Help Me Please

[tourmaline]

Has anyone here studied Chemistry to undergraduate level? If so, can you please explain everything?

I am really struggling with my course right now, and getting really stressed given that next week I am away at a conference for part of the week and so that, plus Christmas activities, effectively rule out studying. I'm having trouble understanding practically everything I've read so far.

It's not all my fault, I believe - we have only the book to go on. The previous book (Physics) had lots of videos and animations to watch, including completely pointless stuff like watching someone rearrange loads of equations. The book burbles on about ions and valencies and bonds and electrical charges with really tiny diagrams to explain it all. There isn't even a copy of the Periodic Table - well there is one printed in the book, but I would have thought it reasonable to include a laminated A4 copy separately so the book didn't get thrashed to pieces cos you're constantly turning pages back & forth to read it. Given that previous courses have included laminated A4 lists of contents of the books ("a handy bookmark") I'd like to know what chemicals the people who put together this part of the course had ingested.

Thing is, if I can't pass Chemistry, I won't pass the course. Which means no degree, no future that's any different from my past, nothing. I've asked for help on the course forum (which is for students and teaching staff) but so far nothing. I hope someone answers with something that will help, because I don't know what I'm going to do otherwise.

Comments

[kiwi-from-hell.livejournal.com]

I only just scraped through my chemistry A level, so I won't be able to help. It *is* horrible. Someone at chemistryhelp may be able to answer a few things for you. Good luck!

[tourmaline1973.livejournal.com]

Thank you! *hugs you for being fab*

The sad thing is, I was looking forward to studying Chemistry because I haven't really studied it properly before, and I've often gazed at the Periodic Table and wondered what it all meant.

I've calmed down a little now. Had some food and some Boffle.

[topaz-eyes.livejournal.com]

I have an undergrad degree in biochemistry--it's been several years, but is there anything specific that you need?

[tourmaline1973.livejournal.com]

Specifically? Everything, it feels like.

I think a lot of what my course covers overlaps with what is taught at A-level (ie age 16-18; my course is equivalent to 1st year undergraduate), and I think I *could* understand it if it was explained in a format I could follow. Unusually for OU, Chemistry is all book-learning and no interactive DVD stuff or movies to watch.

I started getting a bit lost around electrical charges, then got thoroughly confused about electron shells and subshells. And I'm not even pretending to understand valence things.

I was hoping there may be a study aid website out there somewhere, maybe with graphics? Are you aware of any online resources I could investigate?

Thank you ((hugs))

[topaz-eyes.livejournal.com]

I saw this one written by Harvard students.

http://www.sparknotes.com/chemistry/

Is this what you've been looking for?

[tourmaline1973.livejournal.com]

I think it's exactly what I've been looking for.

Thank you so much! You're fantastic and awesome <3

[surrey-sucks.livejournal.com]

What specifically do you need help with? First year chemistry is a pretty broad topic!

[tourmaline1973.livejournal.com]

So far the course has covered the structure of atoms, making molecules, isotopes, ions, valencies - I gather not understanding this won't get me far, even though I don't plan to study chemistry in great depth.

A couple of people have already recommended some good websites giving an overview of or introduction to chemistry, but if you have a favourite link to share I'd be interested in following that too. Thank you :)

[surrey-sucks.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, I don't have any good links. I had to rely on teachers and text books!

Are there any tutoring services at your school?

[luna-argentea.livejournal.com]

Have you contacted your tutor? Mine kept telling me not to spend even 20 minutes worrying on my own but to make contact straight away and ask him for help.* He also said that in his 20 years of experience as an OU tutor I was not the sort of student who tends to give up. This was because I was asking lots of questions. It sounds to me as if you also have lots of questions. You must do or you wouldn't be feeling so stressed. So this means you must also be the sort of student that my tutor would say doesn't give up.

*However, the second tutor who replaced him when he suddenly became ill near the end of the course was hard to understand, kept making mistakes and I had to correct him!

My suggestions are:

1. Ask your tutor for help. If you don't understand after the first phone call/email, contact him/her again and keep doing so as many times as necessary until you understand.

