Tips For Success In General Chemistry II? Pleas Help!!!

[Confused 20]

I will be taking general Chemistry II beginning 37 days from now and am tremendously afraid. I am poor at Mathematics and have not taken many challenging classes in my undergraduate career. I was fortunate to earn an A in Chemistry I. This was largely because of the fact that I had a professor who was a tremendous lecturer and gave fair exams. Fortunately, I have the same professor for Chemistry II. She sent me the syllabus and I am attempting to read all the chapters we will cover and do all the homework problems. Can anyone give me tips on how I may be successful in this course? What area of mathematics should I review? My professor told me that the only mathematics that I should review is logs. Any input will be appreciated. Thank you.

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[craniotomy30]

You should just know general algebra and how to manipulate formulas. As for logs, you will be using that for acid/base chemistry...and you won't need a detailed knowledge of logs to understand how to use them. You will mostly use logs in the Henderson-Hasselbalch equation...so look over that if you want.

The best thing you can do to be successful in gen chem is to first UNDERSTAND the main concepts and then know how to apply them to problems. Do practice problems until your blue in the face....and of course, if you got in A in gen chem I, you must have a nice study method..so keep that up! good luck

 

[Phenol312]

Take a deep breath. Go into class with a good attitude. Pay attention in lecture and take copious notes. Make sure you have a good professor check ratemyprofessor.com for ratings and such. Don't rush through exams but try to leave enough time to double check any questions you have doubts about.

Oh yeah, and don't take chemistry at Rutgers. The whole department is on some kind of probation for failing too many students.

I had it with a prof who barely spoke english and who gave us the notes for the whole semester ahead of time so he basically stood there for 80 minutes reading off the projector and people who actually came to class ended up sleeping through it. No incentive to take notes + crappy textbook + bad professor = recipe for disaster. It goes without saying I got C's both semesters ... but on the bright side he was "demoted" to a TA the following semester. Ended up getting an A and B in orgo I/II though and I attribute that solely to an awesome professors and TAs.

 

[SigurRos]

gen chem II will likely be much easier than gen chem I. relax, there is no reason to freak out already. If it makes you feel better, maybe you can skim through the book just to get a cursory overview, but learning the material before the class starts will be overkill. It sounds like you have a great professor, so I would try to not worry about it. ENJOY YOUR BREAK

 

[dd128]

I actually had some trouble transitioning from gen chem 1 to 2. It was really different than anything I'd had up to that point. Go with what the others have said, good attitude and putting in the necessary work and you should be fine. Just incase you don't do stellar, don't let that discourage you from going too much as when you get to ochem it's a totally different world.

 

[GoldShadow]

Practice problems, practice problems, practice problems.

 

[paranoid_eyes]

don't worry the math's a breeze....

 

[LostLost]

read the chapters, do problems........i don't know how ur professor teach so you will have to figure out what she wants or the nuances so that you can study for the test

 

[futuredrcrawfor]

gen chem II will likely be much easier than gen chem I. relax, there is no reason to freak out already.

I disagree- I got an easy A in Gen chem 1.... the got a C in Gen chem 2- now I did have extenuating circumstances but the material was worse...

here would be my tips- spend time with problems- and learn the material! You will need it for MCAT prep and I am kicking myself for the cramming I did in some of my intro level courses now that I am prepping for MCAT- also work to learn trends... play with the calculations a LOT!!!

 

[ChubbyChaser]

Study

 

[sunsfan]

Practice problems, practice problems, practice problems.

+1 this.
Read the text BEFORE lecture. Solve problems AFTER.
You'll cover a lot of material, so try not to fall too far behind.
And most importantly, have fun! Chemistry is awesome.

 

[BlackSails]

don't worry the math's a breeze....

Until for homework, your teacher tells you to prove the boltzmann relation, S=Kb*ln(O) That was a fun one.

To the OP: Be comfortable with logs, and their rules. Be able to manipulate things algebraically. Be comfortable with finding critical points of a function (take the derivative, find all the places that it is equal to 0), and then the maxima and minima. Be able to integrate normal functions (u-substitution, by parts, and by partial fractions).

 

[dontwakeme]

Until for homework, your teacher tells you to prove the boltzmann relation, S=Kb*ln(O) That was a fun one.

To the OP: Be comfortable with logs, and their rules. Be able to manipulate things algebraically. Be comfortable with finding critical points of a function (take the derivative, find all the places that it is equal to 0), and then the maxima and minima. Be able to integrate normal functions (u-substitution, by parts, and by partial fractions).

