general chemistry study tips

[issa]

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i am aiming for a score of 20 or above in general chemistry section. what is the best way to do it?

do you think kaplan general chem questions enough?
do i really have to understand every bolded term in the general chem chapters in kaplan's blue book?

i just finished reading all the chem chapters and the examples are easy, but i dont' know the difficulty of the chem section in the real dat.

 

[Arsenalista]

I used my gen chem book for extra practice. I felt frustrated and unprepared by Kaplan's review book and I'm much more confident about gen chem now.

 

[jackbauer!]

i am aiming for a score of 20 or above in general chemistry section. what is the best way to do it?

do you think kaplan general chem questions enough?
do i really have to understand every bolded term in the general chem chapters in kaplan's blue book?

i just finished reading all the chem chapters and the examples are easy, but i dont' know the difficulty of the chem section in the real dat.

study for gen chem like you did when you took it as an undergrad. WORK PROBLEMS....

unlike biology where you are relying mostly on your memory skills, chemistry you will have to apply your knowledge to different types of problems. don't get me wrong, it is important to understand what the bold terms mean, but don't stress out or make notecards of them.

good luck,
jb!

 

[jmick101]

I was pleasantly surprised with how easy the Gen Chem section of the real DAT was. A few people mentioned that there werent that many problems involving equations, and they were correct. I took this to mean that I really needed to hit the theory behind the chemistry, which I did. When I mean theory I mean things like, periodic trends, molecular geometry, ionic character, density, those type of things. Luckily that stuff really is quite easy, and Kaplan did a fantastic job of hitting those things up. There were enough equation type problems, ie gas law, thermochemistry, rate law, pH, etc to warrant doing plenty of practice problems, but there was nothing on the test that I recall being any harder than anything on Topscore. What I recommend doing is study Kaplan's section closely and do the Topscore section over and over until you can nail every question. If you need more practice problems, get a textbook and solutions manual, and work the solved ones. You should do well. I did this and scored a 23.

 

[SpikeyMike83]

I am also worried about gen chem. it's not my strong suit!

I have been using text books to practice problems, but the numbers are always decimals that aren't easy to do in your head, so I feel I'm being less effective because I find myself using a calculator sometimes.

boo to gen. chem.

 

[dancedancekj]

Don't get hung up about having to use a calculator. Just keep doing problems until you know EXACTLY what calculation to do... the math will follow suit from experience.

 

[SpikeyMike83]

okay, thanks!

i'm craptastic at math as well.

 

[Kane]

okay, thanks!

i'm craptastic at math as well.

lol

 

[xylem29]

lol

Examkrackers 1001 questions for gen chem are quite good, lots of theory and calculation questions.