A Unique Chemistry Course Designed Equivalent Of General Chemistry

AP Chemistry course is designed to be the equivalent of the general chemistry course usually taken during the first college year. The  course enables students to undertake, as freshmen, second-year work in the chemistry sequence at their institution or to register for courses in other fields where general chemistry is a prerequisite. AP Chemistry should meet the objectives of a good general chemistry course. The AP Chemistry course is designed to be taken after the completion of a first course in high school chemistry. The Advanced Placement Program encourage teachers, AP Coordinators, and school administrators to make equitable access a guiding principle for their AP programs. programs. All students who are willing to accept the challenge of a rigorous academic curriculum should be considered for admission to AP courses.

The Advanced Placement Program is a collaborative effort among motivated
students; dedicated teachers; and committed high schools, colleges, and universities. The AP Chemistry course is designed to be the equivalent of the general chemistry course usually taken during the first college year. AP Chemistry should meet the objectives of a good college general chemistry course. The course should contribute to the development of the students' abilities to think clearly and to express their ideas, orally and in writing, with clarity and logic.

Secondary schools that wish to offer an AP Chemistry course must be prepared to provide a laboratory experience equivalent to that of a typical college course. The AP Chemistry course is designed to be taken only after the successful completion of a first course in high school chemistry. Thus it is strongly recommended that credit in a first-year high school chemistry course be a prerequisite for enrollment in an AP Chemistry class. The recommended mathematics prerequisite for an AP Chemistry class is the successful completion of a second-year algebra course. It is highly desirable that a student have a course in secondary school physics and a four-year college-preparatory program in mathematics.

Developing the requisite intellectual and laboratory skills required of an AP Chemistry
student demands that adequate classroom and laboratory time be scheduled. At least six class periods or the equivalent per week should be scheduled for an AP Chemistry course. Time devoted to class and laboratory demonstrations should not be counted as part of the laboratory period. A contemporary college chemistry text that stresses principles and concepts and their relation to the descriptive chemistry on which they are based should be selected.  The importance of the theoretical aspects of chemistry has brought about an increasing emphasis on these aspects of the content of general chemistry courses.

Topics such as the structure of matter, kinetic theory of gases, chemical equilibria,
chemical kinetics, and the basic concepts of thermodynamics are now being presented in considerable depth. If the objectives of a college-level general chemistry course are to be achieved, instruction should be done by a teacher who has completed an undergraduate major program in chemistry including at least a year's work in physical chemistry. Because of the nature of the AP course, the teacher needs time for extra preparation for
both class and laboratory and should have a teaching load that is adjusted accordingly.