hrere you go, to help

[silvers]

THE AP

CHEMISTRY

SURVIVAL GUIDE

 

 

DON’T PANIC

 

 

AP Chemistry moves fast and is extremely challenging. Generally that translates directly to hard and
extremely stressful. Do things right before you make the same mistakes previous students have made!
Dates
AP Chemistry exam: Thursday May 7 th 2020
Deadline to sign up and pay for the exam: November 1 st 2020
Read the Textbook
We will be covering chapters 1 through 18 (with some information from chapters after 20). Not all of the
information you will be tested on will be covered in class. Therefore, you need to read the textbook. Not
read and take notes as one can take notes all still not remember what they read. You need to read and
internalize the information. Here are some helpful tips on reading difficult textbooks:
1. Settle in. Find a place that has few distractions. Your bedroom. Or a nearby tree. Or a closet
somewhere. This may involve turning off your cell phone. Or your music. Or your TV. Try
different things and find out what works best for you. Remember that not everyone learns the
same way. Some people concentrate better with music while for others music just distracts them.
2. Skim through the section you’re about to read. Make note of the section headings and topics in
that section. Look at diagrams and pictures and read the captions. Look up the definition of
vocabulary words/words you aren’t familiar with and make a list of terms.
3. Read the section. Chances are you aren’t going to remember much of what you read the first time
through. That’s ok. Just read it. Don’t stop. If you don’t understand anything you’re reading that’s
fine too. Just read it through at least once.
4. After that, dig in and take notes. Read the section now for comprehension. This is where taking
notes helps. By the time you’re done you need to be intimately familiar with the information
they’re trying to teach you. That includes the ability to work out the sample problems and practice
problems when applicable. While this is technically the third time you’ve read this particular
section, you may find you have to read it again a fourth or a fifth time. Remember: the goals isn’t
to read the textbook. The goal is to internalize the information.
5. Read it again. Remember that you need to review information repeatedly in order to commit it to
your long term memory. That means this process should ideally span multiple days. You should
plan for the process to span multiple days. It’s going to take you several hours to read a chapter in
the textbook. You can’t do this all in one sitting. Plan to spend at least 30 minutes to 1 hour a day
(about 5 hours a week) reading the book.
There will be some things that you don’t understand no matter how many times you read it. In those
cases you need to activate outside help. Ask me questions about it or use the internet for additional help.
The information in the first two chapters isn’t extremely difficult. Use this as an opportunity to form good
reading habits, get comfortable with the Lexile level of the book.
Mastering Chemistry has an online textbook that can be accessed from smartphones. Just FYI 

Log on to Mastering Chemistry:
TRO – A Molecular Approach, 3 rd Edition
1. Register atnot gonna put it here lul 
2. Enter the first 6 letters of your code below not gonna put it here lul 
3. Click on: *Covered Titles then *Science then *Tro, Chemistry: A Molecular Approach 3e
(MasteringChemistry Access) then *Student Registration
4. Accept – Pearson License Agreement
5. Access Information
 Enter username & password if you already have a Pearson account or create your own
 Enter the access code below:
 Account Information-complete or verify your name & school information
Schonot gonna put it here lul 
Ender school name not gonna put it here lul 
6. Confirmation & Summary
7. Sign in
 Use your actual first and last name (not a nickname) or it will mess up the gradebook when I
transfer grades from Mastering to Synergy.
 The course ID is not gonna put it here lul 
8. Enter your Student ID
The assignments this year are tied to the textbook but will be done online through the Mastering
website. If access to the internet is an issue please contact me.
The Homework is on Mastering!
This homework cannot be completed the night before the test. Assignments are more than 10 hours long
and, like the reading, should not be attempted all at a single sitting. If you find yourself spending more
than 30 minutes on a single problem, stop and bring the problem in to your instructor. Usually, a 2 minute
conversation will get you un-stuck. This strategy only works if the next day isn’t the test which means you
should start your objectives ASAP!
Multiple choice questions will permanently cost you a fraction of a point for each incorrect guess. So don’t
guess! If you aren’t sure about the answer, go back to the textbook and re-read the pertinent section. If
you’re still not sure bring the question in and ask your instructor.
Homework assignments can be started when the unit starts and will close the morning of the test. Early
morning of the test. This means you can’t pull an all-nighter the night before the test as the homework
problems become unavailable at around midnight. Start the homework early!!

