Hello,
I’m in a difficult situation right now and I really need your help.
I’m going to apply to medical school next year and I’m required to take 7 SAT Subject exams. I’m aiming for an 800 on all of the exams, or at least nothing bellow 770. I haven’t taken and won’t be taking any AP or honors courses as they’re not offered at my school. I am currently taking Pre Calculus though. Nevertheless, I’m a great self studier and, due to my school’s relatively easy curriculum, I have a lot of time to put into this. The only problem is that I’m confused as to which prep books I should use to study my exams. Here is my SAT prep book shopping list:
Biology:
★The Princeton Review
★Barron’s
*I’m currently reading Campbell Biology as well.
Chemistry / Physics / Math 2:
★Dr. Jang’s 800
For those of you who don’t know it, here are the full books online (they’re made available by the publisher so please don’t remove these links):
http://drjang800.com/satChem/flipbook/index.html
http://drjang800.com/satPhysics/flipbook/index.html
http://drjang800.com/satMath2/flipbook/index.html
US/World History:
★The No Bull Review
★US History: AMSCO
Literature:
★Kaplan
Math 1: Barron’s
Rather then overreacting to the number of SAT exams I have to take, I would be more grateful for book recommendations and study tips.
Thanks in advance.
Bump as new in this and want to learn more.
*Update:
I ordered all the books on this list in addition to ★Barron’s for Math 2 and Chemistry
★Princeton Review for US and World History and Physics
I also have a copy of “The Official Study Guide for All SAT Subject Tests” and a copy of “The Official Subject Tests in Mathematics Levels 1 & 2 Study Guide”.
I’m confident that I have more then enough practice exams for all the subjects, my only concern is that I’m limited on time and I need an effective way to study. If anyone, preferably high scores, can please share some advice on how to study effectively and efficiently. I would like to spend more time memorizing the content rather then writing notes or drawing outlines, which I find too time consuming. I know that everyone studies differently, but I could sure use some help right now.
This forum has given so much to me already and I’d appreciate one more favor.
Also Happy New Years.
Thanks.
My D took the bio M subject test in June. She studied diligently with the Princeton book and took a couple of practice tests, and did very well on them. But when she took the real test her score was disappointingly low, so I am skeptical about the Princeton book, especially for bio, FWIW.
SAT Bio: The Princeton Review on its own is enough. If you’re also reading Campbell Bio, you should be way overprepared for this test. Practice tests, especially the official ones, are especially useful for this test because there are many questions that the College Board seems to reuse a lot, like for example showing you a diagram of the heart and asking what something is.
Math 2: I recommend using a combo of Barron’s and John Chung. The best way to study for this test is by taking practice tests (from both books) and then thoroughly reviewing all the problems that you weren’t able to solve correctly and quickly. (Of course, if your math skills are weak, you should also complete both books’ reviews.) I’d recommend saving the official practice tests for the week before the exam.
US History: The AMSCO book is all you need, and more. I (STEM guy) was too lazy to study for this test but if you do read AMSCO (and you have decent retention) you will get an 800. Honestly, since you say you’re a great self-studier, you probably don’t need to do anything other than read AMSCO.
(I got 800’s on Bio and Math 2, and a 760 on US History.)