**You can also see reviews for Advanced Honors Chemistry from parents and students through AP Homeschoolers here:
https://www.aphomeschoolers.com/course/honchem/review/index
2023/2024 school year
My son found the video lectures to be very clear and informative, and I believe he considered them to be superior to the text for learning. If he had any questions, going back and re-watching part of a video would usually clear any confusion up quickly. He enjoyed the videos so much, he figured out how to view the following chapter’s videos and would watch them for fun.
A few times he emailed or visited office hours for extra clarification, and he appreciated the quick help he received.
I can’t imagine a more organized class! Everything was easy to access. Assignments were very helpful for preparing for tests and exams. Chapter checklists were amazing to have. Due dates were consistent and clear, so my son could plan his time appropriately. The midterm and final were robust exams, but there weren’t any surprises. Ms. Schwartz provides a lot of support to help students prepare for the exams.
Adv. Honors Chemistry was an amazing class. My son is pretty young and still has many classes ahead of him and this class set a high bar. My son learned a ton and feels really proud of what he’s accomplished and what he has learned.
I would definitely recommend Clover Valley Chemistry to others. Ms. Schwartz is amazing and I would gladly tell anyone about her classes. All the great things I’ve heard about CVC are true. Interesting material/videos, amazing scaffolding, very kind and warm, but an intense course with firm deadlines and serious coursework.
Adv. Honors Chemistry is a really robust course, requiring a lot of time and dedication. I think students need to know what they are signing up for, and they may want to choose one of the other options, depending on their goals. I can’t imagine an AP class would be much harder. Maybe taking the regular honors class might leave more to learn if they plan to take AP chem next.
Thank you so much! I’m so glad I signed my son up for this class. He really enjoyed himself! He’s learned so much, not just about chemistry, but also about planning ahead and the importance of studying. It was a great opportunity for my son to learn a lot of chemistry, while having the bonus of getting to develop his EF skills.
– Parent
Mrs. C felt very present and supportive in my learning process throughout this course — this is something hard to come by in an online class! This course certainly required a significant amount of effort to succeed. However, it was worth it, and I feel I got much more out of it due to this increased workload. The video lectures, scheduling tools, and email communications were the aspects of this course that I found most valuable. Often, there were sections in the textbook that made my head spin, but once I heard Mrs. C’s thorough explanations, it all became much clearer. The tools that Mrs. C provided for scheduling — the yearly planner and the chapter checklists — were extremely helpful as well: without them, I probably would have had much more trouble staying on track. The email communications made me feel as if Mrs. C was present in my learning in the course, not just someone who mysteriously returned my graded assignments. While I did generally keep up with my assignments, her regular reminders not to procrastinate (wouldn’t want to make Chemistry Mole angry! ;)) lent a sense of humanity and personality that made this often dense subject much more enjoyable. One improvement I would make to this course (and this was difficult to think of — it was an amazing class!) would be to balance the workload just a bit more across chapters. Often, it felt as if the time I was spending on the course varied significantly between chapter blocks, which made scheduling more difficult and added a level of unpredictability in what I was doing. Perhaps some chapters could be combined, and some split, so as to even the discrepancies?
I loved this class! I mentioned this in my email with the final exam, but I’ve learned so much from this course that I never thought I could. While this was a tough class, the difficulty was well worth it, and I feel like I have a much deeper understanding of chemistry now. Mrs. C definitely makes my top five list of teachers with her presence in this course. Even if some of the concepts we learned slip my mind over the coming years, I’ll never forget how amazing my year with Chemistry Mole, Avogadro, and Mrs. C was. Thank you so much for this class!
– Student
Great teacher! As a parent, I appreciated the detail and frequency of communication – not too little, not too much!
Course content and presentation increased my student’s interest in Chemistry. He felt challenged in a rewarding way!
This course was amazing! It was great to watch my student enjoy the challenge of the advanced course and increase his knowledge and interest in chemistry. Thank you!
– Parent
2022/2023 school year
Thanks for the course, it was challenging but fun!
– Student
Funnily enough, I thought the midterm and final felt a bit easy after the intensity of the course. I can’t believe how much I have learned! (What aspects of this course were most useful or valuable?) I loved having the chapter checklist to keep me on track. I also found being able to print off the lecture slides extremely useful. Mrs. Schwartz was amazing and so quick to respond to any email.
This course was incredibly well-organized and thorough. It was also extremely difficult because the workload was as advertised. I registered for this course because I did not believe it would actually be 10-12 hours of work because, being smart, nothing has ever taken me as long as I was told it would take. This course required that much time, or more. I have learned an unbelievable amount of chemistry. In reviewing for the final, I looked at an AP chemistry review website, and it seems to me that after taking this course, the AP exam would be a breeze. I have never before had a teacher who put in so much energy and effort, and I felt very supported throughout my chemistry journey.
