I've taken Gen Chem I and II, Organic I with an A, B and B respectively. Currently in Organic II. All seem very easy to me, I hardly tried in any of them. First off, how hard is Inorganic Chemistry? Second how hard is Chemical Thermodynamics and Chemical Quantum Mechanics? I've allotted very easy semesters for when I plan on taking Thermo/Quantum and plan on devoting a lot of time to them but is it hard to attain A's in both of those classes?
Inorganic and P-Chem
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They must've not been too easy if you didn't get an A in all 3. You should start trying a little bit more and get an A. I'd start worrying about acing your current classes before you worry about acing classes that you aren't in.
Thanks for the irrelevant comment. I'll take that into consideration.
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This depends on your school. Concept wise, inorganic is kind of tricky when you get to MOs and if you go into group theory good luck, because that stuff is hard IMO. No one in my class understood GT really, so it ended up being massively curved and all was well. Same goes for pchem. Conceptually, it's very difficult - I think quantum is harder than thermo and most people say that. But I also felt the courses at my school were definitely not as big of a mind**** as they could have been.
Whenever questions like this come up, I do think it would be much more valuable to ask a student who has taken these courses at your school, because for really tricky classes it's the professor who matters most in determining how difficult the course will actually be.
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I really think for conceptual classes like these, it largely depends on you professor. I had bad professors for inorganic and pchem 2 but a good professor for pchem 1. I hated all 3 classes and they were difficult for me but I ended up with a B in all of them. Pchem 1 (thermo) is for sure easier than pchem 2 (quantum). I did not have to work all that hard in pchem 1 to end up with that B (of course I regret not working harder for an A but that's another story). I worked very hard in pchem 2 and I was insanely happy to get that B lol. It's all relative.
Oh and it also helps if you've taken calculus 3 for pchem, even if it's not required. My undergrad had two versions of pchem - one for chemistry majors which requires calc 3 and one for biochemistry majors that only requires calc 2. I was a biochem major but I took calc 3 anyway and I'm glad I did because it helped me in pchem, even though it wasn't required for my class.
Oh and it also helps if you've taken calculus 3 for pchem, even if it's not required. My undergrad had two versions of pchem - one for chemistry majors which requires calc 3 and one for biochemistry majors that only requires calc 2. I was a biochem major but I took calc 3 anyway and I'm glad I did because it helped me in pchem, even though it wasn't required for my class.
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I wouldn't categorize any class in terms of difficulty but in terms of work required. Most people are smart enough to excel in any class, but the time required to do so is variable as is their willingness to put in that time. I thought inorganic was similar to organic in terms of work and thought Pchem 1 (Thermo) required a ton of time. But as mentioned earlier, this is highly variable depending on the professor and the school. Best of luck with your schedule, and probably don't schedule Pchem with anything too crazy if you can help it.
I'm taking Quantum with Intro to Psych, a really easy physics class, Intro to French and an Principles of Biology class I'm retaking for a better grade so hopefully that won't be too hard.
But I'm taking Inorganic and Thermo in the same semester following, without much else that's really challenging, will that be hard?
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How is that irrelevant? If you are unable to put in the effort to get an A in Gen Chem II, which you find 'easy', then it calls into question your ability to do so for the related upper level courses, which will be harder.
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I think that sounds reasonable. As others have said, it is definitely worth the extra time to get an A if possible. There is a monumental difference between 3.0 and 4.0 when applying and any little bit tipping the scales towards the latter is worth it.
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These are always inherently instructor-dependent questions. If the courses are taught for the ACS Inorganic and ACS Physical Chemistry (thermodynamics and kinetics exams) then they will be difficult. Generally, if taught correctly, Pchem will challenge your ability to utilize mathematical skills that are (depending on yourself as a student) already conceptually tricky, for the solution of problems in chemistry.
Thermodynamics is particularly difficult, in my opinion, because it's very dry. From my QM professor, his quote puts it quite aptly, "Thermodynamics is sort of like a physical chemist's vegetables - not very tasty but necessary for growth into quantum mechanics and more interesting, dessert-like topics." Thermo was difficult for me because it largely stemmed from the 5 state equations, showing that you can get any information you need on the thermodynamic parameters of a system knowing a few basic properties and how the equations relate to one another; in short, it's a lot of the same thing re-wrapped with several proofs to make it still memorization-heavy. Pchem kinetics were far more interesting, in my opinion. Quantum is the best of all physical chemistry courses in terms of interest-factor.
As far as inorganic goes, there is much more rote memorization in terms of point groups, packing groups, symmetry, etc. It's a bit like gen chem III where the individual problems and concepts are not hard, but there is a lot to remember and, unless you like geometry and what not, it's a bit dry.
Like I said, if these courses are taught for the ACS exams, one for inorganic, and two individual ones for Pchem being kinetics and thermodynamics, they will probably be challenging. So, the first step at gauging that is to find out if you'll be taking the ACS exams.
