Tips For Success in General Chemistry I?

[Confused 20]

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I will be taking general Chemistry I beginning 15 days from now and am tremendously afraid. I am poor at Mathematics and have not taken many challenging classes in my undergraduate career. Can anyone give me tips on how I may be successful in this course? Any input will be appreciated.

 

[gro2001]

A lot depends on how your exams are going to be structured and other course/professor specific stuff. For me the most useful thing was doing lots of practice questions from the text (McMurry and Fay).

 

[WantsThisBad]

I will be taking general Chemistry I beginning 15 days from now and am tremendously afraid. I am poor at Mathematics and have not taken many challenging classes in my undergraduate career. Can anyone give me tips on how I may be successful in this course? Any input will be appreciated.

Heres the key to success is Gen Chem 1. If you follow this you will most likely do well.

1. Follow your syllabus and have the reading that you'll be talking about in class done before that class. That way when your professor is going over the material for the chapter you have already read it.

2. Do all of the homework problems after you read the chapter and do the examples in the chapter while you read it to make sure you're getting the applications of what the book says.

3. When doing homework you may want to go back and read again stuff thats bothering you.

4. Take your labs and homework seriously. I didn't do this at first and it hurt my grade.

5. When you have an exam, start studying 2-3 days before and do it slowly at first. If you are really struggling then read each chapter twice and do problems. I would have a test on 3 chapters for chem and I would read each of the 3 chapters twice within 2 days before the exam. By the time I walked into the exam I would know everything that I was going to have to know.

6. Don't worry about math. Yes there is math in gen chem but its all really simple math. You will also get the hang of any of the more difficult math and it will actually make sense more and be easier if you understand the principals behind the chemistry and why the math is the way it is.


Good luck.

 

[MossPoh]

None of the stuff is really specific to just general chemistry.

If you are like me, then the most beneficial thing is being able to see the steps to solve a problem. I actually had a solution manual and would do one or two questions step by step from the solution manual. (It had all the steps and math) It wasn't just copying though...it was actually going through and UNDERSTANDING what was going on.

General chemistry is just practice, practice and practice...but never go autopilot with questions. Make sure you understand everything you are doing..don't treat it as a "Well, I plug these numbers here, divide here and bam..answer". That works great for some stuff, but you'll get ripped on an exam when they ask for something different and you weren't paying attention. Many profs are sneaky and like to work out problems incorrectly and put that answer down on the exam. (See ACS exam)

Always use your crappy non-programmable calculator if that is what they make you use. Homework too. It is tempting to use your nice nice ti-89 or whatever, but when you are taking an exam/quiz and it requires quadratic, logs, whatever else and you don't know how to do it because you are used to that nice calculator..tough ****.

Do what I call "weak point training". 3-4 days before the exam take a practice one...they usually post 3 or 4 from previous semesters. Set it up and work through it without any books. Just your pencil, periodic table, and calculator. When finished, go through and grade it...see what trends you have in your questions, which ones you got wrong, etc. Go back and study/practice the problems you missed the most frequently till you can do them blindfolded. Then maybe do another practice exam in a similar fashion (perhaps looking up a few of the questions if you need). Repeat the focus with missed problems. After 3 to 4 days you should have elminated the weakest points. It is important to not just skim over the tough ones and do the ones you like to do. The ones you hate will inevitably be the type that has 5 of on your exam.

Also, if you can have access to a chalkboard or dry erase board. Use it. Thinking standing up, especially if you are working with someone is tougher and kind of requires you to babystep. I recommend doing that near the end of a study cycle though. It gets too easy to be hungup on one problem. (These are all study habits I do for most of my classes...I seem to be better at teaching others than taking exams myself....everyone I tutor gets better grades than me afterwards. 😛)

General chemistry requires you to be anal. I have very bad handwriting and I have to slow down and write out ALL units just to make sure things check out. It isn't hard, especially if you like numbers and trends...but it does require practice.

