next morning and go to the class? You will have a weak body and cannot give your full concentration in the lecture hall. This problem will lead to the dropping of your performance in university. All students never want it to happen to themselves.Thus, you should take an action immediately if you struggling with sleeping disorder to improve your lifestyle and hopefully will be helpful to maintain the good performance in yo ur studies. Reference: 1. Chris , I. M. (2012, September 14). Depression and sleep: Getting the right amount. Retrieved on 14th November 2012 from : http://www. everydayhealth. com/health-report/major-depression/depression-and-sleep-the-right-amount. aspx 2. Joseph, G. (2012, July 24). Sleep and depression. Retrieved on 14th November 2012 from: http://www. webmd. com/depression/guide/depression-sleep-disorder 3. Hannah , T. 2011, January 27). Can a lack of sleep cause depression? Retrieved on 14th November 2012 from: http://www. marieclaire. co. uk/news/health/514265/can-a-lack-of-sleep-cause-depression. html 4. Ostrow , N. (2012, April 12). Lack of sleep. Retrieved on 17 November 2012 from: http://www. bloomberg. com/news/2012-04-11/lack-of-sleep-may-lead-to-obesity- harvard-study-suggests. html 5. Ann, D. (2012, March 20). Lack of sleep-weight gain. Retrieved on 17 November 2012 from: http://www. webmd. com/sleep-disorders/excessive-sleepiness-10/lack-of-sleep-weight-gain 6.Univer sity Of Chicago Medical Center (1999,October 25). Lack Of Sleep Alters Hormones , Metabolism ,Simulates Effects Of Aging , ScienceDaily. Retrieved on November 16, 2012 ,from : http://www. sciencedaily. com ¬ /releases/1999/10/991025075844. htm 7. Camille Peri (2012 , September 14). 10 Things To Have About Sleep Loss. Retrieved on 16 September 2010 , from : http://www. webmd. com/sleep-disorders/excessive-sleepiness-10/10-results-sleep- 8. Karen Smith ,(2012). Long Term Effect Of A Lack of Sleep . Retrieved on17 September 2012 from:http://www. ehow. com/info_8207538_longterm-effects-lack-sleep. html

How to Punctuate Introductory Phrases

How to Punctuate Introductory Phrases How to Punctuate Introductory Phrases How to Punctuate Introductory Phrases By Mark Nichol With a comma. Always. Except when you don’t. Perhaps I should annotate that: In the overwhelming majority of cases, follow an introductory phrase at the beginning of a sentence with a comma. Adverbial Conjunctions Eight classes of adverbial conjunctions exist, and a comma should generally follow one in every class. Each of these sentences includes an example of one such part of speech from each class: Addition: â€Å"Finally, I reached the station.† Comparison: â€Å"Similarly, chickens are omnivores.† Concession: â€Å"Naturally, you’ll want to see for yourself.† (Note, however, that however isn’t always an adverbial conjunction. In this sentence, it’s an adverb modifying important: â€Å"However important you think it is, I’m not giving him the message right now.†) Contrast: â€Å"Nevertheless, he didn’t go into detail.† Emphasis: â€Å"Of course, she’ll be there, too.† (An exception can be made for this particular phrase: There’s a subtle but distinct difference between â€Å"Of course, you’ll want to do it your way† and â€Å"Of course you’ll want to do it your way.† In the first sentence, your is stressed; in the second, course, perhaps accompanied by a sneer, is emphasized, with a secondary stress on your and likely an exclamation point to signal emotion.) Example: â€Å"For instance, the floor was swept but not mopped.† Summary: â€Å"In conclusion, I recommend that we approve the measure.† Time sequence: â€Å"At last, we saw their car approaching.† (Some writing and editing guides suggest that short introductory phrases don’t require commas; often, such brief modifying phrases involve time: â€Å"Yesterday I saw a ghost,† for example, or â€Å"In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue.† I recommend, though, use of commas in such cases. Otherwise, the exception to the rule is rather arbitrary; how long does a short phrase need to be before it merits a comma? And why omit commas in some cases and include others?) Hence, Still, Then, and Thus Another class of words may or may not be followed by a comma depending on subtle differences: â€Å"Hence the name,† but â€Å"Hence, I was back where I had started.† â€Å"Still the waters raged though the rain had ceased,† but â€Å"Still, I try one more time.† â€Å"Then I tried to start the car again,† but â€Å"Then, I would have acted differently.† â€Å"Thus we are back where we started,† but â€Å"Thus, I concede the point.† Infinitive Phrases â€Å"To get there, turn right at the second intersection.† Participial Phrases â€Å"Under the circumstances, I cannot allow it.† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Punctuation category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:What Is Irony? (With Examples)Whenever vs. When EverTypes of Ignorance

Best SAT Prep Books 2019