I would not recommend this course to anyone I know because I do not think they could handle it, however it is still an excellent course. I would recommend this course to those who love chemistry and hard work and know what they are getting into.
Mrs. Schwartz is a wonderful teacher! She’s clearly very knowledgeable and passionate about chemistry, which makes learning it from her much more interesting and engaging. She is also very encouraging, supportive, and helpful, and her availability could not be better! She has taken so much care with the organization of the course that a student cannot help but know what to do. You learn so much chemistry in this course, but it is not for the faint of heart!
– Student
2021/2022 school year
Ms. Schwartz was extremely good at returning grades with helpful feedback and if I still didn’t understand I could email her and she would explain it in a way that made sense. I used the live hours on zoom most weeks but I didn’t really see too many other people in the class taking advantage of that help. The zoom sessions were one of the most helpful things for me. I really enjoyed doing all the labs that were assigned. They were engaging and fun. I had no background of chemistry before this class. After this class I know most of the material pretty well and I am preparing to take a CLEP exam. It is a good class if you want a good challenge. I would (recommend) for any students who are willing to put in enough time and dedication to fully understand the material. I don’t think this course is for everyone but it sure was for me. Kudos to Ms. Schwartz because she has put together a really great course.
-Student
I appreciate your level of professionalism and expertise. This course represents the best of distance and online learning. Maybe provide spiral type reviewing throughout the entire semester for those who engage with you in help sessions so the midterm and final are less daunting. As a fellow teacher I usually think bonus points are given too freely for work students should already be doing. You have however done an excellent job of allowing students to earn bonus for paying extra special attention to your lectures and engaging in appropriate communication with an instructor. I have an older student who earned 47 dual enrollment credits through high school. I taught him and helped him learn to communicate with professors and if he found an error to let them know or to question them. At first he was uncomfortable but he now appropriately communicates with adults and realizes they sometimes make mistakes. I also love the challenge bonus questions on homework. They were hard. Kudos to you!
– Parent
Challenging but it teaches a lot of material and time-management
– Student
The way the course was organized was very helpful—chapter checklists helped me plan out each block. The fact that the next chapter blocks were posted early allowed me to work ahead when I was out. The double instruction of the textbook and the videos helped to really reinforce the concept. It’s a challenging course, and does take up as much time (or close to) as an AP course does in the fall semester (1.5-2 hrs/day), but it prepares the student extremely well in two respects. The first is in general chemistry knowledge—I feel more confident and prepared going into AP Chem next year because of the rigor of this course. Secondly, it allows the student to develop good study habits while still allowing a small amount of room for error (bonus points were extremely useful and helpful!).
– Student
It was amazing! I learned so much and had so much fun! Thank you so much for this course!! You were so friendly and helpful and probably the best teacher I’ve ever had!
– Student
Excellent content. Well organized. My child felt the AP Chem exam was easy after taking this course.
– Parent
An excellent, high-level course that challenged my student. Thank you for an excellent year of chemistry! My student loves chemistry and has gained valuable study skills as a result of taking your course.
– Parent
*On the workload, I think there could have been slightly fewer problems from the end of each chapter. This is a minor thing however. Otherwise, the amount of homework and tests were great! *The final exam was also slightly easier than I expected, but that is not bad. I found the final pretty fun. *On the email announcements, I didn’t find the due date reminders or the reminders not to procrastinate necessary. The announcements, however, that contained chemistry-related information, advice on how to study, or alerts about winter storms were helpful. *The lectures were extremely helpful in clearing up things I didn’t understand from the textbook. The chapter checklists were amazingly helpful for me to keep track of assignments. The practice questions had answers but did not have solutions, so that was slightly more difficult, but their difficulty overall was pretty good. *Sometimes, the labs helped me understand chemical principles, and sometimes it was the chemical principles that helped me understand the labs. *The kit materials were certainly extremely easy to work with. There was only one lab, the one about analysis of hydrates, that was difficult because we did not have a heat plate and ended up using a camp stove with an open flame instead. I learned a lot in this course! I rated knowledge at the end as fair because there is so much more chemistry to learn, and I am not yet satisfied. *Of course, all the textbook readings and lectures were extremely valuable; without them I wouldn’t have learned anything. I also found the labs useful to understand chemistry in a more real way, that is, not just diagrams and names on paper. *I would definitely recommend this course. This course was so fun 🙂 It’s probably my favorite course from this whole year (although my math class came close). This course has gotten me so excited to go learn about other branches of science. Thanks so much!
