<p>yeah, ig uess i’ll pay more attention. damn, but it still hurts a bit knowing i put in a lot of effort lol.</p>
<p>also, does this make sense? </p>
<p>Each correct answer is worth +0.2 pt, and each incorrect answer is worth -0.2 pt.</p>
<p>there were 7 possible questions, for a total of 1.4 points.</p>
<p>now i got 4/7 right, but it says my total score is .2 out of 1.4…</p>
<p>how i’m looking at it is like this: 1.4 - .2 -.2 -.2= .8</p>
<p>but how they graded it was like this… .2 + .2 - .2 -.2 -.2 + .2 + .2 = .2…idk the wording seems kind of vague, like you gain .2 for every correct answer but lose .2. unless i’m misinterpreting, i thought my score would be .8…</p>
<p>this is for the lab btw…seems like i’m getting screwed in all aspects of chem…</p>
<p>ugh nvm. my mind is scrambled. i guess their grading is right.</p>
<p>No, that’s right. You got 4 correct which means 0.2 X 4 = 0.8. However, you also got 3 wrong which is 0.2 X 3= 0.6. Total points is therefore 0.8 - 0.6 = 0.2</p>
<p>They always use that system to prevent and punish people from guessing. Also, it’s a good way to bring down the average too ;). That’s why when you put down an answer, you better make sure that it’s the right one!</p>
<p>Don’t like that system at all, at least not for 3a and the material is relatively new for most kids. 3b is fine (and hell Pederson tells you in class the types of questions that will be like that really) and you should have figured out your personal way of studying ochem by then, but for 3a? Hecky naw. That just creates unnecessary pressure, which ends up causing silly mistakes.</p>
<p>this is not a good day at all. got owned on midterm and lab quiz (and on quiz, i just missed 3 questions worth .2 pts each but thanks to that system, i got owned. there were like 20 questions on there and i only missed 3…).</p>
<p>quiz tomorrow in another class. gsi doesn’t know how to teach and constantly makes mistakes, yet he is the one writing the quiz and he writes the hardest questions known to man. so i’m trying to study for that…all with a major headache, lol.</p>
<p>Hmmmm, I hate stupid mistakes. If it weren’t for them, I would have gotten 4 more points and earned a solid A on the midterm :(. Generally, if the class average is 74, what is one standard deviation above? Or where is the cut off for an A? 74 is a really high average which makes me sad.</p>
<p>I gotta caution you, don’t expect the stuff on the midterm to be exactly the same as what you’ve seen in class. Pedersen had a bunch of really awkward questions involving radical halogenation that you would answer correctly (mechanism and all) if you really understood why the mechanism works the way it does. Otherwise you’d get the product but not the mech. Sound familiar?</p>
<p>For me the key to understanding ochem is knowing what an arrow represents and also how electrons are likely to flow and why they flow that way, like what MechRocket says. For example, why does an oxygen reach out to grab a hydrogen? If you can answer these type of questions, you’ll be able to deduce the mechanism of a simple reaction you haven’t seen before (and you won’t get horrible 10-step mechanisms in chem 3a so this is definitely doable).</p>
<p>I used to fail ochem but once I got that concept, how & why electrons flow, my ochem scores shot up.</p>
<p>meakame speaks the truth. When I took 112A last semester, Francis would tell us what to expect on the exams, but the actual midterms themselves would always be more challenging. It’s like the creme de la creme of the exam. Can you apply what you have learned in class (mechanisms and whatnot) to new situations that require some more thinking outside the box? Ultimately, the mechanisms and concepts you learn lead up to multi-step synthesis problems, which are, in my opinion, the heart of organic chemistry. </p>
<p>And yes, it’s hard. You’re under time and pressure. It’s rare that you get everything on the test; you’re not expected to. </p>
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<p>Yeah I hate them too! This is my “rule” that I use to calculate grades. Let’s say your class average was 74/100 with a Std Dev of 10. Then, in order to guarantee (usually) an A, you should be safe if you scored 85.5+. The average for the first midterm is generally high. For our 112A class, I believe our average was 80/100 on the 1st midterm, 70/100 on the second, and 130ish/200 for the final. If you have 85% overall in the class, you’ll probably get some form of an A. Just kick butt on the 2nd midterm and final. </p>
<p>3B is way more intense than 3A (again, I’m making that assumption even though I’m taking 112B). The material in the second half is just more dense, but in my opinion, I like 112B much better than 112A since you’re used to the fundamental concepts of organic chemistry. Granted, in 112B, there are a crap ton more mechanisms and syntheses to learn, and it will make you weep. Our class average for the 1st exam was like a 46%. Pretty demoralizing. </p>
<p>To do well in organic chemistry, I’d recommend:
Doing practice problems in your textbook.
