<p>I'm a freshman now at the University of Michigan, and I have been doing very well so far for the most part, but spanish and general chemistry are exhausting classes. I spend most of my nights doing the online homework and studying for these classes, but my studying doesn't translate to confidence. I have my first test coming up soon and I'm not sure how to prepare. Any tips on how to do well in spanish and chemistry. I'm taking Spanish 231 and Chem 130.</p>
<p>What study tips will work for you really depend on your skills and weaknesses. The trick with Spanish for me, as much as I hated it, was “idle time is Spanish time.” Pretty much any time I had a spare moment I’d go over my spanish-- not necessarily pulling out notes or flashcards, but practicing in any way I could with what was in front of me. Just doing the classwork wasn’t enough, and it was far too time consuming to pour over the books nonstop. I used to talk to the dogs at work in Spanish just to practice my speaking. XD I also used to do a lot of made up writing assignments, I’d assign myself some kind of a journal topic related to what vocabulary we had learned or that could use the new grammar techniques and practice. And I have a email penpal that is also a spanish student and we practice our spanish writing to each other. Waiting in line at the cafeteria I’d describe everything I saw in the room in my head in complete sentences. The reason those worked for me is because speaking and writing were my biggest weaknesses, I had difficulty putting all the concepts I’d learned into real sentences. What exactly you need to do probably depends on where your weaknesses are.</p>
<p>I found gen. chem. very very easy so I’ll share what I did.
I went to lecture, but didn’t really pay that much attention. I would just take an educated guess on the qwizdom and got probably 75% of them right.
As for studying, I sat down and just read the chapter. That’s right, I would read every single word and try to understand it completely.
I did the questions where they walk you through the steps. </p>
<p>If you’re not in a chem 130 study group, definitely sign up for the waitlist. It may or may not help you, but you should give it a shot. </p>
<p>Hope that helps.</p>
<p>Do they do the coursepack for Chem 130? If so I highly recommend doing as much of it as possible. Ask people for help, check your answers with others, etc. I’m in 210 and the coursepack is definitely useful.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t know what to say for Spanish, I doubt I’d be able to effectively learn a foreign language.</p>
<p>Quick question.
For those freshmen who tested out of classes such as general chem/general biology/1st year physics/calc1/2 etc… did you find it easy to jump to a higher level course such as organic chem if you skipped general chem? or would you recommend taking it over again just because itll be easier to get an A and its a smoother transition to a tougher course later on?</p>
<p>I’m retaking Calc 2, and it’s easy, but I still have to do the work and study, and I skipped Gen Chem and took Orgo and it’s about the same difficulty. Honestly, I doubt I’ll get an A in either, but I figure I should do well enough. The stuff emphasized in our Calc 2 class is very different from BC, so there is still learning going on. I remember we spent almost no time on work in BC, and it’s a major focus of Calc 2 here. </p>
<p>I think if you were unconfident on the material, it would be good to take it again if you are thinking that you’ll have to be able to apply it in the future. If you want major in English for instance, there’s no point in retaking Calc. If you want to do any of the number of things you need to use it for though, unless you’re very sure you know the material well, you should retake it.</p>
<p>It’s all about doing problems - as many as you can. Read the chapter, understand the concepts, and then work on applying those concepts in problems. All quantitative classes, whether it be General Chemistry or Introductory Physics, are best approached by solving problems.</p>
<p>For gen. chem. as far as I recall, the tests were made up of conceptual questions and a few problems.</p>
<p>thanks for the information. I guess I will start doing practice exams and read over the chapters in the book… I will also utilize my fall study break to study for these exams. Spanish is just hard for me. I’m not really good at language classes and sometimes on tests I’m confused at what they ask sometimes…</p>