Help! I Spend All My Time Doing Labs!
Yup. It’s Chemistry and that means goggles. AP Chemistry in particular requires a lot of time spent doing
labs (it’s actually a required part of the College Board AP Chemistry Syllabus). We will provide goggles but
if you want to get your own (especially if you plan to do more wet sciences in college) you may. Be sure to
run them by your instructor before you buy them because some safety equipment is inadequate to AP Chem.
Here are a couple pairs of goggles that will work fine:
From Amazon:
not gonna put it here lul 
Pros: Very comfy. Excellent protection. Cons: Takes time to be delivered. $20.
From The Home Depot:
not gonna put it here lul 
Pros: Also comfy. Anti Fog. Excellent Protection. You can just buy them at a Home Depot store and have them right
away. Cons: You have to go to a Home Depot store and sometimes they smell funny.
Actually any pair of ANSI approved goggles will work. Safety glasses will NOT work. You can spot goggles because
they form a seal around your face. Have your own pair of goggles is completely optional. Your instructor will
provide you with goggles if you don’t want to buy them yourself.
If you wear nice clothes to school or if you have to wear a school uniform (cheerleading, football, etc.) you may need
to protect your clothes during labs. I will provide aprons for students who want them or you can buy yourself a lab
coat. In addition to making you look awesome lab coats offer superior protection as well as additional pockets. You
can buy a lab coat from any uniform supply store. Caution: you may have to resist the urge to impersonate a doctor.
They don’t like it when you put on your lab coat and pretend to work there.
You will need to wear close-toe’d shoes when we do labs. During the winter this is not much of a hardship but
during the summer you may find you need to bring a pair of shoes and swap out.
Washing your hands is important. When you wash your hands too much they dry out. You may find you need to
keep a little bottle of lotion with you. Pro-Tip: If you get the non-scented lotion it won’t annoy your teachers and
classmates as much.
The Enemies of AP Chemistry Students
There are two main reasons students fail AP Chemistry:
Procrastination:
Students who underestimate the rigor of the course and don’t begin assignments immediately find there is
literally not enough time in the day to complete an assignment the day before it is due. This is normal for
college and AP Chemistry is a college class. Students who have not yet mastered the art of self-control and
motivation find themselves swamped under an impossibly large mountain of work. They haven’t spent the
time to learn the information and are hopelessly unprepared for the tests. They haven’t read the textbook
and haven’t mastered the information necessary to understand what is going on in the labs. They spend
their two weeks playing video games, or talking to their friends, or doing other extracurricular activities
and find that they’ve suddenly run out of time. The feeling of panic you get when you wait until the last
minute has caused many students to attempt to cheat on their assignments. Remember that cheating on
a lab or a test gets you a zero on the assignment (which will be extremely difficult to recover from) and a
referral for academic dishonesty. Procrastination is going to utterly destroy you this year. Students who
procrastinate in AP Chemistry earn D’s and F’s. There is very little margin for failure. This is a college