Going to Office hours only if you have questions on problems you can’t do or need a refresher on some concepts. Some students go to office hours and kind of ask questions that you can look up in the textbook…that’s a waste of time.
When you do the practice test, try your best to simulate what the actual test environment would be like. No music, no friends, nothing. Just you and the exam. And absolutely NO peeking at the practice exam key until you have completely finished the test. Also give yourself a margin of error (if you’re grading yourself) of at least +/- 10%. This margin will give you a realistic sense of where you stand in case on the real exam you make careless mistakes (which happens a lot under pressure) or do really well (which then you can treat yourself out to FroYo or something). </p>
<p>Last thing, detail is key! I’m not sure if 3B emphasizes equilibria arrows, but I know our class does. My friend had the correct mechanism for a question but forgot to draw the equilibria arrows and got no credit on that question. Pretty rough. Just be sure before you move on to the next problem you make sure you have satisfied with your mechanism and that it makes sense since you probably won’t have time to double check your answers in such limited time constraints. (i.e. Don’t put negative charges in acidic conditions!)</p>
<p>thanks for the advice meakame and spontaneity. maybe i didn’t understand now that i think about it, but i htought i did. i mean i put in so much effort just for this midterm, going to review sessions, doing practice midterms, explaining concepts to gsis/tutors/whatever and having them confirm that whatever i said was correct. i’m just a little depressed about it. like, you know how you feel when you invest a ton of time into something, but at the end, it goes wrong and you feel like you pretty much wasted your time? </p>
<p>i just really hope to god that everything works out okay in the end, despite getting bad grades, etc. i’m scared because, i mean, this is the path to your future. if you screw up here, will you be screwed later on in terms of job employment? or does pretty much everything work out okay? </p>
<p>obviously, med school might be out of the picture…and i need to bring up GPA for grad school…man, life is hard but i guess you got to push forward.</p>
<p>Don’t say med school is “out of the picture”. We still have the rest of the semester and the rest of our years…of course, you wanna do as best as you can for those apps. But I wouldn’t give up just yet. I feel the same as you…I studied really hard and it was just stupid mistakes and things and I got 2 points below the average.</p>
<p>So I guess we just gotta work really hard now to save our grades? haha…</p>
<p>Ummm ok Clueluess. Chem 1A in the Spring is cake walk. Let see you pull off an A in Chem 1A fall. If you can manage to do so, then you will have the right to brag.</p>
<p>It is way harder in the fall. Just compare the type of questions that are asked on the midterms in the fall and in the spring. In the spring, the midterms are all multiple choice while in the fall, we have conceptual free response questions. But whatever, people taking chem 1a in the spring who are not meant to be pre-meds will eventually get weeded out of the pre-med track anyways once they meet pedersen in chem 3a Their self-esteem will eventually drop :D</p>
<p>Actually Pedersen in chem 3a isn’t that great of a terror… I don’t think he weeds out as many people as Vollhardt does.</p>
<p>I do agree that a good grade in chem 1a is nothing to brag about though =/ Sorry, clueless. If you’re hitting As and A+s in 3a, that’s a different story.</p>
<p>it’s good enough for me. after what i’ve been through, yeah i’d say it’s pretty good. just cus u little snots are rude, it won’t bring me down! it just shows ur character</p>
<p>Ooookay clueless, I wasn’t aware I was being rude, but I’ll apologize anyway. Sorry. Now, congrats on your great chem 1a grade (an A is nice anyway), and keep it up for the final.</p>
Their self-esteem will eventually drop :D</p>