Chemistry.

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
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<p>So I am really struggling with my General Chemsitry class.<br>
Bad sign, I know. I like chemistry and I don't mind putting in outside work, as much as I need to, but I do so-- 10-20 hours a week-- and I feel like it is not reflected in my grade. Some days I feel like I send hours just staring at a problem.
Part of it is it's just a hard class and next term I will robably get a tutor. I have had other college chemistry classes (two, actually) and this one is much more detail and the testing much more difficult.
Anyway, I feeling like the textbook we use actually does more harm than good. Even my teacher admits it is very dense and hard to comprehend and I get the feeling she would rather we used something else. Point is, it does me no good in understanding lecture topics.
What I need is a recommendation of a really good text book that some of you have used that you really liked, just as supplemental info for me. In the past I have found that like a good instructor, a good text can make or break my grasping a complicated topic.
I do need something that goes into some detail. I have a few books that are nice and make chemsitry more managable, but are very basic (e.g. they don't get into MO Theory or hybridized orbitals or anything like that). I need something that has detail but is not written in such a way as to only be fully grasped by readers already experts in the field.
My instructor has recommended a couple but any additional recommendations are greatly appreciated.</p>

<p>AAmmo</p>

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<p>I've found Brown, LeMay, and Bursten's Chemistry The Central Science quite helpful.</p>

<p>Chemistry:</a> The Central Science, 9e CW</p>

<p>General Chemistry can definitely be a hard course, so don't get too down about it. Chemistry is just plain difficult to wrap the mind around, but with practice (and practice, and practice), it becomes much more comprehensible. So just give it some more time, and it will probably kick in.</p>

<p>When it comes to O-Chem, though, there's no beating Maitland Jones, Jr.'s Organic Chemistry.</p>

<p>Cheers!</p>

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<p>So, I don't get a great sense of your exact problem, but you need to study smarter, not harder. If your book does more harm than good, then toss it in the trash (or sell it back now so you're not tempted to use it to prepare for the final). If all your testing material comes from lecture anyways, then that's where you should be spending the overwhelming majority >90% of your time anyways. Only if topics are coming out of the book and aren't covered in lecture at the same level of depth as youre being tested at should you resort to a text book. </p>

<p>Part of being a successful college student is being able to maximize your time, and recognize that all professors teach in very different ways. Being flexible with your study methods matters A LOT. Don't just assume that studying more means you will get a better grade, and don't assume that just because you've always used a text book that you have to use one now. </p>

<p>Further, if you're one of those people that get caught up with doing practice problems focus on making sure you understand HOW to do the problems, not if you got the answer right. Frequently, students go through a question, check the back of the book, see they got the right answer and assume they did the answer correctly and move on, when in all actually they got lucky and then can't understand why they screwed up so badly on the test when they "totally knew how to do it on the practice problems!".</p>

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<p>Thanks for the advice. I think my big problem is we go through material pretty quickly, so my teacher doesn't have time to show all possible types of problems associated with a certain type of information (e.g. the photoelectric effect, there are at least 10 different ways to ask questions about the same phenomena). So I am trying to get my head around a concept and then also how to solve problems I might be asked about it. It doesn't help that my book uses a lot of math to explain things, really, really heavy duty math.
Anyway, this advice really helps, so thank you.</p>

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<p>what would be the difference b/t a genchem student who's only taken chem 1 in HS and someone who's also taken AP chem?</p>

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<p>how do you mean? That's one incredibly vague question.</p>

<p>The ap student, assuming they're in the same gen chem class will be more familiar with the material, but doesn't mean they'll necessarily get a better grade, even with the same effort.</p>

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<p>i'm asking this b/c i've never heard of some genchem topics, but i'm wondering if AP chem would expose one to more topics?</p>

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<p>You're going to run into a lot of things that you've never heard of before. Don't worry about it.</p>

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<p>so is every topic really in-depth, or is it like many topics but on the surface of each one?</p>

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<p>Depth is relative. "Water is made up of molecules of H2O" is more in-depth than "Water is wet," but explaining the network structure of water in the solid state is still "deeper" than the first statement.</p>

<p>So Gen Chem is deeper is deeper than your average high school chemistry or AP Chemistry class, but you should begin to realize that chemistry goes much further than that. The more you learn, the less you truly know about any given topic in chemistry.</p>

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<p>on another note, how much help would a HS physiology class be? b/c most likely my major won't be physiology and i would probably take a physiology class in college</p>

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<p>Helpful in what sense? preparing you for a college physio course? preparing you for the MCAT? Preparing you for medical school physiology?</p>