Thermodynamics is particularly difficult, in my opinion, because it's very dry. From my QM professor, his quote puts it quite aptly, "Thermodynamics is sort of like a physical chemist's vegetables - not very tasty but necessary for growth into quantum mechanics and more interesting, dessert-like topics." Thermo was difficult for me because it largely stemmed from the 5 state equations, showing that you can get any information you need on the thermodynamic parameters of a system knowing a few basic properties and how the equations relate to one another; in short, it's a lot of the same thing re-wrapped with several proofs to make it still memorization-heavy. Pchem kinetics were far more interesting, in my opinion. Quantum is the best of all physical chemistry courses in terms of interest-factor.
As far as inorganic goes, there is much more rote memorization in terms of point groups, packing groups, symmetry, etc. It's a bit like gen chem III where the individual problems and concepts are not hard, but there is a lot to remember and, unless you like geometry and what not, it's a bit dry.
Like I said, if these courses are taught for the ACS exams, one for inorganic, and two individual ones for Pchem being kinetics and thermodynamics, they will probably be challenging. So, the first step at gauging that is to find out if you'll be taking the ACS exams.
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Also, the above advice to get an A instead of shrugging courses off because they're not difficult is good advice. Take it from someone who did not try very hard in courses that bored me, this question has come up for me to 'justify' my mediocre grades in interviews... it is very difficult to tell them that you simply 'weren't interested' in easy, required courses. If you're going to avoid getting easy A's because you're not challenged, have a good idea how you'll justify that to adcoms. Just my 2c.
edit: my real point here is that you shouldn't be taking these courses to impress adcoms, if you're a chemistry major and they're required, fine. If you're thinking about taking them to impress adcoms, they're not going to be all that impressive as stand-alone grades. I would suggest taking upper-level biology courses or things you're simply interested in. Pchem will be an uphill battle if you're not interested in it as well as proficient in the mathematical skills required. My problem sets took about 15 hours a week for both Pchem I and II, and the labs were brutal. Just know what you're getting into!
edit: my real point here is that you shouldn't be taking these courses to impress adcoms, if you're a chemistry major and they're required, fine. If you're thinking about taking them to impress adcoms, they're not going to be all that impressive as stand-alone grades. I would suggest taking upper-level biology courses or things you're simply interested in. Pchem will be an uphill battle if you're not interested in it as well as proficient in the mathematical skills required. My problem sets took about 15 hours a week for both Pchem I and II, and the labs were brutal. Just know what you're getting into!
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Because the post failed to identify either of the two questions I asked in my original post. I took Gen Chem I/II while I was in high school but my university wouldn't accept credit for the class nor the lab because I couldn't procure my lab notebook. So, I had to take the two classes again when I first entered college. First semester I passed it easily with an A, however second semester I had a different teacher that took attendance-based quizzes into a large part of the grade, I didn't realize this until the end of the year and therefor did poorly in the class in that aspect and got a B.
Thank you for your post above this one, it contained a lot of solid information that will be useful to me. As for the post I quoted. I wasn't really shrugging it off because it was easy, it was more of me not going to class every day because I had already taken it and did need to sit through class listening to information that I already knew.
And I'm a Chemistry major otherwise I wouldn't even be thinking about taking P-chem. Regardless, thank you for your help.
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My point was that, while that may be the case, adcoms are going to ask why that wasn't an A if you knew the information. I'm in the boat you're going to be in, a few years down the line, when you're applying and interviewing. You're going to need a high MCAT to support your stance you were actually just bored with easy classes and (I assume) focused your energy on something meaningful (for me it was research being more interesting than several amateur biology and physics courses), but even still, depending on the adcom, this answer might not jive with them. So like I said before, try your best to force yourself to earning those easy A's - I really really really wish I had.
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It definitely depends on the institution and even among professors within the same institution. Generally, for me, the upper level classes were harder, but still feasible to maintain A grades.
Thermo is highly tedious and you have to be pretty good at math, at least that was my experience in college. A good grasp of general chemistry is very helpful as there is a lot of problem solving involved and you are really learning how to derive all the equations and principles that you learn in general chemistry.
I got A's in both at my undergrad institution, but I still hated p chem with a passion. I'm not sure if I got a single question on my quantum final "correct", but I apparently my answers were reasonable enough to my professor that he passed me. I'm still not quite sure what I learned during those two courses, because if anyone were to ask me about a particle in a box now or what the Maxwell equations are, I would have no earthly idea.
Upper level classes tend to be more conceptually difficult, but they're not made for weeding out the way that freshman and sophomore level classes are, so you're not in the same kind of pressure cooker for grades. They will make you pull your hair out though when you're doing the work itself.
I got A's in both at my undergrad institution, but I still hated p chem with a passion. I'm not sure if I got a single question on my quantum final "correct", but I apparently my answers were reasonable enough to my professor that he passed me. I'm still not quite sure what I learned during those two courses, because if anyone were to ask me about a particle in a box now or what the Maxwell equations are, I would have no earthly idea.
Upper level classes tend to be more conceptually difficult, but they're not made for weeding out the way that freshman and sophomore level classes are, so you're not in the same kind of pressure cooker for grades. They will make you pull your hair out though when you're doing the work itself.
