How hard is Analytical Chem ?

[ChemistryMike]

Anyone have any input on how hard and time consuming analytical chem really is ? I have heard it is brutally hard. The lab is also 6 hours long at my school which is absurd and time consuming. I would appreciate any opinions on A-Chem.

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[pushkin]

Anyone have any input on how hard and time consuming analytical chem really is ? I have heard it is brutally hard. The lab is also 6 hours long at my school which is absurd and time consuming. I would appreciate any opinions on A-Chem.

I suppose the lab could be pretty demanding. I've only taken the lecture part of it, which turned out to be one of the easiest classes of my life. Maybe it varies from school to school. You basically cover some statistics, titrations, equilibrium, solubility, chromatography, gravimetric analysis, pH, basic electrochemistry and various instrumentation, plus anything else the prof wants to throw in there (at least that's what we did). What made it easy from my perspective was that I'd already had lots of calculus (which isn't used in this class, but just having that background helps), plus statistics, physics, p-chem, and gen chem. Also I had reviewed chemistry for the MCAT. I think if you are strong in gen chem and math then you can easily handle analytical chem, but if not it could be a hard class.

 

[Hallm_7]

Analytical Chemistry is probably the easiest chemistry class. Are you sure you don't mean P-Chem? P-Chem sucks! Anyway, analytical is basically appluies general chemistry concepts into practical applications. Almost everything you do in A-chem is related to somehow testing purity, yield, percent mass, etc. You start off by covering basic statistics (T-test, Q tests, etc), and if you have had stats then you'll breeze through this section. After doing basic stats you'll cover things like acid/base equilibria, buffers, gravimetric analyses, volumetric analyses, and chemical equipment among others. The labs are pretty long and sometimes hard to do well on if your prof. has a small accepted error. I wouldn't worry too much about A-chem. If you did okay in gen chem then you'll be fine.

 

[Lexian]

Analytical Chemistry is probably the easiest chemistry class. Are you sure you don't mean P-Chem? P-Chem sucks! Anyway, analytical is basically appluies general chemistry concepts into practical applications. Almost everything you do in A-chem is related to somehow testing purity, yield, percent mass, etc. You start off by covering basic statistics (T-test, Q tests, etc), and if you have had stats then you'll breeze through this section. After doing basic stats you'll cover things like acid/base equilibria, buffers, gravimetric analyses, volumetric analyses, and chemical equipment among others. The labs are pretty long and sometimes hard to do well on if your prof. has a small accepted error. I wouldn't worry too much about A-chem. If you did okay in gen chem then you'll be fine.

Yeah, I agree. It felt like an extension of GChem more than anything else. Lecture was fine, but lab was really annoying. Our TA was pretty strict and you could lose a lot of points if your final results were a little bit from his standard. But lecture is not bad at all, not like PChem anyways.

 

[tgerwuds]

Well, that honestly depends on you and your major. At Texas, there are three Analytical Chemistry Classes offered: for Biochem-ers there is one class offered and for pure-breed chem-ers there are two classes; a standard Analytical Chem class which is comparable to the one Biochem-ers take and an advanced Analytical class which prides itself on the love and knowledge of instrumentation (...not that I agree).

So here in lies the problem. If, like Texas, your U does this, then the biochem-er version of Analytical can be quite difficult because they may attempt to consolidate both classes the chem-ers would normally take. However, be alerted the biochem-er version is more of a survey course. Please understand this dichotomy.

Nevertheless, analytical chemistry (at Texas) is quite a time consuming class. The material may not be exceedingly difficult (of course this depends on you), but the workload may seem burdensome at times. The labs that coincide with the will end up (not surprisingly) consuming most of your time that you devote to this class. However, the lecture (depending on all intangibles of course) is much more forgiving. I, for one, never really cracked a book till it was time to study. However, it is not unlikely that you may encounter a professor which requires slightly more dedication than I exhibited - which may add significantly to the time spent on this course.

