<p>I really like chemistry, and since my school doesn't offer AP chem (and half the other classes i would love to take), i decided to buy some ap chem books and answer booklets that i can study from over the summer and next year. my honors chem teacher has agreed to help me out a bit next year, and since she will also be my hnrs microbiology/genetics teacher, that would be perfect. but i read somewhere among these posts that it is almost impossible to teach yourself chemistry. In my hnrs chem class, which i took as a sophie, i always got the highest grades and seemed to know A LOT. this year as a junior i took hnrs physics and ap bio. so what do yall think? is it doable? i would especially like some advice from people who have taken the ap chem class or have done an independent study of ap chem. </p>
<p>yea i self studied ap chem last year, it was pretty managable as long as u get ur schedule straight.
i started in october. i used the steven zumdahl book Chemistry, which was really great.
I read chapters 1 - 17 in the Zumdahl book, and did many of the practice problems. I supplemented this with ARCO, which i found to be an excellent AP Chem prep book. Read about 1 chapter in the Zumdahl book a week and you should be fine. helped me get a 5.</p>
<p>That's what I plan to do this year. I'm sure it's possible, anything is possible. And you like chem too, that's a plus. Do what wrathofgod did, you'll be fine.</p>
<p>Edit: If anyone knows, could they tell me if they found ARCO on amazon?</p>
<p>A five is not really that elusive of a benchmark to obtain. Additionally, AP exams do not assess your overall intelligence, but simply knowledge applicable to a specific area of study.
ps: The Zumdahl book definitely helped me. hoping for a 4</p>
<p>if i had just read my book this year, i would have felt very prepared. i would recommend getting the frqs from past years and grading materials for them. if you do that and read, you will have no problem. the curve is very lenient.</p>
<p>The chem exam is easy. If you read about 80% of your general chemistry book (exclude the chapters going into detail about the elements and biochem) and understand it well, you can get a 5.</p>
<p>yeah. zumdahl is great, and like johnny said, frq's. my chem teacher has a 60% rate of getting 5s, and that's mostly from intensive study sessions that weren't really intensive - we just did past tests. practice tests all the way.</p>
<p>I think that the chem exam is one of the easier ones, because it mixes a really generous curve (usually 60% or so for a 5, I think) with a test syllabus that really doesn't cover that much. At first, the amount of material covered by the ap chem test may seem overwhelming, but ultimately there really isn't too much knowledge necessary for a solid 5. So, if you like chemistry, go for it.</p>
<p>It's not impossible, just start studying several months in advance. Learn the material, do practice problems, then do practice tests and review where necessary. One of my friends self studied AP chem in addition to 2 other self-study classes</p>