Gen Chem trouble

[NJ BK]

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I'm hoping some of my fellow non trads can give me some advice or study tips. I got a B+ in Gen Chem I but now with the second half (Gen Chem II) things are not going so well. I read the chapter and do the problems throughout as well as at the end of the chapters, get practice problems and study materials online, and have even hired a private tutor. I'm getting nowhere fast. It doesn't help that the instructor is completely ineffective at presenting the material. My lab instructor has even offered to help since other classmates have complained, so it's not just me. I was seriously thinking of dropping the class but don't want to give up. It's really frustrating to work hard for something and not have it reflect in my grades.


For those that have done fairly well in it what did you do? What kind of study tips or tips in general can you give me?

 

[Rip]

I'm hoping some of my fellow non trads can give me some advice or study tips. I got a B+ in Gen Chem I but now with the second half (Gen Chem II) things are not going so well. I read the chapter and do the problems throughout as well as at the end of the chapters, get practice problems and study materials online, and have even hired a private tutor. I'm getting nowhere fast. It doesn't help that the instructor is completely ineffective at presenting the material. My lab instructor has even offered to help since other classmates have complained, so it's not just me. I was seriously thinking of dropping the class but don't want to give up. It's really frustrating to work hard for something and not have it reflect in my grades.


For those that have done fairly well in it what did you do? What kind of study tips or tips in general can you give me?

Try to read the chapter and do all the in chapter problems the weekend prior to starting a new chapter. This allows you to concentrate on the lecture and ask questions about the material you covered over the weekend. You will be prepared to handle any homework assigned after each lecture. Ensure you read the chapter again and review all the homework at least one more time prior to any quizes or test. You'll pick up on some things you didn't catch on the first go round. Often the difference between an A or a B.

It is time consuming, but better to put the press only early versus playing catchup later.

Good Luck!

 

[loykastj]

You know what helped me when I was in that situation years ago?
Read the textbook like its a novel, not a textbook. When I read a textbook for information I get bored, miss important stuff, and it is a general waste of time. When I started to engage the material, get excited about what I was reading (I've even shared interesting tidbits with friends, which was quickly shot down with a "you're a dork" look), and think about possible exam Q's and real world/medical implications of what I was reading, I started acing exams with much less effort.

 

[njbmd]

What is not exactly clear from your post is whether you are having trouble with the tests or the material. General Chemistry is not that dependent on the instructor but more dependent on how you can read, organize and assimulate the material so that you can use it for problem-solving. If you are doing the problems in the text but not understanding the concepts, I recommend attempting to list the concept next to the problem as you are doing them.

The professor is a redundant entity so get out of your mind that your perfomance has anything to do with the person. You have a text, supplemental problems and a tutor. Utilize them and keep ahead of the professor and the class. When I was in General Chemistry, I was always two weeks ahead of the class in terms of my reading and problems. I also kept my materials tightly organized by concept so that it didn't matter how the material was tested, I had the solutions.

 

[NJ BK]

Thank you everyone! I will definitely try your strategies. Njbmd: My trouble happens come test time. I can study my heart out but my test grades don't reflect that. I will change my approach based on what everyone has suggested!

 

[OncoCaP]

I'm hoping some of my fellow non trads can give me some advice or study tips. I got a B+ in Gen Chem I but now with the second half (Gen Chem II) things are not going so well. I read the chapter and do the problems throughout as well as at the end of the chapters, get practice problems and study materials online, and have even hired a private tutor. I'm getting nowhere fast. It doesn't help that the instructor is completely ineffective at presenting the material. My lab instructor has even offered to help since other classmates have complained, so it's not just me. I was seriously thinking of dropping the class but don't want to give up. It's really frustrating to work hard for something and not have it reflect in my grades.


For those that have done fairly well in it what did you do? What kind of study tips or tips in general can you give me?

Well, you could drop the class and possibly wind up with an instructor who is even more ineffective the second time around. You will need to be able to do well in a class whether the instructor is effective or not. This is an important skill you will need to master before and quite possibly during medical school. Good luck to you. Carefully consider your options and then do what you think is right and helps you achieve your goals. It's really hard to judge how much time / money you would lose from your post above and how much of issue that is. It's also not clear if you think you can get a much better instructor and get a better grade if you dropped the course and took it from someone else; it sounds a little bit like you are blaming the instructor for your poor performance when the material could probably be learned pretty well from reading chemistry books and working problems. In medical school students sometimes don't even go to class.

 

[Spectrum]

FWIW, looking back on my tortured time in general chemistry, I'd say my biggest mistakes were reading the chapter repeatedly for concept understanding and not doing enough practice problems. I am inclined to read (as a non-science major), but I did not begin to possess the facility I needed with routine math skills and proportional concepts that are foundational to general chemistry until well after I finished that class. Try skimming the chapter instead of reading it rigorously. Focus on the example problems in the chapter rather than the narrative portions -then do as many practice problems as possible, referencing the solutions only after you have really tried to work a problem (moving on, however, when you've been staring at it for an hour). Also, get a hold of any of your professor's practice exams that you can and work them until you understand the problems/answers.

I think a big mistake that we non-science background people make is thinking that engaging with the text, as if it were a literary work, will equal success. For me (my experience only) I began to succeed when I engaged the subject by doing practice problems that kept my brain moving and actively assimilating information and using the text as a reference source. In addition, though we rarely think so, rusty math is also a big culprit.

After I took orgo, I actually thought that I would have been better served by having some of that material in advance as it provided some good visual support for the theories of gen chem, but then again, I wouldn't have understood some of it without the gen chem. Tough course, IMHO, if you don't have a good background in science.