Is Chem 1A Reading Helpful?

dill_scout
Wed, 17 Jun 2009 04:01:13 +0000

Well, I’d like to note that the textbook for Chem 1A changed. Now they’re using the same textbook as the Chem 4A people so I’m gonna assume it’s a good textbook. I had Stacy too last fall and I remember her distinctly telling us that the textbook was more of a reference and that we need only understand the material in her lectures. Well, that is not completely true. There was material not covered in her lecture in all four midterms and the final. If your background in chemistry is weak, I’d say reading the text is probably a good idea and so is joining a SLC study group and going to office hours frequently (Stacy sometimes gets inspiration for test questions from questions people ask during her office hours from what I’ve observed at times.) Chem 1A teaches chemistry in a very intuitive manner and sometimes expects you to have some basic chem background. If you can see trends in chemical atoms, compounds, reactions, etc. and apply these trends when you’re presented with something you’ve never seen before, then you should be okay.