Best SAT Prep Books 2019 SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips There are a lot of "Best SAT Books" lists out there, but we think that most of them aren’t very good or thorough. As a result, I’ve tried to write a much better guide here. In this article, you’ll learn which books are absolutely critical for your SAT prep, which books you can use to improve your individual section scores, and which books you'll need if you’re aiming for a top score. More importantly, you’ll learn how to use these SAT prep books for effective studying. This guide is pretty detailed, so here are reference links you can use to jump directly to different parts of the article. That said, I recommend reading the whole guide if you can! What's Better About This Guide to the Best SAT Books? Who Is This SAT Prep Books Guide For? Critical SAT Prep Books Best SAT Books by Subject Best Books for Top SAT Scorers Best All-in-One Book for Less Motivated Low Scorers The #1 SAT Prep Book to Avoid Buying Other Free Resources to Help You Plan Your SAT Prep Is Using SAT Prep Books the Best Option for You? What’s Better About This Guide to the Best SAT Books? Since your SAT score is important for yourcollege applications and you’ll likely spend a fair amount of time studying for the test, it’s important to get the right advice. Follow the wrong advice, and by the time you realize it's wrong, it'll probably be too late to improve your SAT score. Ideally, you'll vet any advice you get (including ours) before deciding on yourSAT prep plan. Before you read each article in your research, be sure to ask yourself, "Why should I trust this person online giving me SAT advice?" Well, we answer that question right here. Here’s why this SAT prep books guide is far better than others you might find online: I explain in detail why certain SAT books are good and what each book's flaws are. You probably haven’t heard of some of these prep books; many are newer or less well known and thus aren't featured as widely as books from more popular companies with larger marketing budgets. Most other SAT books guides just list a few books without context, but we tell you every critical piece of information you need to know before buying a book. I believe it’s important to target your weaknesses and where you need to prep.I’ll point out SAT books that are best for training for specific sections and books that are better for low or high scorers. Other guides assume that all students are the same, but we tailor ours to a variety of test-taker levels. I don’t get paid for promoting these SAT books over others.I don't know any of these authors personally. In reality, I’ve studied dozens of SAT prep books, and these are the ones I'd use if I myself were prepping. Other sites, such as about.com and reviews.com, get paid to adjust theirrankings or get kickbacks from publishers for mentioning their prep books. I like to think that I know what I’m talking about. I scored two perfect scores on the SAT and have worked directly with thousands of students prepping for the SAT. I’ve helped test takers of all levels, from those scoring around 800 to those aiming for 1530+. Other writers don't have the expertise needed to differentiate between good and bad SAT books, and end up recommending books as an afterthought. One important disclaimer: I’m co-founder of PrepScholar, an online SAT/ACT prep program. I believe we’ve built the best SAT prep program available. Itdiagnoses your strengths and weaknessesand gives you a structured all-in-one guide, combining the best aspects of the SAT books below so you can know exactly what to study at every point in your prep. I want to stress that you don’t need a prep program to do well on the SAT. In fact, writing this guide could lose us some customers if you decide you don’t need a program after all. If, however, you're not interested in managing 10 books and would rather have an integrated program that's customized to your learning style,check out our SAT prep program now. In either case, if you’re serious about SAT prep, keep reading. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points? Tired of wasting time prepping in ways that don't work? We have the industry's leading SAT prep program. Built by Harvard grads and SAT full scorers, the program learns your strengths and weaknesses through advanced statistics, then customizes your prep program to you so you get the most effective prep possible. It's the best prep program available right now. Best of all, we guarantee your money back if you don't improve your score by 160 points or more. Check out our 5-day free trial today: Improve Your SAT Score by 160+ Points, Guaranteed Who Is This SAT Prep Books Guide For? First, this guide is for students who are serious about test prep.You need to be motivated to get a high score, and you need to be willing to put in hard work. Getting through these books will take dozens of hours simply because the SAT covers so much material. If you plan to study just five hours or so, your choice of book won't make much difference.In this case, it's best to focus on taking anofficial SAT practice test and reviewing your answers. With such little prep time, your score won’t go up much in the end, so don't expect any miracles. Buying