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Thoughts on How to Learn Chemistry
You have probably heard horror stories about this class. About how organic is the
hardest course, the flunk-out course, etc. You may feel overwhelmed by the
number of compounds, names, reactions, and mechanisms that confront you. My
suggestion to you is to read these pages and take the suggestions to heart.
Personally, I think organic chemistry is a great lot of fun. I want you to enjoy this
class as much as I do, but I can't learn the material for you. Sorry.
If you are to be a successful student of organic chemistry, you must discover
for yourself how to learn chemistry. Different people learn, take in, process, and
integrate information, differently. What works for you will not always work for
someone else. An explanation that clarifies for one person will simply add more
confusion for another. Try lots of things until you find the ones that work for you.
Important Rules to Live By If You Wish to Succeed in CHEM211
1. Work the Problems
2. Don't Get Behind
You ignore these rules at your peril.
On Studying:
Organic chemistry cannot be learned the night before the exam.
Don't even try.
Learning chemistry, or any subject, involves practice. Far too many students
attempt to prepare for an exam by spending hours and hours in the day and a half
before the test, shoving loose pieces of random information at their heads. No
wonder many folks are frustrated by their performance in the class.
One analogy that works for me is that learning organic chemistry is like learning to
play the piano. (Okay, so I'm a pianist, shoot me.) You do not sit down in front of
the keyboard the evening before the recital and attempt to learn the A minor 2-Part
Invention by Bach. In order to play at all, you need to practice every day in the
preceeding weeks and months (and years).
Organic chemistry cannot be learned the night before the exam. Don't even try.
You must practice every day - read, listen, work problems, re-read, take notes, reorganize ideas, ask questions.
Occasionally during class, I will ask you to pull out a piece of paper and write
down a mechanism or work a problem or something. I will then collect your
creations. These will not be graded, so relax. What good are they, you ask?? They
allow me to take attendance rather easily. They allow me to see whether you've
read the assignment for the day, where you are with the material, what's confusing
and what you've got a handle on.
Too many people develop the bad habit of trying to write down everything the
professor says/writes/shows during class. This would not be bad in itself, except
that many folks turn OFF their brains while doing it. They do not attempt to
understand what they are writing. Then, when they attempt to use those notes later
in working problems and stuyding, they have no idea what the notes mean.
Solution: think more, write less, use the textbook as a backup.
Your lecture notes should not be a simple rote copying of whatever appears from
my mouth or from my pen or piece of chalk. Your notes allow you to begin to
process, organize, highlight, and identify concepts in a way that is useful TO YOU.
Some students have found it helpful to bring ink pens of different colors to class so
that they can organize the notes by color as they go. You may discover another
method that works for you.
Study by working the problems, NOT only by reading your notes and the text.
Your best measure of your facility with the material is whether you can work
problems.
Keep Up
Falling behind is death. And once you are behind, it is even harder to catch
up while staying on top of the new material. So don't dig this hole for
yourself. Start right now and keep on schedule.
You cannot see how the material you cover today will be used again three
chapters from now. But it will. By focusing on basis principles, you will see
that the same reactions keep appearing over and over again. The specific
details will change, but the principles remain the same.
Ask Questions
Simple, right? Wrong. Far too many students do not ask questions. You
have many opportunities to clear up the unclear: during class, after class, in
my office, at recitation, in lab. Take advantage of me. That's why I'm here.
Ask.
My favorite questions are of the type: "I worked this problem and got a
different answer than the one in the book. I thought that this functional
group did that but in this case I guess it doesn't. Why?"
My least favorite questions are of the types: " I don't get chapter 6?" and
"What will be on the quiz?"
are truly getting the hang of it is to do the problems. Do lots, do them over
and over, fill recycle bins with scrap paper.
Your study time should be 75-80% working problems, the remainder
reading the book or reviewing notes.
Another fallacy about organic, and about working problems, is that you can
just read the problem and think to yourself "Oh, I understand that" and then
go on without ever scratching pencil on paper. Beware! The practice of
writing it down can help you to see where you might make those pesky
"silly" mistakes that cost points when it counts.
Now hear this! I do not always collect the assigned problems for grading. If
you are struggling with the material, by all means turn in your written-out
problems for me to look at. I will be glad to go over them and find where
you need some clarification. I can then suggest additional problems, which
you can work, turn in to me, etc. You have at your
disposal unlimited problem consultation. Two catches: you must initiate this
and you must actually write something down to turn in.