Is it TRUE that DAT is mainly memorization?

Started by SN1
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SN1

SN1

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except the reading comprehension part? I heard this from someone.

Do you agree at all?
 
What aspect of learning doesn't involve memorization? All of these big tests are essentially memorization. If you understand the material well enough you don't have to rely on rote memorization though.
 
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Maygyver said:
What aspect of learning doesn't involve memorization? All of these big tests are essentially memorization. If you understand the material well enough you don't have to rely on rote memorization though.
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I agree with you.
 
SN1 said:
What percentage would you say is memorization ?
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Yes. Sarcasm for sure.

How could this possibly be quantified and how would this information help you?

Just get some study materials and STUDY. You'll know what you have to memorize (things like how old the earth is) and what requires application (gen chem problems).
 
Every instance of learning requires retention to be applied. Therefore, there's always some degree of memorization needed. For example, in order to successfully complete a heat question in the general chemistry section, you'll undoubtedly need to memorize the formula "q = mc(delta T)", as that formula will almost surely not be given in the problem.

That being said, I personally found that o-chem required a lot of memorization in terms of the pathways. For example, knowing the rules for the benzene ring substitution was very important to memorize.
 
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And you can't memorize your way through the PAT portion. That part just takes lots of practice and understanding the 3-dimensional relationships of shapes.
 
SN1 said:
except the reading comprehension part? I heard this from someone.

Do you agree at all?
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PAT/QR/RC/Organic chem is NOT memorization. Maybe a little of orgo but you will see reactions that are impossible to memorize but you have to be able to work through the mechanism, etc.

Bio and GChem are pure memorization.

so 33.33, repeating of course, percent memorization

LEEROY JENKINS!
 
Doc Smile said:
PAT/QR/RC/Organic chem is NOT memorization. Maybe a little of orgo but you will see reactions that are impossible to memorize but you have to be able to work through the mechanism, etc.

Bio and GChem are pure memorization.

so 33.33, repeating of course, percent memorization

LEEROY JENKINS!
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Don't mean to argue but Orgo is NOT pure memorization? My orgo class was pure memorization. Drawing products with 10-12 step mechanisms.
 
SN1 said:
Don't mean to argue but Orgo is NOT pure memorization? My orgo class was pure memorization. Drawing products with 10-12 step mechanisms.
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I'm going to agree with Doc Smile. A lot of students I heard say Ochem is memorization. If you understand the general concepts of where electrons will go and nucleophiles vs electrophiles, then it really isn't that much memorization. I think the people that struggle with ochem just try to memorize reactions and mechanisms rather than actually understanding what is going on.
 
Maygyver said:
I'm going to agree with Doc Smile. A lot of students I heard say Ochem is memorization. If you understand the general concepts of where electrons will go and nucleophiles vs electrophiles, then it really isn't that much memorization. I think the people that struggle with ochem just try to memorize reactions and mechanisms rather than actually understanding what is going on.
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Absolutely. There were tons of mechanisms that had like 10 or more steps but some of them were similar. Once you understood what is going on you kind of have the intuition of what should happen.(well at least that's what happened to me:laugh:)
 
SN1 said:
Absolutely. There were tons of mechanisms that had like 10 or more steps but some of them were similar. Once you understood what is going on you kind of have the intuition of what should happen.(well at least that's what happened to me:laugh:)
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Yeah. I think as long as you know that -'s go to +'s you can get at least a 50 in ochem. haha 😉
 
Doc Smile said:
And if you have 1/2 a brain and can simply and logically reason where electrons would normally move to.
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That's why org-o is a weed-out class. Most people don't understand the guiding principles behind most of the reactions.
 
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