Chem Lab

[bluefire185]

What were your experiences in chem lab like? My experience was terrible! The lab was ridiculously hard--the grades were based on pre-questions, the accuracy of results, and the calculations. I did very well answering pre-questions and doing the calculations, but the "accuracy" of my experiments always brought my grade down. What's even worse was that my grade was based on the curve. Let's say, the curve wasn't friendly. It brought my grade one whole letter grade down. It was the stupidest, unfair class I've taken ever. I noticed that many people here thought the labs were easy grades to get. But that didn't apply to me--I got a much higher grade in the lecture course than the lab. I'm wondering how you got a grade in chem lab?

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[PhantomfanMD]

What were your experiences in chem lab like? My experience was terrible! The lab was ridiculously hard--the grades were based on pre-questions, the accuracy of results, and the calculations. I did very well answering pre-questions and doing the calculations, but the "accuracy" of my experiments always brought my grade down. What's even worse was that my grade was based on the curve. Let's say, the curve wasn't friendly. It brought my grade one whole letter grade down. It was the stupidest, unfair class I've taken ever. I noticed that many people here thought the labs were easy grades to get. But that didn't apply to me--I got a much higher grade in the lecture course than the lab. I'm wondering how you got a grade in chem lab?

To get better results, be more careful when measuring out materials. Don't use more than your manual tells you to and certainly nothing less. There is a reason you need to use exactly 3.0 mL of 0.100 M HCl.

I love it how students will complain about not having a curve in a class. A curve doesn't always help you! It can hurt! Basically, all a curve is, is a ranking system. You get a grade that corresponds to how well the rest of the class did. If you want your professor to curve, then if everyone gets 92%+, not everyone can get an A. Basically, the prof will arrange everyone's grades into a bell curve and the people with the highest grades in the class get A's and the lowest get E's even if everyone in the class had a 92/100 or more, some of those people have to fail for a curve to work. So next time you want a curve, you better think about it.

Yes, curves can be ******ed and I try not to take professors that curve grades in that way. My experiences in chem lab have been pretty good. The general chemistry lab overseer at my school sucks though.

 

[Non-TradTulsa]

It was the stupidest, unfair class I've taken ever.

It sounds like you're talking about general chemistry lab, no? I'll second the advice you just got - while I sympathise with you - I sometimes had ten thumbs in gen chem lab, I was determined to improve my technique and I eventually did. There's nothing wrong with being graded on your results - actually, that tends to happen a lot to physicians. In gen chem II, don't hesitate to ask for extra help and, if you botch something, ask for permission to start over. Your organic class is probably going to do a lot of "microscale" experiments with very small quantities (which is good, because things in organic have an inherent ability to go "boom") and - whatever problems you are having in gen chem lab, you need to solve - you'll be working with much smaller quantities and finer tolerances. Good luck!