chemistry and bio

[snooz3]

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to all those who have taken this class, can you give some pointers as to how to get A's. I will be taking both of these classess this term. will also have internship at a pharmacy, and 3 more other courses. i'm hoping to get some feedback as to how to manage my time and what to expect.

i took these courses in high school and did pretty bad in chem.. scored something like a 70 something on the regents. some questions i have are

1) how many hours a day did you dedicate to just studying these two subjects.
2) were there any curves for these classess in your school?
3) which is more conceptual based and which is more memorization?
4) are the labs hard? and is it factored into the grade or is it a seperate grade? if it is factored, on average how much of the final grade is it responsible for?

i will be taking these courses in a very good science school in new york. it is 5 credits each. should i have just enrolled in a community college and just gotten straight A's instead of doing this? does anybody know whether it is better to get a 3.4 in a good school, or a 3.7 in a community college?

please be as elaborate as you can. any help is greatlyyyy appreciated. sorry for all the questions.

 

[Hosstheboss]

what chemistry and biology......if its general biology and general chemistry it's cake and is mostly memorizing.....When I took them freshman year I would just study the night before the tests and I got A's. What school in New York are you going to go too? I've seen on this forum that some people have done well going the community college.

 

[snooz3]

it's general chem and gen bio.

 

[PolarBear21]

I didn't study that much my freshman year.. I had horrible study habits from HS.. and I still managed to get B+ in both gen chem and intro to biology. If I had the study habits I do now.. I would definately have gotten A's... but yeah.. thats not the way the world works obviously 😀

Just make sure to do the practice problems and have them down.. study in a group if possible.. it'll be more fun and you can work out problems together. Intro to biology was just HS biology... same info (maybe a little deeper) and in a much faster pace.. just stay caught up and memorize things I guess. Gen Chem is more conceptual I guess than Biology.

And yes.. at least at my school.. there was a FAT curve in all the general chemistry classes I took... since so many people take general chemistry.. lots of people are weeded out very early in the game and it helps you because the mean is sooo low.

Oh and labs are easy easy.. at least at my school.. and they had nothing to do with tests... I guess it helped applying the things you learned, but it was mainly just showing up and doing the experiments for that day.

Each school is obviously different but the breakdown was something like 24% midterm I, 24% midterm II, 42% final, 10% lab.

 

[snooz3]

thanks for the responses..

i would like 2 or 3 more responses if someone can provide it. thanks!

 

[Lurkerkat]

1) how many hours a day did you dedicate to just studying these two subjects.

For biology I would go to lecture and study a day or two before the test for a few hours. For Chemistry I would study by doing all the problems the teacher assigned during the week and redo them before the test. That was maybe one hour after every lecture to do those problems.

2) were there any curves for these classess in your school?

At my school not really. Both classes produced a C average or higher with each test. If there was a curve it was tiny like a point or two.

3) which is more conceptual based and which is more memorization?

Biology is all memorization and chemistry is a mix of the two. There is some math involved with Chemistry but it isn't too bad. The biggest tip I can give for chemistry is do as many practice problems as possible. Try to do every problem the teacher assigns and if you have trouble with any ask the teacher or a tutor to help. I found practice to be key when it came to chemistry.

4) are the labs hard? and is it factored into the grade or is it a seperate grade? if it is factored, on average how much of the final grade is it responsible for?

Depends on the school. My biology lab was an absolute joke. For one lab we actually sat around cutting out little chromosomes and pasting them onto another sheet of paper... it was busy work. Chemistry was definitely harder but also could be very tedious since they were drilling skills that would be needed for the second semester and other chemistry labs. Whether the lab is attached to the class depends on the school. For me the labs were each 1 semester hour and received a grade independent of the lecture.

