Chemistry and Physics: PR or Barron's?

Test Preparation SAT Subject Test Preparation
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<p>Hi everyone! It's been a long time since my last thread :)</p>

<p>Anyway, I'm planning to take Chemistry SATII and/or Physics SAT II. For both subjects, I had a basic intro course (non-AP). I had Chemistry and Physics pre-AP this year, and did pretty well on them (100 and 99 average respectively). I slightly concerned that for the SAT II, I will have to compete with people having taken the AP, so I want the best of the best review books out there!!</p>

<p>What I want is a book that covers every tiny little bit of fact that could be asked on the test. I'm pretty strong with the math/calculations/stoic part for both subjects, but I don't know all the theory/memorization kind of stuff because I didn't take the AP course. My ideal review book would have a review section that covers a lot of material, without spending too much space on the basics (I'm pretty strong on the concepts, it's the factual information that I lack). After all, I think SATII is not about depth, but breadth of coverage. My ultimate plan is to make 800 on both CHem/Physics. I know it may be unrealistic, but I feel confident about both subjects, since I won several competitions where I had to compete with kids that took AP for both subjects. So I want to overkill those test.</p>

<p>Enough background: what do you think is best for me, PR or Barrons for Physics/Chemistry Sat subject tests?</p>

<p>Thanks for reading. Any advices/tips are more than welcome! :)</p>

<ul>
<li>Watson&Crick</li>
</ul>

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<p>Oh, and if anyone knows of better review books, feel free to mention them. I just looked up on Amazon, and it seems that PR does a good job on physics, but sucks for chemistry, and that McGraw Hill and Kaplan (the big surprise to me) was good for chemistry.</p>

<p>I am looking for harder but realistic practice tests. I'm aiming for 800, after all. That kind of discourages me from buying Kaplan, because I remember their new SAT stuff was WAY too easy.</p>

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<p>PR was the most accurate book in terms of Chem. I also used it to great effect for physics (800 on each test)</p>

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<p>Lolcats4, did you take AP Chem before taking SAT chem? It's because SAT chem seems to emphasize a lot on knowing all the rules/theory (assumption for KMT, solubility rules...) which I didn't have to memorize in Chem pre-AP. Would PR teach me enough of all those factual informations for an 800?</p>

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<p>I haven't taken AP Chem; however, I have taken a year of college level chemistry classes. </p>

<p>For what I didn't learn in class, I found it covered very well in PR. PR also was a great refresher on everything, so I would think it's pretty thorough. Kaplan had a lot of useless info in it, and it made things a little too hard (in my opinion).</p>