<p>This is my second year of taking chemistry, partially because I hardcore failed nearly every test, including an upcoming one about the 15 Polyatomic Ions. </p>
<p>He's having us memorize all of the Polyatomic Ions (actually, I'm not sure if it's all of them..fifteen is what we're being taught.), and in three weeks we'll have a test where we'll have to give the name form of about 5, then the abbreviated form of like 5.</p>
<p>Anyway, I have notecards, but I kinda suck at studying. What do you guys do?</p>
<p>Work with problems including poly atomic ions and try to not look at your notes. Also I’m sure you can make a memorization game on quizlet . Com to help your studying be a little funner. From personal experience, make sure you memorize the formula for carbonic acid (H2CO3) as carbonates are sometimes tricky for people new to chemistry (lots of people like to associate an O4 with an -ate suffix)</p>
<p>Remember that MOST compounds with an H in front is some sort of acid. -ite always has less molecules than -ate. -ite goes to -ous. -ate goes to -ic.</p>
<p>As for the others, just try to remember them in groups of charges. Like, cyanide, chlorate, acetate, nitrate, permanganate, hydroxide, etc. have -1 charges. Ammonium has a +1. Sulfate, chromate, and carbonate have -2. Phosphate has -3. Basically, look for patterns in the ions. It’s really not too bad.</p>
<p>The best response of them all - an actual way to memorize the polyatomics - not some lame tip or memory trick that only helps with 2 polyatomic ions :p. </p>
<p>I actually just took a quiz today on the Polyatomic Ions.
I just think;
Chlorate and Carbonate both have three Oxygen atoms; and one less for ite, and hypo-ite has even one less, and per-ate has one more than Carbonate/Chlorate, etc.</p>
<p>Chromate (I think of “Crow”, which has four letters) has 4 oxygen atoms, one less for ite, etc, same as above.</p>
<p>Sulfate / Phosphate both have four as well, I think of the name Sara, which also has four letters, and Pete, which has four letters, so there are four oxygen atoms, and as always one less is ite, etc.</p>
<p>Nitrate has three, I think of the word “nap”. </p>
<p>As for charges, just remember most are -1, except for sulfate, chromate, sillicate, and carbonate, which are negative 2, and phosphate, which is negative three.</p>
<p>Ammonium is the odd one out, with a positive one charge. </p>
<p>That sounds way more confusing written out than it does in my head while I’m taking the quiz.</p>
<p>I actually just had a test on those a couple months ago. I used notecards—formula on one side, name on the other. Also, the fact that there are ions that are very similar, like nitrate and nitrite, helped a lot.</p>
<p>just memorize the most common form of each polyatomic ion. for example. The most common will always have -ate, such as Phosphate. Once you know the most common, all the others, such as phosphite and hypophosphite can be determined very easily as long as you know the order in which the prefixes and suffixes go from least to greatest in terms of the number of anions. -ic and -ous are only for acids.</p>
<p>P.S. I’m currently taking AP chemistry, so i’ve basically had to pound tons of tricks into my head, such as this one.</p>