<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>