Best Way to Study for General Chemistry (weed out course)?

College Life
21

<p>I personally thought gen chem 2 was cake compared to 1. To do well in gen chem all you have to do is know the terms and the problems. There will be some definitions/laws that you must know (memorization) and working to derive answers from info (problem solving). And obviously the more problems you do , the more comfortable you will be with the material. All there is too it. I recieved A’s in both semesters.</p>

22

<p>Chemistry, the science for morons, is all about memorization. Memorization, not problem-solving. I took two intro-type chemistry classes and got B’s on both of those puke-bag classes. If you’re thinking that I’m bitter at chemistry and the butt monkeys who teach it, all because it ruined my otherwise perfect 4.0, YOU’RE DARN RIGHT!!!</p>

<p>I like solving problems, but at the intro level chemistry is just too complicated and so they make grading all about how much you memorized, really. Oh sure, there are some chemical equation balancing things to do, some problems involving gas pressure, molarity, and so on, but apart from the labs it seemed like 60% (and on exams, 90%) of what you were graded on was how much crap you could read and retain. That’s not science, that’s stamp collecting!</p>

<p>Physics rules, chemistry drools!</p>

<p>So, memorize stuff. Properties of metals, non-metals, atomic numbers, electron configuration, etc. The better your memory, the better you’ll do in that anal crust of a class called chemistry.</p>

23

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<p>This may depend on the course and the professor, but in my experience, physics involved much more memorization than chemistry did. Then again, I didn’t like physics, so I might be biased.</p>

24

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I don’t think reading a textbook and doing problem sets that have already been solved thousands of times by others (which is what you’re doing in your physics classes, right?) would be considered science either. In these classes you’re not supposed to be doing science - you’re supposed to be learning things discovered by scientists. It just happens that to do so in some cases requires more memorization than others.</p>

25

<p>Well you guys make reasonable points and I guess I was too harsh.</p>

<p>JUST KIDDING! Chemistry eats!</p>