Chemistry Trouble :(

JC06

Hi guys, just came here hoping to get some advice!
I started science in October and it's going ok-ish except for chemistry. I never did chemistry for the Leaving Cert and I feel like I've been thrown in the deep end now! I just haven't got a clue! I had hoped there would be more of an introduction to basic chemistry but it just feels like they're assuming everyone knows the stuff already! The labs are even worse I can't do any of the questions in the lab manuals at all. I've been going to the basic tutorials and they're helping a bit. Is there any hope? Do alot of people fail chemistry in first year? Should I get the recommended chemistry books or should I just start at the beginning with a Leaving Cert chemistry book? Any advice appreciated!!!

I think there are some basic books on Chemistry in the library to start off on - perhaps it might be good to ask the lecturer for some help and for what books might suit their lectures? Pop an e-mail off explaining how you're finding it difficult and ask for some advice, or for some books to help with the lectures.

Alternatively instead of trying to play catchup spend a few minutes going over the notes for the lecture you're going to do a bit before the lecture, if there are notes available or you know what sections the lecturer will be doing.

Fad

JC06 wrote: »

Hi guys, just came here hoping to get some advice!
I started science in October and it's going ok-ish except for chemistry. I never did chemistry for the Leaving Cert and I feel like I've been thrown in the deep end now! I just haven't got a clue! I had hoped there would be more of an introduction to basic chemistry but it just feels like they're assuming everyone knows the stuff already! The labs are even worse I can't do any of the questions in the lab manuals at all. I've been going to the basic tutorials and they're helping a bit. Is there any hope? Do alot of people fail chemistry in first year? Should I get the recommended chemistry books or should I just start at the beginning with a Leaving Cert chemistry book? Any advice appreciated!!!

You could do a revision course for LC chem at christmas, it covers the basics but it would be more exam centred, worth a shot though?

DennisSabre

You should consider getting grinds from one of the postgrads in the dept. Ask your lab demonstrator.

rosiec

hey,

I was the same, never opened a chemistry book till i got to college and was completey lost by week 3. I ended up getting grinds for about 4 months after christmas. That is the sole reason i passed, even then i only got a 40 mark. Dont let it freak you out, keep going to lectures and start looking for somebody to give you a hand going over stuff. If you that then you'll be grand

JC06

Thanks everyone! I just wanna pass so I can give it up next year! How are these lab manuals marked does anyone know? :eek:

CJTobin

Hi JC, you might want to get in touch with the Werner Chemical Society, they might be able to offer you some help. Check the grinds section of there website:

http://werner.csc.tcdlife.ie/

As far as I remember, the JF chemistry labs are worth 20%, but I could well be corrected on that. Stick with them, they get much better next term when you do organic chemistry.

godtabh

Isn’t there an introductory course you can do? I did one for engineering. That and the fact I asked loads and loads of questions got me through chemistry. You don’t understand it ask

CJTobin

Y'mean the basic chemistry tutorials that run the whole year through? JC mentioned that already, hopefully they'll help.

Jonathan

kearnsr wrote: »

Isn’t there an introductory course you can do? I did one for engineering. That and the fact I asked loads and loads of questions got me through chemistry. You don’t understand it ask

I did that and it was ****e..

Organic chemistry dude who ever he was just went on about the medical uses of chemistry.. and then proceeded to show us the structures of various drugs such as paracetamol and viagra.

CJTobin

The introductory chemistry course takes place the week before freshers' week, and it's open to everybody (science, engineering, medicine, physiotherapy etc), but there's also a set of basic chemistry tutorials that take place throughout the whole year. Dunno if they're open to everybody like the introductory course is though.

JC06

Oh yeah I went to that preliminary course just before Freshers Week. Alls I got out of it was how to do the molar mass stuff and balancing equations which was helpful I suppose! When are the chemistry exams? Is there one at Christmas? :eek:

Bajingo

Yeah I would say get an LC book for the basics or just a book from the library you know. The werener chem society will help you out im sure they get members to give grinds and help and stuff.

