<p>Saw no one posted one of these official threads for discussion. I'll be taking this course this fall as a junior, and I'm curious to know about which AP preparatory books/review books might be the best, because our AP Chem teacher told us to (ahead of time), buy AP review books, preferably from PR, since they actually write the tests. Is that the best one to get, at least the most recently published one?</p>
<p>Also, any advice from those who previously took AP Chem? Difficulty? I took chemistry as a freshman, and I have heard that AP Chem is pretty difficult. Should I be concerned? I like science, hope it isn't as hard as I've heard a lot of people say. =u Anyways, feel free to post comments or questions and stuff, might be questions I need answered.</p>
<ol>
<li>Best AP prep books are Barron’s and Crash Course. Your teacher must be wildly misinformed if she thinks PR writes the test. That is absolutely false. It is collegeboard. </li>
<li>AP chem is not difficult but the FRQs were deadly because the new format did not allow adequate amount of time to complete them. The class is pretty easy going especially if you’re coming from honors. The new multiple choice is actually much easier than years past.</li>
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<p>Unless my school messes up scheduling, I’ll be taking this next year. Have a decent grade in Honors Chem with the “hard” teacher (not the one that teaches AP though)</p>
<p>I took AP Chem this year. Here are my opinions:
It is quite a challenge. It’s going to be a lot different from your regular/honors chem. There are a lot of concepts that you’ll need to thoroughly understand, not just memorize a formula or plug in numbers. I took regular chem as a freshman (had like a 99% average) and took AP as a sophomore this year, had a 91% average. I found that I couldn’t get away with sparse studying like I can for other classes. You have to be able to devote your time to studying. Do homework. Take notes. Do any out-of-class learning that you can. Try hard, don’t slack off. It might take a while to get used to, but it’s worth it. In terms of cram books, I recommend Barron’s for throughout the year and Crash Course for near-exam-time to help you remember everything from the beginning of the year. If you get PR, make sure to get the newest one. But PR isn’t written by the College Board, so I don’t know what your teacher was saying.
Especially with the course redesign that started this year, you need to know how to explain how you arrived at your answer, and also explain why certain properties are the way they are. It’s all about justification, explanation, and so on. For example, “what is the partial pressure of CO2 when equilibrium is established? explain how you arrived at your answer” and “do you predict ClF3 to be trigonal planar or t-shaped? justify your answer”. It requires logic and explaining your thought process.
As far as the redesigned exam goes, it didn’t turn out as bad as AP Bio did in terms of score distributions, but everyone agrees that the exam (free response) was too long. They’re still deciding what to do about it for next year, so you guys will either get more time or fewer/shorter questions.
Anyways, best of luck to all of you upcoming AP Chem students. You’re in for a great(not really) ride. :)>- </p>
<p>I didn’t have the time to reply, as I was busy and all, so here are the replies to all of your comments!</p>
<p>@jimmyboy23 Weird…so Collegeboard writes the AP Tests? My AP Bio teacher said PR does, which is boggling, but you may be right. Also, I recently got the Crash Course in the mail, and realized I should probably grab the Barron’s as well. Are there as many errors as people say there are? (I’m making references to the Amazon customer reviews, so I don’t know if I should completely trust them) Also, yes, my friends who took this year’s updated AP Chem Exam said that they wish that they had more time on the FRQs.</p>
<p>@bloodythunder and @2016bostonian Cool! Good luck…I better order the tombstone now before I dive into junior year. </p>
<p>@Lovemydolphins Wow, thanks for the lengthy and helpful response, I appreciate it. I’m quite good about spending time outside of school, and am quite diligent and hardworking, but I have to manage my time much better if I’m planning on sleeping earlier than midnight or as late as 1 AM, which happened most nights my sophomore year. (No, I don’t procrastinate, but I’m a sucker when it comes to time :v) Lovely. I’m thrilled that Collegeboard updates the AP Exams the year I sign up. And also, is Barron’s fine? Not quite sure, been seeing mediocre reviews pertaining to heavy errors in the most recent edition from Amazon.com reviewers. I hope that the FRQs are better…I feel bad for those who took it, because that was all they complained about after taking the AP Chem Exam this year. Haha, thanks. I’ll just jump off of a cliff before the 2014-2015 school year. ^^</p>
<p>The Amazon reviews usually over-exaggerate. The only errors I saw in Barron’s were simple typos. Sometimes its some kid trying to boast how they are better than the authors. Most are usually wrong about the errors.</p>
<p>Yeah, as jimmyboy said, none of the errors in Barron’s were major. I didn’t find any errors that hindered my learning experience. The reviews are mostly exaggerated.</p>
<p>Advice: Read the textbook, thoroughly. You don’t necessarily need to MASTER anything anymore with the new test but you SHOULD still know your still. Multiple choice is going to be long, but when you see the questions you will be relieved if you had studied hard throughout the year. Free response was super long this year, I don’t know if they will shorten it. You gotta be quick.
