<p>A few questions for people who are familiar with the test topics and what kind of questions are asked about them.</p>
<p>How much knowledge of Conic Sections is required? Is knowing stuff like directrixs and latus rectums required? I've never heard of those terms before and Barron's mentions them.</p>
<p>What about Permutations and Combinations? I only know the basics. Do tricky questions on this pop up or are they fairly simple?</p>
<p>Trigonometry. Exactly what kind of stuff do you need to be familiar with? I know trig identities and the graphs etc.</p>
<p>Polar Co-ordinates: Again, I know the basics but some of the things mentioned in the Barron's book seem a bit too advanced.</p>
<p>For those who own the Barron's Book: How much do I need to know about the material covered in Chapter 5? A lot of the stuff mentioned in that chapter seems a bit superfluous to me, like advanced vectors, or are they really required?</p>
<p>Also, I just did a Barron's practice test after reviewing some of the material and got 32/50 correct and I don't know how to react. I've heard that the book is a lot more difficult than the actual test. It would be cool if some of you have took the test would post what they were getting on the Barron's Practice Tests and what they got on the real thing.</p>
<p>Basically, how realistic is Barron's while covering material and with Practice Tests. I need an 800 in this test and freaking out a bit :P</p>
<p>I haven't even stared revising Physics yet...</p>
<p>Edit: Another question. I feel that Barron's is a bit too superfluous for revising material/doing tests in the last few days. Should I buy another book? Which one?</p>
<p>First of all this should make you feel better:
Barrons test raw score: 30-34
Sparknotes free online tests are a better indicator of how much you really know. I got 780+ in all the ones I took.
Real test: 800 </p>
<p>I’m no expert on the Math II, but this is what I remember from the test:</p>
<p>Conic Sections: You should know the formulas of the 4 - Circle, Hyperbola, Parabola and Ellipse. I don’t think you need more details than that.
Permutations and Combinations: Not extremely important. You may need these for a few probability questions as well.
Trigonometry: Very important. Pythagorean identities are essential. Its probably best to know some of the others as well. Know what each function looks like when graphed.
Polar coordinates: You should know the basics, including how to convert to rectangular coordinates. I don’t think advanced knowledge is required
Chapter 5: I no longer have my Barrons book. But I think Chapter 5 was about various misc. topics - Probability, Stats, Vectors etc. Probability and Stats are important. I think that most of the rest of the stuff may or may not appear on the test. If a question on vectors comes, it will probably be just basic addition or similar.</p>
<p>No idea what book would be better for revision in Math II. For Physics, I would recommend PR.</p>
<p>One recommendation with the Barron’s book is to skim it in a semi-concentrated fashion, just so are exposed to a variety of unorthodox test areas. I would not be worried about Chapter 5; pretty much you’ll get maybe 1 or 2 questions on areas in that chapter, and they’ll all be at a superficial level, so if you’ve seen similar stuff before, they should be fine.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot both of you, thats a huge load off. Why does Barron’s have to make their books so more difficult? I think I’ll have more questions as I practice more. I’ll do the Sparknotes tests from now on.</p>
<p>And yeah, I’m doing Physics from PR. I pretty much learned all the material from that book. If any of you know, how important is the topic “Electromagnetic Induction”? I skipped that one. Should I be okay?</p>
<p>The absolute essential topics are in the Sparknotes guide, look through that. Also, I suggest you know trig like the back of your hand: barron’s has some really neat info (well, I found it neat because we’d never really done graphs of trig functions beyond the basics in school) for finding out how a graph alters if the variables in a trig function alters. </p>
<p>I feel a good rule of thumb is to be thorough with most of the Barron’s basics when it comes to functions, trigo and graphs relating to them. Mostly everything else you just need to be solid with the basics and you’ll be good.</p>
<p>My raw barron’s score was about the same as yours, and I got an 800 on the real thing. Infact, I did only 1 sparknotes test and I got a 770 on that. So don’t sweat it.</p>