Chemblog!

For Honors, I am posting a practice exam sometime this weekend and some more worksheets. The exam on Tuesday will be VERY similar to the exam/ worksheet questions posted though the length will be shorter (you will have time to finish in one period). Study your notes/text, then take the exam, then check your answers. If necessary, come to extra help on Monday. I will also be in before school on Monday and Tuesday for extra help.
Thanks to the AP class for coming in on a Saturday to take a real, timed practice exam; I'm somewhat relieved by the results but we can still improve by CORRECTING and understanding our errors. I encourage you to study together and help each other; also, don't waste those review books; let's complete them this week after school. I'll come in on Friday if you want me to. Now you have 10 days to solidify your 5 or climb your way up to it.
Mr.C.

I'm very sorry that I couldn't make it to school today.After I got back from racquetball last night, I ate or drank something that wasn't "good" apparently. Late last night/this morning I was "sick" and I didn't recover or awaken until about 1PM today. I will be back on track tomorrow.
Honors, I don't want to rush into a test Friday, so I will give the next test on Tuesday which will cover Bronsted Acid/Bases, Acidic,Basic, Neutral Salts, Oxidation states, Redox and Equation balancing (we will do balancing tomorrow).
AP: we will continue our AP practice with a multiple choice section tomorrow.
I can no longer say that I never missed work in my life. sad.
p.s. the Class webpage is back in business. In case it ever goes down in the future, I will put the missing info directly on the edline.com website.

Some of the school web server settings have changed so nothing that I upload is getting through (sigh). I will try to have that fixed tomorrow. Luckily, I didn't have much to upload tonight. I'll give out this blog address tomorrow in case the site is still a wreck .

Okay, since the site is down, I have acquired the means to an alternate server from forces beyond our comprehension. I will now try to link you to the files that I intended to upload tonight:
AP Exam for Tuesday's class 04/26

Honors Chem HW for Tuesday Night 04/26

Honors Chem notes for Wednesday 04/27

It looks like they are working...this will suffice for now....

I can't post the AP exam for tomorrow's class (or anything else for that matter because the school server is down. The only thing that I can alter for now is the BLOG (a hotbed of commentary no doubt).
Stay tuned for details.
Mr.C

Good news for our shell-shocked AP class :)
Firstly, I have a NEW MAC that doesn't freeze! I can post assignments earlier now instead of having to wait until I'm home to do so.
Now for the really good news:
The Electrochem exam is enough to send most people to the "electro" chair. There are sooooo many ways to mess up an electro problem, Ecell, Eocell, balancing, concentration changes, le chatelier stresses.....
Well, you saw the obstacles, tackled them head on, and , as a group, made very few errors. The class average was 135 out of 150; that's 90% for you math types. We haven't had a 90 class average since Bonding II ( trigonal bipyramid, yooo ).
So, good work especially since we covered that unit in WORLD RECORD time (although we covered most of nuclear in 30 minutes - yikes! )

Make sure that you stay on top of your homework for this quarter because it will largely impact your average.(...and don't copy it from the internet, I'm actually not that gullible although I hope to be someday; but seriously, you will kill your ability to improve if you just copy instead of saying, "hey I don't know this, let me read the text or notes or ask Cicale tomorrow- he will let me hand it in after school.") As I said, I will help you with any and all HW questions after school any day. Two more weeks: please make the sacrifice and go all out these weeks; you'll notice a tremendous cathartic difference in your life after May 10; then, on July 14 or thereabouts, when you call up NJ for your grade, you will hear a nice numerical message. You don't want to look back with regrets.
Tomorrow's AP test is online for now. Just give it a look-see so that you can guide your own learning this week: we'll do the questions that are toughest for you in class.

