<p>For those who have taken the test already, what do you think of PR's tests vs the actual one (also include which date you took it)? Particularly, I'm interested in the 3rd practice test, as there's a lot of random concepts that aren't even covered in PR's review section.</p>
<p>bump</p>
<p>Hi, I’m taking the test in November, so I don’t know how PR compares to an actual test. I’m using the 2013-14 edition of PR to study as well, and I’ll probably do the 3rd practice test some time next week (I’ve done the first two). In which areas did you encounter these random concepts? I’ll keep an eye out and report back after I do the practice test.</p>
<p>FWIW, I think Barron’s tends to delve deeper into some concepts. For example, PR intentionally skims over quantum mechanical model while Barron’s discusses it at length. I’m using both books for revision and I’ve only gone through the first ~1/3 of both books thus far, so I don’t know if it’s the same in later chapters, but you could try using Barron’s or some other study guide in addition to PR.</p>
<p>@lostint, some concepts I thought were out of the blue included what key element fertilizer’s composed of, osmotic pressure, nuclear fusion/fission, and oxygen and the human body. It may just be me, but I don’t remember reading over these concepts in the review sections, nor have I focused on them in class (I take IB Chemistry though).</p>
<p>Hmm, I’ll keep an eye out when I do the test (probably on Monday).</p>
<p>Are you sure the Radioactivity chapter didn’t cover the concepts required for the Nuclear fusion/fission section? Barron’s definitely covers that area in more depth (in addition to Alpha/Gamma/Beta radiation, it includes electron capture, decay series and examples of fusion/fission). Nevertheless, if the question was any more advanced than “is this reaction fusion or fission” is definitely out of place on SAT II Chem IMO.</p>
<p>As for the others, I might be able to answer something about fertilizers since my A Level chem included a bit about industrial chem, but I know basically nothing about osmosis / oxygen in the human body. Unless the question is actually about a regular chem concept (equilibrium? stoichiometry?) with the extra bits included just to throw me off, I’d probably be forced to guess. I’ll definitely check it out.</p>
<p>When I sat for Physics, IIRC there were one or two questions that explored certain concepts in more depth than Barron’s (which I used for revision) did. Luckily for me I’d covered all of those for A Level physics, but it seems these study guides don’t exhaustively cover everything that could appear on the test. That said, there definitely wasn’t anything on my physics paper as random as this.</p>
<p>I took the AP course in 2012-13, and took the SAT Subject Chem in June of 2013. I found the AP and SAT tests to be similar (this was before they changed the AP).</p>
<p>You want to know stoichiometry, characteristics of minerals, and reactions. Basically, stoichiometry is simple math since you can’t use a calculator (or maybe you can, I forget) and reactions is counting the number of each element before and after a reaction. That’s how simple the SAT exam was.</p>
<p>I remember there were a couple of nuclear chem in the exam. Mostly, it was identifying the charge and mass of electrons, protons, alphas, betas, and gammas. Also, some use reactions to make you identify the charge and mass.</p>
<p>Hey,
I took the SAT chem this past June and got a 790. I used PR and Barrons. I found that the PR tests were really weird. Some were way to easy with less emphasis on math, and others asked very obscure questions. However, I found the content review to be excellent, saved me on the topics that my teacher didn’t cover. I would suggest getting barron’s for practice tests and to make sure you get the practice test from the book by the Collegeboard.</p>
<p>Good luck</p>
<p>I just did the PR test 3 and I decided to look to the internet for reassurance. Apparently the real test won’t be like that and Barron’s is the best book to study sat chem from. </p>
<p>4 days left :’)</p>
<p>Yeah, I’d be surprised if the actual test contained anything like that. Although all the questions OP mentioned could be solved by eliminating the other choices.</p>
<p>And yeah, 4 days!</p>