AP Chemistry Lab

[FantasyVesperia]

Today in chemistry, we did our first AP chemistry lab on Acid and Base Titrations. My teacher asked the AP chemistry teacher what she expects from honors chemistry I students, and the AP chemistry teacher mentioned that the student should be able to do titrations and use the equipment properly. The lab was time consuming and really interesting. My teacher only gave 10 minutes to do our analysis and conclusion questions. I had no time to do my conclusion questions and I felt like this lab was somewhat rushed.

Are AP Chemistry labs fast paced? I'm frightened that I'm going to do poorly in AP chemistry because everything is face paced and I won't be able to get my work done.

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[dondonsj]

As far as pace is concerned, I would say that we had an appropriate amount of time to finish them, but there is little time left to procrastinate, and it can be easy to get behind.

Because you have to be in the lab to get the lab results, you can wind up getting stuck in limbo if you mess something up and have to wait until the following day in order to get the results to finish the lab.

 

[I'm No Superman]

I never felt rushed in AP chemistry, I'm sure you'll be fine.

Pro tip: Remember which slot your tube is in the centrifuge. Our group failed a lab because of a mix-up.

 

[FantasyVesperia]

@I'm No Superman Thanks, I'll talk with the AP Chemistry teacher about the labs and such.

 

[deleted393595]

Today in chemistry, we did our first AP chemistry lab on Acid and Base Titrations. My teacher asked the AP chemistry teacher what she expects from honors chemistry I students, and the AP chemistry teacher mentioned that the student should be able to do titrations and use the equipment properly. The lab was time consuming and really interesting. My teacher only gave 10 minutes to do our analysis and conclusion questions. I had no time to do my conclusion questions and I felt like this lab was somewhat rushed.

Are AP Chemistry labs fast paced? I'm frightened that I'm going to do poorly in AP chemistry because everything is face paced and I won't be able to get my work done.

High school chem labs are a joke. It's hard to say whether the 10 mins you were given was enough. If it was just general calculations for percent error and so on, it sounds more than adequate.

The real "time consuming" labs though take place in college. However, you'll get better at titration as time goes on as you get accustomed to it and learn tricks. For example it used to take me about 30 mins in high school to do a single phenothaline titration but I cut that down to about 3-4 mins in college (and got almost near perfect accuracy every time). Another big part of it has to do with getting more efficient with your time as you set up and do your other procedures.

 

[AntiHouseMD]

The biggest thing I found during AP Chemistry was to work efficiently and quickly. You should try to focus and not waste time during labs, but you shouldn't rush so you screw things up. Most of the labs aren't extremely complicated (very difficult, but you should get the idea of what you're doing during class notes). Lab reports are a pain, but we got a week to do ours, so it wasn't that bad. I would talk to the teacher to get his/her opinion, but I wouldn't worry too much. Better to improve your lab performance in high school than in college where the grades count for medical school.