Chemistry

Making It Bad

People who struggle at Chemistry seem to approach it with the completely wrong mindset. It seems some people are used to studying subjects like History or Biology which involve simple learning. You need to stop trying to learn Chemistry and start trying to understand it. Start thinking like a scientist, thinking about things logically and rationally, you have to keep asking yourself 'why' if you really want things to make sense. Hopefully then things will begin to click and fall into place. When you understand the fundamentals of Leaving Cert chemistry there really isn't too much more to it.

Lu Tze

You need to stop trying to learn Chemistry and start trying to understand it.

Best advice you are going to get OP, and holds through for Math and physics as well. Get out of the learning by rote which is required by most subjects, and figure out the most basic and simplest theories of the subject.

The more complicated will fall into place afterwards if you understand the fundamentals. Thats what happened for me, it was a domino effect.

HUNK

I found Chemistry pretty hard as well. But tbh I was very lazy in class. My homework was half-a**ed, I didn't really listen in class, and I never really bothered to ask the teacher for help when I was struggling. My own fault really and I should've given the subject a chance.

Anyway, long story short I'm repeating because I didn't get my first choice, and of course, I'm doing Chemistry again. And I LOVE it!

As it was said before, the key to Chemistry is to understand it. The learning comes much much easier if you get it. Be sure to listen carefully in class and if you are having problems, go to your teacher and ask them to explain it again. Be sure to be active (write crap down) when learning and trying to understand it. Do questions at the back of each chapter to help ram that info into your brain. You'll be surprised how much you learn when you do questions.

If you are using 'Chemistry Live!', it would be wise to get Rapid revision chemistry (as Fad suggested). Its written by the same author and it can really help you with your learning. Use this and the book together for best results.

Chemistry is a beautiful subject if you give it a chance. Fascinating stuff that there chemistry :pac:

randylonghorn

jumpguy wrote: »

...So how's it like soccer again?

Please don't ask him questions like that! >.<

IHeartChemistry

:POk well I think my name sorta says it all but I do love Chemistry, but I also happen to be crap at it, fair enough I didnt work in 5th year but now I'm getting grinds, have the marking schemes syallabus and am doing exam papers seperatly. It's not that it's overly hard, it's just I'm sturggling to want to put up with it for more than 20 minutes stuck on one Maths Equation cos I get frustrated and end up needing identicals of the question I'm given and of course there never is identicals :mad: so I loose patience and hope the teacher will do em in class! The theory is fine if you can be arsed learning it, it's the Maths I do struggle with, but I'm working on it to get my B3 in Chemistry or B2 for my course =]

Ste234

My teacher is good but he seems to go into too much detail. I'm good at chemistry and can write the A4 page to page and a half on a question but is that not way too much to write when a question is worth at the most 12marks?

Fad

Eh.....

Turns out, the night before/morning of Chemistry, I kinda freaked and devised this new system of ordering my notes, trouble is, I cant really figure out what the hell I did......

I'll try and get some scanned! (All of organic, and probably the acid base/redox titrations at least) Be patient though!.

jumpguy

Fad wrote: »

Eh.....

Turns out, the night before/morning of Chemistry, I kinda freaked and devised this new system of ordering my notes, trouble is, I cant really figure out what the hell I did......

I'll try and get some scanned! (All of organic, and probably the acid base/redox titrations at least) Be patient though!.

Very kind of you! I won't question your rationality of re-arranging notes the morning before your chemistry exam. :P

Fad

jumpguy wrote: »

Very kind of you! I won't question your rationality of re-arranging notes the morning before your chemistry exam. :P

The Leaving Cert does funny things to your mind (And sleeping pattern, I slept two hours before Physics.......and I could have/wanted to sleep, cramming ftw)

*Gets back to my assignment*

(My scanner is mind bogglingly slow, so the notes will go up in stages, I'll probably need to get some sort of program for drawing molecular structures on a computer so I might actually type them up at some stage, but baby steps first!)

Lawliet

IHeartChemistry wrote: »

The theory is fine if you can be arsed learning it, it's the Maths I do struggle with, but I'm working on it to get my B3 in Chemistry or B2 for my course =]

Same here, I always struggle with the equations. I was so happy last week because I was finally starting to get my gas equations working out for me...and then we moved on to stoichiometry II and I'm lost again! Ah well, just have to keep at it I suppose.

Im lost with chem, I love Biology and get constant A's in it, I think the difference is that I wrote my own notes for biology and they're much easier to read, Chemistry I constantly get around 50% so my major downfall was not writing my own notes for chem.
Any 5th years reading this, Write your own notes! It takes longer but its worth it.

nabacliom

Chemistry is, without a doubt, my biggest regret! We've had exam papers since October of 5th year and a Rapid Revision book. Neither helped! I've tried learning it off, but I get really dis-spirited and put off by the whole thing! I'm fecked!

caroline1111

I love Chemistry and find it easy and interesting. Just depends on the person.

irish-anabel

I really like chemistry and tend to get good grades but I don't actually know what I do to understand it. I think it's a way of thinking because I see clever people in the class really struggling with it and asking questions that I think are really obvious. For me it was definitely ignoring the **** teacher and letting the book explain it to me, reading it really slowly and stopping to think about it so you get it. I think once you gt the crazy concept of atoms and molecules you're well on your way.

OxfordComma

nabacliom wrote: »

Chemistry is, without a doubt, my biggest regret! We've had exam papers since October of 5th year and a Rapid Revision book. Neither helped! I've tried learning it off, but I get really dis-spirited and put off by the whole thing! I'm fecked!

That's the problem when it comes to Chemistry (and Physics, Maths etc) - you can't learn it off like you'd learn other subjects. You need to understand the course, something the vast majority of people struggle with.

A lot of people commenting on this thread really seem to be panicking about the Chemistry exam, and I can see why - it can seem very daunting and overwhelming at this point in the year. You need to get organised as soon as possible.

The Chemistry course isn't actually as long as other courses like History, Biology, Business etc. You just need to take it chapter by chapter. Make sure you understand everything about a particular topic before moving, because your ability to understand later parts of the course is very heavily reliant on your knowledge of earlier parts.

If you're really lost, then try and nail the following topics first of all:
*Atomic theory, bonding, trends in the PTE etc. (Basically everything examined in Question 5 every year.)
*Titrations (guaranteed full experiment question every year, and probably the easiest part of the course.)
*Rates of Reactions (not the easiest section of the course, but still a guaranteed question every year.)
*Organic Chemistry, Fuels and Thermochemistry (a large section, but not a particularly difficult one. This section is critically important - guaranteed experiment and at least two more full questions every year.)

I know it's not easy, but you really do need to get on top of things soon. Chemistry can't really be crammed, and you'll make things a lot easier if you work hard now. Read through each chapter slowly, taking notes and learning definitions as you go. Keep checking to make sure you can grasp the various concepts you're coming across. The calculations simply need plenty of practice - there's not a whole lot of maths on the course, and you're generally just following the same procedure in every question you get. Once you've studied a section, do out an exam question from memory and correct it using the marking scheme - it's the best way to gauge how well you're doing.

lilxrose

i dunno i feel that chemistry is my best subject...if you have any problems you can pm me

KateC92

I'm in 5th year, and there is only 5 people in my class too.
It is difficult, I'd say the only way to get your head around it is to sit down and go through each chapter very slowly, trying to understand it.
Try Revise Wise, I find it good for helping me study, but since you really don't understand it, grinds might be a worthy investment.