General Chemistry has absolutely no integration whatsoever. Nor did I ever need to know how to find a derivative.

 

[BMBPSU2008]

Until for homework, your teacher tells you to prove the boltzmann relation, S=Kb*ln(O) That was a fun one.

To the OP: Be comfortable with logs, and their rules. Be able to manipulate things algebraically. Be comfortable with finding critical points of a function (take the derivative, find all the places that it is equal to 0), and then the maxima and minima. Be able to integrate normal functions (u-substitution, by parts, and by partial fractions).

Thats hooey.

 

[BlackSails]

Thats hooey.

General Chemistry has absolutely no integration whatsoever. Nor did I ever need to know how to find a derivative.

*shrug*

In gen chem, I had to find the maxima of functions like:

and solve integrals like

and

I had to prove, by consideration of the microstate counting function, that entropy = boltzmann's constant times the log of the counting function.

We proved the ideal gas law with statistical mechanics, and then derived the 1st degree virial correction to it.

We did all sorts of crazy stuff.

I remember on the 2nd midterm, which was mostly on themodynamics and heat engines, we were given an analog of a heat engine, which instead of using heat, using chemical potential, and we had to derive all the formulas for different cycles.

 

[dontwakeme]

Well, at every other school in the country, General Chemistry requires no previous math experience, except for maybe the basic concepts of algebra and precalculus. Where do you goto school? Are you an engineer?

 

[BlackSails]

Well, at every other school in the country, General Chemistry requires no previous math experience, except for maybe the basic concepts of algebra and precalculus. Where do you goto school? Are you an engineer?

NYU, and no.

 

[da8s0859q]

I will be taking general Chemistry II beginning 37 days from now and am tremendously afraid. I am poor at Mathematics and have not taken many challenging classes in my undergraduate career. I was fortunate to earn an A in Chemistry I. This was largely because of the fact that I had a professor who was a tremendous lecturer and gave fair exams. Fortunately, I have the same professor for Chemistry II. She sent me the syllabus and I am attempting to read all the chapters we will cover and do all the homework problems. Can anyone give me tips on how I may be successful in this course? What area of mathematics should I review? My professor told me that the only mathematics that I should review is logs. Any input will be appreciated. Thank you.

Whoa, you're talking about a general chemistry class. Relax and enjoy your vacation.

 

[BMBPSU2008]

NYU, and no.

I don't buy it...

http://chemistry.fas.nyu.edu/object/chemistry.0608.ug.courseofferings.html

 

[xFr3nLixPhYr3x]

Practice problems, practice problems, practice problems.

this sounds about right, if your instructor doesn't release practice tests, book problems book problems, book problems.

 

[void]

NYU, and no.

yeah, halpin ****ed us with them integrals.

 

[BlackSails]

I don't buy it...

http://chemistry.fas.nyu.edu/object/chemistry.0608.ug.courseofferings.html

http://www.nyu.edu/classes/tuckerman/honors.chem/practice/downloads/prac_midterm1_5.pdf

Practice midterm. For the first midterm this year.

yeah, halpin ****ed us with them integrals.

I didnt have Halpin, I had Tuckerman.

 

[BMBPSU2008]

http://www.nyu.edu/classes/tuckerman/honors.chem/practice/downloads/prac_midterm1_5.pdf

Practice midterm. For the first midterm this year.



I didnt have Halpin, I had Tuckerman.

Honors.. why didn't you say that in the first place?

 

[BlackSails]

The stuff we did was harder, but the classes were THAT different. You see from Void's post that the regular class also had to do nasty integrals.

 

[vicinihil]

calculus in gen chem? sounds like you guys intergrate g chem with p chem...I can't imagine p chem at your school. Sorry man, but practice^3 is all I got for you.

 

[Dave_D]

Well the quadratic equation comes up alot so know that
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadratic_formula#Quadratic_formula

Really when I took it the stuff was really repetative. I mean you solve equilibriums for chemical equations, solubility, and even acid base but it's teh same thing each time so if you get it right the first time the next few times it's a snap.

 

[Koala 33]

Oh yeah, and don't take chemistry at Rutgers. The whole department is on some kind of probation for failing too many students.

My Chem professor just came to my school from Rutgers. The class average on his exams has been hovering in the 50s and 40s :O.