course and you’re going to have to bring your game to a whole new level. Don’t let procrastination
destroy you! Fight it!
Start your assignments immediately and when you start to feel overwhelmed at the task ahead of you
relax. You’ve got time. At least you do right now because you started right away. You need to form good
habits. Make a schedule and stick to it. Plan/Budget/Schedule. Decide when you’re going to work on AP
Chemistry each day, what you are going to do, when and when that time comes, stop whatever you’re
doing and go do AP Chemistry. Remember planning out your day doesn’t work if you don’t have the
mental fortitude to stick to your plan. Students who can plan out their study/work time and stick to that
plan do much better in the course than students who don’t. It’s one of the few predictors of success.
Hopelessness:
The other main factor that causes AP Chemistry students to fail is the feeling of becoming overwhelmed and
thinking your will never be able to catch back up. Such students give up in the course and the premonition becomes
self-fulfilling. If you give up you’re going to be miserable all year.
Courage! Generations of students have taken and made it through AP Chemistry. You have the potential to be one
of them! You have the potential to develop all the skills and habits you will need to be successful. The course will
be challenging but it’s been challenging for everyone always before you and if they could do it, so can you. You
know that feeling when you’re doing something for the first time and it’s hard? And you do it more and more and it
becomes easier and easier? Most AP Chemistry students don’t ever move past that feeling of “this is hard” because
they never have a chance to get out of that “I’m doing this for the first time” zone. If you’re thinking you can’t do
this, that it’s too much for you, that feeling is normal. Everyone feels that way in AP Chemistry. It’s a hard
class. But though everyone feels like they can’t, by the time the course is over they find that they have.
Not that they can be successful, but that they were successful. As long as you don’t give in to
hopelessness you will make it through to the end. This course is going to require your best effort. In fact it’s
going to require effort you didn’t know existed. If you get in trouble or you’re feeling in over your head
get in touch with me. Remember: you aren’t the first students to go through this. I’m here to help, but
you have to want help. You have to come activate that help or I’ll assume you’re getting help from
somewhere else.

KNOW YOUR IONS
You need to have memorized the list of ions below. Be sure to pay attention to superscripts versus subscripts and
which letters are capital and which are lower case. It is suggested that you make flashcards as shown below.
Front: Back:

Acetate C 2 H 3 O 2 1–
Aluminum Al 3+
Ammonium NH 4 1+
Barium Ba 2+
Bicarbonate HCO 3 1-
Bisulfate HSO 4 1-
Bisulfite HSO 3 1-
Bromate BrO 3 1-
Bromide Br 1-
Bromite BrO 2 1-
Cadmium Cd 2+
Calcium Ca 2+
Carbonate CO 3 2-
Chlorate ClO 3 1-
Chloride Cl -1
Chlorite ClO 2 -1
Chromate CrO 4 2- (yellow)
Chromic Cr 3+
Chromous Cr 2+
Cupric Cu 2+ (blue)
Cuprous Cu 1+ (blue)

Cyanide CN 1-
Dichromate Cr 2 O 7 2- (orange)
Cobalt Co 2+ (red/pink)
Ferric Fe 3+
Ferrous Fe 2+
Fluoride F 1-
Hydronium H 3 O 1+
Hydroxide OH 1-
Hypochlorite ClO 1-
Iodate IO 3 1-
Iodide I 1-
Iodite IO 2 1-
Lead Pb 2+
Lithium Li 1+
Magnesium Mg 2+
Manganese Mn 2+
Mercuric Hg 2+
Mercurous Hg 2 2+
Nickel Ni 2+ (green)
Nitrate NO 3 1-
Nitride N 3-

Nitrite NO 2 1-
Oxalate C 2 O 4 2-
Oxide O 2-
Perchlorate ClO 4 1-
Permanganate MnO 4 1-
(purple)
Peroxide O 2 2-
Phosphate PO 4 3-
Phosphide P 3-
Phosphite PO 3 3-
Potassium K +1
Silver Ag +1
Sodium Na +1
Stannic Sn 4+
Stannous Sn 2+
Strontium Sr 2+
Sulfate SO 4 2-
Sulfide S 2-
Sulfite SO 3 2-
Thiocyanate SCN 1-
Zinc Zn 2+

