<p>I'm guessing a good number of people have taken Pchem, so I thought I'd ask what it's like. I keep hearing that it's overly difficult, but I've also heard that it's easier for people that did well in Ochem (which I did). So anyone who's gone through it already, how was it? How much more math intensive is it than other chem classes? Any input would be appreciated. Advice from people with first hand experience is always better than the rumblings I've heard from people yet to take the class.</p>
<p>I realize this isn't grad school related, but I figured I'd better better responses here.</p>
<p>i loved pchem. first semester is usually an overview of thermo and reaction kinetics. second gets into some deeper stat mech, detailed balance, and in my class some michaelis-menten. it is pretty math intensive, as in, calculus is the primary tool used. there are some instances of line/path integrals but they only serve to elucidate basic thermo concepts. the lab is fun too (if you need to take it). all in all it's a good class.</p>
<p>I didn't care for pchem for all the reasons that molsysbio liked it. I felt it was calculus intensive (something that I hadn't studied in many years). There was a lot of reaction kinetics which I felt to be tedious and mundane. Also I was never terribly comfortable with the concept of isoelectric points. But then I had the world's worst instructor and a bad attitude going in. Hopefully it ll appeal to you more than it did to me.</p>
<p>Thanks for the input. Should I be reviewing some basic calc concepts if I haven't dealt with it at all in over 3 years?</p>
<p>yeah, physics classes really depend on your professor. i had an old dude on the national academy -- he was amazing. i guess a review of calculus helps, too although the calculus really comes in on the derivations. i suppose you could memorize derivations but it's better if you know the math -- nothing difficult, though.</p>
<p>I understood organic chem at the fundamental level but little more than that. However, I liked physical chem. Proff was great. I also dislike math to a large degree but still found physical chem interesting. I always liked thermodynamics.</p>
<p>Pchem was the bane of my existence in undergrad!! lol I did reletively well in ochem (not necessarily grade wise but understanding the concepts/reaction mechanisms and actually REMEMBERING them after I finished the courses!!) Personally I don't think they (ochem and pchem) have absolutely anything to do with one another. If anything, pchem may be more similar to inorganic chemistry but much more advanced. But then again my prof would always denounce every rule we ever learned in gen chem when applied to an atom or molecule not a system (when you get to quantum mechanics). </p>
<p>The best advice I can give you is to not worry about the calculus you've already studied (I assume at least through integral calculus or calculus 2), worry about differential equations, linear algebra, and matrices if you haven't yet taken those courses. That's mainly where I had problems.</p>
<p>Also, I wouldn't recommend taking the course if you absolutely do not need it for your degree or graduate school admissions!!!</p>
<p>Oh yeah and my prof was as dull as a q-tip when it came to teaching!</p>
<p>Brings back ancient memories of an undergrad chemistry major- the pchemers in grad labs were playing with DNA back in the early '70's (I spent time for the honors part of one pchem lab course where the grad student seemed to be only centrifuging DNA), someone had to figure it all out, and now grade school kids get to play with it... So many different areas- QM was fun, philosophizing about how electrons got to different probable locations in our free associating times out of class... the mysterious stuff in the black boxes needed to conduct experiments for labs- including fun glass blown creatures instead of plain glass items, the glass blowing lab (rumor had it the TA's got drunk when they looked at our dismal efforts, fortunately they didn't give grades on that lab work). Then there were the parts I abhorred... such as thermodynamics. Always called it organic, never Ochem...</p>