SAT prep books is the first and easiest step of SAT prep. You'll need to put in serious work to actually get the score improvements you want, though. In the following sections, we explain the best ways to get the most out of each SAT book we recommend. Secondly, this guide targets students who want to improve their scores by more than 100 points. To consistently score this much higher on the SAT, you'll need more than just tricks; you'll need to understand the actual contentbeing tested- that is, the underlying math concepts and grammar rules. Don't bother with ineffective "tricks" that simply make you feel as though you've learned something when you actually haven't. If you’re only looking to improve your score by 50 points or so, however, it’s possible for you to do this just byretaking the SAT, especially if you’ve taken the test only once. Lastly,to improve your score through SAT prep books, you'll need to have an excellent study strategy.It isn't enough to just read a book cover to cover- you must focus on your weaknesses by brushing up on the content you struggle with the most. Unfortunately, many students spend dozens of hours poring over one book after another without improving their SAT scores.Why? Because they're not understanding what their weaknesses areand aren'tfocusing their time on their weaknesses. Without learning how to attack your weak spots, you won't improve your SAT score! It might sound obvious, but it's pretty hard for many students to do this well. I write a lot more about how to prep for the SAT inmy guide to a perfect SAT score. It's also how I designed our online SAT program to do all of the hard structural work for you. Ultimately, if you’re serious about SAT score improvement and want to study with top prep books, this is the guide for you. The Best SAT Prep Books of 2019 For this guide, we’re going to divide our picks for the best SAT books into the following categories: Critical Books:These are must-have SAT books for your prep, no matter your strengths or weaknesses. Subject-Specific Books: These are by far the best books to use to better your SAT Reading, Math, and Writing skills. Books for Top Scorers:These SAT prep books are guaranteed to push you over the top and help you get the best score you're capable of achieving. Books for Low Scorers and Low Motivation: If you only want to study for a few hours and improve your SAT score just slightly, these books are OK to use. Otherwise, avoid them. The #1 Book to Avoid: The book I always used to recommend for the old version of the SAT is now squarely on the "Do Not Buy" list. Find out why! Since the format of the SAT changed so much in early 2016, I do NOT recommend using old SAT books to study for the current SAT. Although older SAT practice tests doshare some similarities with newer ones, you'll waste a lot of time studying for the wrong topics and questions if you don't know exactly how the old SAT differs from the current SAT. Therefore, always use books that target the current SAT (that is, books published in 2016 or later), such as the ones listed below. You can also use our online SAT prep programto learn more about your specific weaknesses and how you can improve them. Critical SAT Prep Books These are the books I believe all test takers should have, regardless of their SAT scores or what skills they need to improve. This is an extremely high standard to meet- in fact, there are only two books out of dozens I’ve tested that qualify for this title. We introduce them below. Official SATPractice Tests We’ve written at length about the importance of official SAT practice questions. As you might know, the SAT is a bizarre exam that tests concepts in ways you’ve never seen in school. Thus, you must train with realistic questions in order to accurately learn the patterns of the SAT. Official SAT tests released by the College Board are the gold standard for practice questions. At present, there are 10 official tests. These aren't exactly a "prep book" in the standard sense, but altogether they make up quite an important resource not too different from a book. Each test contains real questions given to actual students on previous administrations of the SAT. Without a doubt, the quality of official questions is far better than that of questions written by unofficial sources such as Kaplan or Barron's. Even better,all official SAT practice tests are free!You can download the tests as PDFs from the College Board website orour complete guide to official SAT practice tests. Make sure to print them out to get the realistic on-paper testing experience. Pros They're the best set of SAT practice tests you can get anywhere, period.If you want to take a full-length practice test, these are absolutely the ones you should use first. Each test is completely free to access and download. 