Advice on cramming for chem final

[deleted446889]

---

Members do not see this ad.

.

 

[yanks26dmb]

Hey all,

Due to some family matters (grandmother went through brain surgery), I have dug myself a big hole in Gen Chem 1. My grade in the class right now is a C...and I have to get an A on the final exam to get a B. The problem is that I am very lost, I haven't learned much of anything due to the family issue.

My final exam is next friday, so I have a little less than two weeks to prepare. I'm willing to put in as many hours are needed, but I need some guidance please. I want to study smart, not just hard.

Any advice for learning all this chemistry in two weeks for the final? I plan on watching all Chad's videos on the relevant topics, but not sure how else to study effectively.

Topics include: Stoichiometry involving gases only, i.e. using PV = nRT correctly in balanced
equations involving gases, all aspects of Hess' law and stoichiometry involving thermochemical
equations. Chemical bonds; Ionic bonding; all types of Lewis structures (including
exceptions to the octet rule); lattice energy; electronegativity and bond
polarity; resonance; formal charge; bond energies and bond length. VSEPR theory; molecular geometries; valence bond theory, orbital
overlap and hybridization; fundamentals of molecular theory (based on
class coverage).

There's a lot of material as you can see. Is it even possible to learn this much and get an A on the final?

Any advice is greatly appreciated, thanks in advance!

Yes, it's possible. Is it possible for you? I have no idea, I don't know you.

 

[Pons Asinorum]

Yes, it's possible. Is it possible for you? I have no idea, I don't know you.

You broke 6 months of silence for that?

 

[sinombre]

You broke 6 months of silence for that?

lurking hard or hardly lurking?

 

[plumhill]

First of all, don't panic. It's possible for you to still get an A on the final if you work hard, focus, and do practice problems. Two weeks is plenty of time to go through the material.

Figure out what concepts you're weak on, and which ones you're stronger with. Spend this week reviewing those concepts. Learn equations, how the equations work, and make sure you know whats going on in each chapter. Depending on how many chapters you have to cover, aim to do 2-3 chapters a day. Try and finish content review by Saturday.

Spend the rest of the time doing practice problems, as thats probably what will be the majority of the exam. Do as many as you can from the book. If your professor gave you problem sets, do those and make sure you understand WHY you got certain questions wrong once you go back over your answers. If you need more problems, ask your professor.

If there is a practice exam given in your course, do it 3-4 days before the actual final, and again, make sure you know why you got certain questions wrong.

I can't stress this enough for GenChem...do practice problems! And don't just do them blindly; check your answers, figure out why you got certain answers wrong, and then keep practicing! On GenChem exams, its critical that you are comfortable doing different types of problems in a short amount of time. If you have to sit there for five minutes trying to remember how a formula works, you're screwing yourself over.

On the day of the exam, spend a minute or two going through all of the problem and figuring out which ones you can do easily, and which ones are more challenging/you forget how to do/whatever. Tackle the easy questions first to maximize how many points you get. Then go back to the challenging ones. If you simply cannot figure out a question, forget about it, don't stress out too much, and move on.

 

[anegron519]

.

 

[deleted446889]

First of all, don't panic. It's possible for you to still get an A on the final if you work hard, focus, and do practice problems. Two weeks is plenty of time to go through the material.

Figure out what concepts you're weak on, and which ones you're stronger with. Spend this week reviewing those concepts. Learn equations, how the equations work, and make sure you know whats going on in each chapter. Depending on how many chapters you have to cover, aim to do 2-3 chapters a day. Try and finish content review by Saturday.

Spend the rest of the time doing practice problems, as thats probably what will be the majority of the exam. Do as many as you can from the book. If your professor gave you problem sets, do those and make sure you understand WHY you got certain questions wrong once you go back over your answers. If you need more problems, ask your professor.

If there is a practice exam given in your course, do it 3-4 days before the actual final, and again, make sure you know why you got certain questions wrong.

I can't stress this enough for GenChem...do practice problems! And don't just do them blindly; check your answers, figure out why you got certain answers wrong, and then keep practicing! On GenChem exams, its critical that you are comfortable doing different types of problems in a short amount of time. If you have to sit there for five minutes trying to remember how a formula works, you're screwing yourself over.

On the day of the exam, spend a minute or two going through all of the problem and figuring out which ones you can do easily, and which ones are more challenging/you forget how to do/whatever. Tackle the easy questions first to maximize how many points you get. Then go back to the challenging ones. If you simply cannot figure out a question, forget about it, don't stress out too much, and move on.

Thank you very very much. I couldn't have asked for a more clear, detailed piece of advice. I'm very grateful.

 

[jrcable]

Hey all,

Due to some family matters (grandmother went through brain surgery), I have dug myself a big hole in Gen Chem 1. My grade in the class right now is a C...and I have to get an A on the final exam to get a B. The problem is that I am very lost, I haven't learned much of anything due to the family issue.

My final exam is next friday, so I have a little less than two weeks to prepare. I'm willing to put in as many hours are needed, but I need some guidance please. I want to study smart, not just hard.

Any advice for learning all this chemistry in two weeks for the final? I plan on watching all Chad's videos on the relevant topics, but not sure how else to study effectively.

Topics include: Stoichiometry involving gases only, i.e. using PV = nRT correctly in balanced
equations involving gases, all aspects of Hess' law and stoichiometry involving thermochemical
equations. Chemical bonds; Ionic bonding; all types of Lewis structures (including
exceptions to the octet rule); lattice energy; electronegativity and bond
polarity; resonance; formal charge; bond energies and bond length. VSEPR theory; molecular geometries; valence bond theory, orbital
overlap and hybridization; fundamentals of molecular theory (based on
class coverage).

There's a lot of material as you can see. Is it even possible to learn this much and get an A on the final?

Any advice is greatly appreciated, thanks in advance!

If you PM me your email address I can send you a chemistry final review that has a lot of these type of probelms on them that you can practice that would likely help you see where you are at, what you need more work on vs. less work etc.