The SAT II may test some information that your teacher didn’t cover in class. Review all the content areas listed above to make sure you have a handle on everything. It’s a smart idea to take a diagnostic test before you start studying to form a clearer picture of where your knowledge is lacking. I'd recommend using one that comes directly from the College Board so that the content and format of the test is represented accurately.
Tip #2: Replicate Test Conditions
When you answer practice questions and take practice tests, adhere to the same rules as the real test. Don't use a calculator, and give yourself access to a periodic table for reference. If you’re taking a full practice test, you should also time yourself. Sticking to appropriate test conditions is the only way to reliably estimate your score level!
Tip #3: Plan Your Time Wisely
Your studying timeline should be informed by how recently you learned the material in class and how well you perform on the initial diagnostic test. If you find that you need to improve by 150 points or more, you should plan to spend some extra time reviewing the material. I'd estimate about 20 hours of study time to get yourself up to speed - if you start two months in advance, that's just two hours a week. Not so bad!
If you're already within 50 points or so of where you want to be, a quicker review should suffice. You could probably spend less than ten hours going over the material. Make sure you get to a point where you feel very confident with the question formats in case nervousness interferes with your performance (which brings me to the next tip).
Tip #4: Practice Relationship Analysis Questions
Make sure you have a handle on how these questions work prior to the test. They take a little bit of getting used to if you’ve never encountered them before. Try to use some practice resources that include these types of questions in addition to five-choice completion and classification questions. It's especially important to practice interpreting the statements together and on their own and keeping the two processes separate. That CE circle is a little bit tricky!
Tip #5: Don't Go Overboard
You should only study concepts that you know will be tested. There's no need to memorize a year's worth of material for an hour-long multiple-choice test.I'd recommend dividing your time equally between reviewing topics in your notes and doing practice questions that replicate the format of the subject test.
For Chemistry :
The biggest challenge for you may be time rather than background knowledge, especially if you're fresh out of a chemistry class. You shouldn't focus too much on memorizing all your chemistry notes and doing involved practice problems. Remember, you can't even use a calculator on this test, so you won't have to solve any elaborate math problems.
4 Test-Taking Tips for SAT Subject Tests
This section lists four additional tips that you should implement as you take practice tests (and, ultimately, when you sit down for the real thing.)
Tip #1: Stay Calm
Since you can’t use a calculator on the test, many of these questions involve combining your common sense with basic chemistry knowledge. If you come across a question about a diagram or experimental scenario that you’ve never seen before, don’t freak out. Just read the question carefully. In almost all of these cases, you’ll find that your existing knowledge is enough to allow you to answer the question. Even if you don't fully understand what’s going on in the experiment, if you have a solid understanding of the subject, you can make deductions to arrive at the correct answer.
Tip #2: Do the Easiest Classification Questions First
When you get to a group of classification questions,you should answer the ones that seem obvious first so you're using your time efficiently. Don’t feel like you have to complete them in order. If you get the easy ones out of the way in ten seconds, you’ll have more time to think about the questions in the group that are more challenging for you.
Tip #3: Read Relationship Analysis Questions Methodically
Relationship Analysis questions are different from most questions on SAT Subject Tests, so they can be confusing. Read carefully, and decide whether each stand-alone statement is true before thinking about whether the second statement is a correct explanation of the first. You'll save yourself some time if you find that one of the statements is false (and makes the CE bubble irrelevant)!
Tip #4: Don’t Guess Randomly
As I mentioned in the first section of this article, the guessing penalty still exists on SAT Subject Tests. This means that you need to avoid guessing if you have no clue which answer choice is correct. Guessing is only advisable if you can narrow down your choices to two possibilities. Otherwise, you’re better off leaving the question blank.
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