10 full-length practice tests mean a decent amount of studying. If each test takes about four hours to take and two hours to review, that's a solid 60 hours of study time. Answers and answer explanations are available for all questions. Cons Most students will find that the answer explanations aren't that helpful for self-learning. Many explanations read like this: "A is wrong because A is wrong. B is correct for these reasons." In other words, they don't show you how to solve the question from step one. If you don't know key strategies such as how to approach reading passages or how to plug in numbers for math problems, you'll need a different resource to teach you. The tests don't offer anyother instructional material.If you’re bad at algebra, you can’t rely on this resource alone.These tests are just that- practice tests and practice questions. Nothing else! With only 10 practice tests available, there's not enough practice material for more motivated students or those seeking a large score improvement. You'll want to have one test to get used to the format and figure out your current score level, three to track your progress, one to take right before the actual test, and a couple to keep as backups. Unfortunately, you'll need more practice questions to drill with than you can get from the leftover tests to get really good at the SAT (which is why our prep program has the equivalent of four more practice tests to help you improve your skills). You have to print out the PDFs yourself to be able to work through them on paper. But in my opinion, this is better than having to buythe tests as hard copies (more on this later). Taking practice tests without a system for learning SAT content isn’t going to improve your score, and the tests don'tprovide any guidance on how to do this.Remember, mastering the SAT is as much about strategy as it is about content! SAT Prep Black Book, Second Edition TheBlack Book byMike and Patrick Barrettis the only other critical book I recommend for SAT prep. Unfortunately, the book itself isn't sufficient, and even with the practice tests above you’ll likely need supplemental help (as I explain below). What it does have, though, is so good that I believe every student studying with SAT prep books should read it. What you’ll get from the Black Book is essentially a way to think about the SAT. But what does this mean exactly? Here are a few examples: You'll learn that the SAT is designed to be a predictable, standardized test.It needs to test basic concepts so that it can be administered nationwide to all students, but it also needs to be difficult, so it often distorts questions in a weird way. It explains how every answer on the SAT must be unambiguously correct,or else test takers would complain that their incorrect answers are correct. Therefore, your main strategy should be to rule out all incorrect answer choices- this is especiallyimportant on SAT Reading. The concepts in this book were things I understood intuitively back when I took the SAT and was studying for a perfect score. This resource influenced the way I think about teaching our students at PrepScholar. Overall, of all books on the market, the Black Book aligns most closely with my personal philosophies on how to succeed on the SAT. Pros It offers a very lucid take on the SAT. Its ideas will not only change your view on the SAT but also motivate you to work harder by showing you that any student can excel on it. The book contains practical strategies that are more helpful than those in most other SAT books. Unlike other popular prep books, this one doesn’t rely on ineffective tricks. It doesn’t assume all students are the same.Rather, the book offers a few alternatives for strategies, and then suggests you try them out to see which ones work best for you. The book has a thorough set of answer walkthroughs for all Reading, Writing, and Math questions in the first four official SAT practice tests (included in the recommended "book" above). Each explanation clearly breaks down how to approach the question and get the right answer. Cons The book requires a ton of self-discipline and insight to be able to use it effectively. Because you’re learning from your mistakeswith no one there to guide you, you must be self-driven and willing to experiment with different strategies to figure out which one works best for you. For some students, following a set of straight guidelines could be less confusing. The fundamental content is lacking. If you’re weak in word problems, for example, this book alone will not help you master the subject. I believe in recognizing your weaknesses and then mastering that skill through focused prep and practice questions. While this book gives you a general approach to SAT prep, it doesn't teach you the specific content you'll need to know. It's fairly long (more than 550 pages!), with answer explanations that often feelrepetitive; however, that's partly due to the structure of the SAT itself (remember, it's a standardized test and therefore repetitive in how it tests certain skills). I personally disagree with some of the key points in this book.For example, the writers believe you should aim to reach a certain skill level rather than aim for a particular score. By contrast, I believe that setting an SAT score goal is a useful motivator. Once again, I highly recommend these two resources for all students studying with (or only with) SAT prep books. We cover most of the important concepts in the Black Book in our SAT prep program and also provide focused practice on individual skills. As mentioned above, you'll most likely need specific training on each subject to be able to shore up your weaknesses. Next, we provide you with key resources for individual subjects on the SAT. