Improvement in chem!

[cjsmith]

I now believe I know how to study for chemistry exams with this teacher.

1) When in doubt, memorize. How many joules in a calorie? How many joules in a liter-atmosphere? What's the gas constant in your instructor's favorite units? What's Planck's constant? What's the density of mercury (for water barometer problems)? What's the constant in Balmer's equation for hydrogen lines? Know them all.

2) The day before exam time, do one homework problem of each major type. Molarity, gas stoichiometry, redox titration, heats of formation, pressure-volume work -- anything that was covered in the appropriate chapters needs to run through the brain once at this point.

3) During the exam, show every last possible detail of work that can possibly be imagined. Explicitly multiply by "1000 mL / 1 L" when needed, and do not skip a single step of algebra. FILL the page. Use the back.

I got a 98. Now if only I can do it again the Monday after Thanksgiving, and then one last time on the final.

Comments

[platypus]

It's good to figure out an instructor's system, so as to get the best grade possible from him/her, but I never really understood the point of mass memorization of reference information that can be looked up in the real world.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Neither do I. And this instructor will claim she doesn't either, which threw me for a while.

[mapache]

Yeah. At least one of the professors I had in college let you prepare a "cheat sheet" for exams. One page front & back for the mid-semester exams and four pages front & back for the final. That way, you could put down anything you might need to memorize or look up and focus on actually understanding how to apply said facts.

(Fun fact: You can fit the entire Haskell standard prelude on a single sheet of paper if you use 4-point font, and it's surprisingly legible, as well as a pretty complete reference on everything you need to know about functional programming.)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Ooo, that prof let you print it? The one prof I've ever had who allowed a cheat sheet required it to be hand-written.

I wonder if older students would be able to bring a reading magnifier. This, of course, leads me to wonder if extremely ambitious students could bring a microscope.

[mapache]

I don't think anyone in CS remembers how to write by hand any more. :D Same professor also had handouts of his class notes for the day for everyone, as he though people copying down what he was showing was a waste of time when you could be paying attention to what he's saying instead.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

One of my profs does the class lecture notes handout approach as well. I really appreciate it. In our case, the PDF is posted online and the students print it, but that's a budgetary thing. :-)

[just-cyd.livejournal.com]

cool. congrats on figuring out how to play this prof's games. i had a HS teacher like that: government. for papers, he seemed to favor quantity (a 5pg paper on a 15 min City Council meeting = A+!!), as well as bucking the system. took a while to figure it out, but once i did, i was golden. can't say i *learned* anything, but i got great grades. :)

now if you could just get that lucky with next quarter's scheduling....

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I'm sure 80% of a grade -- any grade -- is puzzling out the instructor!

[dawnmipb.livejournal.com]

Woot!

A 98 is a good thing!

And yeah, sometimes they go overboard on the "show your work" thing. I feel you can never show too much work. *g*

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I was vastly pleased! And the points I lost were indeed in places where I did not show sufficient work. Now I know for next time.

[rfrench.livejournal.com]

Ah, so now you know what a Balmer line is!

Luckily it's the same constant for Lyman and Paschen lines.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yes! The nomenclature of "Lyman alpha" isn't mentioned in our text, though. I guess they're not trying to make astronomers of us.

[hitchhiker.livejournal.com]

you've beaten the system :D

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I've at least LEARNED (most of) the system. Things could be worse. :-)

"That's PerVECT!"

[allanh.livejournal.com]

All I remember about chemistry from high school:

(1) I was damned good at stoichiometry. Probably because it's a skill I knew I'd never have a use for.

(2) "PV = nRT", which I instantly memorized, as I'm sure all chem students do, as "PerVeRT".

(3) Don't expose sodium to air, or it bursts into flames, sometimes quite violently.

Re: "That's PerVECT!"

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

And if you're going to make hot chocolate during 1st period chem, be sure to use clean glassware. ;-)

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

Yay for 98%. Memorizing constants sucks. My good science profs have given constants on exams. Conversions between units, sure. Good to know, but constants? Sheesh.

Your study method seems quite similar to my own. The day before, I'd take a single sheet of notebook paper and write down, with reference to notes, text, etc., all the important formulas, facts, etc. Then I'd go through and do one of each type of problem, again with reference. Next, do both things again, this time w/o reference.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yes! That single sheet of paper approach has helped me numerous times. Sometimes I cover the sheet of paper with sticky notes (to obscure the "answers") and study by lifting up the flaps. When I don't even need to lift the sticky notes to check myself, I'm ready.

[stormecho.livejournal.com]

My stuff is more practical, almost math-like now. Your memorization seems more in depth than what I had for my first Chemistry class.
Congrats on the high grade!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thanks! What kind of stuff are you working on these days?