I’m taking 2: AP Lang and AP Chem
@ak2018 How is the Chem program at your school?
I’m taking six: United States History, Art History, Statistics, Language and Composition, Spanish Language and Culture, and Chemistry.
USH is supposed to be pretty easy in terms of workload, but I have heard that the teacher isn’t great. I will probably need to do lot of self-studying to get a 5 on this one.
Art History: The teacher supposedly makes the class very easy, so I don’t know how much I will be prepared for the AP test. I may have to do lots of studying for a 5 on this one too.
Statistics: The teacher is completely new to the school, so I have no idea.
Language and Composition: Supposedly the teacher is a good teacher and is very accommodating to students taking multiple APs.
Spanish Language: The school is switching to a new spanish teacher (who is also my swim coach), after having another spanish teacher teach this AP for years. I would like to become fluent/much better in spanish, so I am looking forward to this class.
Chemistry: The teacher of this class has only taught it once before, but more than 50% of her students earned 5s on the AP exam, so I expect that I will learn alot and do well in this class.
I am also planning on self-studying Calculus BC since it didn’t fit into my schedule.
Overall, I am looking forward to all of my classes next year, and I think that I will learn alot.
I’m taking 3 APs: World, physics and Literature. I’m really scared for Lit, the teacher at my school is really tough 
Also, has anyone used the website college raptor before? It’s this really helpful site that helps you find colleges. You can put in schools that you are interested in if you want, then you put in some information about yourself, such as your GPA, test scores, courses taken etc. Then it tells you schools that would be safeties, matches, reaches and high reaches based on your data. I discovered some new schools by using the site!
@kassh4 There are usually two teachers teaching AP Chemistry at our school and there are also usually 3 classes of AP Chemistry students each year. Considering the fact that they refer to one of the teachers, my favorite one, as “The Chem Goddess”, she definitely knows her stuff. I’ve talked with her throughout the year and she was always so inviting and helpful, something that my Pre-AP Chemistry teacher wasn’t. She’s so helpful that she said she would help me with AP Chemistry even if I had the other teacher. I love the motivational speeches she usually gives. I’m most likely going to have her next year, as she’ll be teaching two of the classes, so that should be fun. Actually, due to all of the students going to the new high school next year, we might only have two classes.
@ak2018 Is Pre-AP Chem just Chem 1?
@DancingwithStars I just checked it out and its pretty cool. Not sure how much I trust the acceptance odds though…
@kassh4 It’s Honors Chemistry 1, yes.
@ak2018 How much summer homework did you get for Chem?
Are you guys in the AP Chem 2016-2017 thread?
@ak2018 that’s why you take practice tests for both and choose the one you score higher in and if you’re scoring around the same in both just choose one and work hard it, if your scores are that close it won’t really matter which test you pick
@BucketsUCSC @ak2018 If VT actually does do the weird superscoring then it makes sense to do what he is doing;however, if it is just a rumor or something I agree just take a practice test and pick one.
sidenote: Make sure when you study for the SAT practice every section and when you study for the ACT practice every section. Yes, your superscore might be high for VT but your composites will probably be low and will hurt you when you apply to different colleges.
@kassh4 She gave us a manageable amount of work.
We have to:
- Look Over a PowerPoint Presentation About Everything We Should've Covered Last Year (That Will Not Be Reviewed In Class) (I Already Did This)
- Look Over a 2nd PowerPoint Presentation About Things We Might Have Learned Towards The End of Last Year and Need To Review (This Will Be Reviewed in Class) (I Haven't Done This)
Note: In each PowerPoint, there are links to Quizlet quizzes my teacher makes in case we need some extra review as well as links to Khan Academy and Crash Course Chemistry videos.
We must also:
- Complete Formula Writing and Naming Practice Worksheet (This was one of my strongest areas in Chemistry, along with Solutions, so it should be easy)
- Complete The AP Chemistry Summer Packet Problems (As One Final Review of Last's Year Chemistry Skills)
The answers for the Formula Writing and Name Practice are online now, but the answers for the AP Chemistry Summer Packet Problems will be online one week before school starts. She will also put up online our “Year At A Glance” course calendar and outline which we’ll use to know what we’ll be learning and what labs we’ll be doing each quarter.
We’ll also be taking a graded diagnostic test during our first week of school to see where our strengths and weaknesses are.
