Guys im scared they wont be able to read my hand writing on FRQ. I’m also worried about the question where it talked about the three processes of dissolution of a salt in water, and why its exothermic. I only mentioned how the first two processes are endo, and the third is exo. Also, how much room for error could i have on frq, considering i got >45/60?
@ChessKing10 What do you mean by room for error? Do you already know your score?
@ChessKing10 keep in mind only 50 of the MC questions actually count, the other 10 are thrown out whether you get them right or wrong. so based on your estimate, you scored a 38/50 or so.
My estimate is that the cut line for 4/5 will be in the mid-70s (I have no information on this, just a feeling based off the FRQ). That means you’d have to get about 37/50 (34 of the possible 46 on the FRQ) to get to the 5 line.
Handwriting is an issue… The graders aren’t going to spend a ton of time trying to decipher it, but they will do their best.
There’s actually 4 processes, but the question was about the processes that contribute to it being exothermic, so you should only need to talk about the two (the ions to water w/ ion-dipole interactions). As long as you were clear that the other was exo, and not endo, you should be alright.
@APChemTeacher What do you think will be the cutoff to pass? Thanks!
@ReadWriteMath He’s estimating his score on the MC based on what he was comfortable with. We don’t know any scores yet, but I have gone through and made a “key” based on what I would answer for each of the questions and how many points each part I think will be worth, so he’s just estimating.
For all of you, I like the interest in the score, but remember that the learning is really the key. Try to learn from what you think you may have gotten incorrect as that is the more important thing, especially if you are planning on pursing a Chem related degree in the future.
@Greninja … Again, I have no definite knowledge, it’s all opinion, but based on prior exams and cut scores I’ve seen and the relative “ease” of this test compared to most I’ve seen (although it did have it’s tricks), I’d expect the cut scores to be a bit higher than they have been in recent years. 73-75 for the 4/5 line, 60ish for the 3/4 line and low-mid 40’s for the 2/3 line.
This puts the cuts in line with, but slightly above the 2014 International Exam (which teachers have access to), which I think was just a touch harder in the FRQ from this year. It is quite a jump from last year’s International Exam, which was a challenging test (what most students took as their mock exam that they said was hard).
@APChemTeacher The 2015 FRQ was much easier. I think the test as a whole was easier in 2015, and the 4-5 cutoff was a 72%. Why do you think this year was easier?
I mean if i feel pretty good about MC, will that compensate with some error on FRQ. I didn’t have time to do #6, and i don’t think i would’ve gotten it regardless, even though it was simple. @ReadWriteMath
@ChessKing10 Last year’s US exam FRQ’s that were released (for which I don’t know the cut scores for), had an average on the long FRQ questions below 4/10. I don’t see anyway that this years exam will approach scores that low for questions 1 or 2. I could be wrong on that, but there’s just too many “free” points on this test for the cut score to be lowered in my opinion.
Again, I have no definitive knowledge of where the cut scores will be, just my feeling having looked at multiple versions/cut scores from the past.
@APChemTeacher I’ve been trying to figure this out for a while: do you know if additional points are awarded for your free response if you score higher than the national average? This year in AP Calculus BC, my teacher always informed us that if we scored higher than the national average on an frq on the AP exam, our score was weighted more and we earned additional points. So for example, if we were to earn 6 points on an frq with a national average of 3.21, we might get 8 points, or if we scored 4 points on an frq with a national average of 2.67, we might get 5 points.
Does this same policy apply for AP Chemistry?
@writerzt71 No… You score what you score… There is 46 possible points on the FRQ section. Since it is 50% of your grade, they take the score and multiply by 1.0869 to get your score out of 50 (round to nearest whole #). Your MC score out of 50 (10 don’t count) will be added to the FRQ score. No additional weighting, just straight points.
@apchemteacher thank you for the information! so it seems that policy only applies to calculus. do you have any ideas which mc questions they don’t count and consider experimental? it would be a shame if 10 of the questions a student got right all ended up being thrown out
@writerzt71 No idea what questions they are… They are experimental to determine the “difficulty” of the question. The questions they don’t count are dispersed throughout the test, and the MC section isn’t released, so we have no idea.
At the end of the year, we are provided with how many of MC questions were from each of the 6 “Big Ideas”. That is how chemistry teachers (should) know what Big Ideas are more important (dot structures/IMF’s & Equilibrium) than others.
