Cracking the AP Chemistry Exam
Part III
Test-Taking Strategies for the AP Chemistry Exam
Chapter 1
How to Approach Multiple-Choice Questions
THE BASICS
Section I of the test is composed of 60 multiple-choice questions, for which you are allotted 90 minutes. This part is worth 50 percent of your total score.
For this section, you will be given a periodic table of the elements along with a sheet that lists common chemistry formulas, and you may NOT use a calculator. The College Board says that this is because the new scientific calculators not only program and graph but also store information—and they are afraid you’ll use this function to cheat!
On the multiple-choice section, you receive 1 point for a correct answer. There is no penalty for leaving a question blank or getting a question wrong.
PACING
According to the College Board, the multiple-choice section of the AP Chemistry Exam covers more material than any individual student is expected to know. Nobody is expected to get a perfect or even near perfect score. What does that mean to you?
Use the Two-Pass System
Go through the multiple-choice section twice. The first time, do all the questions that you can get answers to immediately. That is, do the questions with little or no math and questions on chemistry topics in which you are well versed. Skip questions on topics that make you uncomfortable. Also, you want to skip the ones that look like number crunchers (even without a calculator, you may still be expected to crunch a few numbers). Circle the questions that you skip in your test booklet so you can find them easily during the second pass. Once you’ve done all the questions that come easily to you, go back and pick out the tough ones that you have the best shot at.
In general, the questions near the end of the section are tougher than the questions near the beginning. You should keep that in mind, but be aware that each person’s experience will be different. If you can do acid-base questions in your sleep, but you’d rather have your teeth drilled than draw a Lewis diagram, you may find questions near the end of the section easier than questions near the beginning.
That’s why the Two-Pass System is so handy. By using it, you make sure you get to see all the questions you can get right, instead of running out of time because you got bogged down on questions you couldn’t do earlier in the test.
Don’t Turn a Question into a Crusade!
Most people don’t run out of time on standardized tests because they work too slowly. Instead, they run out of time because they spend half the test wrestling with two or three particular questions.
You should never spend more than a minute or two on any question. If a question doesn’t involve calculation, then either you know the answer, you can make an educated guess, or you don’t know the answer. Figure out where you stand on a question, make a decision, and move on.
Any question that requires more than two minutes worth of calculations probably isn’t worth doing. Remember: Skipping a question early in the section is a good thing if it means that you’ll have time to get two correct answers later on.
GUESSING
You get one point for every correct answer on the multiple-choice section. Guessing randomly neither helps you nor hurts you. Educated guessing, however, will help you.
Use Process of Elimination (POE) to Find Wrong Answers
There is a fundamental weakness to a multiple-choice test. The test makers must show you the right answer, along with three wrong answers. Sometimes seeing the right answer is all you need. Other times you may not know the right answer, but you may be able to identify one or two of the answers that are clearly wrong. Here is where you should use process of elimination (POE) to take an educated guess.
Look at this hypothetical question.
1. Which of the following compounds will produce a purple solution when added to water?
(A) Brobogdium rabelide
(B) Diblythium perjuvenide
(C) Sodium chloride
(D) Carbon dioxide
You should have no idea what the correct answer is because two of these compounds are made up, but you do know something about the obviously wrong answers. You know that sodium chloride, choice (C), and carbon dioxide, choice (D), do not turn water purple. So, using POE, you have a 50 percent chance at guessing the correct answer. Now the odds are in your favor. Now you should guess.
Guess and Move On
Remember that you’re guessing. Pondering the possible differences between brobogdium rabelide and diblythium perjuvenide is a waste of time. Once you’ve taken POE as far as it will go, pick your favorite letter and move on.
The multiple-choice section is the exact opposite of the free-response section. It’s scored by a machine. There’s no partial credit. The computer doesn’t know, or care if you know, why an answer is correct. All the computer cares about is whether you blackened in the correct oval on your score sheet. You get the same number of points for picking (B) because you know that (A) is wrong and that (B) is a nicer letter than (C) or (D) as you would get for picking (B) because you fully understood the subtleties of an electrochemical process.
ABOUT CALCULATORS
You will NOT be allowed to use a calculator on this section. That shouldn’t worry you. All it means is that there won’t be any questions in the section that you’ll need a calculator to solve.
Most of the calculation problems will have fairly user-friendly numbers—that is, numbers with only a couple of significant digits, or things like “11.2 liters of gas at STP” or “160 grams of oxygen” or “a temperature increase from 27°C to 127°C.” Sometimes these user-friendly numbers will actually point you toward the proper steps to take in your calculations.
Don’t be afraid to make rough estimates as you do your calculations. Sometimes knowing that an answer is closer to 50 than to 500 will enable you to pick the correct answer on a multiple-choice test (if the answer choices are far enough apart). Once again, the rule against calculators works in your favor because the College Board will not expect you to do very precise calculations by hand.
REFLECT
Respond to the following questions:
· How long will you work on multiple-choice questions?
· How will you change your approach to multiple-choice questions?
· What is your multiple-choice guessing strategy?