The Princeton Review: Cracking the SAT Chemistry Subject Test

My son didn't sign up quickly enough to take the Chemistry subject test in June (when the material would have been fresh) so we were looking for a good review book to prepare him for the test in the Fall. I can't say enough about this book! It provides great review material and three complete tests with answers and explanations. My son took the first test without doing any review - he scored a 530. He then read the explanations for the answers he missed and started skimming the review sections for any gaps in knowledge. A couple of days later he took the second test and scored a 630 - woohoo, definite progress. Again, he read the explanations for the answers he missed and did more review. He took the third test a few days before the actual exam and scored a 680 on that one. Again, a little more review and he was set for the actual test. Because the subject tests deduct points for incorrect answers, one of the most valuable things my son learned from this process was to not answer questions he didn't know - especially those he couldn't narrow the answer down (with certainty) to a 50-50 choice. Test day came and he was completely relaxed and confident. I won't give his exact score, but he did score in the 700s and I know there is no way he would have done nearly as well without using this awesome resource. Total time for him to do all of the above - about 10 hours spread over less than two weeks!

Contrary to the other reviewers so far, I found this book to be quite helpful. The information was presented in a very straightforward fashion so as to make it easier to conceptualize. The book covers every type of question to the extent that come exam day, there are very few surprises. That said, there are a few misprints, but they are so innocuous that they are hardly even worth noting. For example, the two mentioned in another review are there, but the correct answers are listed on the exact same page. Another (still minor) error is in one of the chapter summaries on pg 147, where the Henderson-Hasselbalch equation is written in place of the equation for the equilibrium constant (but, again, those who actually read the material will not be too confused by it). Those aside, there are no factual errors in this book (that I noticed, anyhow). The drill questions and summaries at the end of each chapter serve as great ways to quickly brush up on some facts you may have forgotten as you get closer to the test day. The book doesn't throw excessive information at you like some others do. All around, it teaches what it needs to and does so well. Last, I'd like to address the common criticism that this book's practice tests are "too easy." I had heard the same complaints before buying this book, but ended up being quite pleasantly surprised by the results. Let's let the numbers speak for themselves... My scores on the practice tests: 710, 770, 670 (the 670 was on the day before the test) My score on the actual test: 780

I took both practice tests the morning of the SAT2 and found the diversity of questions to be extremely well-correlated with the actual test. Barron's and Kaplan's test questions contain far greater discrepancies in style and format. It's true that the princeton review study guide is "dumbed-down", but it's effective for cramming purposes and utilizes nifty techniques for optimum memorization and fantastic conceptualization. I recieved an 800 on my first testing.

This is a great book because it is written in a conversational language.. not like a boring textbook.. the author makes this book interesting to read and makes chemistry much simpler.. however, the practice tests were a little simpler than the real SATII.. after reading this book i felt very confident about taking the test, but looking back, this book may have been a little TOO simple.. but great overall! a good read and review.

If you are looking for a quick, concise, and casually comprehensive overview of chemistry for the SAT II Subject test then I recommend this book. If you haven't taken a year of high school chemistry, then this book probably won't help. But if you have, or are enrolled in chem, going through this book will help you review important concepts and give you enough knowledge about the concepts you may not know yet to do well on those questions on the test. You don't need to know chemistry inside and out like the exhaustive Barron's SAT II book teaches you, just a concise and brief overview is what you need and this book gets the job done well!