Chemistry GRE Prep

[getafix]

Hi! I'm a (soon to be) third year undergraduate (starting this oct.) student from Nagoya University, Japan. I plan to take a crack at the chemistry GRE after I finish the first semester of my third year, and so I intend to start preparing soon; so that I can allow myself enough time since I will be balancing GRE prep with regular coursework. 

a. Am I allowing myself enough time? I am planning on reviewing my coursework, paying special attention to the topics that appear in gre syllabus. At the same time, attempt practice tests. However, I am not so sure about this course of action so I welcome suggestions. (this will be my first time taking the test). Textbooks that I plan on using: Volhardt, Schore for Ochem (and Clayden Warren & Greaves), Atkins for PhysChem, Housecroft and Sharpe for Inorganic (and Cotton and Wilkinson), and Gary D Christian's text on analytical chemistry. These are the books I have used in my courses, but I am open to new recommendations.

b. Is the Princeton Review prep book for the chem GRE any good? If not, I would love to hear some alternate recommendations. It would be best if someone recommends books/material that they have used in the past and found useful. 

c. Again on the subject of test prep material, what are some good places to find practice tests? Preferably, free but I don't mind paying if they aren't too expensive. I have downloaded the one from ets' website. 

d. What's a good score/percentile to aim for top tier unis (MIT, UCB, Caltech northwestern and suchlike). I know that there's no cutoffs and perfect scores don't guarantee anything but still I would like hear people's opinions...to get a feel for the playing field.

Some context/personal details:  GRE General: 169V/166Q/5.0AW; current GPA (might go up once i get my grades for this semester..fingers crossed) 4.08/4.3 scale (grading: S, A, B, C where S = 4.3, A=4.0, B=3.0..etc. However, the S grade is reserved for the top 10% of the class). So far haven't been able to secure any research experience. In our department, undergraduates aren't allowed to get involved with research before their 4th year (which is disappointing). However, I have spoken to a few people and I am trying my best to start early in my third year...I know this is damaging my chances and I am working real hard to remedy this situation. I should be able to get good LORs and write a good SOP etc. I am passionate and driven..and in case someone's curious, my interests lie in Supramolecular Chem.  

[Mediocrity]

There really isnt great test prep material for this test. If you took decent notes I would go through those. The test itself is not super difficult, but requires a good bit of knowledge. If you were able to take each section right after finishing a class, you'd smoke it. Trying to recall some weird organic mechanism (when you hate organic, lol) can be difficult a year later. I took the exam as a third year student and it was difficult. I had only taken one semester of Pchem and had not taken inorganic yet. I struggled but wanted to get it out of the way. In the end I did not use score as I wasn't happy with it and I got into all the schools I applied to. From my understanding and experience, the exam tends to be somewhat of a "pre-req" for foreign students, and they usually do quite well on it. The schools you list will likely require high scores, as your competition will be greater, but you can look at the results pages here to get an idea of what successful applicants made. Also, get involved with research as quickly as you can. 

[getafix]

Thanks for responding. I am planning to take the exam after the first semester of my junior year. By then i hope to have covered close to 90% of the topics they listed on their website. I think I've done most of the quantum chem and physchem topics, and quite a bit of the organic. Hope to cover what is left of organic and inorganic in the coming semester. I hope that puts me in a competitive spot. 

What do you mean by "pre-req" for foreign students? Most of the places list it as a requirement, I am aware, but what are the quotes supposed to imply? haha

[Mediocrity]

I apologize for any confusion. What I meant by that statement is that the majority (the large majority) of foreign students take the Chem GRE for acceptance into school, especially at the more prestigious university's. The quotes were meant to imply that foreign students almost seem expected to take it, but it isn't an actual requirement. From my experience, its about 50:50 with American students taking the exam. Few schools actually require it, but it looks nice if you can do well on it. You should be fine for the exam. A large majority of the inorganic questions are similar to the Gen Chem questions. Most of the organic is simple, but gets harder as you go. The analytical ranged from sig-fig questions all the way up to Van Deetmter questions. Have a strategy and stick to it. I can't recall exactly, but I don't think you get discounted for not answering a question, but you will should you get it wrong. I went in with that in mind, started to freak out at the end when time was running low and answered a lot of things I should have left blank. The thermodynamics got me bad!

 

Good Luck

[Monstercookie]

I'm not so sure that the ChemGRE necessarily mean more for international students. I have read it many times on this forum, but never hear anything or seen any evidence for it outside of thegradcafe. What I do know is that almost everyone admitted at my institution has taken it and done well. Regarding scores, I think anything in the 800s is great but you can certainly get away with less than that.

 

I used a YouTube video series for OChem prep and found it very helpful. I think the series I used was aimed towards the MCAT, but that really makes no difference. I knew very little OChem beforehand, but felt like I did very well on the OChem parts of the test. 

[sk8er determinant]

Hi! I personally did not use any chem GRE prep books out in the market. I took all the required chemistry courses prior to taking my GRE so I had my textbooks to review from. Unfortunately, I didn't get to review analytical chem so I completely blanked out for questions regarding which instruments to use for particular problem. 

I used my textbook (i literally forgot the author's name) for organic. Just go through all the reactions, go over the mechanisms, practice, practice and practice. 

PChem, I used both my textbook (mcquarrie) and this youtube channel called TMPChem. Since I've been working at a computational organic research lab, I am quite well-versed in QM and kinetics. Thermo and I still aren't cool even after pchem and studying for the GRE, but I know enough to read physical chem literature.

Inorganic chem, I used Miessler. Studied all the periodic trends, group theory/symmetry, organometallic reactions, and bunch of stuff like jahn-teller effect, crystal field, ligand field, solid state chemistry (superconductors, doping, etc). 

And for the analytical chemistry, I just prayed and cried a bit since I literally ran out of time to study for the material. I had two months to study, but I was also working a lot. Not a good excuse, so it is what it is. 

The biochem questions on my exam, surprisingly, were easy. I didn't study for biochem at all as well, so I got very lucky. 

In the end, I did fine

 

[Disselkyle]

I would recommend finding as many practice tests as you can. The one from 2007 is easily available online https://www.ets.org/s/gre/pdf/practice_book_chemistry.pdf . Others can be found through some more careful Google searching. Also I was able to find two older practice tests from my local college library (they used an interlibrary loan system to get them for me).