Struggle as I might w/ the concepts of kinetics, I’d say only the last two days did the light bulb start to come on. Then it was momentary glimpses of “oh that’s what that means”. Sadly two days is not enough time to get comfortable enough with the information to be able to perform calculations with any speed. This means, at our exam today, I worked as steady as I could only to hear the prof give us the “3 minutes left” call and realize I still had 3 pages left to do. I ended up having to randomly circle things and I know some of them are wrong.
Blah.
Wishing I had spent more time studying kinetics and less time studying nuclear fission since only two questions out of 23 were on fission.
Here’s to the final in a week. Hopefully my grade isn’t so bad the final can’t redeem it. ACS is normally easier than our actual exams here so I’m banking on some salvation there and hoping it’s weighted a wee bit more than a normal exam.
In the meantime, I’ve got Bacardi and after the children go to bed, I’m forgetting chemistry for a few hours.
I’m pulling for you! good luck and enjoy a few chemistry free hours. Now that I’m waiting for my score to come back, I don’t know what to do with all my time! Please let me know if you want any more study material
Thanks so much Jaysun. I’m going to pull some of it out tomorrow after my bio exam (yes we get last unit exams less than a week before a comprehensive final in all our classes).
Bacardi was a nice friend. I made some mixed drink call a jolly rancher. Very yummy. I could easily lose myself in too many if not careful. Luckily that ADH inhibitor kicked in after one glass and I gave up liquid for a few hours lol. Yes, I am a lightweight. I do admit.
Useless worrying about the exam now. What’s done is done. I will be happy with a B at this point. If not, I’ll be taking it again w/ orgo next spring lol.
Way to let go. Good luck on the final. It might help to sit down with a tutor or class friend that has a stronger grasp - it always did me wonders.
Cheers
Huzzah!
Somehow, I was one question shy of a B when we got the test back today!
Gets better because there was one w/o an answer circled but calculations done. I brought it to the prof and said he’s well within his rights not to give it to me but that the worst he could do is tell me no, however I did have the answer and it was right.
He gave it to me. I got a B! Shazzamm! Not to shabby for spending every lecture in his office the past month asking him to re explain everything.
Ruso, I had a tutor. I fired him. He graded half of my questions wrong and I was right half of them. That’s when the confusion began lol. I stuck w/ the professor this time around. I’ll probably hire out again though if I need to. I’m going to find a tutor this summer to help strengthen my math skills though.
I’m done with this semester! I took my last final last night…and after seeing Susan struggle with chemistry I have decided to put Chemistry on hold until I have a better understanding of math. Partially because I have a new path that I am anticipating. But they haven’t posted grades yet but I think I did awesome on my Biology final becasue I studied like a crazy woman drunk on expresso for days…and I did so much Algebra I dreamt about x’s and graphs and greatest common factors and polynomials! But a break…I’m so elated.
How’d you do with algebra? I struggled with math. Actually took algebra over again, and still only had a B. If you did good though w/ algebra, I’d not hesitate for chem. You don’t get too deep w/ algebra anyway w/ chem. Chem I just basic stuff. Equations are normally provided initially for you to figure out. It gets a little intense w/ thermo chemistry, but that started making sense towards the end. Chem II it will be a bit more math intensive, a lot of quadradic formula stuff with equilibrium concentrations, but other than that and a natural log or two, not too terrible IF you are good with algebra. I’m not though. Hence my problem lol.
I only am in Elementary Algebra, I’m taking Intermediate Algebra over the summer, that’s my only class and then College Algebra in the fall, I just don’t want to take Chem. I and College Algebra at the same time since I struggle so badly in Algebra. I’d like to have a more solidified knowledge of the concepts in Algebra before I branch into Chem. I felt like it was coming together for me but I have a long way to go and math is not a strong point for me, I actually really like it once it starts to come together for me because it’s like “Ka-BAM!” when it does. But I need A’s and I’m just not willing to risk the time or money. There are other classes I can take that I will feel confident in so I’m going to do that.
The school I am at makes you take Chemistry before Biology. Does this make sense why it is set up that way? It’s a bit of a bummer since I am catching up my math and can’t start on ANY of my sciences until Fall quarter. That means I have gone three quarters and haven’t even began on my degree.
Rad, I’d definitely hold off on the chem then. The CC I started at had college algebra as a pre req of gen chem. I’m not sure about where I am now though since I was already in the class.
Kimberly, I can understand it. glycolosis and phosphoralation are all a series of chemical reactions so a basic understanding of how they work is always helpful. The body performs quite a few redox reactions in order to maintain homeostasis as well. I took them at the same time and luckily we covered certain chemical topics a week or two before we hit them in bio so I could understand the material better. I can imagine, though, it would have been much more difficult if it didn’t work out that way.
well done. You have realized that the worse they can say is no and you are no better than where you were before. But you will never know unless you ask. Do not be afraid to ask.
Kim,
At Ohio State we have to take Chem 121 (the first in a series of 3) before we are allowed to take Bio 113. I didn’t understand why at first but it all made sense after the first week of lecture. The Chem background helps out a ton when cutting your teeth on carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleotides at the molecular level. All the stuff you learn in Chem about reactions also comes into play in Bio when they get into exergonic and endergonic reactions taking place at the cellular level. Taking Chem first made the process of learning about glycolysis, cellular respiration, photosynthesis, etc slightly more tolerable.
See I just took my Biology for Majors course and had no problem with it, he went over all of that and I grasped it with no problem but it seemed very basic chem regarding the glycolysis and cell resp. etc, all stuff that I remembered from high school, etc. And then a little more intense with the Krebs Cycle. But there was no equations in it. So I did fine. I’m just afraid to overload myself and I don’t see any reason to do that. I am tempted to try to rush in and do it but I have to remind myself that it’s a marathon, not a sprint and I need to have something left for the end!
I think it’s a good idea to have a background in chem before going into to biology world. That said you would be fine taking them simultaneously. When you say that your school “makes” you take chem first, does that meant that it’s not possible to take them together or just not suggested?