 

[ttran01]

i took my chem and bio at a CC...chemistry for the first semester was a lot of calculations...well at least for my class...my teacher was a physics major so she liked math a lot...i know of other teachers at my school who based their tests on essay questions...anyways, for the first semester of gen chem i studied a lot...studied and did a lot of the hw problems with a study group before and after lab...i had a really bad teacher who couldnt teach..so learning the material was very difficult. i also had a tutor who i saw twice a week which really helped. so maybe try doing that. the tests we had lasted approx. 2 hrs 30 mins. but yeah. i ended up with a B in the class. while there were a lot of C's and very few A's. for the second semester of general chem. i had such a great teacher. she explained everything so well i didnt even take the time to read the book lol. but her tests consisted of calculations and understanding concepts. i felt that the second semester of chem was a lot easier than the first semester. the calculations seemed a lot easier also. but i think it's because some of the calculations we did in the second semester were learned from the 1st semester. we just went deeper into it. i didnt study as much as i should have for this class. i ended up with a B in the class also. and there were a lot of good grades. oh yeah. i thought labs for the 1st sem of chem was harder and more time consuming than the second semester. thats because of the lab reports and lab questions we had to do. the lab questions and calculations were related the the chapters we were studying in lecture. the lab grades were part of the end of the semester grades. both of these classes had a good amount of hw.

for my principles of biology class..this class was a lot of memorization...but you have to understand whats going on and then memorize it...for example...the cell cycle...understand what happens in each phase and the memorize what happens...there was barely any calculations except when you get to genetics which i thought was the hardest section in the bio class...labs werent too bad either...we had lab exams...so it was very important to do every little thing in lab yourself or at least pay attention to what your partner is doing...becasue our lab exam tested us on materials used in lab and why we used it....and what happens when you do this...what kind of reaction do u get...blah blah blah....labs werent hard. they were actually kinda easy. for my class every little detail in lab was important because you dont know what kinds of thing the teacher would put on the test...when i was studying i was like...i dont think it will be on the test because it doesnt seem that important to the lab...but when the test came the teacher asked about it.....i guess she wants to see what people actually study for tests..anyways....theres a lot of reading for this class...took a long time because i read everything slow so i didnt miss anything..i also tried to read the chapters again...there were also study objectives which also helped so hopefully your teacher does the same....gradewise.....we had 3 lecture tests...3 labs tests...2 hw assignments and that was our grade....rarely any hw......i ended up with a C in the class...i spent more time for this class than i did for chemistry.

i guess everything depends on the teacher. some teachers have different ways of teaching and a different way to test students on the materials. ask around at your school or go to ratemyprofessors.com



i know this is kinda long.....sorry


oh by the way. we had no curves in any of my classes but then again.....different school, different teacher.

 

[snooz3]

thanks for the long response ttran..

i appreciate everything u wrote but am wondering how come you ended up with a C?

I usually have no problems with bio but since this is a 5 credit course, it kind of scares me a bit.

 

[dgroulx]

t1) how many hours a day did you dedicate to just studying these two subjects.
2) were there any curves for these classess in your school?
3) which is more conceptual based and which is more memorization?
4) are the labs hard? and is it factored into the grade or is it a seperate grade? if it is factored, on average how much of the final grade is it responsible for?

1. For biology, I read the assigned chapters and reviewed the day before an exam. It was an easy A class. My only big memorization was learning all the amino acid structures. This was at a community college. After bio I, I transferred to a 4-year school. I studied two days before an exam at that school. For general chemistry, I did all the problems in the back of the chapter. I bought the study guide that went with the book, which had additional problems and explained in detail how to work them.

2. There were curves, but I made A's on my exams without the curve.

3. Chemistry is more conceptual, but it all makes logical sense. I loved it. I guess biology is memorization, but I didn't consider it to be. I enjoyed the subject and wanted to learn, so I devoured the material.

4. Labs are easy. They require good attention to detail. Organic was the worst, because we were graded on how much product we produced and the purity of the product. Biochem lab was hard, too. Isolating enzymes is a lot of work. My lab grades were factored in, because lab wasn't a separate class. Some schools have a separate lab grade. When they include it, it's not a big part of your grade.

 

[ChemistI]

to all those who have taken this class, can you give some pointers as to how to get A's. I will be taking both of these classess this term. will also have internship at a pharmacy, and 3 more other courses. i'm hoping to get some feedback as to how to manage my time and what to expect.

if your background is good in both courses, then it should be easy. if its not, then you might want to spend more time studying. Biology is mostly memorizing and Chemistry is mostly calculations. I had a bad background in science when I took both courses so I had to study alot.