general chem 2

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cara

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this may be a stupid question, but..

is a "B" in General Chem 1 necessarily bad?

in my junior year of high school, i took a dual enrollment course for Gen. Chem 1 at the college i am planning to attend next year. little did i know back then, if i decide to attend the college, the grade i recieve in the course will be averaged into my GPA and show on my transcript. i'm not a perfectionist, but kind of paranoid of the little things that may affect my chances of getting accepted into their pharmacy school.

since i don't have to take the course over, i can advance into General Chemistry 2 in my first semester of freshmen year. however, by then i will not remember a single thing about the concepts i learned in the previous course. since an "A" will always look better than a "B" anyway, should i re-take the course to refresh my memory? or is that unnecessary? just how much of what you learn in Chem 1 will be important in Chem 2? does repeating a course look bad on your transcript?

i'm hoping that pharm schools don't expect perfect grades.. and that i can easily survive General Chem 2.
 
Hey, I don't think you have to repeat your course because you can Ace gen chem 2 and also u can ace both ochem 1 and 2 which counts for prereqs at certain pharmacy schools (check with the ones your applying to). I don't really see any reason in repeating a course if you get mostly A-'s to A's in your other courses. Remember your gpa is a total of all the pre-reqs, not just gen chem. A B does not make you look bad.
 
You will be fine. Just set your sights on raising your science GPA with A's from here on out. I got a B in one of my first classes and it motivated me to get A's in every single following class. That was my only B, and my GPA is up to 3.95.

Just use it as motivation and remember the fact that you have plenty of time. Hey, B's happen.
 
I took AP Chem in high school. Because I started taking my pre-reqs late, the advisor told me I should just go straight into 2nd semester of gen chem. And told me that if I aced it, that I could just transfer my credit over. But if I didn't that it would be good if I took the 1st semester of gen chem. The only problem is that this summer I already have a lot of classes (6 credit hours per 5 week sessions) and I don't think I'll be able to fit in the gen chem into that schedule without throwing my complete undergrad schedule off. How necessary will it be for me to take the first semester compared to transferring credit over? How will it affect my chances in getting into a pharm school? **Not that I'm not gonna try to ace the class.. Just out of curiousity**

:luck:
 
cara said:
Since i don't have to take the course over, i can advance into General Chemistry 2 in my first semester of freshmen year. however, by then i will not remember a single thing about the concepts i learned in the previous course. .
If you don't remember anything from Gen Chem I, you will not pass Gen Chem II unless you re-learn Chem I. You can either take Chem I over again, or take chem II and try to learn chem I on your own, while you're taking chem II. I would strongly suggest retaking chem I and LEARNING it like the back of your hand. You will not only need it for Chem II, and your understanding of chemistry, but it will be on the PCAT which is very important to most pharm schools. Just my two cents, take it or leave it.
 
I am currently taking Gen Chem 2 and YES you do need to know Gen chem 1 material (solutions, enthalpy, entropy, naming compounds, gas laws etc). However, I think you can learn it as you go as it is not that hard (G chem 1 stuff) especially if you enjoy the topic. G Chem 2 is very challening in my opinion and of course it always depends on your professor and background in math.
I do not enjoy math so it is probably harder for me than the average person, but I always hear that G chem 2 is one of the hardest undergraduate classes due to the complex issues and lengthy labs. (I spend more time in the Chem lab than my entire Anatomy lecture and lab combined!!!🙂
There are students in my class that have not taken G chem in years and yes they have to study more.

So, if you want a good grade in G chem 2 it means:

More time spent on G chem= less time spent on your other classes and "social life" (what ever that is!!!🙂
 
It really all depends on your school to be honest. It seems like different colleges teach different things in their general chem courses. For instance, my general chem courses were relatively independent. The first was more quantum chemistry, while the second was mostly aqueous and electrochemistry. So as long as we had an overall recollection of the first, we could do well in the second.
So, in short, I would definitely reflect on what you do remember, and then ask someone who took the series a year ahead of you at your college for advice. Hope this helps, and good luck.
 
Betty'sBeast said:
If you don't remember anything from Gen Chem I, you will not pass Gen Chem II unless you re-learn Chem I. You can either take Chem I over again, or take chem II and try to learn chem I on your own, while you're taking chem II. I would strongly suggest retaking chem I and LEARNING it like the back of your hand. You will not only need it for Chem II, and your understanding of chemistry, but it will be on the PCAT which is very important to most pharm schools. Just my two cents, take it or leave it.

It's funny how chemistry worked out for me.

Last semester, I had the best chemistry professor ever and coming from a horrible high school chemistry experience, it was a real blessing. I aced his class, no problems and studied constantly. It was a good class for me.

This semester, I'm in Gen Chem 2 with a completely different professor. He's good, just different and his teaching style, combined with the sick bug that's been hitting everyone in Austin, and a few hours of sleep yielded a very unsatisfactory grade on my first test for the semester. Rotten luck. So needless to say, Gen Chem 1 material is crucial to doing well for the next Chemistry course and that's not all you need it for either. Not to mention, you're going to be a Pharmacist. You need to have this stuff down pat for later chem classes. I heard Organic massacred people last semester. But then again, when does it not ever massacre people?

In other words, I agree with Betty'sBeast. They are on the money.
 
I dropped out and worked for a couple years between my classes. It was 5 years between chem 1 and chem 2 but I had no problem getting an A when I went back to do my pre-reqs. Anyways, physical chemistry is almost non-existent in pharmacy school, with the exception of buffers and the related equations. You will utilize a lot more from organic chem when you get into medchem and pharmaceutics so it does not hurt to pay attention there. Anyways, I am not sure what the big deal is with organic chem, I thought it was among the easiest of my science classes in undergrad. There is a fair amount of memorization, but there is nothing that is actually hard in terms of material.
 
cara said:
this may be a stupid question, but..

is a "B" in General Chem 1 necessarily bad?

Hehe, I have a "B" too.

And I'm not banking on my GPA anymore 🙁

Anyhow, just try to do better in Organic. I'm sure pharm schools will like that better.

Good luck, aite.
 
Tuck said:
I dropped out and worked for a couple years between my classes. It was 5 years between chem 1 and chem 2 but I had no problem getting an A when I went back to do my pre-reqs. Anyways, physical chemistry is almost non-existent in pharmacy school, with the exception of buffers and the related equations. You will utilize a lot more from organic chem when you get into medchem and pharmaceutics so it does not hurt to pay attention there. Anyways, I am not sure what the big deal is with organic chem, I thought it was among the easiest of my science classes in undergrad. There is a fair amount of memorization, but there is nothing that is actually hard in terms of material.
There's no doubt about the fact that gen chem II is not difficult, BUT if you remember nothing from gen chem I then you are likely to have a REALLY tough time keeping up in class. Keep in mind that the person that posted this took chem I as a junior in high school. I don't remember much from high school, and I sure wouldn't want to venture into chem II with only a vague idea of the principles of general chemistry. I would still stress that the most important thing about chem I & II is how it will affect your performance on the PCAT. I think that you would have to agree with me on that.
 
I had a B in gen chem 1 a C in gen chem 2 and As in organic 1 and 2

my GPA was great for the most part... i just took a lot of other stuff to make up for it
 
bbmuffin said:
I had a B in gen chem 1 a C in gen chem 2 and As in organic 1 and 2

my GPA was great for the most part... i just took a lot of other stuff to make up for it


booo..... j/k 🙂

Congrats on getting those A's.
 
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