C 2 H 3 O 2 –1 acetate

Chemistry is a second language. Fortunately it’s not very hard to learn the syntax, but these ions are your new
alphabet. I’ll be speaking the language in class from the word “go.” If you have learned your ions you should
have no trouble following the conversations. If you haven’t learned them you may find yourself confused
thinking that I’m speaking a completely other language. Which I am: the language of Chemistry. Learn them
right now.
You’re ability to communicate your ideas (and, indeed, to generate them) is going to be dependent on your
familiarity with Chemistry. The more you learn the smarter you’ll be. You will need to be able to clearly
communicate your ideas and use academic vocabulary when you take the AP test in May.
These things are suggestions. They’re completely optional. Right now at least. These will be things you’ll
have to do once school starts but if you start them over the summer you can do yourself lots of favors.
Directions for Writing up a Full Lab Write-up
You may want to refer to this several times during the process of writing up a lab. Think of this as an essay that requires
several drafts. That means paragraphs and complete sentences and grammar and spelling and good syntax and maybe a
pre-write or two and all of the other skills that you’ve learned. But don’t worry, usually the hardest part of an essay is
figuring out what your topic is and doing all the research. That won’t be an issue here because the topic is the lab and
you’re already and expert on what you did! All you have to do is write about it.
Communicating your research is an essential part of the scientific process. In fact, without the communication aspect of
science there isn’t much of a reason to have science. Lab write-ups will give you excellent practice in communicating
chemical concepts effectively for when you take the AP Test in May.
As much as possible, the lab should be written in passive voice. Try not to use the words “I” or “we.” For example:
In this experiment we synthesized alum from aluminum powder, potassium hydroxide and sulfuric acid. We then filtered
the product with an aspirator.
This would be better written as:
Alum was synthesized from aluminum powder, potassium hydroxide and sulfuric acid. The resultant product was then
filtered with an aspirator.
If you’re having trouble with this do the best you can and move on.
Segments of the Lab Write-up
All of the sections will be included in every lab, however, some aspects will not apply to every lab. For example, some
labs may not have graphs, or some may not have calculations or results as numbers.
1. Title – Describe the lab in one sentence. Don’t be afraid to make it long. The title needs to incorporate two pieces
of information: 1) what was the point of the lab: what specifically were you finding? 2) how did you find the results
(what method did you use to do it)?
2. Abstract –
The abstract is a summary of your experiment. You should only write your abstract after you complete the
experiment and finish calculating your results. Because of this, you shouldn’t begin writing up the lab until you
collect all the data and finish all the calculations.
2.1. Explains the goal of the experiment. What are you trying to do/discover/practice in this lab? The purpose of
the experiment is included in this section. However, this should only be a summary. Specific quantities of

chemicals or their concentrations shouldn’t be mentioned here. This should be a 1-2 sentence general
summary of the lab including its purpose.
2.2. Briefly describes and summarizes your results in one or two sentences. Include specific numbers from your
results. Make sure to summarize only your ultimate results. Don’t report the results of every calculation you
did, just the final results of the experiment. Whatever you mentioned as the purpose should be what you
report as results. Be sure to include an analysis of the accuracy of your data (either %Error or %Yield –
whichever is appropriate).
3. Experimental Procedures –
3.1. If your set-up is detailed or unusual, draw a picture of your set-up and label everything. If the set-up isn’t very
complicated a picture might not be necessary.
3.2. Make a numbered list of step-by-step instructions allowing someone to reproduce exactly what you did.
Someone who has never seen/done this lab should be able to look at your picture and read your directions and
be able to do exactly what you did. Include specific quantities of chemicals added and their concentrations
where appropriate.
4. Data –
The purpose of the data section is to record only the raw data from your experiment. For example: the temperature
of the solution, the mass of the reactants, the mass of the products, the pressure reading from the barometer,
volume of solution used/taken/recorded/titrated, etc. Anything you had to do a calculation to find or came from an
equation would not go in the data section; it would go in the results section. Simple calculations like subtraction or
addition may be considered “data” and not “results,” however.
4.1. All data must be recorded in tables. There may not be any tables without titles. Titles should be descriptive.
All numbers recorded must have units. The units may be at the top of a column in parenthesis or attached
directly to the number in the cell of the table.
The results of simple calculations can go in the data section if you judge the calculations to be basic enough.
For example the difference in volume or one number divided by another.
4.2. Record your observations (what you saw/heard/smelled) where appropriate. Describe what happened during
this experiment. Don’t explain why you saw what you saw, just write down hard facts/observations. Just what
happened.

