TBR General Chemistry

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salsasunrise123

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So I just finished the questions at end of chapter 1 in gen chem and really struggled with completely all the calculations accurately under timed conditions. Is the mcat as math heavy as TBR passages? I found that my timing was much better on the more conceptual passages than on the passages where majority of problems involved multistep calculations and conversions. I understand exactly how to perform the calculations but am not fast enough i guess, especially when you need to estimate fractions, etc. I probably struggled the most on the 13 discretes since none of them were conceptually based. Doing them in 1:30 is rough. I think I'm gonna practice with EK 1001 before i tackle TBR passages as a way of warming up. I just would like to know if the math required in TBR gen chem is on par with math required for mcat. Thx.
 
No. As I always say to ppl here, TBR questions from books take much longer than AAMC questions do. They go into so much detail. The main point of doing them is to learn the concepts behind them. Just dont go over 10 minutes.

Many ppl here believe you must time them strictly, but I am highly against it.

Everyone feels that way when they do TBR questions. Dont get discouraged. And dont bother with EK 1001 series. They suck.

Just keep doing their questions. You will get used to them.
 
Great advice from Brood. The cover page before each homework section suggests that you only time yourself on about one-third of the questions. The first questions you do should be for familiarization and exposure to concepts rather than timing, and as Brood suggests, you need to thoroughly go over them after you've been through them the first time. Don't time yourself on passages and questions until you feel somewhat comfortable with the material, and even then, don't get discouraged if you are pressed for time. As for the calculation questions, make sure you read the answer explanations, because they often emphasize a time-saving math trick. In fact, some questions are meant to mess with your head a little and take far more than one minute to do, so that when you read the explanation you have a better appreciation for how helpful a trick may be. A circuit question with three resistors in parallel and some crazy numbers comes to mind, where the explanation shows you how to guestimate the number and eliminate three answers that don't fit in the range.
 
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