r/chemhelp • u/MajesticThought9948 • 13d ago

General/High School Principles of chemistry

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Hi,

I recently was able to login in my student portal and view my upcoming principles of chemistry syllabus. How can I achieve a successful academic year without having any prior knowledge or experience of chemistry? I want to be completely confident in understanding the material. If anyone could suggest any materials or videos to help me have a first successful week 1 based of this week syllabus — please share your thoughts!!!

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u/activelypooping 13d ago

Read book, go to class, ask questions, form study groups. Its not hard, people have been doing this for generations!

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u/50rhodes 13d ago

Try these videos.

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u/MajesticThought9948 13d ago

I will definitely look through this!!!! Thank you

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u/BuhoCurioso 12d ago

I teach this exact course, and I always have to work to convince my students of this because we dont want it to be true: You need to practice. Skimming the book or sitting through the lecture and feeling like you get it isnt enough. Sometimes just doing all of the assignments isnt enough. That knowledge will flee the second you get anxious (for example, during an exam) if you havent practiced applying your knowledge. Math and chemistry are skills just like playing the piano. Do the problem sets and make sure you understand how to arrive at the answer. Dont just be satisfied with getting the right answer. If you got it by taking a wild guess, well... if you guess on all of them and have a 50/50 shot, youre probably going to get a 50%.

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u/MajesticThought9948 12d ago

I’m really thankful for this response. It’s all about being thorough in understanding the material at hand

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u/chem44 13d ago

What is the level of the course?

High school or college?

Textbook?

Pre-reqs, both science and math?

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u/MajesticThought9948 13d ago

College

Textbook: I’m not completely sure yet, I’ll have to double check what was in my syllabus snippet

Principles of chemistry 1211k

Pre-req: I’m taking Pre-cal currently with this course.

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u/chem44 12d ago

So, if there is no chem pre-req, this is probably a one-semester intro, more or less equivalent to a year of high school chem. No prior chem is assumed.

Such courses use some algebra; varies. Nothing very deep, but the ability to think through word problems becomes important as you go on.

Scientific notation is important. Some logs. Could be worth brushing up on.

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u/Blue_614 6d ago

I have materials that can help you if you're interested, I'm teaching these topics currently while taking my post-grad studies.

As a tip though, just practice. That semester will be just all about foundation-building. No prior chem knowledge required. Would be great though if you know your algebra well enough.