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TIPS FOR THE CLASS AND THE AP TEST FROM FORMER STUDENTSWarning: This class that you are about to take will cause tears, stress, frustration, long nights, tension, feelings of failure, inadequacy, and stupidity. If your symptoms of scholaritis are in any way exacerbated by this course, it is recommended that you speak to your pediatrician before you obtain the failing grade of a B. You have been warned.HOW TO BE “ENGAGED” IN AP CHEMISTRYTake notes. Not just any notes -- take detailed, concise notes on what Mr. Cowmeadow is lecturing about.ThatChemGuy on Youtube is amazing. If you’re ever in a jam, he’ll not only make you laugh, but he’ll also give you a different teaching perspective.I think Mr. Cowmeadow knows more than he lets on. It’s a great teaching strategy that makes you think instead of regurgitating information in the book. Pick his brain :)You know that study book you were supposed to get at the beginning of the year? Invest in a couple highlighters and pens and assassinate those pages with more notes. Those books will be your best friends, and it’s never too late to start reading!Keep your binder organized. Since this test is now “inquiry based,” it will ask you how, let’s say, thermo can be related to electro. If your binder is organized, you will be able to keep track of what’s what and how something in one chapter pertains to another chapter.Start a Facebook page. They will probably spam you with notifications the night before a lab is due.Create Google Drive Date Nights with your fellow AP Chem Jedis. Go on skype or hangouts and get together with a group of study buddies. While you’re making a study guide on docs, you will review material and strengthen your skills. This was very very helpful for me!Knowing the intuition behind concepts helps retain them. This is especially helpful when you don’t remember something; you can work your way backwards (or forwards, however you look at it) until you get it!Don’t worry too much (something I still have to learn). When you’re relaxed and concentrated, you will do much better.SUGGESTIONS FOR THE AP EXAMWe were guinea pigs. Our exam was a newer version, and I hope that our trial and error will benefit you guys in the future :)Go to reviews. Make your own reviews. Go online and watch reviews. Reviewing helps!Practice timing yourself while doing FRQs. I only know of one person among my friends that finished on time. Everyone else in my group, myself included, did not finish the free responses. Measure your time and work on cutting it down!Timing on the multiple choice wasn’t that bad. Inquiry, little math.Get a good night’s rest the day before.PRAY FOR THAT PASSING GRADE.Warning: The above warning was not meant to scare you too much. Cowmeadow is actually a really good teacher if you put your own effort in. Don’t panic, you know this, and you’ll achieve the status of AP Chemistry Jedis. Good luck!!! :)Hello students! These are my tips for success in Cowmeadow’s class.Pay attention. This isn’t a class you can doze off in.Ask questions. Be specific. Bring good questions to review day!Don’t fear the Cow. It’s friendly. Sometimes…Read the book. It’s your best friend. (I really can’t stress this enough)It’s better to learn things conceptually than mathematically.Make sure you understand WHY something happens not just that it happens.Don’t miss class. You’ll be sorry. And cry yourself to sleep.Don’t miss test day. You’ll get a more difficult test and you ruin the perfect attendance bonus on test day for the rest of the class. Don’t be that person.Be careful with 12 molar HCl if you wish to keep your toes. Memorize complex ions during the summer, you’ll need them all year.Memorize solubility rules. Not just for a day. Fry them into your brain.I’m not a fan of online resources but many people think chemistry videos on khan academy are helpful. I think the book does a good enough job.There’s usually never homework, but when there is, do it. It just reinforces what you’ve learned and it helps to know what’s going on when Mr. Cowmeadow goes over it in class. Or else, you’ll just have to sit there and pray he doesn’t call on you. Take advantage of lab reports. Those are the easy points. I recommend using Google docs so you and your lab partners can all work on the lab at the same time.Always use sigfigs.Keep your binder organized. Tips for THE test:Begin reviewing all material at least a month before.Become friendly with the formula sheet. When in doubt, find a formula.Do not take your time. Time is a problem if you’re slow like me. Do the easy questions first and then address the hard one.Barron’s is your other best friend. Read him! Get some sleep. Or at least try to.SIG FIGS. ALWAYS!Practice problems from Barron’s or Five Steps to a Five will help get your mind in test mode.Be familiar with lab equipment, lab errors, and lab procedures. Sounds obvious but use process of elimination. Some answers can be discarded immediately.Always calculate molecular weight twice! You don’t want to make any silly mistakes.READ the question. Three times. Especially the FRQ. It may say, “using your answer from part d” and you may read “part b”. In that case, good luck. (Personal experience). Don’t spend too much time on any one FRQ. Keep your answers as concise as possible and move on to the next question. Don’t be like me and write an essay for the first question and then run out of time. The test is more than pass-able. BE CONFIDENT. Suggestions for the Class:Try for Perfect Attendance:This is a class that keeps going with or without you. It doesn’t matter if you’re sick that day, or if you just didn’t want to go to school; if you miss a single class you will need to catch up on your own. Mr. Cowmeadow’s AP Chemistry class, once it starts, will steamroll all over you if you let it. If you do miss days, please do your best to catch up.Homework and you:Do not skip out on the opportunity to do any work Mr. Cowmeadow decides to give you. Chances are, they will provide some sort of understanding on the topics your are focusing on, regardless of how minute the learning seemed. Cowmeadow and homework aren’t really factors on your day by day grade book, but if you do not at least attempt the little homework he assigns, then you can kiss you grades and your attention span in the class goodbye, because the more practice you get the better. I know that sometimes your may not totally understand the homework, but if you at least try to do it, you will walk into class with some