The Perfect Score Project — One Mom's Quest to Ace the SAT - So Your Kids Can Too

For the six million parents of teens annually navigating the bewildering world of SAT prep (a $4.5 billion industry), The Perfect Score Project is a straight-from-the-trenches road map with everything you need to know, written as a funny, compelling narrative by a mom on a quest for SAT mastery.

These days high SAT scores are seen as the ticket to a good college--and, ultimately, a successful life--and yet, for parents, the torment of cajoling one's kid into studying is made worse by the tangle of advice about how to study, whether any of the prep programs have value, and if so, which. Debbie Stier made it her mission to cut through that tangle and ace the SAT--partly in an attempt to bond with her test-taking son and partly as a midlife do over (she'd scored so low in high school her college choices were narrowed to a few). As part of her quest, Debbie took the SAT seven times and sampled test-prep methods like a restaurant critic. Here she imparts her hard-won knowledge, delivering the inside skinny on Kaplan and Kumon, Cogmed brain-training exercises, what it's like to hand over your test-taking brain to a $1000 hour tutor, and lots more. Part SAT-prep consumer guide, part amusing intellectual-quest narrative reminiscent of A. J. Jacobs's The Know-It-All, this one-of-a-kind book informs and entertains.

Debbie Stier is a single mother of two teenagers. Her book publishing career has spanned two decades, most of it spent in PR where she was responsible for publicizing dozens of iconic books ranging from The Notebook to Marley and Me. Frequently covered by the media, including MediaBistro, New York Observor and New York Magazine, Debbie regularly speaks on topic pertaining to social media and technology as well as, most recently, standardized testing. She lives with her son and daughter in New York City, but you can find her at theperfectscoreproject.com.