If you feel as though your student's standardized test prep could use a boost, Varsity Tutors can connect you with SAT Subject Test in Chemistry tutors who can help them reach for their academic potential. SAT Subject Tests are high-stakes exams that allow high school students to demonstrate their academic proficiency in particular content areas. Some colleges and universities award college credit for strong scores on SAT Subject Tests, allowing the student in your life to begin their college career with more advanced material. Other institutions use SAT Subject Test scores as a differentiator in their competitive admissions processes. Taking the SAT Chemistry test is also a great way for a student to signal their interest in science (and chemistry in particular) to each school they apply to.
The test contains 80 multiple-choice questions over a testing session of one hour. All SAT Subject Tests are scored on a scale from 200-800, but students do not need to answer every individual question correctly in order to earn a perfect score. Keep reading to learn more about how SAT Chemistry tutors can help your student pursue their academic goals.
How can private SAT Subject Test in Chemistry tutoring sessions help my student develop a deeper understanding of scientific concepts?
Your student's chemistry teacher tries to help your student succeed, but they are also responsible for several other students and have a strict time limit in the form of the school year. If your student mentally checks out when their teacher brings up the states of matter for the hundredth time because a few students still haven't grasped it, it's hard to fault either party. Similarly, it's tough to blame a classroom instructor for moving on from thermochemistry once most of the class understands it, even if your student is one of the ones left behind.
Working with an SAT Subject Test in Chemistry tutor allows your student to supplement their classroom learning with private study time that revolves around their needs. There is no set curriculum associated with private instruction, allowing your student to skip past anything they already understand to improve their study efficiency. Likewise, the lack of an artificial time constraint allows your student's instructor to provide additional explanations and examples until a challenging concept sinks in.
An SAT Chemistry tutor can also design study sessions around your student's preferred learning style to help them make the most of time spent studying. For example, a visual learner might work with charts, graphs, and other visual media to make it easier to picture important points in their mind. An auditory learner wouldn't get as much out of visual tools, but they could benefit more from discussion-based sessions with a lot of oral repetition to stress key concepts. If your student is a kinesthetic learner who studies best by doing, their instructor could guide them through a series of at-home experiments to help bring chemistry to life.
Studying in a private learning environment also offers several advantages. Your student will be their instructor's only student during their SAT Subject Test in Chemistry tutoring sessions, ensuring that all of their work receives prompt feedback. Any questions asked can also be answered in a timely fashion, allowing your student to seek help before they start feeling hopelessly lost.
Your student can also build generic study skills that they can continue to use long after taking the SAT Subject Test in Chemistry. For example, chemistry involves a healthy amount of rote memorization that's generally aided by textbook readings. If your student could retain more of the information they read, their instructor may demonstrate active reading skills like note-taking to help them engage with the material. If they have any questions as they go along, your student can also note them down so that they remember to ask when the opportunity arises.
Chemistry also involves a lot of mathematics, including concepts taught at the Algebra II level. If your student's quantitative problem-solving skills aren't up to snuff, their instructor can provide targeted practice problems to help them feel more comfortable with the concepts they'll need in chemistry.
What topics are covered on the SAT Subject Test in Chemistry?
The exams 80 multiple-choice questions cover the following topics: structure of matter (25%), states of matter (16%), reaction types (14%), stoichiometry (14%), equilibrium and reaction rates (5%), thermochemistry (6%), descriptive chemistry (12%), and laboratory (8%). All of these topics are rather broad, so some of the more specific concepts your student needs to know include nomenclature of ions and compounds, acids and bases, liquids and solids, entropy, and conservation of energy (among many others).
Memorizing the topics above is a good start, but won't be enough on its own. Only 20% of the exam assesses a test-taker's raw knowledge, with the remaining 80% divided between applying that knowledge in practical scenarios (45%) and synthesizing information across multiple areas (35%). Students are also prohibited from using a calculator on the SAT Subject Test in Chemistry, so your student will need to do calculations by hand.
How can SAT Chemistry tutors help my student prepare to take the test?
Many students take practice exams under realistic test-taking conditions during their SAT Subject Test in Chemistry tutoring sessions to get a better sense of what they can expect on the actual assessment. For example, time management is very important when you only have 60 minutes to answer 80 questions. Your student's instructor can show them how to eliminate obviously incorrect answer choices even when they are unsure of the correct response to give their guess a greater probability of proving correct. There's no penalty for guessing on the SAT Chemistry test, so students should be encouraged to try to get something down for every question.
Students are also provided with a Periodic Table of Elements they may reference during the exam, but this can be a double-edged sword. While it's great that you don't need to memorize all of the information on the table, many students are also tempted to try and use it for questions that it isn't really applicable for. This accomplishes nothing save wasting time, so your student's instructor might demonstrate when and how to use it in order to take the test as efficiently as possible.
Knowing how the exam words things can also help a test-taker on exam day. For instance, some questions on standardized tests are intentionally misleading. Maybe they sneak in the word "not" to completely change an item's meaning, or maybe one of the answer choices sounds right until you read it all of the way through. Taking practice tests can help your student identify these tricky questions for what they are whereas a student with less familiarity might be more susceptible to getting fooled.
Students who deal with test anxiety may also benefit from knowing exactly what a test is like beforehand. If your student is still feeling nervous, their instructor can show them how to meditate and calm down during the actual exam.
Perhaps the most important benefit of taking practice tests is the ability to review the results with your SAT Chemistry tutor. If your student answered all of the questions about reaction rates correctly, they may feel more confident about similar items moving forward. Alternatively, a student who missed all of the questions pertaining to stoichiometry now knows that they should concentrate future sessions on.
Your student's instructor can also teach them test-taking strategies that they can fall back on if they get stuck. For example, some multiple-choice items contain enough information to answer something else on the exam. If your student is actively looking for opportunities to leverage the test against itself, they may be able to answer a question correctly that they otherwise could have missed. You are allowed to backtrack on this exam, so taking a guess and then changing your answer if necessary can be a good tactic.
What makes Varsity Tutors such a powerful educational resource?
If you were to try and find your own private instructor, you would need to make sure that they understand all of the concepts on the SAT Subject Test in Chemistry. You would also need to seek references to verify that a potential instructor has the communication skills required to act as an effective teacher. Finally, you would need to ensure that your schedules are compatible. Do you really have time for all of that?
Instead, let Varsity Tutors connect you with a knowledgeable instructor in as little as 24 hours. Not only do we take the hassle out of finding a tutor, but we also make meeting with one more convenient too. Our proprietary Live Learning Platform facilitates digital study sessions anywhere with a stable internet connection, giving your student an in-person experience without the associated logistical headache. You are also in control over when each study session takes place, allowing test prep to adapt to your student's schedule instead of vice versa.
What are you waiting for? Reach out to Varsity Tutors today for more information on how we can find you certified SAT Subject Test in Chemistry tutors today!
