<p>If one resides in southern California and attends a subpar school where no one else takes the USNCO, how difficult is it to A) <em>just</em> make it past the local competition (but not make, for example, Top 150), and how difficult is it to B) make it past locals AND qualify as Top 150?</p>
<p>I might be able to answer your question, have you already taken AP/IB Chem?</p>
<p>i don’t know how hard it is in california, but in florida it was dirt easy,</p>
<p>you probably want to study the book yourself though, if your teacher doesn’t cover everything,
also you definitely want to be studying it at the AP level</p>
<p>@AstroBlue
I took the first two out of three quarters of General Chemistry (which is basically AP Chemistry) at a local university. I will be finishing up the third and last quarter online this fall quarter through the E-Campus online school of another college. The fall quarter ends in December, so I will essentially have the whole month of December, January, and February to prep in the period in my school schedule that is freed up.</p>
<p>So I don’t really know the names of the round, so I’ll just call them the first and the second
So, I think if you just wanted to make the second round, buying an AP review book and just reviewing past tests would be sufficient. I think the first exam is administered in March, so you could start reviewing in maybe december to make sure you have a good shot at it?
One of my friends made high honors and he pretty much just reviewed past exams.
If you want to make honors, I suggest trying to go through an advanced chem book Browns/Atkins/Zumdhal, maybe an hour or two every night starting in maybe november and also review past tests.</p>