How to Work Toward a 5 in AP Chemistry in 2020

Hello. From today, I will write my posts in a more polite tone. Today’s topic is how to earn the top score in AP Chemistry in 2020.

More than half my students have earned a 5 in AP Chemistry. They usually begin somewhere between the second year of middle school and the second year of high school in Korean terms, and some start in their first middle-school year. There are also final-year high-school students urgently seeking a score, though their time with me is short, so I remember them less clearly. Haha.

Compared with some subjects, a 5 in Chemistry does not seem too difficult to reach. I think close to 70% of my students have earned one. Of course, they worked harder than most, and I think guiding them closely helped produce those results.

If you are new to AP Chemistry, first study the past-paper questions.

https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/pdf/ap19-frq-chemistry.pdf

I recommend downloading and trying them. If you are not ready to solve them, analyze them instead. Watch the videos I recently uploaded, which explain the 2019 Chemistry free-response questions.

I uploaded a video for each question. They should help with that analysis.

Question 1.

https://www.jjangji.com/en/blog/221621628126

Question 2.

https://www.jjangji.com/en/blog/221622057461

Question 3.

https://www.jjangji.com/en/blog/221622649690

Question 4.

https://www.jjangji.com/en/blog/221623395729

Questions 5 and 6.

https://www.jjangji.com/en/blog/221623681974

Question 7, the final question.

https://www.jjangji.com/en/blog/221624640011

The written posts mainly contain the questions and answers. I realized that detailed explanations would become too long.

Even a little extra detail in the videos quickly pushed them past 30 minutes, so I could not explain everything fully. In short, the explanations are brief. Thank you for understanding.

First, watch the videos and analyze the questions. Understand the exam’s patterns before planning your study around them. Once you have a rough idea of how questions appear, choose your books.

Two of the best-known books

are shown here. I use Princeton as the main text and work through all the questions in both Barron’s and Princeton. Then we do free-response questions

and finally use past papers to strengthen exam performance.

I think it is important to cover the foundations accurately but quickly. A good instructor helps with that. Large classes can work, but a good private tutor alongside you is also useful. You do not have to read every line if you properly understand the explanations

and apply them to questions. That can bring the top AP Chemistry score within reach faster than you expect.

In my lessons, especially with middle-school students whose concentration is shorter, we study for around 90 minutes at a time.

At twice a week, we finish one book and all its questions in about two months. Then we spend another month doing the questions in a second book. That makes three months.

After that, we spend around a month analyzing free-response questions and move on to other past papers. After roughly four months or more, students have built substantial skills. Going through this in middle school can put them far ahead of their classmates.

Studying later becomes more demanding, so many students prepare early. I sometimes think early Chemistry preparation can produce more noticeable results than the same time spent on English or Math.

Alongside group classes, I still tutor individuals: two in person and one over Skype.

The advantage of Skype is flexibility. If a student is reluctant to go out late at night, a Skype lesson saves travel time. Students’ time is precious, so even this kind of saving can help a great deal.

The chart above shows the proportions of 5s in recent AP exams. Chemistry is the highest among those shown, exceeding 10% in 2018. In 2018 and 2019, some students said it was easier to earn a 5 in AP Chemistry than a perfect SAT Chemistry score; to me, these figures seemed consistent with that impression.

I hope you study hard and achieve good results in the 2020 AP Chemistry exam.

Sample 1…

Sample 1 made by JjangJi.

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