<p>My daughter is registered for Chem 136 (Honors Chem). When she was first thinking of registering for that course, she thought it was simply an honors version if Chem I - not two semesters of Chem crammed into one semester. Will this be crazy hard for her, in terms of workload? She's a very smart kid, but didn't take AP Chem, because it didn't fit into her schedule. (So her only Chem was GT Chem in 10th grade.) She's also taking the honors version of the first year engineering sequence, which I understand is really time consuming. Will the two courses together be too much for her to take on during her first semester?</p>
<p>An advantage of taking Chem 136 over Chem 115/116 is that the class size will be smaller.</p>
<p>I have asked this question of whether or not to take chm 136 or chm 115 on another thread. </p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/1180157-help-im-not-sure-gen-chem-class-take.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/1180157-help-im-not-sure-gen-chem-class-take.html</a></p>
<p>I have decided against taking chm 136 partly because of the professor.<br>
[DavidMcMillin</a> - Purdue University - RateMyProfessors.com](<a href=“http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=1279403]DavidMcMillin”>David McMillin at Purdue University - West Lafayette | Rate My Professors)</p>
<p>He had one of the worst easiness ratings i have seen …</p>
<p>Also, my other reason for not taking it is when I talked to my advisor about it, she said that class is pretty much for chem majors, so I didn’t really need to worry about taking it. </p>
<p>And as suggested by someone on the other thread, the course would probably be best suited for those who have taken AP chem in high school and scored a 5 on the exam. I didn’t have AP chem at my school, but my school did have a 2nd year advanced chemistry course which i took. I got a 730 on the chemistry subject test during the course. However, after looking at the professors ratings, I still didn’t feel I was qualified enough to take the course. If it was another better and easier professor(I don’t mean easy. I mean not crazy hard), I think I probably would be qualified.</p>
<p>Also, one of my classes is calc 2, and I heard that course is killer at purdue, so I didn’t want to risk taking too much by taking chm 136.</p>
<p>Also, I dont suggest that she take chm 136 since she has only taken high school chemistry. The pre-reqs for the class are actually
score a 4/5 on AP chem OR
score a 70% on the chm 115 placement exam OR
be in the honors engineering or honors science college</p>
<p>I’d think they would want you to know chemistry pretty well by looking at the first two pre-reqs, and remember, that chm 136 is basically 8 credit hours condensed to 4.</p>
<p>And, I heard FYE is pretty hard, and many people are weeded out. If she’s smart and hardworking, I’d say she will get through it and make good grades, but I don’t suggest taking chm 136 along with the honors version of FYE in her first semester. Many people have told me again and again that first semester is a critical transition and that you shouldn’t risk getting in over your head. Instead, don’t make your first semester too hard, and after your first semester, you will have a much better idea of how much you can take academically.</p>
<p>Thanks for your input, John. You seem to be concerned about some of the same things I’m concerned about. Is there anybody out there who has taken Chem 136 and can comment?</p>
<p>I took chemistry 125/126 but have many friends that have taken CHM 136. One, I’m going to throw this out right now, teacher ratings on ratemyprofessor.com for CHM 115/116 or an intro organic course outside of CHM 261/262 and 26505/26605 are worthless. Dave McMillan is easily one of the best professor at Purdue when it comes to chemistry, the issue most people have is that he requires you to think critically and take concepts and apply them to situations that may not have been explicitly covered in the lectures. In a word: welcome to college. I would recommend that your daughter not take CHM 136 if she did not take AP Chemistry. CHM 136 is intended for those majoring in chemistry with a strong background in the science (as is 125 and 126). As such, there will be things that she will be unfamiliar with in the class and she could become overwhelmed. Even if your daughter is a chemical engineer, there is little advantage to taking this version of chemistry over 115 and 116. Especially because, paradoxically, chemical engineers need to know very little chemistry to actually do their jobs. Basic gen. chem. and organic should be fine for her and then a wee bit of physical chemistry thrown in is all that’s required I believe. The rest will be covered by the engineering curriculum.</p>