I did chemistry for the leaving cert and understand most of the stuff that they are saying..but I know what you mean they kind of say things passively when they assume you know it...im finding thermodynamics quite hard..try going over the stuff yourself aswell that helps me!...Good luck:D

CJTobin

I'd suggest the Rapid Revision chemistry book. It's by the same author as Chemistry Live, and ideally used as a supplement to the latter.

I'm not sure if there's an exam at Christmas or not (the whole JF science has been changed due to modularisation, AFAIK), but we had an exam after Christmas, worth 4%. Not much I know, but it could be the difference between grades at the end of the year. You'll know all about that soon enough though, don't worry for the moment.

Brian

CJTobin wrote: »

It's by the same author as Chemistry Live

Declan Kennedy?

Lol.

CJTobin

Baza210 wrote: »

Declan Kennedy?

Lol.

That's the one!!!

cf_al_bs

Hey JC06, im a JF doing chem as well. woo go us!
the lectures so far have all been leaving cert stuff except John Boland's stuff on thermodynamics.
The lab manual questions arent too bad, you just need to work out what they are asking. But sometimes neither me nor my friends can do some of them! (and I did chem for LC and got a HL B!) So dont worry about it too much just try your best and ask a friend to explain it to u.
I take it you're doing biology aswell?

Brian

I heard one of the Chemistry lecturers looks like Dominic Greene in Quantum of Solace.

cf_al_bs

Baza210 wrote: »

I heard one of the Chemistry lecturers looks like Dominic Greene in Quantum of Solace.

Wolfgang Schmidt? http://www.tcd.ie/Chemistry/staff/people/wolfgangschmitt.php

Jonathan

cf_al_bs wrote: »

Wolfgang Schmidt? http://www.tcd.ie/Chemistry/staff/people/wolfgangschmitt.php

Feck him anyway, trying to rob those Bolivians of water..

JC06

cf_al_bs wrote: »

Hey JC06, im a JF doing chem as well. woo go us!
the lectures so far have all been leaving cert stuff except John Boland's stuff on thermodynamics.
The lab manual questions arent too bad, you just need to work out what they are asking. But sometimes neither me nor my friends can do some of them! (and I did chem for LC and got a HL B!) So dont worry about it too much just try your best and ask a friend to explain it to u.
I take it you're doing biology aswell?

Hey!! I think I'll just have to hit the library...:( Yeah I'm doing biology aswell! Are you? How are you finding it? I hear we have some MCQ next week?:eek:

Brian

That's him alright. Him and his nefarious plan to charge double the price of what the utility companies used to charge.

cf_al_bs

JC06 wrote: »

Hey!! I think I'll just have to hit the library...:( Yeah I'm doing biology aswell! Are you? How are you finding it? I hear we have some MCQ next week?:eek:

Yeah I think the majority are doing chem+bio+maths/methods.
I'm finding chem ok so far. Didnt like bolands stuff, lost him after lecture one and so everything he said after that was just meaningless! Everything else has been pretty much LC stuff. Which parts have u found tricky? The chem labs are tough in general tho, I'm pestering the demonstrators!
Biology lectures are ok so far (i didnt do bio for LC so its all new to me! :eek:) Made the right choice dropping physics and taking it up tho. Bio lab questions are tough too. Like what the hell was going on with that lab assessment?! :eek:

Pet

Have you had the bumblebee phylogeny lab yet? Oh, your head, it will be wrecked. Utterly and completely.

cf_al_bs

Pet wrote: »

Have you had the bumblebee phylogeny lab yet? Oh, your head, it will be wrecked. Utterly and completely.

lol! no not yet...

Pet

Haha. Suffer the bumblebee lab! [though some people actually find it fairly straightforward. I was not one of those people.] And the truly wretched end-of-year MCQ! And the photosynthesis writeups!

On the bright side, though:
-Hilary term organic chemistry labs are really nice - there are practically no calculations in sight, and the writeups are simple.

-Biology annual exams are marked so much easier than you'd think.

