1: A great classic-- but will a 17-year-old enjoy it?
I am an SAT tutor and believe that this is one of the most valuable books of its type a student preparing for the test can read. Unfortunately, in my experience, students also find this one of the least enjoyable books. Why is it valuable?
There are 2 major areas that a student must master to improve scores on the SAT Critical Reading section: (1) Vocabulary. (2) Understanding of complex sentence structures. This book provides a student with both. (1) SAT words are bolded, their definitions conveniently located on the facing page. (2) Sentence structure is complex and the book is written in "older" English which is partly a result of the era it was written in. The college board knows this and even suggests that students read books written before 1900. The complex sentences and old language may be reasons students do not put The Scarlet Letter on their Top 10 Favorite Books List, but it does not take away from the book's value-- if you can get your child to read it.
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