Advice Needed from Chem High Scorers

<p>Hey guys. Congrats on the great scores! Now that you have all gotten your 750s, 760s, 770s...., I'm hoping you'll be able to give some of us advice as to what book is best.</p>

<p>The one I'm curious about is chemistry. I plan to study it over the summer. I took honors chem in 10th grade [currently a rising senior] and did really well in it, but I didn't have time to take it in June of that year due to family circumstances. Then once Junior year arrived, I was too busy with APs and SAT I prep to try. So now I need one more SAT 2 test to make my total three (Math2 and U.S are the other ones i took).</p>

<p>What books do you high scorers suggest? What will get me that 750+ if I work hard and study in depth? </p>

<p>Thanks in advance!</p>

<p>I scored an 800 with Princeton Review’s chem book. I took Honors chem in 10th grade but I took the SAT II in October of junior year. PR was a great refresher, I’d recommend it. Do all the practice questions you can.</p>

<p>I scored 800 on the June test. Seconding PR; it has everything you need (and a little bit more) to get an 800. Barron’s is overkill; you can get it if you want to be super-overprepared, since 25-30% of the stuff they cover wasn’t on my test (and, I’m sure, most other tests).</p>

<p>Yeah, I’ve heard Barron’s is complete overkill and that the practice tests in the book are much more difficult than the real thing. PR was pretty accurate difficulty-wise.</p>

<p>I liked Barrons a lot, but I only got a 770. I’m sure it was silly mistakes on my part though. Barron’s prepared me well. I’m sure PR is also very good.</p>

<p>I got an 800 in May. I used the McGraw-Hill Book, Sparknotes, and the PR AP Chem book. I also had a great teacher. I think it’s totally doable, but if you are reading the review sections of the book and feel there are large gaps, it will be hard to achieve the score you want. My advice is to read and then take practice tests (1 per week or so) for the weeks preceding the exam. It isn’t very intensive, but it is very comprehensive, and you need to know at least a little about every topic in order to really do well. </p>

<p>Another tip is to not overthink things. In my practice tests I got a number of questions wrong because I made connections about how things could be related (escpecially on ones where there are three statements and you have choose the correct ones). Only think of things at the basic chemical level. This is more problematic if you’ve taken AP, but it’s something to be mindful of nonetheless.</p>

<p>I hope this helps and good luck!</p>

<p>I scored a 780 just using barrons for about two weeks, make sure you practice, just dont memorize info</p>

<p>I used Barron’s for one day and got a 780… I think I could have done better if I’d gotten to do the practice tests. On the real thing I ran out of time and omitted a bunch. </p>

<p>Barron’s definitely covers everything you need to know, and if you have time, there’s no harm in using it. The June test happened to make Barron’s seem like overkill, but we don’t really know what past tests were like; there was no electro on this test, for example, but usually there are a few questions on it.</p>

<p>Wow, above posters beat my 750. For me, all I did was review from a college chemistry textbook on a Saturday, which was a week before the SAT II examination.</p>

<p>I took it cold other than a few sparknotes tests (got an 800). I’d take them if I were you; the score will be useless (the sparknotes curve must be nasty, since I don’t think I ever got above a 740), but the questions are pretty good quality.</p>

<p>So it looks like PR and Sparknotes test. Thanks guys! I might skim through Barron’s at the library as well.</p>

<p>I took AP Chem this year and it really helped, but there wasn’t much on that test that was AP Chem material. If you set aside the time to study you should be good. Maybe take a look at VSPER Theory, I can’t remember if that was part of the test or not…</p>

<p>I would go w/barrons even if it does contain excess info. Better to be overprepared than under.</p>

<p>I didn’t really like PR. I preferred Kaplan and Barrons immensely.</p>

<p>Yeah. I -only- used SparkNotes (in which, by the way, I never broke 720) and I got an 800 on the actual test. So… I guess SN worked for me… It has the advantage of being free and easily accessible, as well.</p>