I am very disappointed about all of the classes' performances today (especially E period which has sunk to a new all-time low).
Apparently, a QUIZ is not important enough for most people to care about. The next time that you think, "multiple choice, oh that's easy", guess again: multiple choice means NO partial credit, wrong units=wrong answer, wrong sign = wrong answer, missed a key word= wrong answer. Most people were so careless today that they couldn't even locate a Bronsted base (which requires minimal intelligence especially after the number of problems that we did in class and the multiple worksheets with answers on that one topic; the simple definition: an H+ acceptor).
Today's quiz results made it painfully obvious that MOST people blew off this test even though it covered a broad amount of important subtopics. The few people who did well were at extra help yesterday; one of them got a perfect score. An Honors student tries on every test or quiz, no matter how many points are involved.
Be prepared on Monday. Things are going to be very stern until performance improves.
One more thing that absolutely DISGUSTS me: I know some students who studied hard for today's quiz but their confidence was shot BEFORE THEY EVEN SAW THE QUIZ because some unthinking, ill-intentioned, incompetent "people" scared them by moaning about how "impossible" the test was. Newsflash: Each question tested a listed objective VERBATIM. The next time you can't handle a test for WHATEVER reason (especially if you didn't do EVERY hw assignment and you didn't take adequate notes in class because you were too busy daydreaming about how nice it is outside), KEEP YOUR FAILURE TO YOURSELF. Don't psyche out the rest of my classes with your miserable comments. If I find a student psyching out anyone in my class, that student is going to get detention for a WEEK and he better thank me for just giving him such a minor penance.
We have a new unit next week (redox); it is mostly unrelated to our last unit so resolve to master it before you find your final quarter average irreparable.

There is a misprint: Choice "B" reads " voltage decreases but remains at zero" which is patently ridiculous and a contradiction in terms.

Choice "B" should read: "voltage decreases but remains above zero"

That is my only quarrel with the test so far and I hope to be on good speaking terms with it in the future...wait a minute, I think that it just gave me a raspberry....i[o qytyh t8q hv[ohjio3yv89[ (keyboard being thrown across the room; struggle ensues).

Dear Octet:

We fortunately made it through the main course on time. Now we have only the dessert of steady daily exam prep (with small dollops of nuclear and organic sauce sprinkled in there) until May 10. I am planning a mock AP exam ( identical AP conditions; actual recent full AP exam with scoring scale) for the Saturday morning two weeks before the exam (so that you have time to thoroughly analyze and correct any mistakes) in the Board Room (where you are actually taking the AP exam). Please clear your calendar for that day. We will start sometime in the (gulp.) morning (10 or 11 AM).

This weekend, we begin our AP Prep course with a multiple choice section. Time yourself strictly: 90 minutes. You should skip around and do the problems that are easiest for you first and then go back to the more time consuming questions. The test writers purposely vary the difficulty level among the questions and the change can be great from one question to another. Circle any question that you are not highly confident about and bring me questions that we can address in class next week. If you can get about 70 of them right in 90 minutes, you are off to a solid start. Also, using different ink, be sure to do any questions that you could not get to in the first 90 minutes

Looking forward to a successful denouement to our arduous course. I am here for you if you have any questions or problems. Let's make the big sacrifice by thoroughly prepping for this exam so that we can look back with a sense of great accomplishment. Hard earned victories tend to be the most satisfying.

You've taken Chemistry for two years and you can't spell "molecule".
You've spoken English for 16 years and you can't spell "positive".
You STILL haven't noticed that, for seven months, not a single one of my questions has required an answer with more than three significant figures (you put in a minimum of 6 sig figs just to look reeeeallly precise).
You scribble your actual answer somewhere between brutal cross-outs.
Extra-help? We don't need no steeenking extra help!
Homework? Yes, it's called "WATCH TEE VEE".
Units? Units are for loo zzzers.
You think the word "due" means "three weeks after it's due or the day before the end of the quarter, whichever comes later".
I have other things to do than to pass your class...like getting into an amazing college! (and not seeing ANY inconsistency in that statement).
Three point six seconds after Cicale starts talking, I will put on my patented ZOMBIEFACE and start to dream vapid thoughts. After the third time that I've been asked a question, I'll acknowledge it for the first time; then I'll guess.

Just some things that have been bothering me from about half of the AP class and about one eighth of the Honors classes. In case you haven't noticed, I am trying hard to get you all to do well; I would like some reciprocity.
Oh, one more: What's a blog???
Let me finish this by noting that, no joke, I am very proud of most of you and APPRECIATE the great effort that MOST of you are making. As people in general, I am glad to know ALL of you, NO exceptions, but I am frustrated that some of you are wasting your potential.