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points?We've written a guide about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now: Best SAT Books by Subject Beyond the critical SAT books covered above, you’ll likely need supplemental help on specific SAT sections. Here, we discuss the best prep books to use for SAT Reading, Math, and Writing. These books all follow my SAT prep philosophy: Divide SAT content into skills, and then get focused training on those skills. Use realistic, high-quality questions that prep you well for the SAT. Cover only what you need to know- not advanced material that won't be on the SAT. Best SAT Reading Prep Book In my experience with thousands of students, SAT Reading is the most difficult section score to improve.This section uses logical reasoning skills that aren’t as easily mastered as math concepts or grammar rules are. As a result, it’s extremely important to learn what kinds of questions will be asked and how you can approach them in a systematic way. My recommendation for best SAT Reading book is The Critical Reader: The Complete Guide to SAT Reading, Third Editionby Erica L. Meltzer. This book dissects the SAT Reading section by question type and skill, and does a great job teaching the core of what each question is asking. It also clearly explains how to work with a passage to arrive at the correct answer. Of all writers, Meltzer uses an approach to SAT Reading prep that aligns most closely with mine: todrill questions skill by skill so you can recognize patterns. Pros It offers a great breakdown of the Reading section on a skill-by-skill level, as well as helpful strategies for every question type. This is the same approach we use in our own SAT prep program. There are lots of high-quality, realistic passages and questions.Meltzer uses passages that are extremely similar to those you’ll see on the actual SAT. The book has a helpful guide listing the questions on the SAT by skillso you can get even more focused practice. Cons The cost is somewhat high for a book that covers just one SAT section (about $30-$35). Its writing style is dry and clinicallike that of an academic textbook. It feels very formal and there are no images to break up the text. I personally prefer this style- cut out the fluff- but it can be too dense for some students. What this means is thatyou might not even read the book because you find it so boring. Its lack of creative page layouts and lots of text on large pages can get tiresome- sort of like reading a phone book. Best SAT Math Prep Book My philosophy on SAT Math is that the best way to significantly improve your Math score is to learn the underlying content.Getting familiar with math questions and learning some strategies like plugging in answer choicescan help you make some progress, but you’ll quickly run into a wall if you have gaps in your underlying math knowledge. Your best bet, therefore, is to find a book that canteach you math content in an organized way and give you practice problems you can use to focus on individual skills. It should also cater to your skill levelsince math questions that are too hard or easy for you will be a waste of time. For these reasons, I recommend Steve Warner’s series of SAT Math books.He's written multiple SAT prep books for beginner, intermediate, and advanced students, and has a set of 240 SAT Math problems organized by topic and difficulty. Pros Lessons that teach math concepts are clear and helpful. They suggest ways to speed up your ability to solve questions and help you identify what a question is really asking. Practice questions are all fairly realistic with good answer explanations. Customizing your SAT Math practice by skill level is important. If you’re scoring below 600, there’s no reason to focus on attacking the hardest questions on the test. Warner's books give you appropriate practice for your specific math level. Cons The books' categories aretoo broad, makingit difficult to find specific math concepts to practice. In contrast,our SAT programsplits large topics into smaller subjects. In algebra, for example, we go over linear functions, single-variable equations, andsystems of equations.By focusing on each individual skill, you can more accurately pinpoint your weaknesses and drill them in your prep. If you’re planning to make a large score improvement, you'll need to buy multiple SAT Math books, which can end up costing you around $100.This is pretty pricey for basically pages of practice questions. Math questions can get repetitive from book to book,as though they're being generated from templates. You definitely need to supplement these books with real practice tests to get broader exposure to how the College Board