How bad is Chem 2070?

<p>The question says it all ... how hard is the class? I don't really know any chemistry at all right now, so will it be especially difficult? Also, how hard is it to get a good grade in it - and any suggestions on how to prepare for exams for this class specifically would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!</p>

<p>The only reason why the mean grade is around a B- is because there are so many f-ing idiots in that class.</p>

<p>If you have a somewhat functioning brain and the ability to do basic math/science, you should get higher than that.</p>

<p>It's your standard premed weed-out course. Way too many idiot premeds at the beginning of freshman year.</p>

<p>well isnt the median so low bc of the ridiculous final?</p>

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It's your standard premed weed-out course. Way too many idiot premeds at the beginning of freshman year.

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<p>Correct.</p>

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well isnt the median so low bc of the ridiculous final?

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<p>Wrong.</p>

<p>The median is low because it's set that way. The difficulty of the material has nothing to do with it.</p>

<p>It is very inapproriate to call many premed Chem 2070 students idiot. Some students may not have a stong chemistry background compared to someone who had tutors throughout high school or went to some fancy high school. Everyone has their strenghs and weeknesses and Cornell does not admit any student walking in the street. </p>

<p>Calling your peers idiots just because they don't understand chemistry material is a bit naive. Some of my friends who got Cs and Ds in the chem 2070 are brillaint people who now work in different top companies in the U.S</p>

<p>not as hard as chem 2090...and don't tell me they're the same thing...there's a difference</p>

<p>they curve it to B- whether theres lots of idiots or not i believe..</p>

<p>getting A+s in that class while skipping 1/3 of all the lectures and not attending any of the sections shouldn't be a problem if you're good at math and had some semblance of high school chemistry</p>

<p>Gotta thank my high school for having chem in sophomore year..
Would it be wise to keep some stuff from high school to help in the college world? I bet I'll forget most things.</p>

<p>what AppleMuncher said</p>

<p>yeah--keep your HS stuff. I have already gotten out my calc notebook from AP last year. very basic stuff, but it slips from your head in the months (or years) you're away from it.</p>

<p>Ok just to throw a second opinion in here, I'd had chem in high school and I mean 2070 is general chemistry, nothing too challenging right? Well it was my first prelim at cornell and I ended up getting below the mean. (gasp) Turns out I totally underestimated the difficulty at Cornell- my high school was soo much less challenging. However after that setback I adjusted my studying and got up to par- did well on the other tests and ended up with an A-... In other words, don't let these posts make you think it's an easy course... but it is doable and just make sure understand the problem sets and you'll be fine.</p>

<p>not hard if you care. do the hw's, don't half-ass lab reports, but most importantly dont procrastinate studying for prelims/final. i found a lot of students with cramming habits could not possibly truly learn the material in a binge study all nighter. this all im sure you've heard before, but it holds significance in this course especially.</p>

<p>that said, i must expand on what biophilic mentioned about 'idiot' students. most of the kids aren't idiots, and most premeds aren't idiots. by nature, some are just smarter than others and grades are competitive- a stressful fact of academic life. but SOME are indeed idiots. on both of the prelims we had freshman year, averages were ~70/100, with std deviations of ~8-12. so ~80 + is a solid A- or A, very achievable, BUT there were DOZENS of kids below 40, and ten or so below 20, and 2 below 10! i gave my first chem 207 prelim to my 9th grade HS brother who had completed about 3/4 of the material and he got a 45..... to say that some aren't idiots (or are purposefully attempting low scores) is naive.</p>

<p>It's not nearly as bad as it's rumored to be.</p>

<p>just do all the work assigned, and if you don't understand something, ask a TA in section.</p>