– Student
I didn’t go to many of the Office Hours, but whenever I did Mrs. S always answered my questions. There were a few weeks during the beginning of the second semester that I struggled with the homework load, but I think that that was my fault. I have a habit of procrastinating. If the textbook did not give a thorough explanation, Mrs. S always explained the subject in her video lectures. I learned so much about chemistry throughout the year. Having a professional chemist as a teacher was amazing. I learned so much. I will miss Mrs. S and all of her video lectures.
– Student
Satisfactory first semester. Then, woke up and did better in the second semester. Nothing was not useful. Especially during the Final Exam 😰 Maybe a little slower paced? I don’t know how that would be accomplished however… AP level course! Thank you so much for teaching me Chemistry! This was a BLAST!
– Student
2020/2021 school year
Emails were always responded promptly. My daughter got the answers she needed. I appreciate the instructor’s understanding, patience, and flexibility.
My daughter had never taken a Chemistry course but had knowledge of it by what I had taught her when she was younger and what she learned in AP Biology. She would get excited every time she saw a connection with what she had learned in AP Biology and I could see her confidence increase when she was able to understand the concept deeper.
The course is challenging which is what I look for in a course. The student needs to put a lot of effort and time into it. It definitely prepares the student for AP Chemistry.
I would definitely recommend it to someone that wants to really understand Chemistry and is willing to put the time and effort. I am very thankful for this course and for Mrs. Schwartz as I was last year when my son took this course. Both my kids enjoyed it and learned a lot from it. It prepared my son for AP Chemistry so well that he was confident and stress free when taking AP Chemistry. He felt very prepared for the class and the exam.
– Parent, Advanced Honors Chemistry
I feel very fortunate both my boys got to learn chemistry with you. I wish all homeschool courses were as well organized and as rigorous as your honors chem.
– Parent, Advanced Honors Chemistry
This has been the most challenging and also enjoyable course I’ve taken. I really liked the way you explained and taught everything, and you made it very fun and interesting to learn. I wish it was longer because I’m disappointed it’s over 🙂 I’m planning on taking your Organic Chemistry course in two years, which I am really looking forward to. Thank you for everything you taught me, I hope you have a great summer!
– Student, Advanced Honors Chemistry
2019/2020 school year
This class is a great preparing for AP Chemistry classes, and I learned a lot more than I expected. The video lectures were extremely useful and really helped me understand the concepts taught in the course.
-Student, Advanced Honors Chemistry
Chemistry mole is not a mole, chemistry mole is a hedgehog, and this drove me nuts for the entire course.
-Student, Advanced Honors Chemistry Note from Mrs. S: The student is correct! 🙂 I do explain about Chemistry “Mole” actually being a hedgehog at the bottom of this website page (the student who gifted him to me was adamant he was a mole (so as to relate him to chemistry :))) but I may have neglected to clarify that to students. I shall clarify going forward! 😀 But even with his hedgehog beginnings, he’ll still always be Chemistry Mole. 🙂
I was very impressed with how promptly & thoroughly Mrs. Schwartz kept students and parents informed. I really appreciated that she sent out study tips/exam preparation hints to help guide the students for the midterm and final exams. As for the live office hours – these were the highlight for my daughter, and we both believe it was because of these office hour sessions that my daughter was able to succeed in the course. I know she really looked forward to the office hours , and Mrs. Schwartz always helped her wrestle through some confusing point or concept.
-Parent, Advanced Honors Chemistry
This course really challenged my student. In the end, it made them realize they were capable of doing very complex things and that is a valuable lesson. This course is not just for anyone. It requires loads of discipline, sound math skills, and acute attention to detail. My student took several online classes this year. The one thing they repeatedly told me throughout the school year was how nice Mrs. Schwartz was as a teacher. That alone kept my student from giving up. The material was so very hard, but your lectures and constant encouragement made my student stick with it. As parents, we are exceedingly proud of that effort and are most grateful to you for being “that kind” of teacher.
Thank you!❤
-Parent, Advanced Honors Chemistry
I found the lectures to be very useful as they went into great depth on the topic and made the subject much clearer than the textbook. I found labs to not be very useful. I would have liked to be able to submit assignments on Canvas rather than through emails. With emails, it takes longer to submit assignments and I have to be careful that everything goes through and that all of the files are in the right emails. If I could submit through Canvas, I could see exactly what was and was not done and also would spend less time trying to find an old homework assignment. I really loved this course. Thank you so very much!
