Customer Reviews

Barron's SAT Subject Test Chemistry

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I took the chem SAT after using this book and got a 740, which isn't bad. This book has a great review of the simple things, however, the end of the book goes waaaaaay too far into detail. The electrochem and nucleonics chapters are in so much detail, that you could spend hours and hours studying every tiny thing, when almost nothing show up on the test in those chapters. After learning Ox-Redox and Organic, you should spend the vast majority of your time in the first 8-9 chapters. Pay particular attention to the areas on solutions, acids and bases, and molarity/molality concentrations. Just be careful where you spend your time with this book.

This is an excellent book to review chemistry before taking the big test. It explains general chemistry in a very clear way (especially quantum mechanics). Like all books, it does have a few errors (1 km does not = 100 m, pg 58). Overall though, this is definitely worth $12 for the extra 200 points.

I taught this book to some students at a private school. Then I studied it myself and took the SAT Chemistry test. I especially loved the CD from the previous edition and the practice tests. I did the diagnostic and all practice tests. You have 1 hour to complete 85 questions. When I first did the practice tests, I got about 12 wrong out of 85. Then a few days later I got 4 wrong out of 85. The day before the test I got 0 wrong out of 85. With repeated practice you can finish 85 questions in 1 hour and get most if not all right. When I took the actual test, I completed the test in 55 minutes. I got all questions right. I highly recommend this book for getting a high score on SAT Chemistry exam. But you should focus on the practice tests and developing speed and accuracy. All my other references were of minor help compared to this major reference and study guide. Using this book, I got 800. The practice tests at end of book and the tests on the CD ROM are extremely helpful.

The Barron's tests were slightly harder than the real thing, which was extremely encouraging when I sat down to take the test. Barron's is GREAT when it comes to the subject test. I highly recommend.

I am overall fairly pleased with Barron's SAT II Chemistry Prep book.
While this book is very detailed and organized,
it has some serious misprints and typos that often confused me.
(for example, some answer keys were definitely wrong and some explanations were totally irrelevent.. I am not saying this because I am a chemistry-wiz; others have agreed with me on these problems.)

With some major revision, this book could be a palatable review for SAT II Chemistry preparation.

Pros: Nice, detailed review and explanations / provides a "study plan" which helps you to prepare for the test efficiently (start at least six weeks before your exam date!)
A Diagnostic Test AND FOUR practice exams with answers
Will go very in-depth as to over-prepare you for the SAT (which is not a bad thing)

Cons: Typos, misprints


Overall, great for the price. I will update my review to reflect how I did on my October 2011 exam :D

P.S. If you have paid attention in your regular (school) chemistry class, you will find this book easy to follow.

This book was so helpful to me when I was studying for the SAT chemistry subject test. It is a very detailed book that covers every aspect that could be on the test. Although I noticed that not everything that was in the book was on the actual test, I felt like I had a very thorough understanding of the subject matter through doing practice questions and reading through the explanations. The book also contains full practice tests, which really helped me get acquainted with pacing and time for the real test. Overall, this book was a great success to me when I took the chemistry subject test!

My son just took the SAT II chemistry. He had been using this book for reviewing. He found that this book provides too much unimportant information. This could distract you from reviewing what is necessary. In his opinion, this book did not help much. It also seems to me they have not updated the material in this book much. I have a 2003 Barron's chemistry-the easy way. There is very little difference between the two books. If you are taking AP chemistry already,a simplier book to remind you some easy stuff may be more helpful. In addition, you should try to practic a real test so that you know how fast you need to work to finish all the questions in a pace that you feel comfortable. I read some of the chapters in book, some are very good. I would hope Barron will rewrite this book to reflect the real test.

I have found that this book was very helpful! I took honors chemistry my junior year of high school and my teacher was not the best at explaining chemistry. While she tried to help me better understand chemistry she could not. I thought that I would never pass or understand it. None of it made sense to me until I started using this book. It got me through the entire year! I ended up raising my grade from a C- to an A in a matter of no time. I even understood it enough to tutor my friends and classmates in chemistry. Thanks to this book I was able to receive an A in chemistry and tutor my fellow classmates. This book gives great explanations and really allows even students who are about to give up, truly understand chemistry. :)

I took AP Chemistry last year (09-10) and I got a 5 on the test. I found the explanations in this study guide a bit confusing, especially in the answer section but also when dealing with general chem concepts. I also found a couple of places in the answer section that I was sure gave the wrong answers. That being said, this book did help give me a good idea of what the SAT test would be like, and it prepared me well.

I had not studied chemistry for 3 months before using this book to prepare for the Subject Test. The book provided a thorough, practical review of essential concepts, with some extra information. The diagnostic and practice tests were noticeably more difficult than the actual test (and sometimes slightly unfair). Though I never aced a practice test, I did very well on the test itself after only a week of review. Like most Barron's books, it is more in depth than the test itself.