Format of the SAT II Chemistry Test

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The 85 multiple-choice-type questions that make up the SAT II Chemistry exam fall into three types, and according to the College Board Web site, these types test three types of skill.

Skill Being Tested	Approximate % of test that this question type makes up	Approximate no. of questions of this type that you’ll see
Recall of knowledge: remembering fundamental concepts and specific information; demonstrating familiarity with terminology	20	17
Application of knowledge: Applying a single principle to unfamiliar and/or practical situations to obtain a qualitative result or solve a quantitative problem	45	38
Synthesis of knowledge: Inferring and deducing from qualitative and/or quantitative data; integrating two or more relationships to draw conclusions or solve problems	35	30

As you can see, the SAT II test tests your knowledge of chemistry in three different ways. This test also contains three different types of questions: classification questions, relationship-analysis questions, and five-choice completion questions. Next we’ll talk about exactly what these three types of questions look like.

Classification Questions

Classification questions are basically reverse-multiple-choice questions. They consist of five answer choices followed by a string of three to five questions. To make things more confusing, the answer choices may be used once, more than once, or not at all—so although a classification question often looks like simple matching, it isn’t!

The level of difficulty in any one set of classification questions is generally pretty random: you can’t expect the first question in a set to be easier than the last. However, in the test as a whole, each set of classification questions is generally a bit harder than the one that came before.

Familiarize yourself with the following set of directions—if you read and understand them now, you won’t waste precious time on test day.

Directions: Each set of lettered choices below refers to the numbered questions or statements immediately following it. Select the one lettered choice that best answers each question or best fits each statement and then fill in the corresponding oval on the answer sheet. A choice may be used once, more than once, or not at all in each set.

Questions 1–3

	(A)	Zinc
	(B)	Iron
	(C)	Helium
	(D)	Copper
	(E)	Fluorine


1.	A highly electronegative element


2.	Forms colored solutions when dissolved in water


3.	Normally exists as a diatomic molecule but can react to form a 2^- ion

You can usually answer classification questions a bit more quickly than the standard five-choice completion questions since you need to review only one set of answer choices to answer a series of questions. The answer to number 1 is E. Electronegativity is a measure of the ability of an atom in a chemical bond to attract electrons to itself; in chapter 4 you’ll learn how to use your periodic table to answer questions like this one. The answer to number 2 is D, copper. Copper often forms green/blue solutions. The answer to number 3 is A, zinc. Also in chapter 4, you’ll learn to predict what ions certain elements will form and in what state they are normally found in nature. Don’t worry if you don’t know the answers to these questions right now. This example is meant mainly to show you how a classification question is formatted.

Relationship-Analysis Questions

Relationship-analysis questions consist of a specific statement, statement I, followed by another statement, statement II. To answer these questions, you must determine first whether statement I is true or false and then whether statement II is true or false. Next you must decide whether the second statement is the reason for the first statement being true. These questions may appear intimidating to you since they’re probably unfamiliar, but after taking the practice exams in this book, you should feel as comfortable with them as you do with the other question types.

One more thing about this question type: strangely enough, on the SAT II Chemistry test, the section containing relationship-analysis questions is always numbered starting with 101. There will be one section of these on each of the tests, and they also get their own special section on your answer sheet—also beginning with number 101. There are usually about 16 or 17 questions of this type on the SAT II Chemistry exam. Again, take the time to familiarize yourself with these directions so you won’t have to even look at them on test day.

Directions: Each question below consists of two statements, statement I in the left-hand column and statement II in the right-hand column. For each question, determine whether statement I is true or false and whether statement II is true or false and fill in the corresponding T or F ovals on your answer sheet. Fill in oval CE only if statement II is a correct explanation of statement I.

	Statement I		Statement II
101.	A 1.0 M solution of HCl has a low pH.	BECAUSE	HCl contains chlorine.
102.	An atom of chlorine is smaller than an atom of sulfur.	BECAUSE	Chlorine has a greater effective nuclear charge than sulfur.

Look at question 101. Statement I is true: HCl is an acid, which is a substance that’s capable of donating H⁺ions in solution. Acids have a pH that’s lower than 7, while bases have a pH above 7. Statement II is also true: HCl is made up of a hydrogen atom and a chlorine atom. Now do the final step—is the pH of HCl directly related to the concentration of the chlorine ions in solution? No, it is directly related to the number of H⁺ ions given off by HCl in solution—you would not fill in the bubble marked CE (correct explanation).

Now the answer to question 102. Statement I is true. Statement II is true. As you’ll learn in “The Structure of Matter,” atomic radius decreases from left to right across the periodic table because the more protons in the nucleus of the atom, the more tightly and more closely held are the atom’s electrons. This is an example of another way you can use the periodic table while taking the test. If you understand periodic trends, you won’t have to memorize the atomic radii of all of the elements. The CE, for “correct explanation,” should be bubbled in.

Five-Choice Completion Questions

These are the multiple-choice questions we all know and love, and which are the lifeblood of any multiple-choice exam. You know the drill: they ask a question and give you five possible answer choices, and you pick the best one. This will be the third and final part of the exam.

Here are the directions you’ll see on the exam:

Directions: Each of the questions or incomplete statements below is followed by five suggested answers or completions. For each question, select the one choice that is the best answer to the question and then fill in the corresponding oval on the answer sheet.


