Is self-studying for AP Chemistry even possible?

[AznBoi]

Is self-studying for AP Chemistry even possible??

I'm planning on taking Chemistry honors and they teach AP Chem material. However the teacher doesn't teach so I basically need to self-study for the hard tests, labs, and quizzes he gives frequently. Is it possible to spend only an hour each day to keep up with the class?? How long do you really need to study AP Chemistry for to get A's in your class and a 5 on the AP exam??

I have taken AP Physics B and will be taking AP BIO and APES concurrently with Chemistry Honors. I have self-studied some of fluids, thermodynaimcs, heat, and atomic/nuclear physics already for the AP Exam. Thermodynaimcs and heat took me only a few days to study (crammed by studying the WHOLE day), I understood most of it too. Atomic/nuclear I spend about a week to grasp everything, photoelectric effect, nuclear reactions, E=mc^2 and understood it pretty well. When I attempted to self study these sections, they seemed HARD to me at first and I couldn't get anything. I had to look at many sources to firmly comprehend the basics, after that I got everything down by rereading many times and practicing.

Since I'm able to self study thermodynamics in a couple days, and the others in less than a few weeks while understanding most of the material. Will I be able to take on Chemistry Honors (which teaches like an AP class) by myself with no instruction from the teacher at all? Do you guys have any links to sites, especially podcasts, that allow you to understand the material? I really want to tackle this class so I'm starting to get insight/advice now. Chemistry honors should be taken with AP Bio and APES right? Should I not put chemistry off until my senior year or a community college? Thanks guys! =]

 

[Werg22]

God, your stressing this as if AP Chemistry is the hardest thing on earth. It's a High School course, calm down. Get yourself a copy of the Chemistry book by Silberberg and/or Zumdahl and you should be good.

 

[G01]

Aznboi, This must be the 7th thread you've started on the topic of this chemistry course. Calm down, stop listening to what everyone else says about this teacher and just take the course. You'll be fine.

 

[AznBoi]

Yeah I'm going to take the course next year but I don't know what I should start reviewing. Yeah, I really want to go to a good college and getting a C or even a B isn't something that I want. Most of the people who have As are people who have all of there time to study since they are lower class men and that is there only hard class. I guess I need to deal with it. Are there any good podcasts/online lectures that could accommodate me in the course though?

 

[proton]

If you keep worrying like this, you'll probably won't do so well. Just relax and try to enjoy chemistry. Its not like its the end of the world if you don't get an A in the class. Anyway, MIT might have some online chem lectures

 

[d_leet]

Yeah I'm going to take the course next year but I don't know what I should start reviewing. Yeah, I really want to go to a good college and getting a C or even a B isn't something that I want. Most of the people who have As are people who have all of there time to study since they are lower class men and that is there only hard class. I guess I need to deal with it. Are there any good podcasts/online lectures that could accommodate me in the course though?

Getting a B does not prohibit you from attending a good college.

 

[tim_lou]

first of all, high school classes do not really matter. I've always wanted to take the toughest course available in high school... but really, after I got into college, high school stuffs seem sooo trivially...trivial. its nothing more than peer pressure, since all the smart kid s are taking honors class and what not..

Secondly, what is important is the learning experience. Heck, if you wish, you can even study 5 APs together. AP chemistry is not even hard given that you are willing to work. Stop asking people for advice, you should have a good clue on what you are capable of. If you are comfortable reading textbook on your own, go ahead, do whatever you got to do. If not, don't even bother asking.

 

[leon1127]

I took 3 AP courses in my senior year, and I managed to pass 7 exams at the end of the semester. You just need to love what you learn.

 

[mgiddy911]

I took the AP Chem exam last year after a pretty bad teacher. I had to study on my own time a ton, and I ended up getting a 4, which was fine with me, better than i expected. I thought the exam was long, but not terrible. I suggest buying one of the AP prep books and studying in class if your teacher is poor. Thats what I did towards the nearing of the AP exam. they cover what each section of the exam will be like. Ask your teacher for practice tests or look for them online. I recommend hammering down the Reactant / Product section where they give you in words something like Pure Methane is combusted with Oxygen. And you have to right the reaction in chemical terms, you get so many points for the reactants and so many for the products. I highly recommend studying for that part and making sure you can get full credit

 

[jbergmann]

Podcasts: I am an AP Chemistry teacher in Colorado (Woodland Park) and I am making AP Chemistry Podcasts. The website is: http://www.wpsdk12.org/~jbergmann/APChem
or you can simply go to google and search for AP chemistry Podcasts. You can also find my podcasts on itunes by searching AP Chemistry in the directory.

If you have coments or emails my email is: jbergmann@wpsdk12.org

 

[leon1127]

I am sorry... I posted the same message already...

 

[asd1249jf]

You know, you are in a similar situation as I was - Except mine was a little bit more extreme:

I took 6 AP Courses in my senior year, which one of the courses included AP Chemistry and I haven't took a single chemistry course before then. So the reason which I took AP chemistry before General chemistry is that - Well, first of all, I was taking AP Calculus BC at the same time, so that satisfies my math requirement and I took a physics class prior to that year and also taking AP Physics at the same time, so I believe that I had, to a little extent, some knowledge in chemistry and I thought I could do fine. Second of all, I was sure that I'd get college credit off AP Chemistry, so I wanted to take it.

Of course, as it turned out, AP Chemistry turned out to be my hardest class, because they were going faster than I imagined. I ended up getting a B, and a 3 on the AP exam, which wasn't bad. (By the way, I didn't study a single minute for my AP Chemistry exam as I was more concerned about the other AP exams I had to take)

The point I'm trying to make here is that the work you'll be doing will be considerably hard, at your stage. But as others said - it's only a high school class, I promise you that this stuff will be come immensely easy as you move along to higher insitution of education and you'll come across classes that you just want to erase its existence from the earth. So don't give up - as long as you are determined to work hard, you can surely achieve what you want from the class.

[Edit]Oh by the way, as you said earlier, if you do all the homeworks, pay attention in class, ask questions to the teacher if you don't understand something, and study the subject (Going over the notes, reading the textbook etc) for an hour, or even thirty minutes, I don't see why you can't get an A and a 5 on AP Exam.