@APChemteacher As a whole I actually believe that the 2015 frq was easier. I scored higher on the 2015 one than I think I scored on the one this year. I thought the 4 pointers were trickier. What do you predict the 5 cut off to be?
@Acez4Dayz Looking at the 2015 full exam that we as teachers have access to (international version), the FRQ’s from that version last year were much trickier last year than this year in my opinion & the cut line was a 69. I think that this year’s questions we a bit simpler than the 2014 full exam that we have access to as well. The cut line on that version of the exam was a 72. Lookinng at those versions, I would estimate the cut to be in the 73-74 range, although I certainly may be incorrect.
People have been reporting that last year’s cut line was a 72. That is incorrect as far as I know as last year’s cut score lines for the main US exam weren’t released (at least not anywhere I can find). The 72 they are getting is from the 2013 International Exam, which as I said, I feel was probably just a touch more difficult than this year’s exam (but not much)
@APchemteacher according to AP Pass the cut off for a 5 last year was a 68. Do you think this years will be closer to like 72 than 75?
@Acez4Dayz that cut score on AP Pass is actually from the International Version of the test, not the US Version (US version wasn’t released). This year’s FRQ section atleast was significantly easier than last year’s Int Version, and my students thought that the test overall was WAY easier than the International Test last year (they took the Int. Version as their mock exam). They have also seen questions from the FRQ’s the last few years, and they thought across the board that this year was easier as a whole than anything that I had shown them. That’s why I think the cut line will be higher than it has been in recent past. They probably won’t announce the actual cut scores for the US exam (they will for the International test that they release to teachers), but if I had to guess, I’ve consistantly said towards the higher end of the 72-75 range, but in there somewhere.
I don’t think you can exclusively say that this test will have a high curve, because for some people this years test might have been really hard and last year’s really easy and vice versa, everyone has weakness and strengths on certain areas. So I dont think its practical to say a certain curve high or low based on selective opinions. Thus I believe thecurve will remain similar to last year like 69-71
@Kjykjy34 Last year’s curve on the 2014 International test were 27/42/58/72. The 2015 International Test cut lines were 25/36/53/69. Given that almost every student that I have heard/spoken to that has taken both versions of the exam and the exam this year (not just my students), they felt that this year’s test was significantly less difficult than either of these exams (and much less so than the 2015 exam). That is why I anticipate the higher cut scores. Problem is, the cut scores for the US version will probably never be released (International Exam will be), so we’ll probably never know where this year’s cut lines for the US version end up at.
As far as strengths/weaknesses, at this point that shouldn’t be as much of an issue. As teachers, we know going in that out 30% of the exam is going to be over equilibrium concepts, and 30% on dot structures/molecular attraction. The remaining 40% is spread out over kinetics, thermo, stoich, and other concepts. As a teacher, I know I have to really focus my students on those areas that the majority of the learning objectives (and therefore points) are questioned. Students who are weak in those areas should know going in that they are and are therefore not likely to score well. With my students, I told them a week before the exam what I expected each of them to score (they asked me) based on my knowledge of their strengths/weaknesses. I’m usually pretty close.
As I’ve said repeated times, I have no further insight into the cut scores other than what I know about where they’ve been the prior two years for the International Exam, and what I (and students who have taken all three) think of the difficulty of this year’s exam vs the prior years. It’s based on those that I’ve formed my opinion of where it will be at. I could be completely off base with my prediction of 72-75 (likely toward the higher end), but I doubt it.
I’m not trying to worry any of you about your score. As I tell my students, it’s one test on one day in your life and is far from the thing that will determine your success in the future. Just because you don’t score well on the AP Chem exam, doesn’t mean you can’t be a very successful chemistry/science/anything student in the future. Keep in mind that since the redesign, the # of 4’s and 5’s have dropped from approximately 40% of students taking the test prior to the redesign down to 23% last year. It’s not that the test has gotten more difficult, but rather the CollegeBoard seems to have decided that a lower % of students deserve a 4 or 5 compared to prior to the redesign.
@APChemTeacher I don’t know what I was thinking, but for the last free response involving the buret, I indicated precision in my answer and did the same for the calculation in part (b). I also got the last part for #7 wrong. Would all that warrant a complete zero on that FRQ?
In addition, for the third FRQ, part ©, I said you could discover if the substance was ionic by seeing how much it dissolved, and if it dissolved completely, then it would be ionic. Would I receive credit for that, or do you think they are strictly looking for you to discuss conductivity of ions in the solution?