<p>I had a choice between General Chem I and II or College Chem I and II. College Chem I and II are supposedly much harder.</p>
<p>It says in the course description that it requires a "strong background in mathematics".</p>
<p>What is a strong background in mathematics for college chemistry? I am almost finished with Precalculus and have had an A all year. Math is one of my stronger points, but I'm wondering if you need Calculus.</p>
<p>Btw, my main reason for doing this is that my high school doesn't offer AP Chemistry...I just got done with Honors Chem but it's kind of a joke and I wanted to have a strong chem background before college in a couple years.</p>
<p>Try calling the college,</p>
<p>My son took two semesters of college-level chemistry at the local university via dual enrollment. There was no calculus involved; you will need to know how to use logarithms for the second semester.</p>
<p>The mathematical rigor needed is due to the fact that you will get plenty of multi-step word problems to solve, so you’ll not only need to know algebra very well, you’ll need to be able to deduce HOW to ultimately find a solution to complex problems. This isn’t plug-the-numbers-into-a-formula math – you will need to both understand chemical principals and be able to draw upon the appropriate math tools over as many as 5-7 steps to get a correct answer. You really need to be able to see the “big picture” to do well in this class.</p>
<p>Check your state’s flagship public university to see if it has a course articulation list for transfer students from in-state community colleges.</p>
<p>Use that list to figure out which of the courses is recommended or preferred for chemistry and chemical engineering majors (you should expect it to be the “harder” one). That will be the more in-depth course and the one more likely to be transferable in more situations.</p>
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Let me preface this by saying that I’m not a chemist and it’s been 35 years since I took any chemistry. And I didn’t take it at Caltech or any place like that, so bear that in mind. But this is my recollection. </p>
<p>I would say that in general (and possibly depending on where you go to school), for first year college chem you will probably not need much calculus if any, and the calculus you do need will likely be fairly simple. Maybe you’ll need to know what a derivative is to find the maximum concentration of some quantity in stoichemetric formulae. And those logarithms LI mentions upthread may have come around when you’re studying thermodynamlcs and integrating something from one temp or press to another with that variable in the denominator, leading to a resultant logarithm. So it might be nice to know basically what an integral represents at least - but you probably got some of that in pre-cal. This kind of stuff is not something for a strong math student to worry about.</p>
<p>You can probably swing it most places with pre-calc. But if you’re worried, just check the pre-reqs.</p>
<p>College Chem is probably equivalent to AP Chemistry. The other one is geared toward those going into allied medical professions like dental hygiene, medical ultrasound, etc.</p>
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Could be famous last words, IMO. 
(but I would also recommend taking the College chem like CRD says - just don’t expect it to necessarily be the same level of difficulty as AP chem). </p>
<p>AP Chem is probably a rough approximation of college chem at a typical school, but it could be much easier, or much harder, depending on where you go to school - for both high school and college. Not sure how representative the test is, I took it in 1974. I believe I got a 3 or 4 (certainly above 3 because they gave me 10 units credit, and I’m sure it wasn’t 5). I took the test based on the regular high school chem at our school. We didn’t have an AP course in chem, or even an honors course for that matter. So I’m not sure how much the class adds. </p>
<p>They would have let me skip an entire year of Chem with that score, but I wasn’t buying it. I took Freshman chem. THe first quarter was actually much easier than the AP course. The second and third quarters were far harder. Good thing I trusted my instincts.</p>
<p>But getting back to the topic of this thread, it wasn’t the math that made the college course harder. So I wouldn’t worry about that. From what I’m reading here I would ditto CRD above - I’d take the college chem.</p>
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<p>My son took the AP Chem test six months after finishing his second semester of college chemistry (some colleges accept AP credits but NOT dual-credit college courses, so he hedged his bet). He said the AP Chem test was MUCH easier than what he had covered in two college semesters. The AP free response questions were among the easiest types of questions he found on his college tests.</p>
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<p>Seems like the university should have advised students with AP Chemistry to skip just the first quarter.</p>