<p>I'm taking a college chemistry course in the fall and I need to make sure that I do well in it. What concepts should I know?</p>
<p>From what I've seen, they sort of assume your high school teacher taught you nothing. The basic review/overview is very fast though.</p>
<p>Everything you learned in high school chemistry would help.</p>
<p>But like Rutiene said, they'll start from scratch and teach you everything from the ground up. I'm assuming this is some type of basic general chemistry course.</p>
<p>Math up to calculus would probably help you understand some topics better than if you didn't have that background.</p>
<p>Yeah, everything is pretty much taught again. Just know the abbreviations for the more well known elements.</p>
<p>Nothing really other than how to study.</p>
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Math up to calculus would probably help you understand some topics better than if you didn't have that background.
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I don't think this is necessary for most general chem classes. It depends on the level. I took honors general chem at my school, and we did do some things that required calc or where calc definitely helped in understanding. But I know that the regular general chem course at my school didn't really do anything where calculus would be very advantageous.</p>
<p>Be sure to keep up; the pace is fast, and you're expected to remember most, if not all, of what you learned. I know that it's sort of redundant to say, but it's a cumulative subject so something you learned in Sep. may come up as the basis for something you do in Nov.</p>
<p>GoldShadow, at my school I took gen chem. Not for majors and not honors. While calc wasn't 100% necessary, one of the equations my professor threw at us had gradient vectors and lots of the derivations for equations used calculus. Having a basic knowledge of calculus would help you understand the equations better.</p>
<p>Do they start with out with stuff like sigfigs and calculating density?</p>
<p>no sigfigs are basic knowledge you should already know.</p>
<p>Actually, most gen chem classes I know of do start with simple things like sig figs and density calculations.</p>
<p>They assume you've had zero exposure to chemistry (even though you probably have been exposed to it in high school).</p>
<p>At my school, you're assumed to know sigfigs and other general things, but not anything chemistry-specific. IIRC, we only touched on sigfigs briefly in lab because someone had a question about it.</p>
<p>Significant figures is really the only thing we expect ya'll to know. Like everyone said before...we assume you have zero knowledge of chemistry whatsoever (some people actually do have no chem experience). But the class moves fast...so make sure you go!</p>
<p>The only evidence of calculus that you'll see in intro chem/gen chem is Schrödinger's wave equation, which is technically calc II or III, depending on where you go. But we just familiarize you with it, you don't actually have to solve wave equations. All math can be done on a $5 calculator.</p>
<p>Internal energy problems involving changes in volume and pressure can also involve calculus (ie, finding the work done by a change in volume and pressure).</p>
<p>^^that sounds more like chemE than pure chem</p>
<p>Yeah, Gen Chem focuses more on trends than crunching numbers...of course those are definitely calculus problems. The most math I can remember that we make students do is calculating density of crystal lattices.</p>
<p>at my school there was a difference between classes like chem 100 and chemistry for science majors (chem 121), the latter was much more difficult</p>
<p>Just bumping because I was JUST about to ask the same question myself! I haven't taken a chemistry class since 10th grade... Sheesh, I don't remember anything.</p>