College Board AP Chemistry

 Update: QSL has an AP Chem MicroChem lab kit.  The labs coincide well with the inquiry labs required for the course.

College Board AP Chemistry has changed to a more inquiry-based course.  I have taught AP Chemistry—always with a great deal of trepidation.  The lab equipment necessary is also daunting.  You also need everything in Apologia’s Chemistry textbook just to start.  My recommendation is to coordinate with a college lab to use the Spec 20 and other equipment.  Here is the course and exam description.  Here are the guided-inquiry labs.  Here are the past three years’ free response questions (FRQs).  Here is an archive of FRQs.  I used the older FRQs because they are harder.  Why?  The kids were better prepared to tackle the current AP tests. Wing has these Review Packets.  It is hard to locate previous years’ multiple choice exams: 2008, 2002, 1984,  Sample Test, Practice Test, Practice 2024.  College Board ruthlessly ferrets out and removes sites with older MC tests.  The AP Chemistry guidebooks, such as Kaplan or Princeton Review, just aren’t hard enough.  Although I read in the WSJ the AP exams are easier.  (In another life, I graded AP Environmental Science exams.  For years, we graded tests with the AP Chemistry instructors.  I picked their brains and went to all of the evening sessions.  College Board hires teachers and college profs to hand grade the FRQs.  But that was years ago.  Even then, the older tests were much harder.) Use a college textbook, such as Zumdahl, which is usually a 200 level college course.  I attended an AP Chemistry Summer Institute (and a couple AP Environmental Science institutes); it was instrumental! The AP Classroom has help.  Here is a sample syllabus.  Here are instructional videos.  The other resource which is useful is the Chemistry Olympiad Exams.  These are hard and useful for practice.  TPT has a complete curriculum.  There is an AP Chemistry group on Facebook.  BTW, The Great Courses Chemistry is dry, and of questionable use for AP.  Ask me how I know.