...answer the questions.
That's right, Honors. Your writing skills were generally pretty good so that is not what caused your sub-par performance. MOST of you did NOT answer what was actually ASKED for. You just had certain things MEMORIZED and you were determined to write those things EVEN THOUGH THE QUESTION WAS NOT ASKING FOR WHAT YOU MEMORIZED. For example, the nature of a reactant is NOT A STRESS. You can NOT increase or decrease a reactant's NATURE! ALSO, when a question asks you to address TWO FACTORS, you should address...TWO FACTORS.
On average, people lost about 10 to 15 points just for IGNORING what was asked for. How can you focus and remember what was asked for? Oh yes, underline key words BEFORE the test is over or, at least, as you underline ONLY the key terms, say to yourself, my answer MUST address/include this term.
Of course, you should know all of this by now. If you do not correct this significant test-taking flaw, you may lose as many points on the Regents and score WELL BELOW your ability. Maintaining good TEST-TAKING SKILLS is half of the battle on a test!
(long Napoleon Dynamite sigh)

This one is for those who continue to successfully tune me out in the AP class. The HW that I gave on Thursday had a question that could be on our next exam (Thermodynamics). The answers that I just viewed had the EXACT mistakes (regarding units and Hess's Law) that I warned and pre-warned you about in class! There is one word that comes to mind when I see errors that I go out of my way to get you to avoid: UN-TEACHABLE. You cannot be taught. This class is a waste of your time. It does you no good because you do not bother to listen or apply what I am teaching (stuff that you will not see in a textbook).
You will fail the next exam unless you carefully do the homework and practice tests (and view those PowerPoints; check website for the latest files) . Make your mistakes now and then ask about them at extra help. If you do not heed my advice, you WILL fail on Tuesday and some of you will fail the most important quarter of this course.
Our course ends this Friday which means that we will start and finish Electrochemistry in one week. The pace will be very fast and you will be responsible for remembering how to balance redox equations via the half-reaction method (we covered that at the beginning of the year) before we start the notes.
The following week, we begin AP Exam Review during which we will complete an ENTIRE part I or part II AP Exam EVERY day (and two on the weekends). Your fourth quarter grade will depend mostly on the WORK SHOWN (quality and accuracy) on these tests. If you have been struggling all year, I suggest that you stay after every day and do your homework with me so that you can begin to compensate.
We will also begin AP Review sessions, one or two topics per session, this week. I hope to see you all there. Bring your "5 Steps to a 5" prep books.
Mr.C.

I have the iBook again so all is well with the universe. :)
Actually, the screen still freaks out sometimes when I move the laptop to and fro. I can't relinquish the Mac again (never thought I would say THAT); it was like living without a pancreas for a week.

Honors notes are posted, worksheets forthcoming.

AP, you have tons of PowerPoints to view and practice tests to enjoy. Fortunately/unfortunately, we have no school Friday so we have one extra day before the Thermodynamics exam. Take advantage of that. The Thermo exam will be our last test for the 3rd Quarter. Our 4th Quarter consists of three weeks of (intense) work instead of the usual ten. We need to finish the course and practice, practice, practice hundreds of multiple choice and part II AP Exam questions. It's the only way for us to get straight 5s. Everybody on board.

Hi Honors,
I finally made it home only to find that I am unable to upload any notes to the website tonight. None of the files on my substitute laptop are accessible. Furthermore, I took the precaution of uploading some notes to a yahoo website but the storage had been exceeded; NO DICE!
We'll just have to take notes like the Amish tomorrow.
For tonight, I will post the latest worksheets but you won't be able to complete them yet (unless you read ahead...don't bother, yet).
Sleep well.
I'm out after 24 (I've been up for 27!).
Mr.C.

Thanks to Dean for alerting me that there might be an answer choice missing from the set of questions 35 to 40 on the Spring Break exam. I updated the file (in case, through some fantastic oversight, you haven't yet downloaded it).
You can just pencil in answer choice " f) trigonal bipyramidal" as a possible answer to one or more of the molecules listed in questions 35 to 40.