-Student, Advanced Honors Chemistry
Thanks for such a great course. My student enrolled because I told her she had to take SOME chem, and this week was excited to signup for AP Chem.
-Parent, Advanced Honors Chemistry
This course matches its title. It was quite challenging for me, I also learned many new things from this course. So overall, I believe students who wants to take up a challenge, go for this.
-Student, Advanced Honors Chemistry
This course taught me so many things it’s hard to even explain! I knew nothing about chemistry. Now I feel like I’m more connected with my world. Last week I saw a bottle containing some sort of industrial alcohol, and so I sat on the floor and properly named it in my head using the IUPAC system. What used to be meaningless hieroglyphics is comprehensible now! It’s a great feeling. I felt like I learned a lot, and was encouraged to take a broad interest in chemistry. Mrs. S is very passionate about chemistry, and organic chemistry in particular, and her passion for it is not only visible, but inspirational as well.
-Student, Advanced Honors Chemistry
The office hours were PARTICULARLY helpful. They really helped me understand the chem concepts better. Thank you! This was an excellent course! I’m so grateful I took this course and I know that my understanding of chemistry has vastly improved. You’re an amazing teacher – of course I would recommend the course!
-Student, Advanced Honors Chemistry
2018/2019 school year
One of the probably most time consuming but most helpful aspects of this class is how responsive you are. We have had teachers take longer to respond and to grade papers/tests, and find that when it takes longer to get feedback, the learning is really decreased. The student moves on, forgets what the problem was, or it just becomes less relevant to them and then the moment is lost, it seems. We REALLY appreciate how timely you are! The workload was a real challenge. I can’t imagine a student taking a full load of classes along with this class unless they really were great at time management! However my student is on the young side so we were still able to adjust the schedule to take fewer and more challenging classes. This has been an amazing course and I have watched my kid grow so much because of it. You are truly a gifted teacher!
-Parent, Advanced Honors Chemistry
Thank you! It is always appreciated when students get a high quality teacher as well as an organized and well-structured course especially with such a challenging and intricate subject as chemistry.
-Parent, Advanced Honors Chemistry
Chapter block checklists were extremely helpful for my daughter to pave and organize her work. It made for a smooth learning experience free of cramming. She will use this as a template moving forward and it is a skill she can carry into college.
Excellent and thorough high school chemistry. I would recommend that students take this class to be prepared for AP chemistry, organic chemistry, and college chemistry in STEM fields. My daughter really got to know Connie and felt supported all the way through this class (and so did I). She was warm and engaging, and her love of chemistry was passed on through her interactions with my daughter.
-Parent, Advanced Honors Chemistry
Teacher response time was the best. I never felt that I was a burden to her. She really knows how to convey to us that she is there for us. This was a challenging course but the teacher was always there for me. I hope all my other teachers are that responsive and caring.
-Student, Advanced Honors Chemistry
Connie Schwartz was incredibly responsive and invested in her students. Probably one of the best online teachers I’ve had. This was the first class I felt alright not getting an A in because I learned so much regardless both about the subject itself and learning scientific material effectively.
-Student, Advanced Honors Chemistry
Ms. Schwartz was awesome 🙂 I did like the course and I think it was good, but it was VERY challenging compared to other ‘honor’ level courses. I would warn others to know what they’re getting in to.
-Student, Advanced Honors Chemistry
Honors Chemistry course has challenged my son to work hard unlike any other course he has taken maybe with the exception of Art of Problem Solving Math. The course certainly teaches beyond what typical honors courses in public high schools offer. Honors Chem is exceptionally well organized, but the greatest asset at Clover Valley is the teacher. Connie answers all question very promptly in addition to providing live office hours. Those live meetings have made a tremendous difference, allowing my son to make true connection with the teacher and get needed help on difficult material.
-Parent, Advanced Honors Chemistry
“Fabulous learning experience! Ms. Schwartz was always involved with my daughter’s progress. She communicated often with me and my daughter, which helped a lot since my daughter was taking a subject that was challenging for her. Through Ms. Schwartz’ mentoring my daughter learned more than just advanced high school chemistry! The course at an academic level is amazing and taught very well through the materials, labs, and online live sessions. My daughter would definitely retake a course with Ms. Schwartz – definitely a growing experience for my daughter!”
-Parent, Advanced Honors Chemistry
“I am a 9th grader about to complete Mrs. Schwartz’s Honors Chemistry class. I honestly believe that there is no other chemistry class out there that is as rigorous as Mrs. Schwartz’s. For anyone interested in this class, you will need to carefully plan your work out because you won’t make it if you leave it sit on your desk until the last minute. However, for anyone seriously interested in building a strong foundation in this subject, this is without a doubt the class to take. Mrs. Schwartz’s high expectations and encouragement along the way will only make you better prepared for more advanced chemistry classes. I am planning to take Mrs. Schwartz’s Introduction to Organic and Biochemistry class, and am looking forward to it already.”
