ChemTutor

Installation is simple with a standard Windows setup program, but there's no included manual or online help. The program is simple enough, however, that you shouldn't have much trouble figuring out how to use it.

ChemTutor divides chemistry into 20 topics, covering such key areas as gases, thermodynamics, and organic chemistry--most of the subjects you'd find in a first- or second-year chemistry textbook. When you run the program, you'll select one of these topics for drilling. The program then randomly chooses multiple-choice questions from its database of hundreds, letting you do repeat drilling on the same subject. The questions incorporate graphs and tables, similar to those you'd expect to find on a standardized chemistry test, such as the AP or the SAT II exams.

Drilling comes in two forms. You can challenge yourself in tutorial mode, in which the program tells you after each question whether you answered correctly or not. Test simulation mode waits until the end to tell you your grade. These drills can cover only one subject, or you can self-design a "semester exam" covering multiple areas.

Make no mistake about it, ChemTutor won't teach you chemistry. It's test preparation software, plain and simple. But if you're looking to improve your performance on multiple-choice tests such as the SAT II or AP, it will certainly do the trick. --Ken Feinstein

Amazon.com Product Description
ChemTutor gives students the opportunity to work interactively with the subject of chemistry. ChemTutor promotes higher grades and test scores, can decrease the amount of time that is spent studying, and covers the full curriculum from a typical first or second course in chemistry at the high school or college level. This software offers a choice of taking a tutorial or a practice chapter test in any one of 20 chemistry subject areas, or of taking a practice semester exam, including any combination of the 20 subject areas.

A student who works through the tutorials within ChemTutor is given immediate feedback at each step. This immediate feedback helps to reinforce material from textbooks and classrooms.