Mr. Brad Smith

How to Pass Chemistry (or ANY CLASS)

A piece taken from

Dr. Brenna E. Lorenz 

Division of Natural Sciences 

University of Guam

Have a good attitude!

• Recognize from the start that chemistry is a subject that requires a lot of time and work. Be committed to investing the time and effort that the course demands. You have to be an active, aggressive student to do well in chemistry. You cannot afford to be passive in these courses.

• Believe in yourself and your capabilities. Even though chemistry is difficult for many people, you can understand it if you work at it.

• Decide that you will find something to enjoy about chemistry. It is easy to say that you hate chemistry, but if you make this choice, you will find it harder to study and attend class. Who wants to spend time with something they hate? There is something fun and interesting in every subject if you allow yourself to see it. Treat chemistry problems as a challenge or a game; solve them as if they were a cross-word puzzle or some other activity you enjoy.

• Regard chemistry lab as an opportunity rather than a chore. Lab is your chance to have hands-on experience with chemicals and equipment. In lab, you can see the stuff you heard about in class happening before your eyes. Because a chemistry lab is expensive to build, maintain and operate, these labs may be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for you to experience these things.

• Remember that learning chemistry is your own responsibility. The professor will help you out as much as possible, but the professor can't learn it for you. It's just like peeing. Someone can show you to a toilet, but you have to pee for yourself.

Come to class!

• Arrive on time and don't leave early. Don't miss class if you can possibly avoid it.

• Sit as close to the front of the classroom as you can. If you sit up front, you will see better, hear better, and generally be more alert.

• Ask questions if you don't understand what the professor just said, or if the professor is going too fast. Your classmates will not think you stupid; they will be glad you asked, because they probably didn't understand it either. Many professors will stop and ask if anyone has any questions. When a professor does this, it is a clue that the professor thinks that the material just covered was difficult. The professor is expecting students to have trouble with it. This is an invitation from the professor to the students to go over the material again, or in a different way. If the professor gets no feedback at this point, he or she will proceed to the next topic whether you are ready or not. So if you don't understand, say so!

• Take notes, lots of notes.

• Come to class prepared. Always bring your textbook, your periodic table, your calculator, and your molecular model kit if your class is using one.

Work the problems!

• Paying attention in class is important, reading the book is important, but nothing is as important as working the problems. Work as many problems as you can. Practice, practice, practice! THE NUMBER ONE REASON WHY STUDENTS FAIL CHEMISTRY IS THAT THEY DO NOT WORK ENOUGH PROBLEMS.

• When the professor is working problems on the board, you may be tempted to think, "Oh, that's easy. I understand that. I don't need to do those problems." Don't be fooled! Watching the professor or your tutor or your friends work a problem is not the same as doing it yourself. Simply watching someone else play the piano or use a typewriter or play tennis would not enable you to play the piano or type or play tennis. You have to practice it yourself. Chemistry requires a lot of practice. YOU HAVE TO DO IT YOURSELF.

• Your textbook and study guide will show you how to work problems step by step. If you can read through the steps and understand them, that is a good start. But it is not a substitute for doing the problems yourself.

• After you have read the book and the examples on how to work a kind of problem, try one yourself, without looking at the book or study guide. After you have finished the problem, check yourself with the study guide, but be careful not to peek at the answer to the next problem. Never look at the answer to a problem before you finish working the problem. Make sure you understand what you did wrong with the first problem (if anything) before you start the next one of that type. Be very careful not to lean too heavily on the study guide. Make sure before you're done that you can do a type of problem from beginning to end without having to peek at the study guide along the way.

• As you work the problem, have a clear idea of where you are going, what the goal of the problem is. ("I have to figure out how many of these pills a patient needs.") List what you are given to start with. (Each pill contains 50 mg. of medication and the patient needs 75 mg.) Clearly show each step of your calculations or thought processes. Label units. Then, when you study your work later, you will have no trouble figuring out how or why you did what you did. If you need to show your work to someone else, to get help from the professor, for example, the other person will be able to understand exactly what you did.

• After you have figured out how to work a kind of problem, explain it to someone else. If you can explain it to someone else so that they understand it, you can feel confident that you really do understand it yourself.

• If you have trouble finding time to work problems, set up a schedule for yourself. You should set aside at least one hour every day for working on chemistry. Write your study time into your weekly schedule as if it were another course.

• THE NUMBER ONE REASON WHY STUDENTS FAIL CHEMISTRY IS THAT THEY DO NOT WORK ENOUGH PROBLEMS.

Make the most of labs

• The purpose of labs is to give you hands-on practical experience with the concepts that you are learning in lecture. Make the most of the labs. Think about what you are doing. Think about what is happening. It is very easy to think of a lab manual as a cookbook, and many of them are written that way, but always think about the meaning of the phenomena you are witnessing (a color change, a change in temperature etc.).

• Read the lab ahead of time. Read the theory and read the procedure. Anticipate what is going to happen.