2. Don't worry. I spent practically the whole eight months of my OU chemistry course in a state of anxiety. I lost count of the number of times I ended up in tears in sheer panic/frustration. I felt as if most of it was going in one eye and out the other. I found it very difficult to understand, let alone retain. But I kept going and did the exam. If I can do it, so can you!

3. Just an idea: borrow Book 1 of S205 from your Regional Office (you can visit in person or get them to post it to you). It contains all the revision (presumably of the Level 1 science course) that you need to go on to the rest of S205. I found it gave me a lot of confidence. (This state of mind lasted until Book 2!)

4. One thing I found very hard because I'm the sort of person who wants to understand everything in depth was that sometimes I ended up just having to accept things on a surface level when I really wanted to go into it all more slowly and thoroughly to understand it properly. In this way it was not my idea of a satisfying learning experience. Skimming over things does not come naturally to me. But I ended up doing this to some extent and it did make it less stressful. In some cases I found that when I went back and read the section for the second/third time, much to my surprise I could understand it after all.

5. If all else fails, you could ask me but I can't promise I can help and would definitely recommend asking your tutor first!

[tourmaline1973.livejournal.com]

Thank you for your support (((hugs))) The S205 book sounds a good idea, I will bear it in mind.

I've posted for help via the official channels but haven't heard back yet. I'm tempted to settle just for what I need to know for the assignment, but I think I'll need a bit more to understand stuff later in the course.

[audrey1hepburn1.livejournal.com]

I'm a fan of this website.

http://antoine.frostburg.edu/chem/senese/101/just-ask-antoine.shtml

[tourmaline1973.livejournal.com]

Thank you, that looks a good read, just what I hoped someone would recommend - when I was at University before (I did a social studies degree in the 1990s) the Internet as we know it was just a baby, so it's still something of a novelty to use in this way. Plus, I get the impression that US universities are more accomplished in providing this sort of info than here in the UK (I just skip the page that explains metric units :))

[audrey1hepburn1.livejournal.com]

I teach high school chemistry, so I know a lot of websites that break things down. Let me know if you need any other help.

[tourmaline1973.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I've only skimmed over the sites I've been recommended so far (looking promising all round) but I feel loads better about this already :)

[dubliminal.livejournal.com]

I'm a biotech major but have done a fair amount of chemistry (general, organic, inorganic, bio, etc.) throughout my studies, and in my off-time I work as a math/science tutor at a learning centre. If you need help along the way with anything specific, please feel free to ask (I don't bite!)

In the meantime, I've thrown a couple of PDFs of chemistry texts I've found useful up on my server. The Whitten book, in particular, is a goodie; I have a hard copy of the newest edition and use it all the time as a quick reference. Anyway, maybe one of these will be of more help than your current book:

Chemistry (3rd ed), W Evans (12 MB)
General Chemistry (6th ed) - K.W. Whitten (120 MB)
Mathematics for Physical Chemistry (3rd ed), R.G. Mortimer (3 MB)
Solving General Chemistry Problems (5th ed), R.N. Smith (16 MB)
Theory and Problems of Beginning Chemistry (3rd ed), D.E. Goldberg (5 MB)

And a book that is a must-have reference for any science student, imo:

CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics (85th ed) (48 MB)

[tourmaline1973.livejournal.com]

o_O

Thank you so much! I will investigate some of these, I really appreciate your help on this *hugs*

Thanks to the Harvard students link posted in an earlier reply, I think this is starting to come together. I was going to do half an hour's quick reading on this today; two hours on, I'm still not done, I just answered a question from my book correctly (on the electronic configuration of Calcium) and two days ago it made no sense whatsoever to me. So I'm feeling more optimistic now.

Plus I'm still finding Chemistry intriguing and exciting and awesome. For instance, the idea that you could have gaseous gold. Dashed hot, and sounds wonderfully preposterous, but technically possible :)

[silvermask.livejournal.com]

Hi,
I saw your post in Chemistryhelp. Looks like you've gotten some good leads already, but if you need any more help feel free to shoot me an IM or email (contact info in my profile). I'm a chem major and I've done a fair bit of tutoring, so I could probably be helpful.

[tourmaline1973.livejournal.com]

Thank you, yes the mist is rapidly clearing on atom structure, chemical bonds, valencies, ions etc - enough for me to draft an answer to my assessment on this. Hopefully I can continue to progress :)