AP SEQUENCE AND TIMING
GENERAL ADVICE
CIRCUMSTANCES
Here’s the thing. Both sequence and timing are going to be largely personal decisions, based upon local circumstances such as your own schedule, unique school schedules, the type of students you have, and a multitude of other factors. It’s really just about impossible to give specific, meaningful advice on these matters.
Below I offer some general pointers, and then to the right a few notes about some of my own circumstances in two separate schools, that might help to shape some of your decisions.
What can be reasonably applied to any situation are the same break points, and the same approx. % of total allocatted time that you see associated with CIRCUMSTANCE 1
- Build the schedule by working backwards from the exam date, obviously including all of the pep-rallies, days off, religious holidays etc.
- I strongly suggest building in review time. I like to have 4 weeks, you may feel that you need less, or perhaps even want less, but for me this is crucial to my success
- STICK TO the schedule. NEVER, EVER, EVER let the students dictate the pace of the class. EVER. It is impossible to emphasize this enough. If the kids think the pace is too fast then they are in the WRONG class. Do NOT change the class to meet them, they need to rise to the external standard that IS AP chemistry
- Whilst fulfilling my audited syllabus to the best of my ability, I always de-emphasize labs since I don’t believe that they add value in terms of preparing kids to get high scores on the AP exam, which is my only goal
To the right you’ll see three sequences with approx. timings that may help to guide you. None are necessarily philosophy driven, rather they are driven by necessity, and the individual circumstances mentioned above, and those found locally.