phrases SAT Math questions. The SAT has some creative, out-there Math questions that I don’t see covered well in Warner's books. If you’re really struggling with SAT Math at a basic level (say, scoring 500 and below), I recommend supplementing your work with Khan Academy’s math modules. This website is a free program that provides an engaging way to train your most basic skills. I believe the core Khan Academy program has better instruction than itsSAT prep program, even though it's not focused on the SAT. Best SAT Writing Prep Book The best way to excel at SAT Writing is to understand the grammar rules and how they appear on the test. You also need to answer a lot of high-quality practice questions to ensure you learn the patterns of the SAT (that’s how we designed our online SAT program to teach you grammar!). Once again, I’m returning to Erica L. Meltzer for her SAT grammar books.Meltzer’s fantastic at distilling all the rules of English grammar into what you need to know for the SAT; you won’t learn any arcane grammar concepts not on the SAT. For the rules that are tested, Meltzer presents them clearly and covers their foundations in case you’ve forgotten grammar rules learned in school. Unlike her single prep book covering SAT Reading, Meltzer has two books for SAT Writing: The Critical Reader: The Ultimate Guide to SAT Grammar, Fourth Edition: This bookcovers all SAT grammar rules you need to know and offers exercises to help you learn how to analyze grammar in the context of passages. The Critical Reader: The Ultimate Guide to SAT Grammar Workbook, Fourth Edition:This book offers hundreds of SAT practice questions, equivalent to six full-length Writing tests, as training material. Neither book is sufficient on its own, which is a big drawback. The first one doesn’t have enough SAT Writing questions to let you really drill grammar rules. Meanwhile, the second one doesn’t teach grammar rules, and questions aren’t organized by rule. These problems can complicate studying for students, but I still believe these are the best SAT Writing books out there. Pros Each book uses a clear writing style and cleanly articulates SAT grammar rules. The books cover only what you need to know for SAT Writing and omit extraneous material. A lot of SAT grammar books suffer from including too many esoteric rules that aren't tested on the SAT. The Writing practice questions are all fairlyrealistic. Cons There's no guidance on study strategy.The books offer a nice breakdown of the SAT, but you don't get instruction on how to use each book to best maximize your Writing score. Like other SAT resources,the price for each book is a bit high- about $30.They have good content, but I believe Meltzer could get a lot more customers by lowering her prices. I'd prefer a more unified, skill-based approach in a single book.Ideally, you'd practice single grammar rules with practice questions and then bring them all together in a full-length practice test. At PrepScholar, we believe in a unified, seamless experience, and integrate test content, customization, and feedback into a single package. Bonus: Looking for the very best guides to every SAT section? Check out our top guides for every single section of the SAT. Choose the score level you're aiming for: 800 Score Guides: SAT Reading | SAT Writing | SAT Math | SAT Essay Choose these guides if you're scoring a 600 or above on a section, and you want to get the highest SAT score possible. 600 Score Guides: SAT Reading | SAT Writing | SAT Math | SAT Essay Choose these guides if you're scoring below a 600 on a section, and you want to boost your score to at least a 600 level. These are the very best guides available on boosting your SAT score, section by section. They're written by Harvard grads and perfect SAT scorers. Don't disappoint yourself- read these guides and improve your score today. Best Books for Top SAT Scorers As you can see, you already have a lot to work on. With 10 full-length practice tests and more than five SAT books at your disposal, you'll be studying for well over 50 hours. By using the guidelines we recommend, you can make huge improvements in your score. If you still need extra practice, though, I recommend Barron's SAT prep books, especially if you want a perfect or near-perfect score. I remember using these books for my own SAT prep in high school. While their questions aren't as good as those in official SAT practice tests, they’re a solid backup source to use when you finish all the other SAT prep books above. Pros Each book offers a lot of content- thousands of practice questions and detailed lessons with many examples. The books areextremely thorough, covering every nook and cranny of what you need to know for the SAT. You can be confident that little is tested outside of what’s in these books. Cons The topics can get too difficult for what you need to know on the SAT. Some questions get unrealistically hard in a way you’d never see on the actual test. If you’re not an SAT expert yet, you won’t be able to detect when this happens and might end up wasting time studying irrelevant