Customer Reviews

Cracking the SAT II: Physics, 2001-2002 Edition

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I took the June 04 SAT II Physics after taking a freshman Honors Physics course. In this class we did not cover electricity, magnetism, nuclear physics, particle physics, or relativity.

I studied for about two and half months prior to the exam, maybe half an hour every day, and in the last month, an hour a day, and the last two weeks, two hours a day.

This book is very good as it is extremely thorough, and I found its explanations of uncovered topics to be quite helpful.

However, there was a lot of unnecessary material that was in the book. Rotational Kinematics and a lot of particle/nuclear physics were not covered in the least on the actual exam. I don't know if this is the standard for all tests or if the edition I took was an exception.

The practice tests were much harder than the actual thing. I received a 720 and 760 on the Princeton, and an 800 on the actual thing.

In addition to the Princeton Review, I used the Kaplan and Sparknotes books and studied them thoroughly, and I glossed over the Barrons. My suggestion for doing well? Use the Kaplans and work through that in the first month or so (it is not indepth, just provides the basic ideas, and the practice tests are a joke). Then, move onto the Princeton, and perhaps take a look at some of the Barrons problems as they are extremely hard and good. However, I would advise those not to use the Sparknotes as it is plagued with errors, although the material is very good.

Good luck to all those who take the Physics SAT II. If you are any good at Physics I would advise taking it as it is one of the more lenient SAT II's (Get 8 wrong, and you can still pull off an 800 or 790).

This book is not what you want for reveiwing for the SAT II Physics test. It attempts to make the subject material seem easy and ends up over simplifying most of it. Many of the practice test's questions are flawed and have conflicting answers in the answer keys. The second practice test has almost nothing to do with the material discussed in the book. I got a 760 on the first test and a 610 on the second. Do not buy this book.

Really, if you want to buy this book I'd suggest you buy the AP Physics Review published by Princeton Review instead. Why? Because its the SAME thing! The only difference is that they took out the Physics C-level stuff and scarped out all the free response questions. All the multiple choice are the same, and so are the review material (from the diagrams to the explaination).

The review book is clearly organized and cover many of the topics which are presented on the exam. The practice tests aren't an eact model of what you'll see on the real exam, but many of the questions and similar and I found the practice tests useful. The only real disadvantage to this book is that it is a bit too simplistic. The SAT II covers topics into greater detail as well as some more difficult topics not discussed thoroughly in the book. However, physics is a difficult subject to review because of its magnititude. All in all, the book isn't bad. I would recommend that you use this as your review book, but even better yet, use it in conjunction from a review book by a different company.

Let this book be the guardian of your hope to score high. As I was in a miserable state searching for help, a celestial light came from beneath the clouds and this book, Cracking the SAT II Physics, descended from the heavens above and landed into my hands. The hallowed scene filled me with blessing. The book came to me as an angel who pulled me out of hell and fed me with knowledge.
Actually, the truth is that I bought this book. It didn't descend from heaven, but it did gave me hope and helped me a lot. To summarize this book in terse terms will not express my adulation for it. Nevertheless, I only have a thousand words to spare therefore I must try my best to convince you that this is an excellent book.
The print of this book is very good. The use of spacing makes sentences very easy to read. Physics drags me into a hypnotic state, but this book manages to keep me awake for at least an hour.
The materials are properly the most important part of the book. If you don't know any physics, this book might be hard for you. However, if you do have some physics background, this book is perfect for reviewing and studying. It clearly explains the answeres and details yet concise enough so it wouldn't turn into a textbook. The exercises are helpful and prepares you for all sorts of tricky questions.
A major concern of a lot of test takers is the amount of time they need to spend to prepare for the test. If you don't know any physics but have a fair amount of intelligent, this book will help you advance your knownledge within a month assuming that you will review everyday. If you do know some physics or have done some physics 12, you can properly run through this book in two weeks and be comfortable with all the material. (This is what I have done). If you are so "sm_rt" and have done some physics AP, this book should be easy for you and you can properly run through it within a week.
Lastly, if you find some of the questions in the book hard don't worry about it. The tests in this book over prepares you by a little (not much).
Hope this review helps and good luck to all you test takers. If you are wondering about the crediblity of my words, I hope the fact that I got 800 in this exam will convince you =) Yes, I have been through the hard exam times too.

Study this book and you will do fairly well on the SAT II Physics Exam. You will want to keep in mind, however, that the material presented in this book is slightly easier than the actual exam. This really isn't a problem though.

I strongly recommend this prep to highschool students in the US. Since it has a very proper difficility level and pretty complete material. I got 730 in its practice test and scored 800 in the real SAT 2 physics.
However, I found the modern physics and atomic physics part doesn't cover all the conceptual topics in the real test. Fortunately, one can left about 13 problems blank and still score a 800. When I met the modern physics problems that I don't know in the real test, I just left it blank.
This book covers 90% of the real test. If you eat it, you will score 800.

For people who had strong physics background in Asian countries, I suggest Barron's Physics. It is much harder,and if you can manage it, guarantees a high score.

Tips:
Leave the long physics problems blank, don't even read it. Hurry up in the real test. You can hardly have enough time. I left 9 problems blank when I took it. From the "Real SAT IIs" i figure out I can have 800 even though I leave 9 blanks and have 2 wrongs.

I found this book decent. One MAJOR complaint I have is that the problems at the end of each chapter are much too difficult and are not useful because they are too specific and will never be tested on the exam. The questions make you recall often specific formulas that won't be on the SAT II.

Also, some of the concepts covered in the book are superfluous or too far in depth. My suggestion is to use the SparkNotes Physics SAT II for review and then practice tests in this book. I haven't looked at any other review sources besides Princeton Review and SparkNotes, however out of those two I recommend the SparkNotes because it is shorter and much easier to understand.

The best way, however to study, is to have a good physics textbook, a good teacher, and be confident in material you reviewed in class. Taking this exam by just using this book and having no other knowledge is a huge mistake.

In conclusion, my main problems are the chapter questions which are too specific and exam review which is often useless and also overly meticulous.

I used the Princeton Review Physics before taking the SAT II in December. The book covered literally everything I had learned in physics, down to the smallest detail. However, it also contained added sections that were not on the test, nor are they ever on the test, according to my physics teacher. The sections on vector multiplication are not needed until you take the AP Physics exam, nor are a number of other sections. However, it is better to have too much than not enough. The one thing that annoyed me most, however, was the practice tests. These were infinitely more difficult than the real thing. There was no score conversion, but I figured my score to be somewhere in the high 600s, and on the actual test, I got an 800. So, if you don't do well on the tests in this book, don't be discouraged, and if you do well, you should easily be able to get 750+.

Princeton Review's book is riddled with errors, some subtle, some almost humorous in their absurdity. This book is guaranteed to mislead the budding physics student into a false sense of security. It is also likely to fill their heads with half-baked notions and incorrect thinking, some so agregious as to be patently incorrect. The real test is likely to be a real shocker, particularly when the grades come back.

Avoid this book, except as a last resort, look instead at the many other fine books from other authors/publishers.