In my opinion analytical chemistry was one of the best courses (material wise; not workload wise) I have ever taken. If you can appreciate and understand some of these analytical methods, you may be rendered more affective in dealing with various instruments used by phsyicians. All in all, this was the first class which actually applied theory - it was about time!

I hope this helps.

 

[45408]

I hated it, which made it hard for me. The labs take a very long time, and you waste a lot of time rinsing and washing stuff just so your numbers are a teensy bit closer.

 

[Khenon]

I thought it was the hardest class EVER! I hated it so much. It was worth 5 semester credits at my school (3 hours lecture, and 2 labs a week at 3 hours each). The only thing that got me a "B" was the fact that I aced the lab, but I was doing HORRIBLY in the lecture part (I got a 23% on one of the exams!!). I've never had such a hard time understanding a class. Anyway, I would avoid it like the plague (sp?) if I could. Unfortunately it was required for my major.

 

[superunknown]

As said above, the lecture portion of the class really is just an extension of gchem. At my school, we were given the American Chemical Society's AChem test as a final. I scored in the 94th %ile and the questions contained a lot of dillution/molarity types, easy pH problems, some lightweight instrumental stuff. ...and best of all, no polyprotic complexation problems (which you'll learn to hate).

The lab, however, sucks! I call it "case studies in anal retention". But if you're careful, quick, and accurate, you'll do fine.

 

[sunni]

As said above, the lecture portion of the class really is just an extension of gchem. At my school, we were given the American Chemical Society's AChem test as a final. I scored in the 94th %ile and the questions contained a lot of dillution/molarity types, easy pH problems, some lightweight instrumental stuff. ...and best of all, no polyprotic complexation problems (which you'll learn to hate).

The lab, however, sucks! I call it "case studies in anal retention". But if you're careful, quick, and accurate, you'll do fine.

Must agree that they don't call it anal lytical chem for nothing, (but seriously if you don't know how to do significant figures by now, it's pretty much a lost cause).
Mine was fun, mainly b/c
A) my lab partner & I conspired to never stay the entire time, NO matter WHAT (sadly we did once when we mistakenly asked the TA for help, bad call on our part).
B) We gathered up as much old stuff as we could, (dating back to 1987- we're gansta like that)
C) What other time in your life will ppl willingly give you "unknown" substances, a set of directions, and point you to the 10k machinery and say, okay, get started?
So if you have a fine attention to detail, can read a lab manual carefully, follow instructions, use a calculator properly, and find an awesome accomplice, anal lytical lab isn't all bad.

 

[DrHopeless]

I just had it Analytical Chemistry, what a bitch, but it wasn't so much the subject it was my teacher. In my opinion it is not that bad, just basically General Chemistry on Steriod / a few intrumental stuff. I don't know if you guys have to take the ACS exam (as the final) or not, but that thing was a joke. Just like any of the other ACS exam for chemistry.

 

[docdaname]

I took analyt chem. the lecture was easy, just apps of gen chem, but the lab blew. The only redeeming quality of the lab was that my TA was smokin hot. that made going a little easier. the downside was if you were off by a little bit you lost a lot of points. And one lab the TA (who was hte only one allowed to touch the equipment) didnt wash the electrodes of the automatic titrator, so like 10 ppl's results were way off. and there was nothin we could do about it. If she wasnt so hot, i would have been really pissed

 

[rachmoninov3]

A-chem was my favorite class! My professor was older than dirt (worked on the manhattan project, plus 50+ years of teaching), never gave anyone an A, and expected the world out of us, but it was certainly worth it.

Also, there was an easy A-chem question on the MCAT, and I hear Achem is quite a common subject on the MCATs.

The lab also teaches you really gooooooooood techniques that make all your other labs easier (ochem lab was easy after a-chem).

 

[vhawk]

Not so sure about the usefulness of AChem on the MCAT (As in, I dont think its a pre-req so it cant be too extensive, and I took it and dont remember anything even vaguely resembling diprotic titrations or gravimetry). However, as a chem major, I gotta say its the easiest in the sequence. It sure beats PChem with a big fat stick. So, if AChem is the worst you face, consider yerself lucky.