<p>I have a final exam coming up next week in Chem, and I was hoping you guys had some ideas on how I could blow that baby out of the water!</p>
<p>Basically, I've been doing alright in the class, but I've been using a combo of textbook reading, going to class (obviously) and going over notes, and I've even had to resort to some YouTube videos. This still rarely results in an 'A' on the exams. I'm pretty sure I'll get a fairly good grade in the class, but I want to try something a little different for this final.</p>
<p>Yes, I know that each person is different blah blah blah, some are more visual learners and some aren't...whatever, but...
What methods do you guys use to beast at Chem?</p>
<p>Most definitely need to do practice problems. And try to do them yourself, THEN check the answers. It wont just help you to look at how the problems are done…You need to do them yourself. And it always helped me to get into groups and compare answers to see where we went wrong. Good luck… chem can be a killer.</p>
<p>Do any practice exams available and go to as many review sessions are being held by any TA’s. Before my Chem final I did two days of 8 hour review sessions aside from all the self studying I did.</p>
<p>Thanks you guys! Snowboard129, I definitely tried doing practice problems and aced my first exam, but lo and behold…I failed to do so on the second exam and it probably would have been better if I didn’t even show up lol! (:</p>
<p>i read over the textbook and do/read over practice problems the days before the test. of course, our professor is utter **** so lectures are basically useless. im doing average</p>
<p>I’m usually okay for Chem if I know how to do the problem… you know, knowing how to do a stochiometry problem as a formula. Get that down and it’s just simple conversion factors… if that makes sense.</p>
<p>Ironically on my last test I would have gotten 10 points more if I hadn’t screwed up Lewis Dot structures, which I love (cause they’re incredibly easy), but I just freaked out and epically failed them.</p>
<p>Hey, snowboard129!
Well, this site is one I used in high school. It basically breaks everything down. If you make it through the ‘lecture’ bit, there are practice problems at the bottom that may be beneficial. Like you said before…practice, practice, practice! Haha. I’m using your own advice to help you! :D</p>
<p>Also, YouTube videos have helped me TONS in the past. A lot of instructors are actually Chem profs who recorded their lectures. You can always do their example problem, pause the video, and then see if you got it right! If not, watch it, try to understand the concepts, and try again with different problems! (:</p>
<p>In addition to what everyone else has said, I suggest that you look over the derivations for all the formulas you need. Even better: re-derive the formulas for yourself (this shouldn’t be too hard to do, since textbooks often explain how they get from one formula to another). I don’t know how many formulas you have to know or how complex they are (my gen chem class was a bit different and was more p-chem based), but whenever there are a lot of formulas, it really helps me to know how they are derived (because that tells you in what contexts they can be used and what the significance of each variable is). At the very least, make sure you understand the role of each variable in each formula and the various relationships among the different variables.</p>
<p>This is a more general suggestion, but you might find it helpful to make a “cheat sheet” for yourself when you do problems. What I mean is that if you find yourself making the same mistakes over and over, you make a note of it and make sure you understand the correct reasoning. (For example, you might write something like, “Don’t forget that ∆G° is the standard free energy change, which is a constant, while ∆G is the free energy change based on a particular set of concentrations. The sign of ∆G can change depending on the concentrations, but not the sign of ∆G°!”) I have found this immensely helpful in all my science classes, and I think the importance is that if I can explain it to myself by typing it out without getting confused (it’s easy to fool yourself into thinking you understand something if it’s all in your head), then there’s a pretty good chance I really do understand what’s going on.</p>
<p>Thanks, demeter! I’ve definitely fallen victim to the whole “fooling myself into thinking I understand” trap. The catch to most of these exams is that professors realize common mistakes students make, so what seems to be right at the time is just a result of carelessness or miscalculation. I really do believe understanding the origin of the formula will help you grasp the true intent of the question asked.
I really hope people are paying attention to these tips because they’ve already helped me tremendously. Thanks again for contributing, everyone!</p>
<p>Figure out the steps to major types of problems, write them down, memorize them, and use them to work practice problems. I wish I had done more of this when I took Chem 1A rather than mindlessly attempting many hw problems.</p>