Chemistry

[Cakins7005]

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How hard is the first year of college general chemistry like when compared to high school chemistry?

 

[IndyZX]

It's different at different schools. I go to Texas, and Chem 1 was a breeze, but I'm having to really work to get that A now in Chem 2. I know a friend at Duke who got a C in his Chem 1, said it was impossible.

90% of my high school chem class revolved around stoichiometry. So, needless to say, it was harder for me in college.

 

[THE instiGATOR]

Yeah, it depends. I had a bad-ass teacher in high school who went so far as to teach us organic chem. It was great. When I got to college, I pretty much coasted through the first 3/4 of gen chem and 1/4 of orgo. I loved the easier chem classes, but hated my upper level classes. Now that I'm a med student, I'd love to take one again. It'd be refreshing to have a class that I can actually do well in.

Good luck! Don't listen to other people if they tell you chem sucks. It's good stuff, man!

 

[Skaterbabe74]

It totally depends on how good your hs chemistry was....I had an awful teacher and a worse book in hs and if it wasn't for a biochemist grad student friend of mine at the time I never would have passed the class. I took Gen Chem I in the fall and got a high B without having to put a ton of time into it (I had a full load and was working 24+ hrs/week). This semester I have a Gen Chem II honors class and have an A so far (the only diff between the regular class and the honors class is the lab and we have to do a few little 2 pg papers on speakers we have come in). Given my experience in hs I thought I was going to have a lot of trouble with chem in college but I've had good teachers and books and have learned that I actually love chemistry enough to make it a double major with biology😀 And before anyone comes and says I'm nuts I only had to add in Analytical Chem to get the double major (my other 3 classes to get enough credits will come from things that are cross listed between the 2 depts - like Biochem and Molecular Genetics).

Your best bet is to talk to students at the schools you are interested in for college (if you haven't started college yet) about what the class is like there....

--Jessica, UCCS

 

[imperator]

I took AP chem in high school, and only the second semester of general chemistry in college.

I thought it was conceptually much more difficult. Though the scope of material was the same, we went much more in depth in college. We were asked questions that never would have been asked on the AP exam.

For instance, in high school we drew pictures of simple electrical cells and labeled them, while in college we calculated the equilibrium within the cell and how it changed with time.

 

[Biodude]

I haven't actually taken the 2nd semester of General Chemistry yet, but from my high school experience and my 1st semester of college-level chem experience, I would say that high school helped me out only a little bit. But, like everyone else has said, it depends on your teachers and professors. My high school Chem teacher was a strict prick who didn't know how to teach...he'd yell at us when we didn't ask questions, because he assumed that we would have questions about what he was teaching. When we actually had questions, he would yell at us for asking what he deemed to be stupid questions.

I'm glad that I got out of his class...at least my Chem professor in college doesn't blow up when a student asks a so-called "stupid question"...and he also doesn't get angry when people don't ask questions, because assumes that we understand what he is teaching.

High school level chem...I probably wouldn't have needed much of that to learn college-level chem. I mean, what I am learning now is so easy and the grading scale is 80% and above is an A, 70% and above is a B, 55% and above is a C...so far, I'm getting an A- on this grading scale. Basically, if you're well-versed in basic algebra, then the only hard part comes in identifying what the questions ask on an exam...mole-mass-number conversions, titrations, limiting reactant, etc.

So, basically, from my experience, college-level chem doesn't require you to remember everything from high school, though I bet that it helps a lot...I got a D in high school chem and forgot almost everything I learned, and if my current chem prof was using the traditional grading scale, I'd be getting a B- from exams alone, though I bet that my homework assignments and lab work would probably bring that up to a B.

 

[UCLAstudent]

My high school chem. class didn't prepare me at all for general chem. in college... just be careful and don't get too overconfident.

 

[supersunny]

i'm with THE instiGATOR on this one... my hs teacher was this outta this world cal tech engineer phd guy who taught because he loved it... IMO the way hs teachers ought to be.

i knew about 5/6 of everything covered in gen chem1 and some o.chem nomenclature stuff.

 

[Cakins7005]

Thanks guys. I appreciate your insights. 🙂

 

[dees2007]

I'm a little concerned about this too, because my high school chem class was terrible. The teacher rarely ever taught us anything and was a complete dingus....by now I've forgotten almost everything I learned in that class. Hopefully I'll still be able to do well in general chem next year.

