Guide to an 800: Chemistry

<p>Hello,</p>

<p>As I look at the posts on college confidential I see not many good posts about what steps need to be taken to get a 800. I have read numerous posts and threads and have come up with a little guid that I think can be extremely helpful for the 800 hopefuls. Now I must say that I havent officially gotten an 800 but I have a strong feeling I did on the May Sat Subject Test for Chemistry, so I think my advice I provide should be valid. So lets begin</p>

<p>When should I start ?</p>

<p>It all depends on the person. For me, being in AP Chemistry, I thought I was in a good place for the Subject Test, so I started 2 weeks before the test. One week reviewing, one week for tests. If your in AP Chem you should go by that method. If your in honors Chem, I would suggest adding one more week to review, so 3 weeks, anything more would just be a waste and would lessen your desire to actually study.</p>

<p>What book?</p>

<p>This is really a preference thing, but I have had contact with all the books and I must say, Barrons is the best. Barrons review is just amazing. It goes way in depth, and even if it goes overboard, it still prepped me well for the AP Test. I had a great knowledge of the material after spending a week reading the review. Now to their tests, let me say they are HARD. I got a 740 740 740 and 770. I went over the questions I missed, and learned the topics even if they seemed too hard to actually appear on the test. I love practice, so I decided to buy Princeton Review, and let me say there is no review in it, however, it has the most accurate tests but it is a bit harder than the real thing. So i got a 760 790 on the first two tests, and did not take the last one because it was crazy, so I just studied instead. I also used Kaplan, and its useless, nothing like the real thing and it was a waste of time. Ok for the released tests, ill say that I should have started earlier using these but I didn't. THere a great tool and I would suggest using them. I have a link to pdf versions of couple tests by cb, and ill give the link in the resources. I have no clue how good sparknotes is, but from what I see with their other subjects, it probably is going to be harder and good prep. </p>

<p>What area should i focus on?</p>

<p>Like I said earlier, I spent a week just reviewing the material, no practice tests. I reccomend that you spend at least this much time otherwise your not going to do well. See the thing is about the Subject Test for Chem is that its all conceptual. For me, im strong at math so I loved the stuff like stoich which is hardly on the test. So to really hammer down those conceptual topics and a little bit more, you should read Barrons. However, im not saying practice is not important, it is, in fact you need to take at least 10 tests in my opinion to really understand the format and learn from your mistakes. After taking a test, look at your score, see how far you are from your target and see how you need to improve. Then look at your test, see what mistakes you made and try doing the problem again. If you still can't do it, then go to the back read the explanation and don't stop till you really UNDERSTAND the question. One important note to make is that you cannot miss a day to take a test, tests are key and they really help you improve so you really need to stick by your schedule. Lastly I think its important to note that you cannot get cocky. If you get higher than your goal on a practice test, that only means you have potential to do better not a ticket to take it chill. Keep the hard work up and I guarantee success.</p>

<p>This is my first real "advice" thread, comment if you still have questions and hope I was able to help you guys out. </p>

<p>Resources:</p>

<p>Sparknotes Tests </p>

<p>SparkNotes:</a> SAT Chemistry: Test Center</p>

<p>Released Tests</p>

<p><a href="https://sites.google.com/a/hba.net/mhu/released-tests%5B/url%5D"&gt;https://sites.google.com/a/hba.net/mhu/released-tests&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Btw, if there is lot of interest for my “guides”. I will be glad to make one for Math Level 2, Physics, Sat 1, and maybe Us History.</p>

<p>S***. I bought Kaplan for both chem and bio. Thanks for the advice, though</p>

<p>I was in honors chem, and I didn’t need 3 weeks of prep. I think 1 week would be sufficient. of course, that also depends on the individual class. and the SAT chemistry test on sparknotes is A LOT harder than the real thing. it’s still good prep, but not a good predictor (my highest SN score was in the 500s and I got in the 700s for the real thing).</p>

<p>also, I would love a math 2 guide :)</p>

<p>I’m taking the SAT Physics and Math 2 in june and I’m nervous. Do you have any advice on how to prepare for those in 2-3 weeks?</p>

<p>Wow, thank you AL LOT for those resources, they are priceless to me! I am taking Chemistry in June and had a major problem with acquiring the practice tests besides those 3 from Sparknotes. I ordered a Princeton Review from Amazon, but it is an international shipment and I didn’t receive it yet.
Your advice is very good in my opinion, and I agree completely.
I second MadDestiny: it would be really awesome if you found the time to write a similar guide for Maths 2.</p>

<p>Thank you so much, and I would appreciate a similar US History guide :).</p>

<p>Barrons it is. Initially I wondered if my AP PR Chem prep book would be enough but there’s like nothing in it… Odd. Really should focus on subject test level questions anyway now.</p>

<p>One question: of the released tests link, the top two are the only ones to really look at, correct? Olympiad is like AP level, right?</p>

<p>@ stressedouttt it really depends on the person
@MadDestiny I will for sure make one
@blankk There are 4 tests in there, one of them is the blue book test.</p>

<p>Hmm I think there’s only three but if the blue book one is up there that’s fantastic. (I’ll assume it’s the one at the bottom, because releasing one from the 1990’s for the book would be weird). Thanks!!!</p>

<p>Hey guys ill try looking for released math level 2, but i cant promise anythin</p>

<p>Does anybody still have questions or concerns?</p>

<p>What would you say that a 5 on the AP exam would generally translate to a 730+?</p>

<p>One question for you . . . for those test takers who are already the proud owners of the Kaplan’s review book, any suggestions? Use the review section, but skip the tests, perhaps? Or just skip the whole thing and use the SparkNotes online review book instead?</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

<p>@karatekid666, It is harder to get an 800 on the subject test than a 5 on the AP Test. But from the tests I have taken, I would say if you can get around 75% on the AP Chem mc then should get a 750+possibly 780+. </p>

<p>@dodgeersmom, Kaplan gets a lot of slack, and Im not sure if that is warranted. However I took 2 tests from kaplan and got a 740 and 770 and I felt it was decently accurate and decently realistic. I mean practice is important and I wouldn’t discourage from using it but its not as good as pr or barrons since they both either are realistic or hard both of which are helpful.</p>

<p>So I just took the Kaplan diagnostic test and it said that my predicted score is 750… Is this at all significant, given that Kaplan is supposedly unreliable?</p>

<p>Hello!</p>

<p>I absoutely love your guide! Here is my question…I heard that Barron’s is the best for SAT Chemistry but I recently owned SAT Chemistry study guide from Korea (I am Korean). The developer of that study guide is tutor at academic institution in korea who have 80% of his students getting 790~800 in SAT Chem. He was also developer of SAT Chemistry Test when he was in US. Is it worthwhile to look at that book or just use Barron’s?</p>

<p>Also is it true that PR SAT Chem is only solely used for practice tests but its content is too shallow?</p>

<p>I think I know the answer to what I’m gonna ask, but just making sure: It is harder to get an 800 on Barrons Diagnostic and practice tests than the real thing, right?</p>

<p>@blankk. Yes it is</p>

<p>I guess so. I studied Kaplan & Princeton Review Physics last time & began to think Subject tests are too easy. You know what I got 700 in my physics where I got 780 In both Math I & II. I think Barron’s is the best.</p>

<p>Sjsharks,</p>

<p>Did you get an 800?! :D</p>