 

[emttim]

Gen Chem 1 is really not that bad. You just need to make sure you do all the work that's required, if you're having trouble with a problem then get a tutor (most colleges and universities should have free tutors) to help you work through that problem...same thing applies if you're having trouble with a concept. The only part of gen chem that's really challenging is the quantum mechanics, because it's essentially pure math, and it's annoying as hell imo. Try to afford a copy of the solutions manual as borrowing the one they may have in the tutoring lab everytime you need it is a PITA. If the teacher hands out practice exams, do them dilligently, and go over anything you don't understand with the teacher. If he doesn't hand 'em out, find out what concepts will be on the exam. Lastly, study as much as you need to to understand it.

 

[LucyGoose]

Correct me if I'm wrong, it's been awhile. Gen chem 1 is mostly stoichiometry, no really hard math. Gen chem 2 has a good deal of math (with kinetics, thermodynamics) but you will have a good semester to ease into the process.

 

[bigDee]

Gen Chem I isn't that hard at all. However I found Gen Chem II to be at least three times harder. Maybe its because I took it in the summer but some of the concepts were really hard for me to understand.

 

[ADeadLois]

From someone with a degree in Chem,

1. Get a good graphing calculator. It's easier to crank out long calculations when you can see the entirety of the formula while you're entering it. Major time saver on exams.

2. Do as many practice problems as you can find.

3. Labs are BS. Do what you're assigned to do but don't worry about them too much.

4. Textbooks tend to overcomplicate stoichiometry. It's really just algebra with molecules as the variables. Just make sure your charges are balanced and that you're not creating more mass.

5. Get into the mode of seeing everything from a problem solving standpoint rather than from an identification standpoint. A lot of people bombed our first Gen Chem midterm because they studied definitions and concepts, rather than doing practice problems. Of course, this will depend on how you're tested, but it will still help you when you start doing thermo and kinetics. Plus, you'll find when you do practice problems, the concepts become more clear.

 

[ADeadLois]

Also, TAs are great resources in Gen Chem. Most are 1st year grad students who are usually very enthusiastic and willing to help because they haven't yet been bogged down with the BS of being a chem grad student.

 

[AnthonyNY]

Believe in yourself. You must believe that you can do well in anything if you work hard enough.

I say this because, while it may be true that you are not naturally inclined toward understanding math easily - this does not mean that you can't do well in math, and eventually master the subject material. for some people, it takes 2 hours of study to understand a concept well enough for a test, while for others it may take 4. if you are one who takes 4, than you must recognize this and be willing to work that much harder for what you want.

then again, you may get there and not have any trouble at all. just wait and see - but, be willing to work, and don't give up.

 

[premedinpa]

Study alot, learn from your first test/quiz as to what kinds of questions your professor asks and how it is formatted. For example, all my tests were multiple choice a-f so it was just as important to know what the teacher was looking for (little nuances) as the actual material if that makes sense. Good luck, gen chem 1 wasn't so bad gen chem 2 i found much more difficult.

 

[Artful Dodger]

Heres the key to success is Gen Chem 1. If you follow this you will most likely do well.

1. Follow your syllabus and have the reading that you'll be talking about in class done before that class. That way when your professor is going over the material for the chapter you have already read it.

2. Do all of the homework problems after you read the chapter and do the examples in the chapter while you read it to make sure you're getting the applications of what the book says.

3. When doing homework you may want to go back and read again stuff thats bothering you.

4. Take your labs and homework seriously. I didn't do this at first and it hurt my grade.

5. When you have an exam, start studying 2-3 days before and do it slowly at first. If you are really struggling then read each chapter twice and do problems. I would have a test on 3 chapters for chem and I would read each of the 3 chapters twice within 2 days before the exam. By the time I walked into the exam I would know everything that I was going to have to know.

6. Don't worry about math. Yes there is math in gen chem but its all really simple math. You will also get the hang of any of the more difficult math and it will actually make sense more and be easier if you understand the principals behind the chemistry and why the math is the way it is.


Good luck.

Listen to this person. That's exactly what I did, and I was successful in General Chemistry I & II.

And the math is ridiculously easy. It's merely arithmitic - adding, subtracting, multiplication, division.

I might also add that you should take extra time to learning about the periodic table. The more you know about it, the more successful you will be in General Chemistry I. Make flashcards if you have to.

 

[premedmind]

Gen Chem I is cake...Gen Chem II is where it gets difficult.