concepts. The books lack clear direction on what’s important and what's not for the SAT. For example, a grammar rule that appears once every SAT gets the same number of pages as a grammar rule that appears eight times on the SAT. Specifically, algebra is really important but gets far too little treatment. These are definitely not the books to use if you have limited time to study for the SAT. Not all SAT strategies are top notch.For example, I have mixed feelings about the SAT Reading passage strategies detailed in these books. Best All-in-One Book for Less Motivated Low Scorers So far my recommendations have been primarily for the super ambitious students who really want to improve their SAT scores.But I know that there are some students who just want to put in a few hours of prep, get exposure to the test, and then take the SAT and forget about it. I personally believe that for most test takers, raising your SAT score is the best way to improve your chances of college admission. If you don't want to put in hours of time to raise your score, I strongly suggest questioning your approach to test prep. Still, some of you either won't have the time or motivation to prep better. If you’re one of those just hoping to get the SAT over with, I recommend usingKaplan’s SAT Prep Plus 2019. It’s an all-in-one book that covers the three sections and has a wide assortment of practice questions and tests. The book doesn’t excel at any of what it’s doing,but it addresses the most important bases for SAT prep. It also has more reasonable content than other all-in-one SAT books like the one by The Princeton Review. The truth is, I don’t love this book. I don’t even really like it. I don’t recommend it if you actually want to improve your score and are willing to put in the study time needed to do so. However, if you just want a single resource that's easily digestible and does an OK job teaching you the basics, this book is the best one out there. Pros It covers all three SAT sections and contains five full-length practice tests. At about $20, it's quite affordable for the breadth of SAT content it covers. The book offers some basic test-taking strategies that can get you a few easy points if you're new to standardized testing and often feel like you have no idea what to do. Cons Practice questions tend to be unrealistic- the book doesn't phrase questions the way the SAT would and doesn't always test concepts correctly. In addition, the questions don’t trick you in the same ways the real test does. Answers and other materials have a lot of errors,indicatingpoor quality control. You'll probably notice many of these mistakes yourself, but if you don't catch them you'll learn the wrong facts and strategies. The strategies are not super helpful once you move past a 600 score in a section. To improve beyond this point, you'll need tomaster specific content and develop customized strategies based on your weaknesses. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points?We've written a guide about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now: The #1 SAT Prep Book to AVOID Buying Unlike every other section in this guide, I'm making one specific recommendation againstbuying an SAT book. This is particularly unusual because, prior to 2015, this was the #1 SAT prep book to get! So what book is it? None other than The Official SAT Study Guide, 2020 Edition. It feels really weird to recommend not buying this book because, for years and years, this wasthe book to use to study for the SAT. This guide used to contain 10 full-length practice tests you could only get by buying the book. Here's the problem today, though:everything in this book is available for free online. You just go to the College Board website and download PDFs for every section of the book. (The practice tests contained in it are my #1 recommendation at the beginning of this article.) So why release this guide for free? This is all part of the College Board's move to make the SAT more accessibleto test takers and to reduce educational inequality. Such an endeavor is admirable, and I support them- but it also means thatThe Official SAT Study Guide is now a waste of money.What's more, the material outside the practice tests is superficial and overall unhelpful (we've written far better guides on the Reading, Math, and Writingsections, all of which are available on our blog for free). Pros The guide has eight official SAT practice tests pre-printed for you, so you don't need to print them out yourself. It can be ripped apart for fire kindling or birdcage lining. Cons Everything inthis guide isavailable for free through the College Board website (which actually has two additional practice tests not in this book). The book doesn’t provide any instructional material, so don't expect to actually learn skills and content here. If you’re bad at algebra, you can’t rely on this book alone. Most test takers buy it for the tests, and the College Board knows this. Taking practice tests without a system for learning isn’t going to improve your score, and the book doesn’t provide any guidance on