<p>Do most people who take the chem subj test have more than one year of chemistry? How important is an extra year? Do schools consider the school's curriculum and what classes a student has taken when they look at subject test scores?
(D's school doesn't have any AP science classes. It does have honors sections of the introductory classes.)</p>
<p>MY DS took it with one year of Chem. He had As all through Chem, got an A+ on the midterm, and an A+ on the final, but had a hard time with the SATII in Chemistry. He complained that there were whole sections of material on the SATII that he simply had not learned in Honors Chemistry. Mind you, he loved Chemistry, and it may have been his school, or his teachers. He did say that all the kids from his school who took SATII in Chemistry took it after having taken APCHEM. Just my cautionary tale...</p>
<p>My D also took the SATII Chem after one year of Honors Chemistry. This was a NYS Regents course and I have no idea how this translates to Chem courses taught in other states. Since that is the only chemistry course offered in her HS that's what she had to go with. With about a week's worth of review with Barrons she was able to score in the mid-700s so I guess that was adequate (she's not looking at any HYPS).</p>
<p>Our school has 3 Chemistry classes; Chem I, Chem II, and AP Chem. In Chem I you learn extremely basic stoichiometry, in Chem II there is a lot of lab stuff plus Aqueous Solutions and Acid/Base, and AP covers everything....the SAT II covers many topics, so if your school has a similar curriculum then it would be difficult to self study all the topics tested, but if you have the will power its possible.</p>
<p>I have AP Chem and I took the Chem SATII in October..i got a 700 by self studying and getting help with topics we hadnt touched on yet....</p>
<p>Hope that helps!</p>
<p>honors chem just doesn't cover enough material that's on the SAT II. I took AP Chemistry as a junior last year, and got a five on it. i took the SAT II Chem a few days before AP chem and got a 760 on that--and felt REALLY stressed during the test because I didn't know the answers to a lot of the questions.</p>
<p>long story short, your d needs to take AP chem. if the school doesn't offer it, buy a barron's sat ii chem book (they tend to be more comprehensive and make the real test seem like a breeze) and go through every section and study it for a few months. then she'll get a nice score good for the ivies.</p>
<p>My xon has had two years of hs chem and is in AP through an online service now. Nothing in AP has been new to him. He took the SAT II in Nov. and thought it was pretty easy. Don't think you need AP, but two years of some kind would help unless you self prep a lot.</p>
<p>The chemistry SAT II was pretty. I took the AP exam, and got a 5(albeit, barely), but took the SAT II, and got a 710. I'll admit I didn't study for the SAT II Chem, but still, if you've only taken honors or a regular course, then you will have some difficulty scoring near mid 700's.</p>
<p>A friend of mine took only honors chemistry 1/2 and used kaplan's prep book to review. She scored a 760.</p>
<p>i think its more geared for people who've taken ap chemistry ... i took it after a year of honors chemistry in 10th gradeand i literally didnt know half the stuff on the test, so im retaking it (i got a 690)</p>
<p>I took Honors Chemistry, got B's all throughout it, failed the Midterm, hated the class, but then went off to the SAT II and got a 780 on it.</p>
<p>You don't need AP Chemistry I believe, just review the stuff and you'll get it. Don't go for percision - the test is geared towards quickness and estimation, not percision as required in things like AP Chemistry.</p>
<p>Idk if It was just that I was good at that sort of thing or if my honors chemistry class was just ultra-hard. I think it was partly both.</p>
<p>think for this test you should take AP Chem for like background but make sure to study stuff in review manuals too. I took the june year after i took ap chem and thought that i could just go into subject test cold but i kind of regret that now. There were some things that i didnt really feel that i knew about(hated the true false section also).</p>
<p>good rule of thumb, take ap science BEFORE subject test. honors ususally never covers even half the subject test. honostly. which i found out the hard way.. haha</p>
<p>I found that the chem test didn't cover most of the AP concepts. I spent a lot of time reviewing AP material and found that most weren't even on the test. So I think it's very manageable with just one year of chem. Make sure you get a good review book and understand the concepts. I used Barrons but it focused alot on AP, so I ended up studying so much extra stuff.</p>
<p>My friend got an 800, and he told me that the day before the test, some kid (also taking Chem) was asking their chem teacher many questions based on AP. And he thought "crap... that's going to be on it?" But it turns out that it wasn't, and he got a perfect score :)</p>
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<p>It's hard to say what most people do, but the test is designed to be taken after one year of a college-prep high school chemistry course. Of course, around here, taking the SAT without two-three years of the subject and studying 5 books will lead to certain failure -- which is defined around here as below a 790. :-)</p>
<p> [quote=mom58] Do schools consider the school's curriculum and what classes a student has taken when they look at subject test scores?
</p>
<p>Doubt that any schools do that. Especially since the student selects which Subject Tests to take.</p>
<p>^ its probally so neglible it wont affect any decision, but it looks slightly more impressive to have self-studied Latin and got a 800 when your school offers basically no language courses, but its an extremely small factor.</p>
<p>It isn't absolutely necessary to take AP Chemistry to do well on the SAT Chemistry subject test. I took regular chemistry in my high school, took the test 6 months after I finished regular chem, did not take AP Chemistry and I managed to get a 740 on it. I believe that regular chemistry should be sufficient enough + some spare studying to do well on it.</p>
<p>i'll be taking both AP Chem (expecting a five because 95% of students from my school last year got fives) and SAT II Chem in mid-2008. </p>
<p>just wondering if anyone knows what topics are common to both ap & sat2?</p>
<p>My school has two levels of Chem: Mandatory NYS Regents level in 10th grade, and AP available 11th and 12th grade. I'm planning to take the SAT II at the end of this year, once I've finished that first year. I've heard from plenty of students who have done the same thing that you just need to pick up some prep book and study just the things you haven't learned in class.</p>
<p>So, to answer your question: Yes, but you should probably be willing to work on learning a few concepts you didn't learn in class from a book.</p>