This course is designed to be the equivalent of the general chemistry course usually taken during the first college year. For some students, this course enables them to undertake, as freshmen, second-year work in the chemistry sequence at their institution or to register for courses in other fields where general chemistry is a prerequisite. For other students, the AP Chemistry course fulfills the laboratory science requirement and frees time for other courses.

An introduction to the principles of Chemistry: reaction stoichiometry and the mole concept, periodic properties of the elements, atomic and molecular structure, chemical bonding, chemical reactions, and the properties of gases and condensed phases.