I have no opinions on how the new prep books are.
The NUMBER ONE piece of study material you will be thankful to have (if you ever get it) is the official practice test. I regret only looking at it the night before for an hour, max. It was so similar to the real thing that I wanted to cry during the break. asdfghjkl.</p>
<p>Bozeman science videos are great for cramming. Eight hours long and go over the concepts that come straight out of the AP topic outline. If you want 90% on the multiple choice then you want to take a look at that.</p>
<p>@m4xw3ll well, AP Chem is pretty rigorous, but it’s not impossible. For me, it was definitely my most demanding class, but I got an A anyways (and looking for a 5). At my school, the people who said it was impossible were not the kind of people who gave it their all. If you try hard enough and care about it enough, you’ll be willing to read the textbook, do the homework, review review review, do practice tests and track your progress. In that case, it’s surely possible! </p>
<p>@m4xw3ll 1) At my school, we have a block schedule where each class meets every other day, so we have 2 (or more if it’s a weekend) nights to do homework. In our AP chem class, we got about 3 hours of homework between each class meeting. I would do half one night and half the next, so it ended up being about 1.5 hours of homework per night. Then again, it depends on your teacher.
2) I took it with AP euro. AP euro was way less demanding (only about 30 minutes of hw per night, if that)</p>
<p>I took it last year and I used PR and Crash Course. I ABSOLUTELY LOVED PR as it had the best information and the most accurate tests (however, that’s not the greatest feat). While Crash Course had the material, I felt as if it was too simplistic and narrow, and the test was absolute bs. I had friends who used Barrons and HATED it. Barrons has way too much inaccurate information and is horrible to work with. The new test is ENTIRELY conceptual, with two math problem parts on the entire test. Self-studying for it would be close to impossible and would require a lot of time, so it is advisable to take AP Chem. Without the course, you will not get a 5 (which is what I am assuming you are aiming for). If you maintain a consistent track record of As throughout the year, and study diligently, you should have a good shot at a 5. I personally thought the MC section was fine, could have done better, but was close to the PR estimates. Also, while the FRQ were too long (usually I finished them in 40 minutes on the old tests and PR, but the real thing took me the entire 90 minutes), they were not particularly difficult if you have a good teacher (confident I got ~55 points/60). The best advice is to PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE. I took countless tests and think I will end up with a 5. </p>
<p>The AP exam has changed, so this previous year, none of the prep books really prepared you well for the test. A trend I see though, is that PR is actually a bit on the easier side. I would buy another book like Barron’s just in case. Also, if most of your class/hw is spent doing math-based calculations on chem problems, then you want to put some of your own time into learning concepts since the new exam is much different. My class was really good, yet I still felt unprepared and worried when I actually saw the exam questions (I might be just over-doubting myself after the exam though). Some topics are going to be much easier than others, but if you can get through the class, you’ll do fine on the exam. </p>
And also, is Barron’s fine? Not quite sure, been seeing mediocre reviews pertaining to heavy errors in the most recent edition from 
^^</p>