<p>Has anyone taken this class and if you have, can you tell me how much the workload is?</p>
<p>It’s a lot of busywork, and it puts you off-track for the rest of the genchem series – meaning you have almost no say in which lecture times/professors to pick from. Did the placement test put you in chem 4? Or are you looking for an easy A?</p>
<p>Chem 4’s designed for people who haven’t had ANY appreciable amount of chemistry in high school. You start off reviewing what sig figs are. The labs, while not difficult, take a long time. I wouldn’t recommend it unless you have absolutely no background in chemistry at all.</p>
<p>oh
why is it harder to get the teachers/times if you take chem 4. It put me in general I or intro to chem. My major (bio) has a bit of chem so I want to get comfortable with it because I barely had any exposure to it in school.</p>
<p>From my friends who have taken chem 4, they said it was a huge waste of time and it’s like taking tiny bits of the entire gen chem series and learning it all in one quarter–in a bad way, not a good intro kind of way. You really should just start with chem 6a. That way, you can have your pick of good professors. This fall, I only know Sailor’s good. Crowell and the other Czorwski or something, they’re not great at explaining things plus they’re boring. I don’t know about Magde, though.</p>
<p>From what I’ve seen, CHEM 4 is generally simple nomenclature and conversion factors–all busy work. Unless you have never taken chemistry before or had a completely sucky chem teacher in high school, start off with CHEM 6A.</p>
<p>As what astrina said, it’s harder to get good times/professors for the rest of the CHEM 6 series because you should start with 6A in the fall, 6B in the winter, and 6C in the spring. If you take CHEM 4 in the fall, you’ll be a quarter behind, so they’re not gonna offer as many 6A classes in the winter as they do in the fall, since majority of students follow the series on time. BUT, it’s okay to take 4 in the fall then 6A in the winter. A lot of the my friends actually began the 6 series in the winter because they had a late enrollment time for fall, so all the 6A classes filled up before they could enroll. By taking the 6 series a quarter behind, then yeah, there will probably be only one or two professors teaching the course at the time, so from what astrina said, there’s barely any selection. There are way more options when you stay on track with the series.</p>
<p>Also: the 4 and 6A professors anticipate that there will be a few students who need to switch between the different levels. </p>
<p>My advice is to enroll for 6A, work hard and ask for help as soon as you need it (because you’re screwed if you wait until the night before to learn everything), and talk to your professor if you honestly don’t think you can handle the workload so you can make arrangements to transfer into chem 4.</p>
<p>Yeah I’ll try to talk to a counselor to see if I can switch out of 6A when I take and if I decide to change. Won’t the curve be much lower since most of the competition is taking 6A in fall?</p>
<p>uh, no. competition remains the same as ever, and if anything, the larger the class = the largest variance in preparation for the class = the least amount of competition.</p>
<p>i see. Are there any things that you need to know about chem coming into 6 because I don’t know much about the subject.</p>
<p>you should retain some stuff from your high school chem class … sig figs, dimensional analysis, the basic elements and symbols, what a mole is, general atomic theory …</p>
<p>that’s just stuff off the top of my head. everything gets taught again, but some stuff is only briefly reviewed before moving onto more advanced topics. just keep up with everything, refer to the textbook if/when your professor’s explanations aren’t cutting it, and don’t hesitate to ask for help when you need to.</p>
<p>Honestly I had the same problem going into my freshmen fall quarter. I ended up taking Chem 4 and I don’t regret it one bit. True it is very basic and there was a lot of busy work but it did prepare me for Chem 6a or at least the beginning of it. Only downfall I would say was the labs…they’re useless…other than that I was more than satisfied with Trogler (6a) and Crowell (6B) as my professors and I’m planning to take 6c this fall qtr!</p>
<p>I was in the same boat as you last year. I hadn’t done any form of chemistry in a long time, and when I did do it in highschool I sucked at it. However, I jumped right in and took 6A. The first week they go over all the basic calculation stuff you need to know. Like significant figures, and conversion factors. You don’t need any background in the subject. However, I will say that I did need to work my butt off to manage the course. I got a low B, and worked very hard. Yet, I do feel part of the reason I didn’t do so well (get an A), was because I was also going through an adjustment period during that time. So, as long as you are motivated and disciplined, I would say go for it. If you are not a hard worker, and very unsure of yourself, then I don’t know since I havent personally taken Chem4.</p>
<p>I haven’t taken Chemistry since freshmen year, but the placement test put me in 6A, but I am worried since I haven’t been exposed to it in a while. If I only need to take ONE chem class for my college GE and major, should I just do Chem 4 or go with Chem 6A? Would that be better for my GPA?</p>
<p>Are you sure your college will count chem 4? Because I know Revelle doesn’t when considering their 3-quarter chem or physics requirements.</p>
<p>That said, if your college (1) accepts it, (2) you remember absolutely nothing from high school chem and (3) don’t plan on using chem ever again, then by all means, take chem 4.</p>
<p>I took one chemistry class in high school and chem 4 helped tremendously.<br>
Oh, and Revelle DOES count chem 4 for its GE’s; I know this because I took a mish mash of chemistry but that requirement is done :)</p>
<p>chem 4 is a lot of busy work but its pretty much review
(do the work and you will most likely get a good grade- A)
I took it and I that it helped me in the 6 series, where you know what to expect and have refreshed your memory since HS chem</p>