Oxidation-reduction; electrochemistry
\n<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\nAlmost 50 equations and a slightly smaller number of constants are displayed for you, not including all the information given on the two tables.<\/span><\/p>\nFaced with all this, you might think, \u201cI can\u2019t possibly remember to use all this stuff.\u201d Don\u2019t let the sheer amount of information overwhelm you and cause this reaction. Instead, understand that some of this information will be needed for several of the answers, but that the rest is there to act as a smoke screen. Consider things from the testmakers\u2019 standpoint. They can\u2019t place only <\/i>the information needed in Section II; that would make things too simple, as everyone would know to use the facts provided. Therefore, they have to devise a system in which the chem-savvy people find the facts they need, while the less-fortunate students get lost in the swamp of additional information.
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\nIt\u2019s not exactly as simple as that, but for our purposes this description works fine. Look over the tables at the beginning of Section II and tell yourself, \u201cI will need to use some, but certainly not all, of this information on several of the questions in this section.\u201d That will give you the right approach to handling the large amount of data that precedes Section II.<\/span><\/p>\nThe topics covered in the free-response questions are usually fairly common chemistry topics. They aren\u2019t trick questions asking about an obscure subject. However, a well-known topic doesn\u2019t mean the problem will be simple. Most questions have many parts. You usually won\u2019t get one broad question like \u201cWhat is the real meaning and significance of chemistry?\u201d Instead, you\u2019ll get an initial setup followed by questions labeled (a), (b), (c), and so on. Expect to write at least one paragraph (or provide a multi-step equation) for each letter. <\/span><\/p>\nFor each subquestion on a free-response question, points are given for saying the right thing. The more points you score, the better off you are on that question. Going into the details about how points are scored would make your head spin, but in general, the AP Chemistry people have a rubric that acts as a blueprint for what a good answer should look like. Every subsection of a question has one to five key ideas attached to it. If you write about one of those ideas, you earn yourself a point. There\u2019s a limit to how many points you can earn on a single subquestion. There are also other strange regulations, but it boils down to this: Writing smart things about each question will earn you points toward that question. <\/span><\/p>\nSo don\u2019t be terse and don\u2019t rush. You have about 7 minutes for each short free-response problem and 25 minutes for each long one. Use the time to be as precise as you can be for each subquestion. Sometimes doing well on one subquestion earns you enough points to cover up for another subquestion for which your answer isn\u2019t as strong. When all the points are tallied for that free-response problem, you come out strong on total points, despite the fact that you didn\u2019t ace every single subquestion.
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