Chemistry Majors!!

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GreenBlade

GreenBlade

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Who else is chasing a BS in Chemistry? I am switching majors this summer and I would like to know how your P Chem class was/is going.
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GreenBlade said:
Who else is chasing a BS in Chemistry? I am switching majors this summer and I would like to know how your P Chem class was/is going.
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I'm not a chem major but I took pchem. It wasn't a difficult class because the book I used (McQuarrie mainly, but Atkins for reference) was excellent and helped me understand the material pretty well. The exams reflected that and I was able to do well on them. It's also useful in upper level chem courses like inorganic. But this is for my UG and probably may not apply for other places. But I strongly recommend McQuarrie text to get a solid understanding of pchem. Excellent book and a must read

In case you're curious
 
I am (soon to be past tense) a chem major and Pchem was no where near my most difficult class. Both Pchem 1 and 2 were a breeze compared to some upper level lab courses.

Advanced inorganic lab was the hardest class I ever took.
 
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Woot woot! I'm biochem emphasis so I took bio-pchem. My teacher was god awful though but it is a lot of math.
 
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GreenBlade said:
Who else is chasing a BS in Chemistry? I am switching majors this summer and I would like to know how your P Chem class was/is going.
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Pchem is a lot of calculus--brush up on your math. It's considered the "capstone" of our chemistry department and accordingly challenging, but if you do practice problems there are only so many types of questions they can ask so you can be completely ready for exams. Personally I had a hard time with thermodynamics (usually focused on extensively) but quantum and statistical mechanics went pretty smoothly. Probably one of the most challenging series I've taken in UG but my math is pretty mediocre :confused:
 
turayza said:
Pchem is a lot of calculus--brush up on your math. It's considered the "capstone" of our chemistry department and accordingly challenging, but if you do practice problems there are only so many types of questions they can ask so you can be completely ready for exams. Personally I had a hard time with thermodynamics (usually focused on extensively) but quantum and statistical mechanics went pretty smoothly. Probably one of the most challenging series I've taken in UG but my math is pretty mediocre :confused:
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Adding to this, it REALLY helps if you have ordinary differential equations under your belt also. I actually found a lot of calc 3/ODE cross over. We did mainly equation derivations for thermo and michaelis menton (etc, etc). I have a math minor so it wasn't too terrible, just as I said, my prof was AWFUL never knew what to study when and our book... Not going there. Haha. Good luck!!
 
Pretty much all orgo here. I took one, yes that's ONE upper level P-chem course. Screw P-chem.
 
Interesting. I am trying to avoid Calc III. My uni has a "quantitative topice for chemists" course that covers calc III topics...I will probably take that and see how it goes.
 
Chem major here.

I'd recommend taking calc 3. I don't think it's particularly challenging as far as concepts go. But even more so, I recommend taking a stats class in college. I didn't, and really regret it. I've had to learn a bunch of stats/biostats on my own.

I figured out PChem, but thermodynamics sucked since it was really tough to kind of get a 'feel' for it. My Uni also required we take Statistical Thermodynamics... and that was truly hell. Partition functions and stuff... OMGthismakeanorealworldsense
 
I don't know what Calc 3 is at semester schools (I'm quarter system), but diff-eq would be the best math class to take to help with P-chem. As others have said, P-chem is not nearly the most difficult class that chem majors end up taking. Inorganic/inorganic lab is slightly more difficult and analytical is at least on par with P-chem at my school. If you are good with calc/math in general you can make it through P-chem.
 
First and foremost: it really will depend on your professor.

At my school, the consensus is that P-chem is the toughest chem major class. But I still think a lot of people complain too much about it. Yes, it's difficult, but it is not impossible. However, if you don't know calculus well, it's impossible.

The average on exams was typically a 50% but naturally the class was curved so most people passed.
 
finished gen chem
about to finish orgo
still need..analytical,pchem,inorganic

on the bright side I don't have to spend a semester on lifecycles of cockroaches!

I'm doing B/S Biochem and B/A chem

goodluck! Much better than bio classes imo.
 
You guys are disappointing my inner chemistry nerd. Hard classes are pain. Life is pain.
 
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MDforMee said:
You guys are disappointing my inner chemistry nerd. Hard classes are pain. Life is pain.
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I didn't avoid P-chem because it was hard...I had Synthetic for that.
I avoided P-chem because it was dull. I like making things!
 
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masaraksh said:
Chem major here.

I'd recommend taking calc 3. I don't think it's particularly challenging as far as concepts go. But even more so, I recommend taking a stats class in college. I didn't, and really regret it. I've had to learn a bunch of stats/biostats on my own.

I figured out PChem, but thermodynamics sucked since it was really tough to kind of get a 'feel' for it. My Uni also required we take Statistical Thermodynamics... and that was truly hell. Partition functions and stuff... OMGthismakeanorealworldsense
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I am forced to take stats, integral calculus, and that q topics course. I read the description for q topics and compared it to multivariate calc and it looks roughly the same.
 
GreenBlade said:
Who else is chasing a BS in Chemistry? I am switching majors this summer and I would like to know how your P Chem class was/is going.
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Pchem killed me. 120 students only 6 got A's.
I have never studied for chem class before Pchem. I know point groups alone killed me - I still don't know what they are ....
 
Everyone who took PChem really hated their life for a semester. I saw their homework and honestly my quantum mechanics class was easier. We only had one professor though for that class and he proudly began each gen chem semester commenting on how many people he failed the previous year.
 
I think if you stay on top of your hw and use McQuarrie in some capacity (it was my pchem bible) you will do great. Then again, my professor was great at explaining concepts. Just do NOT fall behind.
 
mehc012 said:
I didn't avoid P-chem because it was hard...I had Synthetic for that.
I avoided P-chem because it was dull. I like making things!
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Ughhhh you 'organic' chemists ;) My boyfriend is also an organic nerd. I always give him a hard time because I love the biochem/molecular side. Organic is pretty swee though.
 
GreenBlade said:
How much? Cheapest I've seen is on amazon is $53 w/o water damage.
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Send me the link of cheapest... I will match,I am about to throw away all my chem E books anyways. I take PayPal.

Mine is paperback.
 
So a few of you were mentioning taking calc III and differential equations for Pchem... Is it really THAT helpful? Just curious. Because I'm only required to take one semester of Pchem, but I plan on taking two. I also plan to take quantum mechanics as an add-on to my physics minor, which has those courses as a prereq anyway. I wasn't sure if I should, because 2/3 of the professors I asked about QM didn't recommend it, but hey, if those classes will be useful for Pchem, as well, I might as well, right?
 
Mel Belle said:
So a few of you were mentioning taking calc III and differential equations for Pchem... Is it really THAT helpful? Just curious. Because I'm only required to take one semester of Pchem, but I plan on taking two. I also plan to take quantum mechanics as an add-on to my physics minor, which has those courses as a prereq anyway. I wasn't sure if I should, because 2/3 of the professors I asked about QM didn't recommend it, but hey, if those classes will be useful for Pchem, as well, I might as well, right?
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I think i heard you wrong... You are a physics major and calc III and diffeq aren't required??
 
moisne said:
I think i heard you wrong... You are a physics major and calc III and diffeq aren't required??
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I'm a biochemistry major, and one of my minors is physics.
 
At my school, the killer class is a lab class that combines inorganic chem, p chem, and instrumental chem. Thankfully I am done and am enjoying the heck out of my Drug Design class!
 
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