<p>Sports...it would REALLY, REALLY, REALLY help us out if you were more specific when asking your questions. We're not there in the room with you and have no chance to pick up on your non-verbal clues, to immediately ask you to clarify, to have any hope of figuring out if our answers are on the course you're hoping for. This isn't a conversation, this is a message board, and as such, we're limited in how much we can ascertain from your questions. You'll get more fruitful responses if you ask better questions.</p>

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<p>college course/MCAT</p>

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<p>Look, we don't know anything about your situation. We don't know how good your HS physiology class is. If you have time for it and you're interested in the course, then why not take it? If you don't have time for it, then don't take it.</p>

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<p>would AP chem or physiology help me more for premed requirements or MCATs? i was thinking chem b/c immediately i would have to take genchem frosh yr</p>

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<p>Sports, overall, I think you are way, way, way too focused on making HS some sort of prep for your future as a pre-med. And it doesn't work that way. HS courses by definition won't be as in depth as college courses. That's why medical schools by and large don't accept AP credits - they know that the depth just isn't there.</p>

<p>In general, having a background in anything theoretically should help you do better later on down the road, but it can just as easily make you far too overconfident and make you not work as hard because you've "seen this before". Further, we have no idea on the quality of the courses at your HS. You might have a really awesome physiology teacher who makes amazing lesson plans and really has a passion for physiology OR, you may get stuck with some bio teacher who hates physiology and doesn't want to be teaching it, and just is a horrible teacher in general.</p>

<p>Back to my main point though. HS doesn't/shouldn't be geared towards being a pre-med unless you have the time to take electives that fall along that path. Even then, these electives should be taken because you have interest in the subject, NOT because you think they'll help you on the MCAT or help you get into medical school or something. There are a couple reasons why this is attitude towards HS is necessary. </p>

<p>1) As a HS student, you need to focus on getting into the best college for you. You'll have plenty of time to fret over medical school when you finally start college. Put your effort into things that will help you immediately. For example - AP's matter a lot for college admissions at many competitive schools. If one of those schools is the best place for you, an AP course will be more important than phys. </p>

<p>2) Even though it might not happen to you, the fact of the matter is, only a small portion of the people who start college as pre-meds even take the MCAT, let alone apply. An even smaller portion, obviously, ever get accepted. Simply put, you're far more likely to end up doing something completely unrelated to medicine than you are to become a doctor. Using time you have now, which might be used on something more broadly applicable (like an english class) is probably the best use of your time.</p>

<p>3) Say you do make it through most of your pre-med prereqs, and you reach the point where you can take animal physiology. That course is going to teach you the things you're going to need know for that class. Whether you took a phys course in HS is irrelevant, because you can still get an A and learn a ton without having taken the HS course. Perhaps it will take more work, perhaps it won't. We don't know...</p>

<p>4) Imagine that you've made it to the MCAT. It's test day. And you never took that physiology course in college, because you just couldn't fit the lab times in. No matter how hard you tried. BUT, you took a commercial test prep course from Kaplan or TPR. And guess what, they went over some physiology that frequently shows on the test. You don't know it great, but you're at least comfortable enough with the concepts that you'll be okay if shows up.
You breeze through the physical sciences section - that was a piece of cake. The Verbal Reasoning section is a little bit tougher, but you've prepared and feel confident. The writing sample...well it was the writing sample (can you actually believe that a computer is going to grade your essays!?!). Now it's time for that Biological sciences section...you go through it, and there's no physiology! You had prepped so hard for that. You had been worried about physiology since you were a junior in HS...and it wasn't there. You think about canceling your test scores because you're so upset. You're inconsolable. "Those MCAT bastards!" you think, shaking your fist. Physiology could have been the key to you getting the score you need to get you into medical school. And it wasn't on the test!</p>

<p>The point is, taking any course expressly for the MCAT is not a sound strategy. Certainly this applies a thousand fold to HS courses. Take courses because you're required to, take them because you have an interest, take them because the professor is good, take them because you're curious, but don't take them for a test. If you happen to derive some benefit from it on test day, then lucky you - it's a latent benefit. </p>

<p>The bottom line from all of this is bigger - focus on the step that is right in front of you. You asking about a HS physiology course is akin to a college junior asking if he should take genetics because it might help on the USMLE. I'm not going to sit here and tell NCG - who has been accepted to at least one medical school - to take a course over the summer to help with the USMLE, because I know, he's going to learn what he needs to from his medical school courses...a college class is unwarranted.</p>

<p>It all comes down to taking things one step at a time.</p>

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<p>yeah you're exactly right, i'm probably thinking too much
but i actually am taking AP chem b/c i want to give myself a chance to really enjoy chemistry as much as i enjoy biology</p>

<p>is it a good enough reason to take AP chem also b/c i'm much more likely to study and read about physiology on my own than chemistry?</p>

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<p>Is there anyway if the person who doesn't mind can post their username and password for that chemistry site. It has a lot of great and effective tools.</p>

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