<p>If I only took high school chem and no AP Chem, and I going to die in this class?</p>
<p>I had AP chem (but it had been 3 years) so I can’t exactly speak. Chem 4A engenders dozens of different opinions among the people who take it so take anyones opinion on the class with a grain of salt. </p>
<p>That being said, here’s mine :D</p>
<p>The class is difficult, yes, but doable. If you do all the homework and do practice midterms, you’ll be miles ahead of many in the class who think it will be easy like high school was: your greatest weapon is knowing it’s going to be hard. Good luck!</p>
<p>Personally, roughly 60-70% of Chem 4A was covered in my high school AP Chem class, so I found it to be fairly straight-forward. </p>
<p>So you’re definitely going to be at a disadvantage compared to people with strong chemistry backgrounds, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t do well. Spend LOTS of time on your lab reports, and make sure that you get more than 90% on labs and homework (total of 40% of your grade), to give you some leeway on exams. For exams, I agree with jscg. Practice midterms are GREAT preparation, much more important than reading the book. Lectures are important (especially for Head-Gordon’s part) as well, so make sure you go. </p>
<p>The curve at the end is pretty nice, so as long as you work hard, you should get at least a B.</p>
<p>If you’re used to getting good grades, this class might come as a huge surprise. That is all, don’t get too frightened.</p>
<p>Hmm, can I ask, what do you guys do for lab in Chem 4A and 4B?</p>
<p>In Chem 4A, we had a 4 hour experiment each week (almost always took the full time), and a lab report due the following week. Two of those lab reports were formal lab reports. Both of my formal lab reports were in excess of 20 pages, including figures and data. The non-formal labs still had some writing involved, but that was done directly in our lab notebooks. Calculations were extremely painful at times…The strange thing about 4A labs was that they had almost nothing to do with what we learned in lecture. Topics included a broad spectrum of stuff, including spectroscopy, gravimetric analysis, acid/base titrations, reflux synthesis, etc. </p>
<p>As for 4B, this was a much more lab-centered class. What we learned in lecture directly corresponded to the experiments we did in lab, and as a result, I felt the labs were generally more meaningful. The first three weeks we did a three step experiment that included ion-exchange chromatography, EDTA titration, and Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS), which culminated in a formal lab. After that, we did some ester synthesis and characterization with an emphasis on gas chromatography for three weeks, also culminating in a formal lab. Then we had two tedious semi-formal labs, one for reaction kinetics and one on protein folding. Finally we spent the final 5 or so weeks of lab working on our own self-designed special projects (with a partner), which we presented the weekend before finals. I felt that the 4B labs didn’t take as long as the 4A labs, but they were more interesting because of the theory we learned in class from Douskey and Cate.</p>
<p>I should add that both 4A and 4B labs are VERY good practice for performing real chemical research. I’m working in a lab at UCD (in my hometown) this summer and the professors in the lab are always very impressed with my lab knowledge/skills.</p>
<p>Just FYI, formal labs don’t have to be 20+ pages. Some TAs want you to write less and will limit the page numbers for formal reports (usually 10 with figures). It’s good practice to be able to write your methods and results clearly, as journal articles summarize data in very limited space. </p>
<p>You’ll be fine. I consider the 4A and 4B labs somewhat useful for research. You’ll learn most of your skills and just how to practice research when you start working on your project(s) in a research group.</p>
<p>Is there anyway to get lab technique experience without going thru 4A/4B? Is it possible to ask a GSI to teach me some lab techniques or can I crash a lab class? lol. I find the lab techniques very useful but the theory in 4A/4B is sooo boring and largely redundant</p>
<p>I honestly don’t think so (for Chem 4 that is). The Chem 4 series have course material fees attached, and a GSI is unlikely to teach you lab techniques unless you’re working in their lab. You could try taking Chem 1AL. If that sounds too easy, take the Chem 4 series P/NP.</p>
<p>Hmm okay. I’ll probably learn on the job once i take up some research projects.</p>
<p>You should take Chem 15 maybe. There’s very little theory and it’s mostly practice of lab techniques.</p>
<p>[General</a> Catalog - Course Search - Results](<a href=“http://osoc.berkeley.edu/catalog/gcc_search_sends_request?p_dept_name=CHEMISTRY&p_dept_cd=CHEM&p_title=&p_number=15]General”>http://osoc.berkeley.edu/catalog/gcc_search_sends_request?p_dept_name=CHEMISTRY&p_dept_cd=CHEM&p_title=&p_number=15)</p>
<p>It says here that you get 2 units of credit after taking 4B (which you have credit for), which isn’t that bad since the class is only 3 units.</p>
<p>Oh thanks for pointing that out for me! I never looked at it coz it wasn’t in the CoC guide. Thanks!</p>