understanding and probably some questions.Questioning:That brings me to my other point. It is important for you to try and ask as many questions you can. When Cowmeadow lectures, and runs throughout the topics as efficiently as he can, try to soak in everything. But at the moments you can, always try to get your questions out there and resolve any confusion you have. It’s better to have the problem solved at the expense of your ego, than just let that question fester and leave holes in your logic.Find buddies:Know the people around you, and understand where they stand on the AP Chemistry Mastery hierarchy. Learn their weaknesses and strengths and communicate with them. Chances are you will create a personal group to help answer personal questions, but also vent your frustrations at Chemistry itself. It’s great to have friends that you can count on, and you do not want to be alone in Chemistry class. Compare notes, share ideas, develop understanding. You do not have to be the most sociable person in the world, but at least make the effort to get to know at least 2 other people in your AP Chemisrty class.Notes (Always. Take. Them.):When Cowmeadow is lecturing, if he’s drawing something, if he’s asking you to visualize something, if he’s doing anything to help your understanding of the concepts, try to take your best notes. Take out piece of paper, write on the packets themselves, draw pictures in your binders, anything that helps you remember, do it. Also, keep every single packet, all pieces of information. Have everything he gives, they have their uses and there is a reason why he gives them to you.Suggestions for the AP Exam:This was the year in which the AP Chemistry exams were reviewed and we were given a more concept based exam. You have to know your material, you have to know how it works, but most importantly, you have to know how to connect things. Chemistry is tough because almost everything can be connected. What seems like a simple stoichiometry question slowly spirals into an electrochemistry problem. Values given from one concept could be spun and altered to ask a question from a different topic. The AP board has this control, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have control either. I suggest you review how topics and concepts can piece together. Wonder if that enthalpy value can be used for something else. The equilibrium-electro-thermo triangle is a popular combination of concepts that the exam will pull from. Know how the math works, but most importantly, know why it works. You have to be comfortable with understanding the nitty-gritty of the concepts. Why would these chosen solutions react this way? Does that alter my predictions? That’s the kind of stuff the exam will ask now, concept and understanding. However, it is still important to review the memory-based things; like VESPR, periodic trends, types of bonding, but the catch now is how does it happen? It’s not just knowing and pulling from memory, but also explaining why.A significant change to the AP exam is the lowering from 75 to 60 questions and taking out choice ‘e’ altogether. This is a significant advantage as a test-taker. You just greatly improved your chances to 25% from 20% and given yourself a little bit more breathing space for questions, without even doing anything. Use your time wisely, but don’t delve too much on things you aren’t sure of. Even though there are less questions, those are still 60 questions you have to get through and you don’t want to not finish your AP exam just because you were taking too long on question 27 and 45. Fill in answers if you aren’t sure and move on, you won’t get penalized. But when you are left to guessing, increase your chances of success by determining which answers could be right and are actually wrong. It’s better to have a 33% or 50% chance than a 25% when on multiple choice.When you are on free responses, stay on target and keep working. Any strategy you can take to make life easier is completely acceptable. Use the search and destroy tactic, by finding those questions that you know well, and do those as efficiently, accurately and as rapidly as possible. Or you could try tanking the free responses and start crunching through the most difficult ones first as to get them out of the way. Whatever way works for you, whatever way you can use to answer as many questions as possible, do it. But before you start any question, read through what they ask, know where the question is going to take you and be prepared for the changes and transitions in concepts.Class suggestions:?You don't get a lot of work, so try to do work when you actually get it. More practice means better results.Picture everything on the particle level:You can try to memorize the entire class (the process to do each type of problem), but having a fundamental understanding of what is physically happening is much more important, especially with the new exam style.On a similar note to the last bullet, ask and know why. If you don't know and understand why something occurs in an intuitive sense, chances are, you will not remember the content at the end of the year for the exam and will not be able to use that information as a part in more complex problems.?Exam Suggestions:Study to the test. There aren't as many practice tests out of this style, but it is important to know how the questions will be asked.?I will say that studying the SAT Subject Test for chem was useful as well although the material is slightly different than that of AP ChemTrust yourself: Your instinct will usually be right. (At least in my case) Trust it and save yourself time, so you can think about the more challenging questions.Keep the energy high. It's a long test and you will come across time consuming and arduous questions. Recognize when you come across these questions and consciously speed up after you come across one. There is momentum in test taking, so if you take long on a question, you will likely instinctively work slower on the next one, even if it is easy. Based on this year, time may be an issue on the FRQ as many didn't finish it. Don't let that be you.Don't worry. The only thing that could skew your reasoning is worrying. It's just another test; go out there and own it. Best of luck.AP chemistry is a challenging and tedious course, like many other AP classes. However, passing the class is definitely do-able with some hard, and dedicated, work. To the incoming students I suggest starting off the year right by not fooling around and by paying attention. Take notes and