<p>I would like to inquire of the difficulty of the Honors General Chemistry sequence comprised of CHEM 145, 155, and 165.</p>
<p>I am currently a junior in high school. I received a five on the AP Chemistry examination and I thought it was fairly effortless. If I am aiming for a 3.7 or higher in that sequence, would it be advisable for me to do some studying before I enter the UW? I have heard that the sequence is difficult, and so I would like to be adequately prepared when it comes time for me to take the course.</p>
<p>What topics should I focus on?</p>
<p>Also, I cannot seem to locate any past midterms or exams for said course sequence. I am in fact having difficulty finding anything aside from syllabuses and the occasional homework assignment. If these could be found for me, I would much appreciate it.</p>
<p>Hahaha… well, I’m not sure what to tell you. There are some very smart students who took AP chem in high school and dropped the class rather than take the grade they were going to get. From what I’ve heard, the exam questions don’t look anything like the AP chem exam (my school didn’t have this AP and I did just fine). Take the sequence only if you have a genuine interest in learning more in-depth coursework. If chem is just a distribution requirement and you need stellar grades to get into med school, take regular chem. Med schools would rather see a 4.0 in chem 142 than a 3.0 in chem 145. Without knowing you, its hard to tell how you’d do in the sequence. Unless you go to a rigorous prep school or participate in a science olympiad it’s unlikely you’ve encountered coursework as rigorous as the honors chem sequence. Do you have a real knack for chemistry and math? One thing that surprised me about 145 was how much physics I learned. Also, the curve is set by the median, not the mean, and the middle grade goes up or down based on how well the class does compared to previous years. Typically the median grade will be around a 3.4 (which is high for UW). Be warned the competition you’ll see in this kind of college class is like nothing you’ll see in a regular high school, even an AP class.</p>
<p>If your’re looking for stuff to study, the textbook is Oxtoby’s Principles of Modern Chemistry (5th edition, NOT the 6th). Most homework assignments took problems from Oxtoby. The exams will vary from professor to professor… and as you’re a junior, there’s really no way to tell who’ll be teaching the sequence in 2 years.</p>
<p>Also, I don’t feel right posting exams and old homeworks that weren’t made public by the professors. Just know the stuff in Oxtoby and you’ll be fine.</p>
<p>I was able to score multiple perfect scores on tests with minimal studying. I believe I am competent in chemistry and mathematics, being also two years ahead of my peers in mathematics and scoring decently in local mathematics competitions.</p>
<p>I intend to enter a PhD program after undergrad at the UW so I believe the added depth of the sequence will assist in building a foundation for research later on.</p>
<p>My friend has already, on my behest, purchased the fifth edition of the Oxtoby textbook. Once I am finished studying my current textbook (General Chemistry by Pauling) I will move on to the Oxtoby text and complete the problems.</p>
<p>I just finished taking 145 and 4.0ed the class. This by no means indicated that it was easy. Oxtoby is a hard textbook, and the material is very in depth. But I really have always been really good at Chem and Math (5s on all applicable AP tests, etc). On the other hand some of my friends in the class who are also very interested in chem have not done so well…</p>
<p>The important thing to understand is that it is far BETTER to take 142 or 144 series and get a higher grade, then take 145 and get a lower one. Grad schools will not care much if you take honors or not. On the other hand if you think you can do equally well in both then take 145, as it might be better.</p>
<p>The real upsides to taking it are that you are going to have small classes (60 or so) compared to the 200 in Chem 142, and better professorial. Specifically our professor was amazing and taught us everything really well, and I now understand the concepts really, really well and can even derive most of them myself from scratch, which becomes very useful as an alternative to simply mesmerizing everything. This is all great if you care about Chem and want to get an MD or a PhD (or both in my case), but if you do not care much then there really is no reason to take the class.</p>