Chemistry!!

[uncultured]

Ok, so I'm going to be starting chemistry this fall, intro to chemistry, that is. I'm a rising sophomore at UNC-Chapel Hill (I did my bio last year) I'm concerned because, while I took honors chemistry in high school, I also come from an extremely weak math background. When I was in high school, I had the same Math teacher for algebra 2, advanced math (alg. 3/trig) and precalculus. Due to extraordinary teaching abilities (he has since been fired) I have more or less no knowledge of those subjects (save a bit of algebra 2). While I realize that it's relatively difficult to predict someone's success in any given course, would I be better off taking some kind of remedial math class? Or is the math graspable? Anyone who has been in a similar situation and can offer some advice would be much appreciated!

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[PequalsMDman]

I don't think you'll have any problems, but if you're not feeling confident about your mathematical abilities, then take a college algebra class or go to a bookstore and buy a cool book and review on your own. If you're into videos, check out the Standard Deviants series...I'm pretty sure that they have an algebra tape.

 

[An Yong]

Don't take a review course, that would be a waste of money.

General Chemistry requires only basic algebra (logarithms, solve "x", simple arithmetic, etc.). If you feel uncomfortable, just get a good algebra book and review an area if you see something unfamiliar in your chem lectures.

With the exception of the lab component (which requires even less math than general chemistry), organic chemistry contains almost no math. I think the only time I had to use math was when I had to calculate unsaturation numbers, but thats just simple arithmetic.

 

[PequalsMDman]

here is a link to the standard deviants site:

http://www.standarddeviants.com/pls/brain/cerebellum.show_department?p_dept_id=5

the videos are so easy to understand!!

 

[~EnnI~]

Originally posted by uncultured
Ok, so I'm going to be starting chemistry this fall, intro to chemistry, that is. I'm a rising sophomore at UNC-Chapel Hill (I did my bio last year) I'm concerned because, while I took honors chemistry in high school, I also come from an extremely weak math background. When I was in high school, I had the same Math teacher for algebra 2, advanced math (alg. 3/trig) and precalculus. Due to extraordinary teaching abilities (he has since been fired) I have more or less no knowledge of those subjects (save a bit of algebra 2). While I realize that it's relatively difficult to predict someone's success in any given course, would I be better off taking some kind of remedial math class? Or is the math graspable? Anyone who has been in a similar situation and can offer some advice would be much appreciated!

i don't think you'll have a problem...really. the math starts building up when you get to classes like biochem or upper division inorganic, etc. as for general and organic chemistry, i think you'll be fine.

 

[Ernham]

My advice is just to make sure you know your basic logs, and to be very good at reranging forumulas to solve for X. It sounds like you will be just fine.

 

[Samus Aran]

If it's any help, I didn't do well in neither math nor chemistry in high school. When I started college I took precalculus then calculus and I ended up making A's in both of them. When I got to gen chem the following year, I didn't quite make the A's but the B's I earned were a far cry then my math and chem grades in high school . So yeah getting a good math foundation definitely helped me out some...I can also tell you that many of the students who were taking math the same year they took gen chem ended up getting A's, so maybe if you take chem and math concurrently this will be the same case with you. Good luck!!!