Adrian Dingle’s Chemistry Pages
The home on the web of chemistry author, writer, educator and tutor, Adrian DingleAP Chemistry Summer Workshops 2020 Online (as usual!)
College Board catching-up, bless 'em
Just like you I suspect, in the past couple of weeks I’ve been receiving emails telling me that the official, College Board APSI’s will be switching from in-person events to online events for 2020. As I’ve been reading those emails I’ve been having a hearty chuckle to myself! As I have done for the last 6 years, I’ll be offering my own, ONLINE, AP Chemistry Workshops for teachers in the summer of 2020. The workshops in 2020 will be the 13th and 14th that I have offered online. Nice to see that once again, the College Board are finally catching up with me.
No corporate, billion $ BS here
Why attend my workshop, and not an official College Board workshop? The answer is simple. EVERYTHING that we discuss is with maximizing scores in mind. My workshops put lab work in its proper place, focus on chemistry content & scoring points, and dispense with all of the CB lip-service relating to college-readiness, diversity, inclusion, and access etc. There’s NO fluff, NO peripheral, politically correct content here, it’s chemistry content, and boosting scores only – after all, maximizing scores is the ultimate in leveling the playing field. As a bonus, you won’t have to listen to the hard-sell relating to billion dollar, corporate policy.
Where do I get more information?
The details for the 2020 workshops including dates, prices, logistics, professional development credit, FAQ’s, and much, much more, can be found here. Please take a few minutes to read that page, and then feel free to contact me with any further questions. You’ll get an Amazon gift card with your registration, and have the chance to be in a group that’s concentrated on raising AP Chemistry scores. You’ll see how I transitioned from a 6 UNIT course to a 9 UNIT course for 19-20, how the 91 new LO’s fit the (older) 2014-19 exams, how labwork can be put in its correct place, and much more. I’d love to have you join us this summer.
Updates (04/04/20) on my COVID-19/AP Chemistry response
Free Tutorials
After initially offering four, free AP Chemistry tutorials via Zoom, I have suspended this service. As more details have emerged about the AP ‘exam’ in 2020, I believe that there is no integrity to the exam, and as such I wanted to distance myself as far as possible from the process. Suspending the tutorials is one way to illustrate that, and to register my disapproval.
Online AP Chem Review 2020
For the same reasons that I suspended the free tutorials, I have also canceled the online review course. All fees have been refunded to registrants. This has cost me literally thousands of dollars, but with the integrity of the ‘exam’ in pieces, I believe that this was the right thing to do. AP Chemistry Online Teacher Workshops in 2020 are STILL GOING AHEAD – that work is for 2020-21 academic year, and is currently completely unaffected by COVID-19.
My position on the 'exam' for 2020
I want no part of the ‘exam’ in 2020, and will advise all students that I come into contact with not to take the exam. I will not report any scores of any of my students in 2020. Read my full thoughts.
AP Chemistry
Crash Course
3rd Edition
The best-selling review book that cuts straight to the chase, and delivers higher scores on the AP chemistry exam. NEW, 3rd Edition, updated for the 2020 exam, now on Amazon.
My Latest Thoughts – The Blog
The real lesson for vulnerable teens
If you're an impressionable, highly-strung, high achieving 15 to 18 year old, this AP 'exam' season has been stressful. I get it, I really do. I've been in this game (and a MUCH, MUCH, MUCH higher stakes version of it in the UK) for 30 years, and I have two children of my own, one of whom happened to be a graduating high school senior in 2020. So in short, I understand. However, I've got news...
17 TOPICS, OR 6 OR 9 UNITS?
That sounds like a Chicago song, but ... ... in various places on this site, you will see references in the AP sections to "17 TOPICS", "6 UNITS" and "9 UNITS". This can be confusing, so here's the background to those distinctions. Up to, and through the 2013 AP Chemistry exam, teachers had to refer to what was commonly known as "The Acorn Book" in order to decipher what to teach in an AP...
So you’ve taken the AP Chemistry Exam in 2020. What will your score be?
Of course, the question above assumes that you managed to upload files today, and/or that your re-take will go smoothly ... but ... ignoring that minor detail ... ... on the face of it, and on the basis of what we know right now, whatever your score is it will bear virtually zero relation to any AP chemistry score generated previously. DISCLAIMER: Alright, so I'll be the first to admit that...
Further reasons to not take the AP chemistry ‘exam’ in 2020 as a HS senior
If you are a high school senior preparing to take the AP Chemistry 'exam' in 2020, you may want to think again. There are already a whole host of reasons NOT to take the AP Chemistry 'exam' in 2020. On top of the logic outlined in that post, in the last few days I have been getting reports form other AP chemistry teachers regarding two further factors that add fuel to my position. Teachers have...
My position on the ’20 AP Chem ‘exam’
A lot has happened since the College Board first announced that the 2020 AP Chemistry ’exam’ would be going ahead in a vastly modified format. At the beginning of this process there was an enormous amount of uncertainty. Some (perhaps most) of that uncertainty still remains, but we are now at a point where we have just about all of the information that we are likely to get. As a result, I think...
LO 7.14 in 2020 AP Chemistry ‘exam’?
The College Board should have cancelled the AP chemistry exam in 2020. Period. I'm going to write a longer post on that particular subject later, but for now, the fact that they have not cancelled the AP chemistry exam is already creating some prickly problems for students and teachers alike. The background to the 2020 'exam' (I use the term loosely), is that the CB have announced that UNITS 1-7...
Chemistry Tutoring
Many students find chemistry a challenging subject. Reasons include the intellectual demands of the subject, difficulties with the mathematical aspects, and problems associated with the school instruction they are receiving. As a result, those students will fail to reach their full potential. 1-on1 chemistry tutoring will help them reach that potential.
“We would like to thank you for helping our son develop proficiency in AP Chemistry, and especially in developing critical thinking skills in this subject. For a sophomore student he has come a long way in understanding complex areas of the subject, and your teaching helped him substantially.” – R in NJ, USA
“I got a 5 on AP chemistry and a 770 on the subject test. Thank you so much for all your help this year. I couldn’t have done it without you.” – Vivian in CT, USA
My Books