how to do this. Other Free Resources to Help You Plan Your SAT Prep More important than buying SAT books is knowing how to use them effectively. The more prep books you have, the more important it is to build a unified study system. We've written thorough guides to help guide you through your SAT studies. Before you buy any books, though,take a realistic SAT practice test to assess what areas you're weak in. Check outour guide on how to set up a diagnostic practice testif you aren't sure where to start. After taking this first practice test, you'll need to go over your results in detail to pinpoint your weaknesses; this will help you determine where you should spend your prep time and money. For instance, if you did fine on the Reading and Writing sections but bombed Math, you'll want to focus your prep on Math and potentially invest in the SAT Math books recommended above. It's also important to set a target SAT scoreso you know what your end goal is for your SAT prep. Students aiming for around 1200 (600 on Math and600 on Evidence-Based Reading and Writing) should use different strategies and prep books than students shooting for 1600. If you're aiming for a top score, check out my comprehensive guide detailing how I got a perfect SAT score. Finally, you'll need to build a study plan that works well with your schedule and lets you figure out the best time to take the SAT. We offer a free guide explaining thefive essential components of an SAT study program guaranteed to improve your score by 160+ points. Use these free resources to guide yourself through the maze that is SAT prep. (FutUndBeidl/Flickr) Is Using SAT Prep Books the Best Option for You? There are a lot of prep methods available, and book studying is just one of them. To explore all our options, let's quickly examine whether using SAT prep books is right for you. Students who choose to study for the SAT with books do so for different reasons. Some use books because they're cheaper than other options like prep programs and tutors. That said, the best SAT books can get expensive:if you buy all top books, you'll be spending around $200.This is close to the cost of our online SAT prep program, which goes beyond books by guiding your studies step by step and motivating you to put in study time. Other students use SAT prep books because they're self-motivated and like teaching themselves. If this isn't you, books can be a disappointing way for you to spend your time prepping. Without a solid study strategy, you can put in dozens of hours yet make zero improvement since you're not understanding your weaknesses and how to fix them. By far one of the most important ways to improve your SAT score is to study and learn from your mistakes.If you can't do this reliably, you'll need extra help to get you started.We've written a free guide comparing various methods of SAT prep. Download this to see which methods are best for you. Recap: The Best SAT Book in Every Category Here's our shortlist of the best SAT prep books for 2019, complete with links: Best Critical SAT Books Official SAT Practice Tests SAT Prep Black Book (Second Edition) Best SAT Subject-Specific Books The Critical Reader: The Complete Guide to SAT Reading, Third Edition Steve Warner's SAT Math books The Critical Reader: The Ultimate Guide to SAT Grammar, Fourth Editionand its companion Grammar Workbook Best SAT Books for Top Scorers Barron's SAT prep books Best SAT Book for Low Scorers and Low Motivation Kaplan's SAT Prep Plus 2019 We've given you an excellent array of SAT books to choose from. Now, it's time to start looking for the ones you think will help you the most and get studying! Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or more? We've put our best advice into a single guide. These are the 5 strategies you MUST be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download this free SAT guide now: What's Next? Understanding your SAT target score is critical for success. Read our step-by-step guide to help you figure out what exact SAT score you need to aim foron test day. Want to score a super high SAT score?Get all the tips and expert advice you need in my guide to getting a perfect SAT score. Looking for additional SAT prep help?Check out our picks for the top SAT prep websites and the top SAT apps you should be using in your studies. Check out our industry-leading online SAT program. We've designed it to cover all the advantages of books and tutors at an affordable price. Featuring in-depth strategy lessons and thousands of practice questions, we have the content from the leading books. We include the critical Official SAT Study Guide above. Beyond that, the program acts like your personal tutor. It guides you step-by-step through what you should be working on at every moment to best improve your score. It customizes to your strengths and weaknesses, then gives you focused practice so you learn the patterns on the SAT. Furthermore, it motivates you to study so that you put in enough time. There's a 160 point guarantee- if you don't improve your score by 160 points, you get all your money back.