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 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.
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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 |
|
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| 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.
