[bigboi_baller]

Anyone want to share their study techniques and tricks to get high SAT II scores in Bio, Chem, and Physics?

And if some of you guys already in Med school could share yours and how studied to get those scores, it would be awesome.

 

[Smeer]

In my opinion, the best way to study for SAT II's if you're still in an American high school is to take the respective AP class. That way, if you're serious and study hard all year in school for the AP test, you'll definitely be prepared for the SAT II in the same subject. In fact, SAT IIs are offered in May and June around the same time as AP tests, so all you need to do is sign up for those dates and you'll be good. There will be little studying to do outside of your normal class studying or AP test review because all that will have forced you to learn the necessary material. That's all I did for my SAT IIs and I easily got over 700 on the 3 or 4 that I took.

If you're not into the whole AP thing, you can always buy one of those SAT II review books from publishers such as the Princeton Review, Kaplan, Cliff Notes, Spark Notes, Baron's, and many others. If you decide to go this route, you should look up reviews on Amazon or other sites to see which is best for each subject to get the most for your money. Generally speaking, they're all pretty good if you take out the time to read through them, and most importantly, take the practice tests they provide for you. The best way to learn the material is to sit down and practice taking these practice tests, as they simulate questions that might come up on your actual SAT II and because they help familiarize you with the test's format.

If you have any questions on the SAT II Subject Tests themselves, let me know. I took Chemistry and Physics last year and I still remember a lot about the tests. I'm debating whether or not I should take Biology this year as a precaution in case I do end up applying to some private Medical Colleges.

 

[kuchwa]

stick with the sat sylabbus

its mostly about basic concepts for example kinetic energy.................

 

[Smeer]

its mostly about basic concepts for example kinetic energy.................

You're right, it is mostly basic concepts, but that can be a little misleading. The questions test basic concepts, but sometimes they're disguised in ways in which the basic concepts might not appear so obvious. At least that's how I felt about the Physics SAT II. It's best to get familiar with the SAT II format and question types by getting a review book or two and seeing the different types that they have. Each subject's format varies a little -- it's not as standard as the SAT Reasoning Test, although for the most part, the style is the same.

Also, a big thing on SAT IIs is TIMING. Be sure to pace yourself so that you can get through the entire test to answer as many questions correctly as you can. I remember that I didn't have time to do about 13-14 questions on my Physics SAT II because I spent a long time on some other problems that I wasn't sure of. Since all questions are worth the same number of points, you're better off going through the exam and getting points for all the easy questions than spending minutes on a single question and leaving some totally unread. While most of it is how well you know the material, test-taking strategies can significantly raise your score if you implement them correctly #yes .

 

[rishtyameena]

The best way to get high SAT II scores is just do as many practice tests as you can get your hands on. Because even if you know basic concepts extremely well, the way Collegeboard presents the concepts through the questions is something that takes getting used to. By doing practice tests, not only are you reviewing your concepts, but you're also learning the strategies needed to answer tricky questions.