Is self-studying for AP Chemistry even possible??

[Tennis]

I'm planning on taking Chemistry honors and they teach AP Chem material. However the teacher doesn't teach so I basically need to self-study for the hard tests, labs, and quizzes he gives frequently. Is it possible to spend only an hour each day to keep up with the class?? How long do you really need to study AP Chemistry for to get A's in your class and a 5 on the AP exam??

I have taken AP Physics B and will be taking AP BIO and APES concurrently with Chemistry Honors. I have self-studied some of fluids, thermodynaimcs, heat, and atomic/nuclear physics already for the AP Exam. Thermodynaimcs and heat took me only a few days to study (crammed by studying the WHOLE day), I understood most of it too. Atomic/nuclear I spend about a week to grasp everything, photoelectric effect, nuclear reactions, E=mc^2 and understood it pretty well. When I attempted to self study these sections, they seemed HARD to me at first and I couldn't get anything. I had to look at many sources to firmly comprehend the basics, after that I got everything down by rereading many times and practicing.

Since I'm able to self study thermodynamics in a couple days, and the others in less than a few weeks while understanding most of the material. Will I be able to take on Chemistry Honors (which teaches like an AP class) by myself with no instruction from the teacher at all? Do you guys have any links to sites, especially podcasts, that allow you to understand the material? I really want to tackle this class so I'm starting to get insight/advice now. Chemistry honors should be taken with AP Bio and APES right? Should I not put chemistry off until my senior year or a community college? Thanks guys! =]

[Erin]

You're a high school student, right?

Let me move this to the right forum...

[Erin]

Okay, it's been moved to a better forum. (I actually created a new forum for you. )

We get a lot of complaints about teachers who 'don't teach'. Whether you'll be able to keep up in class and do well is up to you.

We have a Chemistry PhD on staff, so if you can provide more info, I'll get him to answer your question here on the forums. The more info you can provide, the better. If you're local to San Francisco, please tell us the name of your school (but please don't tell us the name of your teacher).

[Tennis]

I just really want to know how much time I need to dedicate to studying for chemistry honors. What I should study in the summer to prep. If anyone wants to help me out even further, please PM me and I'll send you the syllabus, labs, and test examples that the teacher gives out. I would then like to know what is the best way to approach this kind of schedule. For you people who are experienced with chemistry, you can probably tell the difficulty if I provided you with what I said above right? I even have the assignments schedule so please PM me for this information. thanks!

[Erin]

I can't talk about chemistry specifically, but I can speak about studying in general. Learning a school subject is a lot like learning anything else, like a language or a sport. It's certainly possible to self-study, but most people don't.

I'm afraid I can't have teachers respond to PMs, but if you do post something here publicly in the forums, I'll see about getting 'Dr. B.' to answer you.

[scheng75]

Not sure what APES is but typically AP Bio is taken AFTER taking Chemistry Honors. Many schools actually make Chemistry a prerequisite for AP Bio but I guess not in your case. Though it seems that you can grasps many subjects quickly, without really knowing you I cannot tell you how many hours you'll need to study for Chem Honors. I would say typically that if you are self-teaching, one hour a day is not enough.

Self-teaching happens a lot in college because some professors are great researchers but not great teachers. I've had a few foreign math & science professors who I had a hard time understanding, so it was up to me to learn the material. If your Chem teacher only test from the material he gives you like the textbook or handouts, then it's not so challenging to study on your own. But if the tests are way harder than the textbook, handouts and lecture notes, then it would be very difficult to do well in this class.