5. Results –
The results section is for recording what you do with your raw data. All calculations must have a representative set
of calculations (sample calculation). Simple calculations like addition and subtraction may not need a sample
calculation. If there are any graphs they appear in this section as graphs are generated from the raw data.
5.1. If your data needs graphs, they go here. Label graphs with titles. The axis (both x and y) must have titles and
the axis must also have units in parenthesis.
5.2. Sample calculations – for every calculation you do, and every equation you use, that must be recorded here.
These are, however, samples. If you do one calculation three times for three different trials, but all the
calculations are the same save you use different numbers, you only have to show this calculation once in your
write-up using one of your data sets. If, however, you do a different calculation with a different equation, that
calculation needs to be shown as well. All sample calculations need to have descriptive titles and work shown
with units canceling.

Calculating the %Error or the %Yield WILL NOT be included as a sample calculation. It is not necessary to show
samples of basic calculations like addition, subtraction, multiplication or division or extremely common
calculations like %Error, %Yield, or averages.
5.3. The results from your calculations go here. All numbers must be reported in a table. The table must have a
title and the numbers must have units. If applicable, results tables should report the experimental values, the
theoretical values, and the percent error.
5.3.1. Percent Error – if the goal of the experiment was to find a numerical value for something that is already
accepted in the CRC handbook (i.e. a physical constant or the molar mass of a compound) you will use the
%Error equation.
5.3.2. Percent Yield – if the goal of the experiment was to synthesize a compound then the %Yield should be
reported. This is often used when there isn’t a “true” value for something.

6. Conclusion –
The conclusion section has several parts that function as a summary.
6.1. Review the experiment in 3-5 sentences. What was the purpose? How did you achieve the goal of the
experiment? This should be slightly more detail than the summary in the abstract but it is again not necessary
to mentions specific quantities of chemicals. Be sure to summarize the experiment itself, not the calculations
you did.
6.2. Discuss the data. Do you trust your data? What difficulties, if any, did you run into during the course of the
experiment?
6.3. Experimental Error
6.3.1. What factors could be causing your numbers to be off? These should be unavoidable problems either
with the setup, the method used, or necessary bad assumptions in the calculations. Be sure to mention
explicitly how these would affect your results. Would it have caused your results to be too high or too
low?
The errors you select need to match your data. If your results are too low, then you must select
experimental errors that would cause your numbers to be too low. It would not be appropriate to discuss
errors that would make your results too high if your numbers are lower than what they should be. These
errors should explain your results.
DO NOT DISCUSS HUMAN ERROR! Human error is anything you messed up on: You took the wrong
chemical. You didn’t write down the mass. You didn’t clean out the glassware enough. Someone spilled
your product and you had to scrape it up off the desk. Anything you could have avoided by doing the
experiment correctly is human error. Do not mention human error as an experiment error.

The goal of the lab write up is to convey that you understand what happened in the experiment and to communicate
that to someone who has a solid background in chemistry but is not familiar with the particular experiment you
conducted. Following this outline will help you convey the information clearly, however it is possible to follow the
outline and yet not convey what happened in the lab. It is necessary to create a lab write-up that is clear, concise and
well thought out in order to earn full credit.

Edited September 29, 2019 by silvers

[Qwekan]

What the fuck

[Steven_]

second

Edited September 29, 2019 by Steven_

[OkamiHybrid]

ok 

[silvers]

you're welcome in advance, glad i could help[- you guusy out,.

[justuscloud5]

Wow thanks silvers I only take physics 

[Sanchez]

Just fake your results simple 

[Luther]

Please make one for AP Physics

[Sanchez]

20 minutes ago, ConnorS said:

Please make one for AP Physics

HAHAH You cant 

[Cubby]

Just be my teacher

[Luckyy]

@silversGIVE ME THE AP PHYISCS GUIDE PLEASE B

 

[Craigary]

Bruh just don’t take any AP classes 

or science classes above marine biology 

EZ

[Twiggy]

I frickin love you 

[Foxey]

Daaaaaaamn

Epic.

[Rohan]

Nice man

[Life-]

Cease

Edited September 30, 2019 by Josh Schneider
Forgot this community was so sensitive

[Beast]

9 hours ago, silvers said:

you're welcome in advance, glad i could help[- you guusy out,.

Im taking AP Chem + AP Bio next year and I want to fucking die 

Thank you for this I am coming back next year to this post just to thank you