You’ve made it through the year! Let’s hone our Multiple Choice skills to make sure we can show off our knowledge and skills!
You’ve made it through the year! Let’s hone our Multiple Choice skills to make sure we can show off our knowledge and skills! Our episode starts by discussing pacing: The multiple choice section consists of 60 questions within 90 minutes (0:54). Then we are taking a closer look at strategies: using the process of elimination (2:09), carefully reading and circling key information (2:47), mental math and estimations (4:20), and most importantly: practice, practice, practice (5:04).
How many Multiple-Choice questions will be on the 2021 digital exam?
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Hi and welcome to the APsolute Recap: Chemistry Edition. Today’s episode will focus on Multiple Choice Strategies
Let’s Zoom out
In just a few weeks you will be taking the AP Chemistry Exam - WOHOO! You’ve made it! You’ve worked so hard and will finally have the chance to show off all your knowledge and skills! The final polish you need is strategies for Multiple Choice and FRQs. Therefore, we will be taking a closer look at these in today’s episode as well as in episode 45.
Let’s zoom in:
The Multiple Choice section is 90 minutes and consists of 60 questions. Breaking the time down, you have 90 seconds for each question. This is obviously an average. There might be a question that you can answer within 30 seconds, and other questions that take you a bit longer. Overall, though, you DO have to hustle a bit. It is a balance, between reading carefully and thinking about the answer, but also moving at a fairly quick pace. It means that 45 minutes into the exam, you should be on question 30 or 31. On the day of the exam, you will be allowed to bring in a watch. But this has to be a traditional, non smartphone style watch. Having a watch on your wrist while you are practicing will allow you to feel more comfortable using this as a pacing guide on the day of the exam.
Let’s talk a bit about the Multiple Choice questions itself: 50 of the questions will count towards your score - 10 questions are questions the College Board uses for standardization. We do not know, however, which 10 questions these are - so we’ll just do our best on all 60! The answer options for multiple choice questions often reflect typical student misconceptions - that makes them all sound plausible - UGH. So what to do?
Work with a process of elimination. A lot of questions, for example, ask for a comparison: are the intermolecular forces stronger or weaker? Does the entropy decrease or increase? Is the reaction exothermic or endothermic? My tip: After reading the question, don’t look at the answer options immediately. Answer the question stronger/weaker; decrease/increase and so on by yourself - and THEN look at the answer options. In most cases, you will see that that eliminates 2 out of 4 answers. Carefully read the two remaining answers and pick the one with the correct explanation / justification.
Reading carefully is key here. You will notice that some answer options only differ in one or two words! Therefore, closely read the question and the answer options. Additionally, some of the multiple-choice questions are rather lengthy. To support your active reading, utilize your pencil and underline or circle key information, which you then can reference when answering the question. You won’t have any scratch paper, but you can make quick notes or do some scratch work in margins and blank spaces.
Speaking of scratch work: You cannot use a calculator in the multiple-choice section, only during the FRQ section. The math required in the MC section is very basic - but, it is math that you can easily do in your head! It will take a bit of practice and getting used to, so when you are preparing for the exam and practicing with old AP questions, challenge yourself and answer them without a calculator. For math questions, it can also be helpful to do a quick estimation - for example, when it comes to gas laws. If you are decreasing the volume, your pressure increases. That might already reduce your answer options to two out of four! A quick estimate can even reduce it to one answer - without you actually having to do the full math.
Here I’ve already mentioned the most important test-taking, or should I say, test preparation tip: Practice, practice, practice! Practice as many multiple-choice questions from old exams as possible and time yourself when doing so. Your teacher might have suggestions where to find practice problems and you’ll have the Progress Checks on AP Classroom that provide an additional practice opportunity!
Lastly, and equally as important: DO NOT leave any Multiple Choice questions blank. IF you are running out of time, just pick your favorite letter and fill in answers for the last few questions you might not have gotten to. There is no penalty for wrong answers. A 25% chance of getting it right is MUCH better than a 0% chance.
To recap:
The Multiple Choice section is 90 minutes and consists of 60 questions. Breaking the time down, you have 90 seconds for each question. Work with a process of elimination to reduce the answer options. Read carefully and utilize your pencil for active reading and marking key information. Practice mental math and estimate answers. Do not leave any Multiple Choice questions blank if you are running out of time. There is no penalty for wrong answers.
Coming up next on the APsolute RecAP Chemistry Edition: FRQ Annotations.
Today’s Question of the day is about MC Questions.
True or false? The multiple choice section accounts for 40% of your score (since it is shorter than the FRQ which has 105 minutes).