Looking for suitable American textbooks for review

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Hi.
I am planning to take SAT Subject Test some time next year. The three subjects I am going to choose are World History, U.S. History and Literature.
Now I have some considerable amount of skills in all three subjects. But I think somehow a comprehensive review is much needed.
There are numerous "cracking SAT" or likes but there are all not what I want. You know what I mean, these materials only present you questions, not a review.
So now I look to American high school textbooks. And I would like to ask your ideas on which books are the most suitable. And with that I maybe able to buy some books either from a secondhand foreign book shop in our city or from Abebooks.

BTW, are mathematics and literature tests are need for a student who wants to pursue in Humanities (especially in philosophy)?

Any help is greatly appeciated! Smile

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Good luck!
Good luck with your studies, J-B.

Look for some "101 Intro" books. They will be listed in various college freshman curricula: "Introduction to World History, 101," etc. As far as math and literature subject tests, they probably depend on the colleges' requirements. Check with several of the schools where you might hope to apply.

Again, good luck! [/color]

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Introduction textbook, good idea!
I am having a check.

btw, I adore your avatar Smile

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oops

Cannot find anything inabebooks under " introduction to world history 101 ". In Amazon There are no books with the title "introduction to world history 101"...
What's wrong? With the book or with me?

On Literature I have found this
On U.S. History I find two books of a same series (connected at "1877")
Here
Are they O.K.?

btw, what does "101" really stand for?

btw again in one of the comments of these books I find: Read this book and you'll easily be able to pass any college history test.Its only about 200 pages long!!! Its the Cliff's Notes of history!!!!
:wink:

Thank you!

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A lot of introductory courses in universities have the number 101 as the course number, for example, Zoology 101. So, you have Psychology 101, Economics 101, and so on.

There will also be a course title along with the number, a title such as Introductory Zoology. A course like that will have an assigned text book, and these will vary from university to university. Many of the intro textbooks will have obvious titles, such as "Introductory Zoology", but in some cases the title might not be so obvious.

I would google and look at textbook companies. McGraw Hill comes to mind, but many universities have their own publishing companies.
An a2k poster like Gargamel, who just got his masters in literature (or writing, I'm not sure exactly), would probably be able to suggest exact text books for that.

I'll google a bit myself and see if I can find anything useful.

On the SAT, unless things have changed recently, most US colleges and universities want to see all sections of the SAT taken.

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ossobuco wrote:

On the SAT, unless things have changed recently, most US colleges and universities want to see all sections of the SAT taken.

You mean all subjects of SAT II??

And thanks for the help Smile

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I've found This set might be very useful. Users' comments are good, but they are very thin.

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Oh, J-B, I don't know about that. I haven't kept up with the SAT contents recently.

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No problem :wink:

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Literature still unsettled.

Most of the materials I find are too deep in the subject.

btw, how can I contact with that literature-master gentleman? I mean is he frequent on A2K?

Thanks

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Yes, he is. You could pm him...
I don't know if you've used pms before. I think you probably have pm privileges. Just click on "you have no new PMs" at the top of the page, type Gargamel in the name window, add a subject, and type away.. perhaps give him a link to this thread.

If you aren't able to send a PM, I can do it for you.

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101 Explanation

First, let me thank you, J-B, for your compliments re my avatar. Perhaps you have recognized that it's a picture of the famous 20th century actor Charlie Chaplin. His films are still popular today! Then, there's Charlie dancing:

Re: College 101 courses. 100 denotes all first year (Freshman) courses. It's a general category - not the title of the books. For example, when looking for what book is needed for "Sociology 101 - Introduction to Sociology" you might find "Sociology" by Ian Robertson (that's a real book - the one I used when I taught "Sociology 101 - Introduction to Sociology" at the University).

Second year (Sophomore) courses are listed as 200 courses. The 300 series for third (Junior) year courses; 400 for fourth (Senior) year. The "01" will usually denote Intro courses. If you have Sociology 131 it might be "The Sociology of Deviance - 131" and the book, "Criminology" by Gresham M. Sykes. You need first the particular college's curricula. Next, you need the particular course's description - syllabus - with the required materials.

I looked at both of the books you listed above. Including "101" in the title describes the material. Yes, it is material that would be covered by introductory courses. However, it would not be used to teach the course. That is not what it is meant for nor how it is written. It is a general study guide to be used for the purpose similar to the one you have in mind. These books might be good choices. Have you checked in the library?

Have you looked into the series of books " _ _ _ for Dummies" or "The Complete Idiot's Guide to _ _ _ "? Fill in the blanks with the appropriate word or words. I have a couple of computer books: "OS/2 Warp for Dummies" and "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Creating a Web Page." There are literally hundreds of others put out by the same companies.

Again, Good wishes. Charli

[/color]

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Those Dummie books annoy me, but... at the same time.. they are useful as starting points. They might give you confidence since you'd be so annoyed.

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Library? I am not sure, in our school (which happens to be "Foreign Language School") library there are not that many foreign books. Mostly are obsolete. Few texts books, most of which are concerned with chemistry and biology or chemical biology or biological chemistry...

But I have spotted some "barron's 100-Ez" books (That I listed in the previous page) in Abebooks with low prices. I will soon have a try on World History and see if it suits me.

Dummies...idiots? I have seen them in Amazon but are they just too elementary?

Again, Thank you Smile

(btw, you may not know that Chaplin had great popularity in China, Charli!)

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Books for College Freshmen
BOOKS FOR COLLEGE FRESHMEN

J-B - Above is an A2K thread you might be interested in looking at.

I've been searching for a History Book that was highly recommended for College Freshman for their review of the subject. I thought perhaps it was on the forum above. If someone here on A2K doesn't come up with the title in a couple of days, I know someone I can ask - by email.

Where do you hope to attend school in the future? More later. Charli

P.S. Thank you about the Chaplin tidbit concerning his popularity in China. I had never heard that. I knew that he was British and ended up living for many years in Switzerland. Of course, there was his "sympathy"(?) for Germany during WWII. He did come back to the U.S. for a while eventually. (But then they said something similar about Charles Lindbergh, too - among others.) [/color]

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A "Repeat"
J-B - The following was posted on "the other thread" about books for college freshman.

[quote]The book for history review is:

"Don't Know Much About History: Everything You Need to Know About American History but Never Learned" (Paperback)
by Kenneth C. Davis

J-B -As you can see by the above entry, my email correspondent answered! I'll put this on the other thread also - just in case. Hope it helps. Keep us posted. Charli [/quote]

Good wishes! Charli[/color]

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Quote:

Davis is very opinionated in his writing of history and furthermore, I happen to be politically conservative and he is very liberal. However, I nontheless really liked the book. Opinons are OK if the author does not let them detract from the presentaion of the facts. I have read several good histories of the United States and I am satisfied that Davis presents the essentials and then some. I think that if a high school student were to use this as a review book before the final examination, he/she would get the essential information and do well on the exam. Obviously, this book is not as comprehensive as, say, Paul Johnson's "History of the American People," however, it does what it sets out to do. That is to provide a reasonably comprehensive history of the United States for people who are not well versed in the subject. The facts are presented in a well organized and easy to follow question and answer format. The opinions drove me crazy at times but, then again, perhaps they kept me interested. All in all, a good book.

Seems like a really good book, with essential facts and fun!
Thank you, Charli! Very Happy

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