I’m planning to take AP Chemistry my junior year, as I love chemistry and I am very interested by it. I hear it is one of the hardest APs, and often debated as the hardest AP class. I got a 96% in Honors Chemistry and grasp concepts very easily, but I know AP Chemistry will be much more rigorous and dive much deeper. That said, about how hard is it to get an A in AP Chemistry?
There are way too many variables to answer your question! If there are 10,000 kids taking AP Chem - there will be 10,000 different answers. You can’t even rely on a normal Bell Curve distribution, because of the self-selecting that goes into the students that take AP Chem. You can go to the AP website and check out the scores for the last couple of years if you want some hard data on scores and then extrapolate scores to grades.
However, I think your real question is “Will I get an A in AP Chem?”… and you are the only one that can answer that. You can always ask your GC what the grade distribution has been for your school - but that still won’t give you the answer that applies to you. Since you got a 96 in Honors Chem, you realize what is required to get a good grade; you just have to dig in and do it. Good Luck!
It really varies depending on the quality of teachers you have. If you have high quality teachers, you will do better than those with weaker teachers. Ask upperclassmen who’ve taken the class.
Ask kids who also get good grades and have gone from Honors Chem with your teacher up to AP Chem in the past. They’re going to be able to give you the best possible advice for your situation.
My kid was straight ‘A’ and top 5 in his class entering Junior year, which included Sophomore year Honors Chem. His AP Chem teacher gave the kids a summer packet and told them, ‘Some of you will get your first B in your life in this class’. He didn’t believe it, barely passed the class and somehow scraped out a 3 on the AP test. It was by far the toughest course in 4 years of high school. That said, don’t be afraid. Just take it VERY seriously, get started in the summer, start study groups early in the fall, don’t be afraid to ask your teacher for help, and find outside study sources (like Khan academy). I’m sure you can attain a very acceptable grade if you take it seriously.