<p>I'm an ME major, so I don't guess I will really even use very much Chemistry and Chem 1 is all I have to take anyway (thank god, because I HATE chemistry). Anyway, for whatever reason, I'm not doing very well in this course. I'm not doing TOO horrible in the Chem class, but the professor I have for the lab is extraordinarily picky and knocks off points for every little tiny thing she can find and I end up with grades like 29/45 or 33/50 on lab reports.</p>
<p>As of right now I have an 80, which is as low as I can go without having a C and I have a feeling that I could very well end up with a C at the end of the semester. I know that I shouldn't expect all A's, or even all A's and B's, but I thought for sure C's would come later on during more complex courses.</p>
<p>I'm doing well in everything else. Calc (love it), trig (99%), freshman engineering seminar (100%), etc. Just not chem. Anyone else?</p>
<p>Don’t worry about it. You don’t have to be good at everything. Just focus on the stuff you’re likely to see again in ME classes (don’t know all that much but I’m guessing mechanics is pretty good).</p>
<p>Lab classes are generally tougher than lectures in my opinion. It puts the material learned in class in a different perspective. My advice to you after taking the class is to read ahead. Take 15-20 minutes during the week to look over the next week’s lab and try to visualize it as best as you can in your head. Look over the procedures and post-lab questions to get a feel of the lab. After the lab, try to do the post-lab questions or homework as soon as possible while the lab is fresh in your mind. </p>
<p>Also I am guessing you will have a lab final at the end of the semester. For my lab final, some of the questions were general and some were particular questions. My advice is to read over previous labs and try to make an effort to get the general idea for each lab. Also try to make an effort to know the process of each lab. It’s not as hard as you think if you do this for a couple minutes a day.</p>
<p>Are you the only one that gets significantly penalized for lab reports?
If so, you probably want to see if all those mistakes actually matter. If not, you just got unlucky with teachers and you can just pass and forget about it.</p>
<p>In my opinion the mistakes aren’t that huge of a deal. It’s not like I’m doing the labs wrong or leaving information out. It’s usually for little things like sig figs and forgetting to title a table. (I’m sorry, but sig figs seem stupid to me until the very last calculation) Anyway, its just little mistakes I didn’t catch. However, the amount of points taken off for these little mistakes is nuts to me. One time I accidentally put (MTH 217) at the top of the page instead of (CHM 217) and lost 2 points out of [I think] 35 [or so] and putting the course number isn’t even required. It’s just something I tend to do.</p>
<p>I don’t think I’m the only one. I haven’t talked to anyone else about it, but I caught a glimpse of my lab partner’s grades and his are about the same as mine and he seems reasonably intelligent (and like he actually enjoys chemistry).</p>
<p>I will admit, I did bomb a chemistry quiz today because I hadn’t read up much on the material. However, I’m working to incorporate more chemistry studying into my schedule. So far it’s been: study calc every weekday, do the trig HW, take the engineering seminar quizzes, do the weekly labs/reports, and try to stay awake during chemistry.</p>
<p>I feel you. Indread going to chem lab. I got 5 points taken off for writing 12 instead of 12.0 and ended up with an A- on the lab report. Another time I lost 2 points for not writing the course name on the very last page of the lab report. Looks like you are not alone in this. The lab covers a lot of material in such a short time. Much faster than my ap chem class which I thought was bad lol.</p>