24.	Which of the following molecules does not match its geometric shape?
	(A)	BF₃	trigonal planar
	(B)	CHCl₃	tetrahedral
	(C)	H₂O	V shape (bent)
	(D)	CO₂	linear
	(E)	PCl₃	trigonal planar

The answer is E—the shape of this compound is irregular tetrahedron (also known as trigonal pyramid). You’ll learn rules for predicting molecular structures in chapter 4. Now, the above question is a straightforward multiple choice, but there’s another type of five-choice completion question on the test, and it looks like the question below:


25.	Which of the following statements correctly describe the information necessary for finding the concentration of an unknown monoprotic acid by titration with KOH?
	I. The concentration of the base II. The total starting volume of acid III. The volume of the base used to reach the equivalence point
	(A)	I only
	(B)	II only
	(C)	I and II only
	(D)	I and III only
	(E)	I, II, and III

Let’s analyze it. To find the concentration of the unknown acid, you’ll need to know the molarity of the base used in the titration or, put in simpler language, the moles of base per liter of solution. So, statement I is necessary. We’ll also need the information in statements II and III, as you’ll learn in “Laboratory.” The correct answer is E.

While knowing your chemistry inside and out is the best way to ensure that you’ll do well on this test, it will also help you on test day if you’ve developed a strategy that enables you to answer all the questions that test you on chemistry you feel confident about and to guess intelligently on the questions on areas in which you feel less confident. We will talk about some strategies for how to deal with these harder questions in the next chapter.

Introduction to the SAT II Chemistry Test

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The best way to do well on the SAT II Chemistry test is to be really good at chemistry. For that, there is no substitute. But the chemistry geek who spends the night before taking the SAT II cramming all of the nuances of crystal-field theory and coordination compounds probably won’t fare any better on the test than the average student who reviews this book carefully. Why? Because the SAT II Chemistry test doesn’t cover crystal-field theory and coordination compounds.

Happy? Good. This chapter will tell you precisely what the SAT II Chemistry test will test you on, how the test breaks down, and what format the questions will take. Take this information to heart and base your study plan around it. There’s no use spending hours on end studying topics you won’t be tested on.

ontent of the SAT II Chemistry Test

The SAT II Chemistry test is written to test your understanding of the topics of chemistry that are typically taught in a one-year college-preparatory-level high school chemistry course.

Well, math and chemistry go hand in hand, right? You might be surprised, then, to learn that you aren’t allowed to use a calculator on the SAT II Chemistry test. The math you’ll need to do on the test never goes beyond simple arithmetic and manipulation of equations, which is good news for you—you won’t be a victim of careless errors made on your calculator.

That said, you should be able to solve problems using ratios, direct and inverse proportions, scientific notation, and some simpler exponential functions. Since the test is an hour long, this means you have an average of 42 seconds to answer each of the 85 questions—the people at ETS realize that isn’t enough time to delve into problems involving simultaneous equations or complex algebra. They’re more interested in testing your grasp of the basic concepts of chemistry. If you’ve grasped these concepts, your weakness in math problem solving isn’t going to hurt you. You will, however, be provided with a simple periodic table. This periodic table will probably look more bare-boned than the one you’re used to using: it will have only the symbols of the elements along with their atomic numbers and masses.

Now let’s get into the nuts and bolts of what you’ll see on the exam. ETS provides the following breakdown of the test, covering eight basic categories, and as you can see, we’ve arranged the content review in this book according to ETS’s outline:

Their Topic	Our Section	Approximate % of the test devoted to these topics.	Approximate no. of questions you’ll see on these topics.
Structure of Matter Includes atomic theory and structure, chemical bonding, and molecular structure; nuclear reactions	Structure of Matter	25	21
States of Matter Includes kinetic molecular theory of gases, gas laws, liquids, solids, and phase changes; solutions, concentration units, solubility, conductivity, and colligative properties	States of Matter	15	13
Reaction Types Includes acids and bases, oxidation-reduction, and precipitation	Reaction Types	14	12
Stoichiometry Includes the mole concept, Avogadro’s number, empirical and molecular formulas, percentage composition, stoichiometric calculations, and limiting reagents	Stoichiometry	12	10
Equilibrium and Reaction Rates Including gas equilibria, ionic equilibria, Le Chatelier’s principle, equilibrium expressions; factors affecting rate of reaction	Equilibrium and Reaction Rates	7	6
Thermodynamics Includes energy changes in chemical reactions and physical processes, Hess’s law, and randomness	Thermodynamics	6	5
Descriptive Chemistry Includes physical and chemical properties of elements and their more familiar compounds, chemical reactivity and products of chemical reactions, simple examples from organic chemistry and environmental chemistry	Descriptive Chemistry	13	11
Laboratory Includes equipment, measurement, procedures, observations, safety, calculations, and interpretation of results	Laboratory	8	7

The fact that this book is organized according to these basic categories will give you the ability to focus on each topic to whatever degree you feel necessary: if you know you’re weak on gas law questions, take extra time going through “The States of Matter” section, for example. Also, each question in the practice tests at the back of this book has been categorized according to these eight categories so you can precisely identify your weaknesses and then concentrate on the areas you need to study most.

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Format of the SAT II Chemistry Test

Introduction to the SAT II Chemistry Test