The College Board administers exams for 40 different Advanced Placement (AP) courses which, in 2024, were taken by more than three million students. With most AP tests containing several free response questions, each year the College Board enlists a group of experienced teachers to dedicate hours of their free time to providing some of the most anticipated test feedback in the country.
Chemistry teacher Timothy Knittel will be joining over 27,000 other educators to grade free response questions as an AP Reader during the first week of June. Although the in-person grading of AP Chemistry exams will take place in Tampa, Florida, Knittel has chosen to grade remotely so he can continue to teach his classes at WA, as he is the only AP Chemistry teacher and one of two honors chemistry teachers.
The 2025 exams will be the first group of tests that Knittel grades as an AP Reader, an opportunity that he received after applying for the position both in the spring and fall of 2024.
According to Knittel, his desire to become an AP Reader stems from his goal of constantly expanding his knowledge of chemistry, and finding the most effective ways to teach the course. AP Chemistry has one of the most difficult exams out of all the AP courses offered at WA, with only about 18% of students nationally receiving a five, or the equivalent of an A grade on the test.
As a teacher of one of the hardest AP courses, Knittel is always attempting to provide his students with a deeper understanding of the material.
“Something I’ve [always considered is], ‘what kind of insights can I gain on the test to help my students?’ and that’s what I’m looking for, to help them understand the concept so they can do better on the [AP exam],” Knittel said.
In the future, Knittel also hopes to use the lessons he has learned from teaching the class to expand other teachers’ comfort with the curriculum.
“I’m trying to help my students do better, and then eventually, what I hope will happen is [that] I’ll start leading some workshops for new teachers. And hopefully, they’ll help their students do better as well,” Knittel said.
Through his role, Knittel will spend five to eight hours each day grading the responses to one question on the chemistry exam. According to Knittel, he plans to spread the work out by utilizing extra time in his prep blocks. Even then, Knittel expects to spend a bulk of his time outside of school growing very familiar with his assigned question.
“I’m not looking forward to going home and grading the same question over and over again,” Knittel said. “The experience will be good but the actual [repetition] I don’t think will be.”
The time-consuming workload is preceded by an even longer qualification process, as readers are often chosen from a pool of teachers, all with years of experience under their belts. Knittel himself has been teaching for 24 years and has taught AP Chemistry for almost two decades, but according to him, becoming an AP Reader has been a long-standing aspiration that only recently became a possibility.
“There’s a pool of people that [the College Board] selects from, and I know from personal experience and from other people I’ve talked to that it’s difficult to get selected,” Knittel said. “And what I think has happened is they’ve started to weed out some of the old ranks […] and they’re bringing in the next level of teachers.”
Beyond the test, Knittel aims to improve his students’ critical thinking and reasoning skills. The abstract concepts and problems introduced in AP Chemistry often require students to do more than just memorize words and formulas. Instead, the coursework demands the students to have the ability to use problem-solving skills and deduction to determine the optimal solution.
“I think far too much of life in high school and college is just memorizing your way through it, and then you don’t understand it, and then you forget. So what I try to push people towards is an understanding, […] because once you understand [concepts], there’s no studying required,” Knittel said. “It’s really important for life because you’re gonna run into lots of situations where you don’t know the answers to things. You need to think about how it affects you and what’s best for you.”
As much as the material challenges students, the presentation and explanation of the material also make instruction challenging. However, according to Knittel, the obstacle of constantly creating new methods to describe complex topics is one of the most enjoyable aspects of teaching the class.
“I love the challenge,” Knittel said. “It’s not the kind of class where I just can [present] the same stuff every day, and the same information every year […]. When we get to challenging classes, like AP Chemistry, it’s more like, ‘how can I as a teacher engineer a concept that they haven’t really seen before?’”
Knittel’s commitment to teaching students how to approach complex topics is apparent through his layered class materials. According to junior TJ Collamore, Knittel offers a variety of ways for students to reinforce their understanding through lecture videos, written explanations to problems, and numerous optional study materials. The resources provided by Knittel work in conjunction to ensure that students are able to fill any gaps in their understanding and achieve a broad view of a topic’s applications.
“He recognizes how busy students’ lives can be, so by offering a variety of optional practice materials, he gives students the flexibility to engage with as much preparation as they need,” Collamore said.
In addition to providing accommodating resources, Knittel also incorporates AP-style questions into nearly all of his assignments to continuously prepare his students for their final test. Knittel’s constant exposure to the types of problems on the AP exam, as well as his familiarity with grading student responses, have allowed him to prepare himself for the challenge he faces in June.
“He teaches students exactly how points are awarded by AP graders, ensuring they understand the expectations set by the College Board [which] makes him an excellent candidate to serve as a grader,” Collamore said.
Past students, such as WA graduate Jack Whitman, verify the effectiveness of Knittel’s coursework. Whitman was one of 23 students worldwide to earn a perfect score on the AP Chemistry exam, and, according to Whitman, a significant contributor to his achievement was Knittel’s commitment to developing student comfort with AP questions.
“I think that Mr. Knittel’s combination of lectures, labs, and resources help me to succeed in his class and on the exam,” Whitman said. “His labs were also especially helpful, as for the lab reports, we would have to answer questions that would match the free response questions we would see on the exam.”
Another challenging aspect of teaching the class is the ever-changing material. As the College Board has made yearly alterations to the material assessed on the exam, Knittel has attempted to continue covering topics such as organic chemistry that will be emphasized in college courses.
According to Knittel, AP Chemistry is one of the main reasons for his continued connection to Westford and his passion for teaching at WA. As he builds on his teaching experience, Knittel hopes to have a larger influence on the way AP Chemistry is taught on a more wide-spread scale. Being able to assess the understanding of students around the country is one major step towards his goal and legacy.
“I’d like to be able to lead those younger teachers, and the next generation, and so I think I would see myself in my last 10 or 15 years of teaching, hopefully leading those workshops and influencing the next generation,” Knittel said. “I want to be part of that conversation, like a lasting legacy that I can impart on people.”
