Well, maybe…..but probably not. Oh, I dunno!

This evening, Paul Price led an AACT sponsored webinar entitled, ‘Reviewing for the AP Chemistry Exam‘.

As a pretty experienced AP chemistry teacher who spends an inordinate amount of time carefully studying this type of thing, there wasn’t anything in the webinar that I didn’t already know, but for others with less experience, I would imagine it was useful. Paul always does a good job.

I won’t go through the finer points of the webinar here, but I did want to say one thing. I am actually going to make a tiny prediction about the 2015 AP chemistry exam, based on something that Paul said in passing, mainly because it ties in with something that I previously heard (once again completely informally) from another source.

Now I have your attention and before I make the prediction, I want to make a few things very clear; I generally think that making predictions is a pointless exercise; this prediction could be (and probably will be) 100% incorrect; I have no ‘inside’ information; even if I am 100% correct, my guess is that it will only be worth 1 point; this is not a going to be a revelation!

OK, here it is. I think that the 2015 AP Chemistry Exam has a decent chance of awarding one point for a question that relates to knowing that different types of radiation interact with molecules in different ways. In short, what it says in EK 1D3b and LO 1.15, and what is says on page 46 of the Crash Course book. Hardly earth shattering I know, but something is bothering me about one aspect of this.

I’ve heard reference to microwaves in this context on multiple occasions, BUT there is no reference of them in EK 1D3b. By contrast IR, UV and visible are mentioned specifically, so I am a touch perplexed. This also leads me to think that I might be entirely wrong about any reference to microwaves, thus rendering this post useless! You have been warned!