try to focus on the main points you need to know, from all that Mr. Cowmeadow divulges during his lectures. It is also important that you remember all you learned from the chemistry 1 course because it is expected of you. Finally, it is also in your best interest to actually complete the homework and keep your binder organized at all times. It is better to have everything organized instead of doing it last minute on the night before binders are checked. Like for the rest of AP exams, it’s best to start early on preparing for the AP chemistry exam. Review any topics that you may have forgotten or that you don’t feel comfortable with. The prep books also offer practice exams that may help you get used to the way the AP exam writers ask their questions. Since they changed the format of the AP chemistry exam this year, I would highly recommend taking practice exams that are more inquiry based rather than just your typical mathematical problems. Knowing the concept is so important because three-fourths of the free response questions require explanations, don’t rely on just knowing what to plug in to the formulas. Also, try timing and pacing yourself while you’re taking practice tests because time flies and in my opinion it’s hard to finish in the allotted time without practice. All in all, be sure you are taking time to just practice, because that is all that it comes down to in order to pass the AP chemistry test. Suggestions for success the class? Read the textbook!!! It is extremely well written and gives great example problems and shows you exactly how to solve them. It also fully explains the theory and why a certain process works the way it does, if you are interested in learning something more deeply.? Listen to Mr. Cowmeadow. He explains topics well and is always willing to answer questions if you don’t understand something – but if you have a question, make it something specific, e.g. “I don’t understand how to solve this problem, #34” not just “I don’t get this.”? Read the packets. Great supplement to the textbook, and a good way to quickly review one topic that you are unclear about.Suggestions for success on the AP exam? Do practice free-response questions from previous years. Time yourself and pretend you are taking a real exam, then go to the scoring guidelines and grade it. Understand what the AP graders are looking for and make sure you are doing it their way, to maximize the points that you can earn.? Look at the practice FRQs and figure out what your weakest topic is. Review that topic specifically until you are confident in it.? Do at least one AP multiple choice exam, to get used to the types of multiple-choice questions you will see on the real exam.To be successful in AP Chemistry, it is pretty important to stay engaged. I would suggest notsitting next to someone who you know you will end up talking to. In fact, if there’s someone you know you really don’t like, you should probably sit next to them. Doing the homework is always a good idea, even though it’s rarely graded. You’ll usually go over the answers the next day, and it’s much easier to avoid the shame if you actually did it.Definitely start studying for the exam early. It was a pretty hard test, despite it being more inquiry-based now. You need to make sure you understand all of the concepts because the questions don’t just ask you to use the formulas anymore. You have to be able to apply the concepts. I would suggest getting a review book that’s as up to date as possible. The practice tests in my older version were pretty much useless since we didn’t need to know all the detailed calculations from the old exam.Dear AP Chemistry victims,In reference to the actual class, Mr.Cowmeadow lectures for most of the hour. It is very wise to take good notes because he will point out what’s important and what’s on the test. Do his little homework assignments, and don’t be afraid to ask questions on them (as long as they’re not totally ludicrous because you probably will get sass back.) If you still don’t get something or feel very lost, I suggest using internet sources. For overall broad concepts, crash course chemistry on youtube helped organize my thoughts. Thatchemguy on youtube helped me most on many of the specific math problems and equations. For the labs, choose the people you work with wisely. You don’t want someone who will abandon you until he texts at 3AM wondering if you still need help the night before the lab is due (yes this happens!). Remember to follow the format that’s given on the syllabus. Don’t skim on your discussion questions, and ask Mr.Cowmeadow if there’s a question you don’t get. Tests and labs are most of your grade, so don’t treat them like they’re unimportant. Find a few friends and have a nice skype discussion before the test. Review what will be on the test and help each other if someone get’s something and the other doesn't. The AP test changed this year, so you should make yourself aware of what the new test is like. The test was very similar to the practice test on collegeboard that Mr.Cowmeadow will give you to practice. This would be a great starting point for deciding what concepts to study for the test, and you will get familiar with the question types.Suggestions for Next Year’s Victims in ClassYou have to do several things in order to succeed in AP Chemistry. Firstly, make sure you take time to study the current topic so that you can ask Mr. Cowmeadow questions if you don’t understand. Also, make sure you sit next to someone that won’t distract you during class time. Some of the topic need serious focus for you to understand them and would be extremely difficult to learn at home. Finally, make sure you stay involved and record details of the labs. The labs will help more than you think as long as you pay attention. Suggestions for Next Year’s Victims on AP TestThe AP test will seem scary and impossible at times but it is actually easier than you think. They understand that you won’t retain every single thing you learn and many of the questions are related. Just make sure you keep track of time. This is one of the prime examples for tests in which students run out of time, especially on the free response. Also, if you don’t know an answer for a free response, try to write something anyways. As long as you know the general topic of what you are writing about, you may still receive some points. Finally, make sure you bring the right materials; it isn’t that difficult to remember. ................
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