SAT II US History -- Recollections right after the test

I can't discuss it, but here goes.

Here's what I did:

Reviewed all my notes from The American Pageant. That is it.

Then took a MASSIVE LOAD of practice tests.

3 practice tests from REA
These weren't that good. One of them literally was the "reflection" of the other. I.e., Who is to be associated with an economic interpretation of the reasons behind the Dec. of Independence? Charles A. Beard. You see the next practice test asking "Charles A. Beard is to be associated with what?"

Nevertheless, they were quite useful, and I believe that they do reflect, perhaps 6/10 what is on the actual SAT II. Then again, the REA was for the AP exam, which relies much less on graphs...

I averaged about ... 17 or so wrong in the 80, which isn't so good. I answer all the questions because my reasoning goes that if I can eliminate more than 2, the odds are in my favor. Why not.

2 practice exams from PR, SAT subject tests.
These appeared easy, but the concepts that they tested were quite helpful. I would give this a 7/10 for the sole reason that it emphasizes more on things that do actually appear to be emphasized on the SAT II. This includes cartoons and graphs ...

I got 19 wrong on both of them (again, answering them all), they are definitely helpful.

1 Practice Exam from AMSCO and the Quizzes after each chapter
These have their own unique "style" in the way that there is a LOT of emphasis on identification of who, what, when, in my opinion-- however, some of the concept questions are useful. There are some things that you shouldn't bother wanting to learn about, some people that you would "never" have to know for US history. I give this a 5/10 -- however, their final practice exam at the book was very accurate. Perhaps that boosts the score to a 6.5/10.

There is an answer key that can be purchased from them -- fortunately, my AP teacher gave the entire class the answer key so this proved especially useful.

4 Practice Exams from Kaplan for SAT II
These were ... relatively easy. Easier to just the level of the SAT II, but leaning on the way of easy. However, my scores were still averaging at about 19 wrong per 90, in this case. With the SAT II, you should know that there are a lot of questions dealing w/ graph, chart, and cartoon analysis, and this doesn't appear to be stressed in the practice exams above. Given that, its usually the graph, chart, cartoon analysis that empowers you to answer it because the answer is staring at you right in the face.

Even with it being relatively easy, the concepts that it emphasizes here is quite useful. 6/10.

8 Practice Exams from Barron's for SAT II
Barron's is well known for its... difficulty. And there are definitely MANY questions that you can almost expect to not appear on the SAT II. I mean, things with "where do impeachment charges begin in Congress"? Well, the House. But we don't need to know that.

Having said that, Barron's takes a ... well, unique approach as well as a more difficult approach that "hits" on the style and difficulty of SAT II all the other times -- meaning that it IS a good balance to the "easiness" of all the other practice exams.

If you have time, definitely get the practice and experience you'll learn from the 8 practice exams.

1 Practice Test from the "official source" CB
Unfortunately I only got hold of one of these... and I took this. AAAND I got a higher score on this than on any of the other tests! This may be a good sign...

It should be noted that I did take this "last" as a "final measure" of how I did. The packet also provides a "raw score to scale conversion", and it seems like anything below a raw score of 79 (which is about 8 wrong if you answer all) starts getting deducted from 800.

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), I already KNOW that I:

Left 2 blank
Answered 5 incorrectly.

Calculations (of course -- these are done right after) show that IF the difficulty/weighting of the raw score to scale score conversion remains constant or relatively constant (in my opinion the Subject Test on May '09 was harder than the "official" practice test) ... I can spare 2 more wrong should I want an 800

For me, I will be grateful for anything above a 750. Who knows if that will happen. We can only pray :)

Advice?

Good night's sleep. Yes, you've heard it all.
As for the actual morning of, I crammed with a large group that took it the morning of. This cramming resulted in near-headaches right before the test, so I do not know whether the advantage of knowing some extra details right before the test was worth it.

During the test, I knew that I started too slowly in the beginning, and ended up rushing the last 30 questions. While this isn't ... recommended, it turns out that most people did do this. The theory goes that you will do better if you spend moderate attention on all than refined attention on some (only to find that you don't know the answer), and light attention on some other. Up to you.

There are also those questions that are vague and ambiguous -- with answers that ... don't quite seem to fit. Unfortunately those are the ones that I am unsure about how to factor into my "grade anticipation system". These are ... well, common sense. Time-consuming as well.

As for one of those "I'm not sure, I'm ... well, I think it is this. I will go back to this". It turns out that for a MAJORITY of those who took the test -- this did NOT happen. Chances are, you want to fill in the bubble right there when you're at it.

Remember. 1 for correct answer, -1/4 for incorrect. The chances are FOR YOU when you can eliminate 2 or more! That's right. Unfortunately, even in those 50 - 50 cases... I usually guess towards the wrong one.

But think about it. If you guess 4 wrong, and have 1 of those right... you didn't lose anything

Right now I can only ... hope.