@BucketsUCSC @kassh4 I took the ACT English section this morning and scored about the same as I did on the SAT Writing section. I had 57/75 on the test, or a 24/36, and finished with a little less than TWO minutes to spare. I was working at a good pace and thought I was wasn’t going to finish in time, but I just barely did.
Based on this, given a day or two, I have decided to stick with the ACT as it seems a lot easier to prep for and the questions seemed so much more straightforward than the SAT’s questions. I don’t have to “find evidence to support my answer” like on the SAT, which honestly takes a bit of my time. I will be returning my SAT prep book tomorrow. I probably won’t be using Khan Academy that much, but I’ll use it a little bit if I feel like it.
I feel I will likely do a lot better with the Writing section than the Reading and Science sections. I feel really confident about the math section.
One more thing to note: People applying for VT’s Engineering program tend to have a combined reading and writing score of about 650 or above and a math score in the 700s. I’m at about a 560 on the reading and writing right now, but I’m still improving.
@ak2018 The science section isn’t really bad at all; Sometimes I struggle with the conflicting viewpoints passage depending on the topic. I haven’t started preping for the reading section, i’ve taken 2 practice reading tests, and got a 29 on the June ACT. Hopefully I can get it up to a 32.
What are you scoring on the math portion of the SAT?
@kassh4 We also must have all of our summer assignments done by the first day of school, ready to turn in for a grade. In addition to all of this, last school year, she, and the other AP Chemistry teacher, gave a letter to all of the Chemistry teachers to give to all of the students taking AP Chemistry next year. On it were two very motivating paragraphs and a list of things we HAVE to buy.
We must buy:
- A spiral-bound notebook which we'll use to write up our lab reports.
- An AP Chemistry Review Book! She highly recommends getting: The Princeton Review's Cracking The AP Chemistry Exam 2015. She told us to either get it online or from a book/textbook store and it should cost about $20.
- A graphing calculator
- Lastly, a large (3-inch) three-ringed with about 6 dividers and, for "The Chem Goddess's" class only, a 2nd spiral-bound notebook for our bell-ringers (warm-ups).
I lost my graphing calculator last year, so I had to use a more basic one for the rest of the year. Luckily, I was given a $50 Navy Federal Credit Union Gift Card, plus another $13, that I can use to buy a pretty cheap graphing calculator from Walmart right before the year starts. The letter says that “If these purchases cause undue financial stress, the school will be able to help out. Please speak to your AP Chemistry teacher at the start of the new school year.” I should be fine, though. I’ll probably go back-to-school after the first two days of school, just to make sure I get what I need, and get the spiral-bound notebooks. I already have dividers and binders from last year. I’ll probably order the AP Chemistry Review Book through Amazon.
It also says in the letter to “Please come to school on the first day prepared with your binder, loose-leaf paper in binder, graphing calculator, and COMPLETED summer assignment. We WILL be taking notes!!!”
We’ll also be using a couple of educational apps, that we’ll have to download on our phones, and websites to save time in class as the class is single-blocked.
We’ll be using:
Learnerator.com (The school will purchase the upgraded version)
Remind101 (Which a lot of my teachers last year used a way to remind students, through texts, about upcoming homework/project deadlines, tests, and quizzes.) (My Spanish and World History teachers used this religiously.) - Free (I’m pretty sure.)
EdPuzzle (For Online Chemistry Lectures) - Free
Socrative (To take practice tests and quizzes on.) - Free
So as you can see, the Chemistry program at our school almost seems state-of-the-art and challenging! I’m definitely going to enjoy it next year.
if u have a good old sat score, do you still need to prepare for any ACT SAT?
@kassh4 Weirdly enough, I actually did pretty well on the non-calculator section, until I rushed myself. The library, where I took the practice test, was closing so I sped up to beat the clock after question 10 and stopped at question 15. I got all of the first 10 questions right, #11 through #15 wrong and didn’t get to do #16 - #20. I also haven’t started the calculator section, but at this point, now that I’ve chosen the ACT to prep for, I don’t need to.
@thetex I would say yes, just so you can see where you are on the new SAT. May I mind asking what your old SAT score was out of 2400? Remember, there’s always room for improvement.
@thetex I think some schools might stop accepting old SAT scores with our class. I’d check with the colleges you are interested in on their policies.