Cliffs AP Chemistry, 3rd Edition

• If you take the course and the exam while still in high school, you will not be faced with
  the college course being closed or overcrowded.


• For those of you who are not going on in a science career, passing the AP chemistry exam
  may fulfill the laboratory science requirement at the college, thus making more time avail-
  able for you to take other courses.


• Taking AP chemistry greatly improves your chances of doing well in college chemistry.
  You will already have covered most of the topics during your high school AP chemistry
  program, and you will find yourself setting the curve in college!

Q. Do All Colleges Accept AP Exam Grades for College Credit?

A. Almost all of the colleges and universities in the United States and Canada, and many in

Europe, take part in the AP program. The vast majority of the 2,900 U.S. colleges and uni-

versities that receive AP grades grant credit and/or advanced placement. Even colleges that

receive only a few AP candidates and may not have specific AP policies are often willing to

accommodate AP students who inquire about advanced-placement work.

To find out about a specific policy for the AP exam(s) you plan to take, write to the col-

lege’s Director of Admissions. You should receive a written reply telling you how much

credit and/or advanced placement you will receive for a given grade on an AP Exam, in-

cluding any courses you will be allowed to enter.

The best source of specific and up-to-date information about an individual institution’s

policy is its catalog or Web site. Other sources of information include The College

Handbook™with College Explorer CD-ROMand College Search™. For more information

on these and other products, log on to the College Board’s online store at: http://cbweb2.

collegeboard.org/shopping/.

Q. How is the AP Exam Graded and What Do the Scores Mean?

A. The AP exam is graded on a five-point scale:

5:Extremely well qualified. About 17% of the students who take the exam earn this grade.

4:Well qualified. Roughly 15% earn this grade.

3:Qualified. Generally, 25% earn this grade.

2:Possibly qualified. Generally considered “not passing.” About 22% of the students who

take the exam earn this grade.

1:Not qualified. About 21% earn this grade.

Of the roughly 49,000 students from 4,700 high schools who take the AP chemistry exam

each year, the average grade is 2.85 with a standard deviation of 1.37. Approximately 1,500

colleges receive AP scores from students who pass the AP chemistry exam.

Section I, the multiple-choice section, is machine graded. Each question has five answers to

choose from. Remember, there is a penalty for guessing:^1 ⁄ 4 of a point is taken off for each

wrong answer. A student generally needs to correctly answer 50% to 60% of the multiple-

choice questions to obtain a 3 on the exam. Each answer in Section II, the free-response

section, is read several times by different chemistry instructors who pay great attention to

consistency in grading.

Part I: Introduction

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