Hi
I know it is a stupid question…
I picked up the barron book just now, I don’t see there is a reference on penalty…but somehow I have the impression that there is a penalty
Does anyone know whether there is a penalty for guessing for SAT II and AP?
There is no longer a guessing penalty.
thanks @skieurope
I just received the SAT Chem subject test ( ISBN 978-1-4573-0919-9)… I noticed there is a paragraph (On page 12) that reads
Making an educated guess
Educated guesses are helpful when it comes to taking tests with multiple-choice questions; however, making random guesses is not a good idea. To correct for random guessing, a fraction of a point is subtracted for each incorrect answer…
seems there is a penalty for subject test…
@annamom Old book = old info. The College Board eliminated the guessing penalty recently. When in doubt, always go with the official source:
https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/pdf/test-specifications-redesigned-sat-1.pdf
@skieurope but this is a new book… published March 2017 and I just received it
I was referring to SAT subject test… I think your link was for SAT 1… was guessing penalty removed from subject test and AP?
I think there is still the penalty on SAT II because those didn’t change but AP I’m pretty sure theres no penalty
https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat-subject-tests/scores/how-tests-are-scored
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/11/ap-eliminates-guessing-pe_n_678757.html
Mea culpa; it looks like the guessing penalty is still in effect for the Subject Tests. It is definitely not in effect for the AP exams.
That is correct, @skieurope .
@marvin100 where is your source ? I knew I just posted from the new book, but I am just not sure…My kid’s AP Chem teacher is in her fourth year of teaching, I asked her what the difference between AP and SAT II is for chem, she has no idea… as she never took the Chem subject test, then my kid told me the teacher never took AP Chem…It was an “easy” course, but the down side is that the kids are on their own…
@marvin100 please ignore the above… I checked the college board link.
The Subject Test tests HS chemistry; the AP test tests intro college chemistry. While an AP class is not needed for the Subject Tests, some students do prefer to wait until they have completed AP to take the Subject Test. The AP class will not specifically prepare one for the subject test since, aside from being college level, it covers less material in more depth.
@skieurope thanks. didn’t realize AP covers less material…I was thinking to register DD to take SAT II chem the weekend after AP exam, but probably will have to wait…I planned to ask DD to take one exam from the book cold to see how comfortable she feels.
For chemistry at least, the AP course does not necessarily cover less material than the SAT II; they just cover different topics with a lot of overlap. For the SAT II there were things I never learned in my AP Class (environmental chemistry; nuclear; organic chemistry; colors, smells, and tastes of chemicals; etc.), but there were also a few things on the AP that the SAT II doesn’t cover (math intensive chemistry and a lot more details about chemical reactions). I also feel like taking the SAT II directly after the AP doesn’t make sense since there is a lot of new material to cover for the SAT II. I took the SAT II in June and did very well, most likely because I had time to learn the new information.
@ryanordy88 thanks. I gave the SAT II chem for DD to try just now and she also confirmed that she did not know a lot of the material even she is doing quite well in AP Chem. I have decided to put it off at least till June or August…or just scrap the idea of taking SAT II chem as June is not a good time for her to take the test as there are other activities…will have to see whether there are colleges that absolutely need two SATs …and in her top choices…
@ryanordy88 I thought the same exact thing. For the SAT II, I had to do a lot of additional prep for the test itself