-Maths methods, if you do it, is utter piss.

-You only need one textbook for each subject [the significance of this won't become apparent until later years].

JC06

cf_al_bs wrote: »

Yeah I think the majority are doing chem+bio+maths/methods.
I'm finding chem ok so far. Didnt like bolands stuff, lost him after lecture one and so everything he said after that was just meaningless! Everything else has been pretty much LC stuff. Which parts have u found tricky? The chem labs are tough in general tho, I'm pestering the demonstrators!
Biology lectures are ok so far (i didnt do bio for LC so its all new to me! :eek:) Made the right choice dropping physics and taking it up tho. Bio lab questions are tough too. Like what the hell was going on with that lab assessment?! :eek:

Ah thank God I'm not alone...Didn't really get any of Bolands stuff! The stuff we're doing now is better though. I can't stand those chem labs...too many questions and calculations!
Biology isn't too bad cos I did it for the LC...The genetics stuff is mostly LC stuff so it's grand! Oh God that lab assessment...wtf? :eek: Can't wait till Jan to get rid of maths mathods woo!:D

cf_al_bs

JC06 wrote: »

Ah thank God I'm not alone...Didn't really get any of Bolands stuff! The stuff we're doing now is better though. I can't stand those chem labs...too many questions and calculations!
Biology isn't too bad cos I did it for the LC...The genetics stuff is mostly LC stuff so it's grand! Oh God that lab assessment...wtf? :eek: Can't wait till Jan to get rid of maths mathods woo!:D

lol! hadnt a clue for the last question on the assessment where you had to make up your own experiment, so i threw a few things together that had related names and hoped for the best!
haha! i was very very tempted to move to maths methods... decided not to in the end cause i was only really moving so i had less work to do! :rolleyes: Are you going to do geology or foundation physics for sem2?

JC06

cf_al_bs wrote: »

lol! hadnt a clue for the last question on the assessment where you had to make up your own experiment, so i threw a few things together that had related names and hoped for the best!
haha! i was very very tempted to move to maths methods... decided not to in the end cause i was only really moving so i had less work to do! :rolleyes: Are you going to do geology or foundation physics for sem2?

What's maths like? Hard? I'm doing geology for semester 2 I hope it's interesting cos I'm really looking forward to it! Do you know if we have any exams for Christmas? :eek:

cf_al_bs

JC06 wrote: »

What's maths like? Hard? I'm doing geology for semester 2 I hope it's interesting cos I'm really looking forward to it! Do you know if we have any exams for Christmas? :eek:

Maths is em... alright. the lectures make it seem more complicated than it is i think. But the tutorials help a good bit and u actually get to do maths!
Plus Conor Haughton's stories are hilarious and timoney is just great. lol!
I think we just have a bio & chem multiple choice quiz. Both will be in goldhall. Supposedly they put the questions on the projectors for 60secs each. So 60questionsx60secs = 1hour of fun! As far as I know, they don't go towards end of yr grade and are there only for self-assessment to see if u need to study more.

JC06

cf_al_bs wrote: »

Maths is em... alright. the lectures make it seem more complicated than it is i think. But the tutorials help a good bit and u actually get to do maths!
Plus Conor Haughton's stories are hilarious and timoney is just great. lol!
I think we just have a bio & chem multiple choice quiz. Both will be in goldhall. Supposedly they put the questions on the projectors for 60secs each. So 60questionsx60secs = 1hour of fun! As far as I know, they don't go towards end of yr grade and are there only for self-assessment to see if u need to study more.

I already know I need to study more At least they don't count for anything though. 60 questions though...aww!!:( Can't wait for these Christmas holidays

CJTobin

JC06 wrote: »

Hey!! I think I'll just have to hit the library...:( Yeah I'm doing biology aswell! Are you? How are you finding it? I hear we have some MCQ next week?:eek:

Like Cf_al_bs said, it's just a self assessment thing, doesn't count toward your end of year mark. It's well worth going to, IMO, even though you're unlikely to ever get the results back.