The College Board's recommended preparation was a one-year college preparatory course in chemistry, a one-year course in algebra, and experience in the laboratory. However, some second-year algebra concepts (including logarithms) were tested on this subject test. Given the timed nature of the test, one of the keys of the mathematics that appeared on the SAT II in Chemistry was not the difficulty, but rather the speed at which it had to have been completed. Furthermore, the oft-quoted prerequisite of lab-experience was sometimes unnecessary for the SAT Subject Test in Chemistry due to the nature of the questions concerning experiments; most laboratory concepts could simply be memorized beforehand. Some lab-based questions used diagrams, and thus it was helpful to know what common glassware looks like and how the different pieces are used.