Older Student Taking SAT Chem and Bio Needs Advice

Test Preparation SAT Subject Test Preparation
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<p>I took Chemistry an Biology almost 20 years ago and haven't touched a book about them since. I'm hoping to start pre-med next year and since I've been out of school for so long have been asked to take the SAT Chemistry and Biology tests to submit my scores as part of my application. They expect a minimum 650 on each. I am registered to test for both January 22. </p>

<p>I purchased Chemistry by Zumdahl and Biology by Campbell which are both AP books. The student advisor at the university I am applying to told me those books are too in depth and suggested I get one of the prep books to use to find out what I should know so I got Kaplan's. I do find the AP books explain everything much better but they really do go very deep and are long and drawn out. I only have about 10 weeks to study so I'm trying to come up with a new approach to narrow my study down to the essentials.</p>

<p>My question is, if I use SparkNotes as my base and refer to the Kaplan books if I feel I need more explanation and examples, AND use the AP books only if necessary to understand something more thoroughly, does that sound like a good approach to covering everything I need to know to score a 680-700?</p>

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<p>I don’t know about Kaplan nor Bio, but I am preparing for the SAT Chem using Princeton Review’s review book, Barron’s review book, and referring to Sparknotes. </p>

<p>You may want to check out this link…
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-subject-tests-preparation/358168-list-best-review-books.html?highlight=sat+subject+review+book[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-subject-tests-preparation/358168-list-best-review-books.html?highlight=sat+subject+review+book&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Go to the last few pages and look for the latest update of the list</p>

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<p>Thanks for the quick reply. :)</p>

<p>Any particular reason why you are referring to Sparknotes instead of using it as your base? Is Sparknotes deficient in some way?</p>

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<p>No problem! </p>

<p>Haha, actually I don’t like reading too much online, so reading out of PR and Barrons prep books which are “pages” is more convinient for me. I still have to take the chem sat so I may not be the best source. Hence, I referred you to that link!</p>

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<p>I found this on that link, it’s the most recent</p>

<p>LEGEND</p>

<p>A - Accurate practice tests.
B - Good for learning material you don’t know.
C - Easy to read and understand.
D - Not a lot of superfluous material.
E - Teacher recommendation.
F - Slightly harder than the real thing. (Write F+ if it’s a lot harder than the real thing)
G - Good practice questions (outside of the practice tests)
H - A lot of practice tests (more than 4)</p>

<p>Chemistry:</p>

<ul>
<li><p>Barron’s (B, E) Rec 2: (A, C) Rec 3: (B, F, G)
1: The practice tests are nothing like the real thing, but the book is still a good review of EVERYTHING in high school chem.
2: Some extra information, but not too much.
Recommender’s score: 800.
3: There was some unnecessary information, but it’s fairly well done. I did a few practice tests and skimmed the topics that were confusing or unfamiliar to me. For me, the T/T/CE section was the hardest, but this book had questions that prepared me for the test very well.
Recommender’s score: 790.
Recommender’s score: 770</p></li>
<li><p>Princeton Review (A, B, G) Rec 2: (B, C)
Recommender’s score: 770.
Recommender 2’s comment: Lacks some information, and is extremely brief and easy. However, it’s good to use to learn material you don’t know. The third practice test contains a lot of material that was not covered by the book, and is thus very difficult. This book isn’t enough for someone who wants to get an 800.
Recommender 2’s score: 760.</p></li>
</ul>

<p>Biology E:</p>

<ul>
<li><p>Princeton Review (A, B, C, D)
Two of my friends used this book and said it was great. Both got 800s.</p></li>
<li><p>Barron’s (C, D, E, F+)
The fact that it was so hard, scared me, but made the real test seem like a walk in the park.
Recommender’s score: 800</p></li>
</ul>

<p>I quote, “I studied this book for like a day and I got an 800. The Barron’s book is so hard, but it made the test so much easier. I wanna go take a real test to prove to myself that I know Bio.”
Recommender’s score: 800
note: the recommender actually spent around 10 days carrying around the Barron’s book and studying in various nooks and crannies. Not to mention the hours she must have spent studying at home.</p>

<p>Biology M:</p>

<ul>
<li>Princeton Review (A, C, D) Rec 2: (B, C, D, F, G) Rec 3: (A, B, C, D)
Two of my friends used this book and said it was great. Both got 800s.
note: all PR editions are identical from 2006-2010. (don’t worry I checked.)</li>
</ul>

<p>-Sparknotes (well organized. none of the other letters apply)
It was well organized by topic which was nice. Some errors included, but you’re on your own for that one. Would not recommend.
Recommender’s score: (730, 760)</p>

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<p>This is very helpful. Thanks so much! :)</p>

<p>Any other older students out there who started from zero with a prep book and did well?</p>

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<p>No problem :)</p>

<p>I’ll bump this up to the top for you</p>

<p>BUMP</p>

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<p>I got an 800 (perfect score) on the Chemistry SAT II. My advice for you is to do what I did. Read the Barrons Chemistry SAT II book for every chapter, except one of the chapters, which basically talks about the significance of a few elements, sulfur, nitrogen and phosphorus I believe. It went way to in depth on that, and the chapter was totally unnecessary. For the Oxidation Reduction sections in Barrons skip the part where you’re told how to balance equations by oxidation-reduction equations using 2 different methods. That’s really an AP topic (not oxidation-reduction, just the 2 methods explained). For the nuclear chemistry section, skip the chart on the types of materials to stop alpha particles, the distance alpha particles and gamma rays travel, etc…way too excessive. Barrons also lacks a little bit on this section because it doesn’t teach nuclear fission or nuclear fusion. You can just search online. You don’t need to know much. After reading Barrons, read the online Sparknotes “Descriptive Chemistry” section (it does a good job for descriptive chem; the Sparknotes lesson on descriptive chem is fairly concise, easy to understand, and covers the important aspects).</p>

