Chapter 7

The Periodic Table and Bonding

When you sit down to take the SAT Chemistry Subject Test, the periodic table
may well be your best friend. Why? Well, first, it is one of the few tools you’ll
be allowed to use on test day. Second, it can help you answer quite a few
different types of test questions. We just saw how to use the periodic table to
figure out an atom’s electron configuration, and we’ll now take a look at how it
can help you predict how atoms will bond. This chapter will discuss the
chemical families, periodic trends, different types of bonds, and molecular
shapes.