AP Chemistry lesson inquiries keep coming in lately.
I have heard from students at international schools and independent private high schools in Songdo, Jeju, and elsewhere.
I have never even been near most of those schools, but most of the students I teach attend international or independent private schools.
I understand their tuition is expensive—around KRW 30 million even in Korea.
The students I teach pay more than US$30,000 in tuition. I have heard that all the expenses together can reach KRW 50 million a year.
That is much more expensive than university.
Anyway, back to the subject. I receive many AP inquiries, but plenty do not lead to lessons,
so I thought I should write down the answers to frequently asked questions here.
First, I generally do not teach an entire introductory AP course in these lessons.
Teaching everything from beginning to end over Skype is difficult. Explaining particular areas you do not understand is possible.
In practice, most lessons focus on solving questions.
For example, I provide one set of questions like these. The student solves them, I mark them, and then I answer questions about mistakes or anything unclear. This is much more efficient than listening to a complete introductory course, so it is my usual approach.
Lessons normally last one hour or an hour and a half.
At the time of this post, a one- to one-and-a-half-hour session cost US$75; a one-and-a-half- to two-hour session cost US$100.
I normally work on a twice-weekly basis. Once a week has not worked well: those students often miss lessons,
which disrupts the course, so I tend to avoid that arrangement.
In ten lessons, we normally work through at least five past papers.
The SAT Chemistry pricing follows a similar approach.
Again, I provide the questions.
Without a written-response section, they often take less time to finish.
The duration is not rigidly fixed. A lesson is usually around an hour to an hour and a half. I provide one past paper and one mock paper.
The student completes both before the lesson.
One lesson cost US$100, again based on ten lessons. Students work through at least ten past papers and about as many mock papers.
It takes close to 2,000 questions to build a solid score, so students need plenty of exam-style practice.
For IB Chemistry, I provide advance study or thorough final-exam preparation.
The foundation is to work through the past questions topic by topic.
Naturally, that takes a lot of effort. That is what these lessons are for.
We work through every topic from beginning to end. The student solves the questions; I mark them and explain everything they do not understand.
Doing this before the second year of high school would be very helpful. Then students can work through questions from other published resources, which I consider the best approach
for advance IB study. The arrangement was US$100 for 90 minutes, at least twice a week, working through the full material in blocks of ten lessons.
There are around 2,000 questions.
IA inquiries have slowed a little lately, but previously there were a great many.
It is very involved work, and I do not think writing an entire IA for someone is feasible.
I offer help with ideas and the overall format.
If the student already has an idea, I help refine it.
It is difficult to set a fixed price for these lessons. They necessarily cost more than the lessons above because the work also goes through a review by an American colleague,
which adds to the cost.
In any case, there are ways I can help you improve exam scores or work through the syllabus.
Please check the prices before contacting me for a consultation. Thank you.