<p>I'm planning on self-studying for the AP Chem exam in 2010. I've taken pre-ap Chem this past year as a sophomore. Anyone how has taken AP Chem, is it necessary to take the class to get a 4-5 on the exam?</p>
<p>Although I haven’t gotten my score back yet, I’m confident I got a 5 on the AP Chem exam. How did you do in Pre-Ap Chem? I found the material is not too difficult, but you have a significantly larger chance of getting a 4/5 if you take the class, but then again it all depends on your teacher’s competence. You could manage to self-study I guess, but the class would always be better. It won’t be as simple to self-study as AP Bio of course, but you can.</p>
<p>it’s difficult for me to imagine not taking the class in order to prepare for the test, but i think that’s because the difference between honors and AP at my school was very large. i haven’t gotten my score back yet either, but i’m pretty confident in my performance. also, i know that if i decide or need to repeat college chem it will be pretty easy to refresh my memory of the material. i’m sure you can self-study though, especially if you had a rigorous pre-AP Chem class.</p>
<p>The labs in AP chem helped A LOT when it came down to the free response. The lack of labs from self studying may cause you to have trouble in the free response lab questions.</p>
<p>I took an “honors” chem course and i self studied for AP. im 100% sure i got a 5, since you only need like 2/3 of the points to get one. AP exams really arent that hard.</p>
<p>You could definitely self study. Honors doesn’t cover a lot of material, but using PR with Zumdahl and some released tests is a good route to a 5.</p>
<p>So Princeton Review & Zumdahl is the way to go?
I was also looking at Chemistry with Chang?</p>
<p>Chemistry with Chang is the book we got in our AP Class. Although we didn’t use it that much, I found it easy to read and understand, so it will definitely be a useful tool for you. Other than that though, the Princeton Review for AP Chem is all you need and some practice tests and you should do fine.</p>
<p>I tried to self-study AP Chem. because I did so well in the Honors course, but it was definitely not a good idea. There’s a big gap in the material at my school, and I didn’t realize it.</p>