Thursday, April 06, 2006
Vacation Assignments
We have a lengthy 12-day vacation commencing on Wednesday. I wish that I could change the extreme paucity of time that we have to learn so much material but that is not within my control. Here's the straight story for what that means for our classes:
AP: The AP class will have literally 12 school-days to complete the course before exam day, May 10. (Do not miss ANY of those days for any reason.) On Saturday , April 29 at 10 AM in the Board Room, we will have a REAL released AP Chemistry exam from 2002 (do NOT do this exam beforehand or you will ruin your chance of knowing what you are going to get on the 2006 AP exam). We will then immediately score the exam. Do NOT miss that test; it will be conducted in the exact same manner as your real exam- same timing, same proctoring instructions, same everything (except two hour later start time - no biggie). You will have the golden opportunity to make test-taking errors that you will have time to address/correct in the 11 days to the exam. I can even schedule one more mock exam for the next weekend but it may have to be on that Friday afternoon or Sunday. Bottom line, nothing will be a more realistic assessment of your AP Chem ability than the test on April 29. Don't miss it.
There is much to accomplish and perfect over the vacation. The vacation assignment consists of three complete part II AP exams (questions that you should be well-accustomed to by now via the hw) and some lab-based questions and project KARMA. I will post a list of this year's exams in case you need a reprint of one or more of them. The KARMA assignment will especially long for those who made many errors this year without taking the time to come in to extra help to make the corrections and learn from those errors; but look at the assignment in a positive manner given that, if you do the corrections carefully and thoroughly so that you will not repeat those errors, you stand a MUCH better chance of achieving a 5 on the AP exam. This will vindicate your class average from earlier quarters and you will objectively achieve in this course. Naturally, if you need help in figuring out what you did wrong, you can email me over the break; however, review your notes and read the relevant text sections first.
Warning: do not come back to class without that correctly completed project. Start early and work steadily on that assignment throughout the vacation. It CANNOT be completed in a weekend. Keep in mind that , in 35 days, the pressure will be COMPLETELY and suddenly off. Do not give up before then; keep the pressure full on. I have had students who quit from sometime during the second semester and, the day after the test, they had nothing but depressing regrets and self-blame. They couldn't even grasp why they had been so negligent (they didn't even bother to come in for a last-minute refresher the day of the test!); the sad fact is that they can never get a second chance.
Honors: We must make up for the lost time and future lost time (fire drills and who knows what else) by completing the memorization part of the Organic Chemistry unit. I will post tutorials, worksheets and a practice test with answers. As soon as you come back from vacation, you will be tested on the assignment (written test) before we continue with acids and bases. The assignment will require NO EXPLANATIONS. The Organic Chem assigned will just involve memorization of names, rules, and reactions.
Work through the assignment gradually over the 12 days. Email me if you need some clarification.
When we come back, perhaps I will be able to teach without a hoarse voice.
AP: The AP class will have literally 12 school-days to complete the course before exam day, May 10. (Do not miss ANY of those days for any reason.) On Saturday , April 29 at 10 AM in the Board Room, we will have a REAL released AP Chemistry exam from 2002 (do NOT do this exam beforehand or you will ruin your chance of knowing what you are going to get on the 2006 AP exam). We will then immediately score the exam. Do NOT miss that test; it will be conducted in the exact same manner as your real exam- same timing, same proctoring instructions, same everything (except two hour later start time - no biggie). You will have the golden opportunity to make test-taking errors that you will have time to address/correct in the 11 days to the exam. I can even schedule one more mock exam for the next weekend but it may have to be on that Friday afternoon or Sunday. Bottom line, nothing will be a more realistic assessment of your AP Chem ability than the test on April 29. Don't miss it.
There is much to accomplish and perfect over the vacation. The vacation assignment consists of three complete part II AP exams (questions that you should be well-accustomed to by now via the hw) and some lab-based questions and project KARMA. I will post a list of this year's exams in case you need a reprint of one or more of them. The KARMA assignment will especially long for those who made many errors this year without taking the time to come in to extra help to make the corrections and learn from those errors; but look at the assignment in a positive manner given that, if you do the corrections carefully and thoroughly so that you will not repeat those errors, you stand a MUCH better chance of achieving a 5 on the AP exam. This will vindicate your class average from earlier quarters and you will objectively achieve in this course. Naturally, if you need help in figuring out what you did wrong, you can email me over the break; however, review your notes and read the relevant text sections first.
Warning: do not come back to class without that correctly completed project. Start early and work steadily on that assignment throughout the vacation. It CANNOT be completed in a weekend. Keep in mind that , in 35 days, the pressure will be COMPLETELY and suddenly off. Do not give up before then; keep the pressure full on. I have had students who quit from sometime during the second semester and, the day after the test, they had nothing but depressing regrets and self-blame. They couldn't even grasp why they had been so negligent (they didn't even bother to come in for a last-minute refresher the day of the test!); the sad fact is that they can never get a second chance.
Honors: We must make up for the lost time and future lost time (fire drills and who knows what else) by completing the memorization part of the Organic Chemistry unit. I will post tutorials, worksheets and a practice test with answers. As soon as you come back from vacation, you will be tested on the assignment (written test) before we continue with acids and bases. The assignment will require NO EXPLANATIONS. The Organic Chem assigned will just involve memorization of names, rules, and reactions.
Work through the assignment gradually over the 12 days. Email me if you need some clarification.
When we come back, perhaps I will be able to teach without a hoarse voice.
# posted by C @ 10:09 PM 