 

[kreno]

remember some med schools won't accept your AP chem... so keep that in mind (usually the top tiered schools).

 

[logos]

College chem moves much faster...and the tests tend to be all multiple choice (at least here). If you get a good prof you'll be in great shape...I never read the book cuz my prof does a good enough job...the trick to doing well for me is to do TONS of problems before the test...

 

[UCLAstudent]

Yeah, practice problems are the key. Do all the assigned homework problems at least twice before exam. My professor would actually put a homework problem on each exam. If you do the homework a few times, you will be able to recognize variations of the problem on the exams.

 

[Skaterbabe74]

Wow logos you get multiple choice tests? That would suck. Ours are all math/fill in the blank, and he'll often take problems from the examples in the book or from other professors prior quizzes/exams (which we can access) and change the numbers or ask for something slightly different but using the same basic info....

--Jessica, UCCS

 

[desi bum]

im in AP chem right now and my teacher teaches us as if we're in college..everything is fast paced, and the tests are impossible. i struggle to get a B- in that class, but hopefully all of this will help me next yr in college. im not planning to take the AP test since most of the med schools dont accept AP credits. my teacher is even encouraging us to take the organic chem elective for next marking period which is = to orgo 1 in college.

if i hadn't taken ap chem this yr then i would be struggled a lot in college.. since i didn't learn **** from the regular first yr high school chem.

if you still have time in high school, then take AP Chem next year. in fact, take any/ all science APs in high school if u like the subject..im sure it will help you in college.

 

[Biodude]

Originally posted by logos
College chem moves much faster...and the tests tend to be all multiple choice (at least here). If you get a good prof you'll be in great shape...I never read the book cuz my prof does a good enough job...the trick to doing well for me is to do TONS of problems before the test...

Funny, I don't get any multiple choice tests in college...well maybe one for General Chem 1st semester, but that is the ACS (American Chemical Society) Standardized Exam. It's not neccessarily something that counts too highly against my grade.

Well, like everybody else here seems to be saying, I have to agree, it moves fast compared to high school chem. I'm surprised that my class has already reached chapter 7 in the text book, plus the next test will be a week from tomorrow...we will have finished up to chapter 10 by the time the semester ends. Gives ya an idea how soon my summer will begin, doesn't it? 😀

 

[THE instiGATOR]

Originally posted by Biodude
I'm surprised that my class has already reached chapter 7 in the text book, plus the next test will be a week from tomorrow...we will have finished up to chapter 10 by the time the semester ends. Gives ya an idea how soon my summer will begin, doesn't it? 😀

It's pretty typical to have 10 - 15 chapters of material on each test in med school. Undergrad was so nice. For all of you still in undergrad, here's my impression of med school (I had no idea it would be this intense):

Finals week sucks, right? Well, imagine a situation where every single exam is like a college final. The frequency of the exams does not decrease. In fact, I think I have more frequent examinations than I did as an undergrad. To top it all off, you do not get to pick and choose your schedule. I remember making my undergrad schedule so nice. I'd basically hit school hard on M, W & F. My light days would be T & R, and the weekends were fairly free. Not any more. Now classes usually run from 8:30 to 3ish, on average, every day.

I'll get off my soap box now. I guess the point of my rant is that things are always going to get tougher. You grow into the roles you accept. Your gen chem will seem tough when you first start, but will seem like cake when you look back on it.

 

[MeowMix]

I found that first-semester college chem, phys and calculus were all way easier than my HS AP-level classes. In fact, I was so relaxed and confident that I blew off lectures to fool around with my chem lab partner, and got Bs in all three classes. Second semester I got smarter and got a boyfriend who wanted to go to class and do homework together. (Then we fooled around afterwards.)

 

[desi bum]

<<I blew off lectures to fool around with my chem lab partner, and got Bs in all three classes. Second semester I got smarter and got a boyfriend who wanted to go to class and do homework together. (Then we fooled around afterwards.)>>

heh that's a good call; i have to find me a girlie like that.

it's funny how easily the topic changes from chem to .. fooling around

 

[logos]

Funny, I don't get any multiple choice tests in college...

Hmmm...must just be that different schools are different....how in the world do they grade all of those though....my chem class is like 250 people...so all of our tests use those scanner forms...what sucks is that there is one right answer...and the others are answers based on the mistakes he thinks people are most likely to make...oh yeah..and the none of the above choice sucks....but my current school is known for having a pretty tough chem dept. (Miami University)