-Student, Advanced Honors Chemistry
Our 9th grade science-loving son is currently completing Mrs. Schwartz’s Honors Chemistry class. Both class and teacher have been a perfect fit for him. The weekly live-component has been particularly helpful in getting assistance with some of the more challenging course material. Mrs. Schwartz’s rigorous curriculum has not only significantly increased his knowledge in chemistry but her high, yet fair, expectations have also made of him a much more detail-oriented student. We couldn’t have been happier with the quality of Mrs. Schwartz’s class as well as with the encouragement and support she has so generously provided to our son over the past year. He is now planning and looking forward to taking Mrs. Schwartz’s Introduction to Organic and Biochemistry class.
-Parent, Advanced Honors Chemistry
I am very reluctant to outsource and rarely do. When I do, I have high expectations or I will completely regret the decision and end up withdrawing them from the class and doing it at home myself. That said, Clover Valley honors chemistry course receives high marks from both me and my daughter. The course is well-organized and covers the material extremely well. It is one of only a handful of outsourced courses that in my 25 yrs of homeschooling has not only met but also exceeded my expectations.
On the rare occasion that I do seek an outsourced course, my goal is to have it be solely responsible in providing my student with all necessary skills and content. Clover Valley honors chemistry meets that objective. I have been completely hands-off and my student is excelling.
Highly recommend based on our experience.
-Parent, Advanced Honors Chemistry
I honestly cannot say enough good things about Mrs. Schwartz’ class and about her as a teacher. Her videos are thorough, extremely well-done, and actually quite enjoyable; her enthusiasm for chemistry is obvious and pervasive (and probably contagious), as is her empathy for the students as they face tough topics. I’m no expert, but it appears that the content is rigorous, and it seems there are very few things that are in the textbook that she is skipping over. The homework and suggested review problems seem to be appropriate preparation for the tests, and everything correlates well with the textbook. She grades assignments quickly (including helpful feedback on items that are incorrect), and she responds to questions quickly, thoroughly, and helpfully. For a beta run on a class of this magnitude, there have been surprisingly few errors or oversights, which I think says a lot about her thoroughness and attention to detail.
As a parent, I think the thing that impresses me most about her is that she clearly communicates that she has high standards and little tolerance for not taking things like deadlines seriously, but on the flip side she is incredibly supportive and encouraging, and accommodating when it is appropriate; it comes through very clearly that her highest priority is helping students to succeed in learning chemistry. I think this incredible mix was most clearly on display by her assignment to write a “formal” lab; this was a hugely difficult task, and way beyond anything I’m sure anyone had been exposed to (and probably way beyond typical high school expectations – she pointed out that her motivation was to give them a first taste of a college-level lab report), *but* she encouraged the students to submit multiple iterations and get feedback (which she gave quickly, constructively, and very extensively), and she only gave a grade when the students had gotten it to a level they were comfortable with.
The only thing that I could think of that I would be anything less than overwhelmingly positive about would be the labs; however, I know that with kids working in kitchens without teachers, there is only so much you can do. I guess I was expecting a few more labs on basic techniques (e.g., distillation of coffee), but maybe more of those are coming. I feel like the depth, breadth, and rigor of Mrs. Schwartz’s content probably exceeds that of the honors chem classes in our local high school, but I would guess that the lab experience would probably be more substantial in a science classroom. But since the local science classroom isn’t an option, I am fine with what Mrs. Schwartz has put together in terms of labs.
I think her class has been an outstanding introduction to chemistry (both in rigor and in cultivating interest), and I am optimistic that it will be a great foundation for AP Chemistry next year.
-Parent, Advanced Honors Chemistry
The best part of honors chemistry is the support a student receives from Connie. As this is an honors class, a student is bound to have questions and follow-up questions. Connie is always prompt even when we least expect it. This has been a challenging class for my daughter yet it has instilled a sense of accomplishment and helped with her time management skills. Connie is not only generous with her time in answering questions over email, but she also offers two live office sessions with easy access to recordings and is always in communication with students and parents. She has put so much effort into her videos which are essential to the course; her videos expand on concepts taught in the book and make it easier to digest the information. Her class is rigorous, but if a student works through the videos and homework on a consistent basis, it is manageable, especially since Connie is very accessible. We are planning to take the next class in a couple of years.
-Parent, Advanced Honors Chemistry