This guide organizes advice from past students who got 4s and 5s on their exams. We hope it gives you some new ideas and tools for your study sessions. But remember, everyone's different—what works for one student might not work for you. If you've got a study method that's doing the trick, stick with it. Think of this as extra help, not a must-do overhaul.

📌 Overview

• Students are given free response questions that test the understanding of chemistry knowledge.
• 33% of Exam Score
• Recommended to spend 16 min on each of the long questions for 48 minutes in total.

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💭 General Advice

Tips on mindset, strategy, structure, time management, and any other high level things to know

• Going into this AP exam, many people may have told you how daunting it is. However, you are MORE than capable of passing and excelling in AP Chemistry and performing exceptionally well! Push aside any negative notions that you may have BEFORE you walk into this exam, whether you got them from Reddit, Twitter, or even a TikTok. Trust in your abilities and let your hard work speak for you!
• Before the test, shake your nerves out! Spend a few seconds hopping or moving around—it may seem silly but the blood flow from movement will help you loosen up!
• If you are overwhelmed by a question, pause, close your eyes for a second, take a deep breath, and then continue. Don't panic if you don't remember or recognize something! You still have a bunch of questions that you can earn points on.
• If you are stumped, don't dwell on the question, star it and keep moving. Go back to the skipped at the end if you have time, and look out for questions that may help you with the concept you weren't too sure about!!
• SO MUCH PRACTICE!!! The more practice the better. Start by going over the entire curriculum, rereading concepts from all the units. This will help you gauge where you are at in terms of practice, so be sure to give yourself enough time before the AP exam to relearn any forgotten material.
  • Use old tests and homeworks that are relevant to the AP Chem Exam and what you are struggling with + Fiveable, which has a TON of practice questions designed to reflect the AP Exam—use ALL your resources!
  • Persistent practice is truly the best way to practice your time management as well. It’s incredibly helpful to be very familiar with the formatting of the FRQs and all the different ways they could be presented to you (graphs, tables, just long answers), so you’re not taken by surprise and get flustered on where to start.
• Don’t be intimidated or nervous by the 48 minute time limit. If you know the material well, time is never the issue because the answers will roll out easily. So focus much more on actually knowing all of the content, and do just a few timed FRQs here and there with past years released FRQs to make sure you’re on track.
  • On this note, do not hesitate to watch your time and jump around if need be. Remember, if you feel like you don’t know all the parts to a question, partial points are key!
• Don’t be nervous!!! Make sure to practice on the past years FRQS and use the scoring guidelines to really understand how to answer the problem.
• Echoing what others have said, practice, practice, practice. The key to shaking your nerves, anxiety about time, etc. is to know exactly what the exam will look and feel like. Try to set up 1-2 mock exams where you take the entire exam in one sitting so that you know exactly what to expect.

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✍️ Before you Write

What should a student do in the first few minutes, before they start writing?

• Annotate the question. What is it asking you to do? What laws, principles, or equations do you know that relate to this?
• Thoroughly READ and REREAD the question. Students are more likely to miss vital information needed to answer the question if they hadn’t read it at least TWICE. You want to be swift in thinking, but not too quick to miss the point of the FRQ entirely.
• Circle any key information given in the question! At times they add parts to the question that are unimportant.
• Think about what unit this FRQ is based on. You would usually see keywords when you have to explain something. For example, for previous years, they ask you to explain by identifying the type of “particle interactions” present. It should come to you quickly that it is talking about intermolecular forces! Keywords really help you understand what you are trying to explain, so please understand the important terms related to chemistry!
• Take the time to read thoroughly and mind-dump everything you know about the topics. It can get your thoughts flowing and help the terminology you need to use come to you.

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💈 Question Styles

Interpreting Visual Representations

• Look at the title or label—know what you are looking at!!
• CIRCLE or UNDERLINE important elements of any diagrams/graphs/charts.
• Make sure to look out for details that respond OR give hints about the question.
• Try using the “I see…it means” method. Try to look at the most basic things (like, “I see pairs of bars…”) and interpret them (“...it means this graph is comparing two treatments.”). Simplifying like this can make it easier to interpret difficult graphs and helps connect visuals to chemical principles and processes.
• Familiarize yourself with common types of visual representations in chemistry, such as molecular structures, graphs (phase diagrams, concentration vs. time graphs), and lab apparatus setups.

Designing Experiments

• Read the question carefully and determine what the experiment is. What do you want to determine in the experiment? What variables do you need to manipulate to figure out the answer? What should you control?
• Provide reasoning behind the choices of certain experimental methods or conditions. This not only helps you identify if its useful but it helps the reader recognize your thought process.
• Consider the safety and practicality of your experimental design. Ensure that the proposed methods are safe and possible with typical lab resources.

Solving Problems Mathematically

• Have a strong grasp of key chemical equations and formulas, such as those for molarity, molality, reaction rates, equilibrium constants, and thermodynamics.
• Always write out your units throughout all of your work.
• Be sure to show all your work, even if you’re accustomed to skipping a step on your calculations! There are certain points you receive based on what you have written down, even if you find the correct answer, showing work is vital. You never know what they’re looking for while grading exactly.
• Use proper sig figs!
• Practice practice practice using dimensional analysis to ensure units cancel out and your final answer has the appropriate units.

Make/Justify A Scientific Claim and Support with Evidence

• This may sound silly, but pull data directly from graphs/tables/etc. that are provided to you. Don’t just talk about the trends you see, make sure to cite specific numbers/data points. Avoid vague statements.
• Ensure your justification logically follows from the evidence provided. If there are multiple pieces of evidence, discuss how they collectively support your claim.
• Think about different relationships you’ve seen in lab throughout the school year. Is there a direct relationship between the variables? Indirect? How can you apply what you see to a claim, and support it with the data?

Create Graphs/Representations

• Make your graphical information CLEAR. Whether it be units named or bars drawn, you always want the AP graders to not have a difficult time reading and deciphering your work. Label ALL of your axes accordingly and do not forget to graph ALL asked parts of the question.
• Before you move onto the next question, reread the question and ensure that you answered every single part of it. Graphs have a lot of components, and you want to make sure you fully answered the question to the best of your ability. This goes back to reading carefully!
• If you’re unsure of how to go about your graph, don’t just start writing because this is the one spot on the test where there is no extra space to scribble and start over on another blank area. If you mess up you mess up. It’s better to avoid just going for it if you’re uncertain since you don’t want to start drawing a positive line graph and then have to scribble over it and have to harshly indicate to the graders you want them to grade the negative line graph you’ve drawn over it instead.