Struggling with AP chem conventions

Hey everyone, I'm really struggling with AP Chemistry conventions and grading requirements at my competitive high school, and could use some advice.

For context: I'm typically a straight-A student taking multiple APs. I understand the chemistry concepts well (was leading the class in atomic structure), but I'm getting destroyed by extremely specific formatting and documentation requirements. For example, I recently got a 9/30 on an FRQ where I would've scored 18/30 if I had just cited electron positions - something I didn't know was required.

The main issues:

- Teacher briefly mentions conventions during practice problems but doesn't provide a written guide

- Practice problems are shown on her tablet and must be copied down in real-time

- Requirements seem to be a mix of College Board and teacher-specific conventions

- It's all-or-nothing grading - one missed convention can zero out an otherwise perfect answer

- There's no clear way to know all the requirements since they're mentioned once or twice and we're expected to remember

What's really frustrating is that other students seem to be handling this fine. I know people who barely study who are getting 120% on acid-base units, while I'm sitting at a 70% despite understanding the material. I ended up with a C last trimester.

I've tried paying close attention in class and taking detailed notes, but there always seem to be new conventions I didn't know about. Currently struggling to find a way to systematically track and apply all these requirements.

Has anyone else dealt with this? How did you handle learning and tracking all the specific formatting requirements for AP Chem? Any advice would be really appreciated.

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