Chemblog!

Thanks to those who came in over the past four weeks to take old Chem Regents exams. Regularly prepping with those tests helped a couple of my students to achieve 100 or at least a very high score last year.
I have those tests tallied in the gradebook now and some students have managed to raise their fourth quarter average with those tests (it was a no-lose proposition given that scores below your average didn't count).
I must note, however, that last year's classes took over twice as many practice regents (some students took over a dozen tests each). This year, one student took ten and three others took about 5 and there were about 15 students who took one or two.
You had four weeks to simultaneously improve your average and prep for the Regents. That doesn't necesarily mean that you weren't prepping but, based on the evidence and comparison to last year's class, most of this class has a lot to prove/demonstrate on Wednesday. Furthermore, the review sessions were regularly attended by only five or six people (whose presence has been duly noted, thank you). Again, maybe you were prepping at home but, compared to last year's attendance (especially towards the last few sessions) this year's turnout was sparse. The class average last year was 95% (not scaled down); I am expecting similar or better results this year given my further refinement of the course and availability of extra help and extra resources this year.

I'm here to help up until seconds before they call you upstairs to take the Regents. You might want to take advantage of that in the next 40 hours. All's well that ends well. Be aware though, doing just "okay" on a test that is well below the level of this course is not going to be okay at all for your average. Make sure that you completely dominate that Regents exam. Bring your A+ game!

Thanks to those who attended review on Saturday and today.