Cliffs AP Chemistry, 3rd Edition

Strategies for Taking the AP Chemistry Exam

Section I: The Multiple-Choice Section

The “Plus-Minus” System

Many students who take the AP chemistry exam do not get their best possible score on Section

I because they spend too much time on difficult questions and fail to leave themselves enough

time to answer the easy ones. Don’t let this happen to you. Because every question within each

section is worth the same amount, consider the following guidelines.

1. Note in your test booklet the starting time of Section I. Remember that you have just over
   1 minute per question.


2. Go through the entire test and answer all the easy questions first. Generally, the first 25 or
   so questions are considered by most to be the easiest questions, with the level of difficulty
   increasing as you move through Section I. Most students correctly answer approximately
   60% of the first 25 multiple-choice questions, 50% of the next 25 questions, and only 30%
   of the last 25 questions (the fact that most students do not have time to finish the multiple-
   choice questions is factored into the percentages).


3. When you come to a question that seems impossible to answer, mark a large minus sign
   (−) next to it in your test booklet. You are penalized for wrong answers, so do not guess at
   this point. Move on to the next question.


4. When you come to a question that seems solvable but appears too time-consuming, mark a
   large plus sign (+) next to that question in your test booklet. Do not guess; move on to the
   next question.


5. Your time allotment is just over 1 minute per question, so a “time consuming” question is
   one that you estimate will take you several minutes to answer. Don’t waste time deciding
   whether a question gets a plus or a minus. Act quickly. The intent of this strategy is to save
   you valuable time.
   After you have worked all the easy questions, your booklet should look something like
   this:
   
   
   1. +2.
   
   
   
   


6. 
   

   −4.

   
   


7. 
   

   and so on

   
   


8. After doing all the problems you can do immediately (the easy ones), go back and work
   on your “+” problems.

Part I: Introduction

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