AP Chemistry Tutoring for the May Exam
AP Chemistry asks students to explain what they calculate: every number on the page has to be tied back to particles, forces and energy, and the free-response questions reward that reasoning as much as the arithmetic. Students who come from syllabuses built on recall and plugging values into formulas find that marks disappear in the explanations, not in the maths.
Short answer
AP Chemistry is offered online, one-to-one or in a group class.
A private lesson runs 90 minutes and starts at USD 65 per lesson; the group course runs 50 lessons of 90 minutes for USD 1,755, and a class never takes more than 6 students.
Group classes next begin on 27 September 2027.
From USD 65 per lesson
Your lessons are taught by Yasemin Polat, who teaches AP Chemistry.
- 2 scored components, from AP Central
- Live online lessons of 90 minutes
- From USD 65 per lesson
How AP Chemistry is assessed
Set and scored by College Board and reported on the 1–5 AP scale. Each university sets its own rule on which scores earn credit or placement. Component names are as College Board prints them.
College Board
AP Chemistry · AP Central exam page
| Component | Share of score | Length | What it involves |
|---|---|---|---|
| Section I: Multiple Choice | 50% | 1 hour 30 min | 60 questions in 1 hour 30 minutes, either standalone or in sets built on a shared stimulus or data set. A scientific or graphing calculator is recommended: your own handheld one or the Desmos calculator built into Bluebook (a four-function calculator is allowed but not recommended). The periodic table and a formula sheet are provided. |
| Section II: Free Response | 50% | 1 hour 45 min | 7 questions in 1 hour 45 minutes: 3 long questions worth 10 points each and 4 short questions worth 4 points each, together assessing all 6 science practices, from models and representations to argumentation. Questions are shown in Bluebook and answered by hand in a paper booklet, with the same calculator rules and reference material. |
- Hybrid exam: answers are entered in Bluebook for multiple choice and handwritten in a paper booklet for free response.
- 2027 exam date: 6 May 2027.
Checked on 8 October 2026
College Board revises individual exams between years. The exam page linked above is the authority for your sitting.
The AP Chemistry syllabus
Topic names are left in English, as they appear on the paper and in the mark scheme.
Unit 1: Atomic Structure and Properties (7–9%)
Moles and molar mass · Mass spectra of elements · Atomic structure and electron configuration · Photoelectron spectroscopy · Periodic trends
Unit 2: Compound Structure and Properties (7–9%)
Types of chemical bonds · Structure of ionic solids · Lewis diagrams · Resonance and formal charge · VSEPR and hybridization
Unit 3: Properties of Substances and Mixtures (18–22%)
Intermolecular forces · Solids, liquids, and gases · Kinetic molecular theory · Solutions and mixtures · Spectroscopy
Unit 4: Chemical Reactions (7–9%)
Net ionic equations · Physical and chemical changes · Stoichiometry · Types of chemical reactions
Unit 5: Kinetics (7–9%)
Reaction rate · Introduction to rate law · Elementary reactions · Introduction to reaction mechanisms · Catalysis
Unit 6: Thermochemistry (7–9%)
Endothermic and exothermic processes · Heat capacity and calorimetry · Energy of phase changes · Enthalpy of formation · Hess’s law
Unit 7: Equilibrium (7–9%)
Calculating the equilibrium constant · Calculating equilibrium concentrations · Introduction to Le Châtelier’s principle · Introduction to solubility equilibria
Unit 8: Acids and Bases (11–15%)
pH and pOH of strong acids and bases · Acid-base reactions and buffers · pH and pKa · Properties of buffers · pH and solubility
Unit 9: Thermodynamics and Electrochemistry (7–9%)
Introduction to entropy · Gibbs free energy and thermodynamic favorability · Free energy and equilibrium · Galvanic (voltaic) and electrolytic cells · Electrolysis and Faraday’s laws
Where AP Chemistry marks are usually lost
Bonds broken where forces are overcome
Asked why one substance boils at a higher temperature than another, many students say that bonds break. Boiling overcomes the forces between molecules; the covalent bonds inside them stay intact. An explanation scores when it names the specific interaction — dispersion, dipole–dipole, hydrogen bonding, ion–ion — and compares its strength using particle size, polarity or Coulomb’s law. A correct trend pinned on the wrong interaction earns little.
Treating fast and favourable as the same thing
Equilibrium constants and Gibbs free energy say how far a reaction goes and whether it is thermodynamically favoured; they say nothing about how quickly it happens. Rate depends on activation energy, mechanism and the rate law. Students who argue that a large K means a fast reaction, or that a catalyst shifts equilibrium, lose the point. The course even has a topic on reactions that are favoured but kinetically controlled.
Stoichiometry done in grams
College Board notes that students often find the limiting reactant by comparing masses instead of moles. The same slip carries into titration and gas calculations. In the free-response section, answered by hand in a paper booklet, a final number written without its setup shows no method if it is wrong. Converting to moles first and writing each step with its units protects both the method and the answer.
How we teach AP Chemistry
A tutor teaches AP Chemistry from the particles up. Each unit starts with a picture of what the particles are doing — a particulate diagram, a photoelectron spectrum, a titration curve — and only then moves to the equation and the calculation, so that every number has a physical meaning the student can explain. Explanations are practised as short written claims backed by evidence and reasoning, then checked against College Board’s scoring guidelines for released free-response questions. Equilibrium, acids and bases, and thermodynamics are taught as one connected story rather than three chapters, because the exam joins them. Lab-based questions get their own practice: planning a procedure, choosing what to measure and saying how an error would change the result. Free-response answers are written by hand, as on exam day.
There is no separate diagnostic, because there is no single test that stands in for two years of a school syllabus. The first lesson is the assessment: the tutor works through your recent marked work, past-paper questions from your own specification, and the units your school has already covered, and reads current level, gaps, exam technique and where school work stands. It is a normal paid lesson and it teaches as it assesses.
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