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<p>Adding on to my last post…</p>

<p>For nuclear fission/fusion, also know what a fission/fusion reaction would look like. Don’t get too worked up over fission and fusion though…not a big deal. You should also know the very basics of a nuclear reactor (know the basics of how it works, and know just a few basic parts, particularly control rods…again, this topic is not so important and has a good chance of not even showing up). Also, regarding Barrons, I forgot to mention that you definitely should not memorize all the colors of elements and sulfides from the last section. Just know a few flame colors (Sodium, Barium, Strontium, Calcium, and Potassium would be good ones to know). Also know that copper forms blue ions (random fact you should know). Lastly for Barrons, the real SAT II is not nearly as crazy with knowing all the lab setups from the Barrons book as the Barrons practice tests are, so don’t fret too much over that. Personally I think Kaplan sucks for chem. If you need clarification on a concept from Barrons use Princeton Review, Sparknotes, or search online. One very good site that you can search on Google is called “Khan Academy.” There are some pretty decent chemistry videos there (I particularly found the hybridization videos in the Organic Chemistry section helpful, although hybridization will rarely, if ever, show up). As for taking tests, the Barrons book is the best in my opinion. Most people, including me, score lower on the Barrons practice tests than the real one. I scored in the 750 range about a week before the test on the Barrons test. Some people, from what I’ve heard, score significantly lower on Barrons than the real test. A good indicator would be a real College Board test. Don’t get too discouraged by your scores on those either though. I took the College Board tests from their book with tests for all SAT subject tests about a month or two before the real test and scored a 700 and 740. I made some stupid mistakes, and also, the old chemistry SAT II was a lot harder than the newer one (although a better curve did somewhat take care of that). On Kaplan I scored much, much worse. Princeton was decent at predicting. Overall, don’t worry too much about fake test scores. I scored an 800 on the real thing but didn’t score a single 800 on any of the fake tests. Worry if you’re getting like 500s on all the Princeton/College Board tests. By the way, the 3rd Princeton test is ridiculously hard (lot of random stuff you wouldn’t be expected to know). </p>

<p>Concluding statement: Barrons is by far the best chem SAT II review book. I took the chem SAT II two years after taking Honors Chem and not seeing it until I started prepping for the SAT II, so I was in <em>somewhat</em> of a similar situation because I had forgotten almost all of my chem. I attribute most of my perfect score to the Barrons book. Make sure you do the practice qs at the end of each section after reading thoroughly. Some people like defining terms at the end of each section. I didn’t do this, but if you want you can if you have time. </p>

<p>Anyway…I guess that’s all my advice. Good luck.</p>

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<p>Thanks so much for all the info Yamster! Barrons seems to rock Chem II so I’m leaning toward that now. </p>

<p>I guess I was hoping Sparknotes would be sufficient because I’m finding it so straightforward and easy to understand. But I’ve not yet seen anyone post that they used it as their main source for study. Maybe it’s too little info?</p>

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<p>Thanks so much Yamster!! This is really going to help me and many others!</p>

<p>I was wondering; however, how long you studied?</p>

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<p>I took the October test recently, a decade after high school. I had some chemistry classes in college but they were more organic and I had forgotten most of them. For some reason I had to take the SAT II Chem test, so I just crammed for three weeks using Barron’s, Princeton Review, and Sparknotes. I did average on practice tests, mostly between mid 600s to low 700s. I made mostly stupid mistakes as there weren’t any fundamental problems with understanding the material. I ended up with a 790 on the real thing. </p>

<p>My advice to you is first, run through the book material as fast as you can. Honestly, the stuff is basic, so you probably don’t need college textbooks for it. Just know the prep book material inside out. I think Barron’s a bit more detailed than you need to know, but all three complement each other well. Then, do all the practice tests as early as possible, and after that just review every question, so you know the format and common pitfalls, and reinforce your memory. You get around ten practice tests out of the three prep books and I think that’s plenty. So yeah, I pretty much started from zero after many years and did quite well by studying prep books for three weeks. Seriously, I think they should make people take the SAT in their twenties, because I feel like the test became easier just because I’m older.</p>

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<p>Thanks wampa. That is very reassuring to hear. I’m leaning toward adding the Barrons books to my Kaplan and Sparknotes plan. Anything about the Princeton books that I’d need that would make it worth it to add them in?</p>

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<p>@cjmnksa: Princeton is definitely not necessary, in my opinion, so you’re fine with just Barrons, Sparknotes and Kaplan (I detest Kaplan, but you can use it if it helps you understand concepts). I think a lot of people may not use Sparknotes as a main book because Princeton, Barrons and Kaplan are so popular as review books for standardized tests. However, it is a very good book/site and overall doesn’t really lack that much in information, from what I remember. And I do agree that Sparknotes is often extremely useful for explaining concepts. Of course, like I said, I still definitely recommend Barrons as the main book for studying.</p>

<p>@Schoolisfun: No problem. I spent quite a bit of time studying. I studied for around 2.5 months, sometimes an hour a day, sometimes several hours a day.</p>