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Chemistry Study Tips

Mindset

  1. Unlike some high school courses, college chemistry requires understanding, not just stuffing your head with facts. It is not enough to know a formula or definition; you must know the why and how of chemical concepts.
  2. It takes longer to reason your way through to this deep level of understanding, but if you do, the concepts will stay in your long-term memory and you will be better equipped to solve difficult or unusual problems.
  3. Think of your chemistry class as time-consuming rather than hard. Some students who do poorly have a weak background in high school science and math, while others are simply not studying enough.
  4. If you want to do well, you may need to study chemistry 15 or more hours each week.
  5. Get comfortable with being confused! Even your chemistry professors are sometimes confused when they look at a chemistry problem, so don’t think that being confused means that you “just can’t do chemistry.”
  6. When you get confused, first try to figure things out on your own by rereading your notes or the text and by looking at sample problems. If you’re still stumped, consult another student, your TA, or your professor.
  7. Reasoning your way out of confusion is great exercise for your brain! You’re getting smarter each time you do this. (To use an analogy, lifting moderately heavy weights builds more muscle than lifting light weights.)

Lectures

  1. Preview your lecture by either reading or scanning your text. This way, you will be able to take more intelligent notes.
  2. You might want to take your notes on the right side of your notebook and leave the left side blank. Later, you can add notes from your textbook to the left side.
  3. Try using the Cornell System for your notes, with headings in a column to the left and details on the right.
  4. Right after class (or at least the same day), review your notes. Fill in gaps and clarify concepts by consulting your text. Add notes to the appropriate left hand page. Think about the major concepts you learned.

Reading the Textbooks

  1. If you find the text confusing, read a simplified version first (a high school text or a review book). You will be able to read your challenging text more quickly and with better comprehension if you have the “gist” of the content first.
  2. If you need to brush up on some of the basics, begin with a children's book on the topic. You'd be surprised at how clear and yet sophisticated children's books can be. Check at a public library such as Harold Washington.
  3. Constantly paraphrase as you read. In other words, talk to yourself – “Oh, I see, she's saying _______.”
  4. Stop at the end of a paragraph or section to write a brief note in the margin or in your notebook. Only note what is new to you and also important.
  5. Focus on and explain to yourself all diagrams, charts, examples, and formulas. These are often the heart of your text!
  6. As you read, do the computations along with the book.
  7. Focus on any “objectives” that are listed on the syllabus or in the text.
  8. Look for the big picture.Analyze how various parts fit in with the big picture.
  9. Chemistry reading takes longer than other reading. It might take an hour to really understand 5 pages. Also, you might have to read the material twice.

Homework & Studying

  1. Work as many problems as you can. Quantity counts! Keep solving problems until you can do them fairly quickly and easily.
  2. Analyze why you missed each problem. This will help you avoid future mistakes.
  3. Try solving problems on a blackboard and/or explaining your thinking process to another student. The more senses you use, the better your memory will be.
  4. Make and use summary sheets or flashcards to reinforce your memory of equations and definitions.
  5. Avoid marathon study sessions and instead, review frequently and in small “doses.”
  6. Doing well on homework is no guarantee that you will do well on exams. Be sure to do practice exams! Going into a chemistry exam without taking practice exams is like going into a big basketball game without ever playing a scrimmage game.
  7. Before an exam, give yourself 3 or 4 practice exams. If the professor makes a practice exam available, use that as a template and write your own additional exams. (You can also use problems from chapter review sections.) Be sure to mix up the problems so that they are not in the same order as in the text.
  8. Do at least one timed practice exam.

Exams

  1. Get plenty of sleep the night before an exam. Sleep is essential for higher order thinking.
  2. When you first get the actual test, apportion your time and begin work on the easiest section. Skip difficult questions and return to them later.
  3. When your test is returned, rework all problems you missed and analyze what went wrong.

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