Chemistry rarely ever has a middle ground. Students will often either downright love the course or hate it. For high schoolers, this is not usually a required subject, and one can avoid it. However, things are slightly different in college.
Most colleges will require all entrants to take at least one chemistry class to qualify for graduation. For some students, their field of study requires one or more chemistry courses. Regardless of how they come to you, the goal is to ace them to maintain a good GPA at graduation.
If your chemistry grade is less than ideal, here are some tricks to help improve it.
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Study Material Before Class
Typically, you sit in a lecture then review the lecture after the class. The opposite has proven especially useful when studying chemistry.
This method, known as the flipped classroom, sees students read up on a topic independently before sitting the lecture for it; this allows them to be familiarized before class. This means a student will already know where they have difficulty and pay special attention to those bits in class. They can also come up with questions to ask in class for clarity.
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Understand The Requirements
Most schools provide students with a course outline at the start of the semester. A course detail schedule is essential in drawing a road map for students so they know what to expect.
This helps them prepare themselves and any resources and study tools they will need at different courses.
Be sure to look these over at the start of every semester.
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Study To Understand
Trying to memorize an entire chemistry course is a sure way to set yourself up for failure. The course has numerous concepts to be learned, and remembering them is only bound to make you feel overwhelmed.
Instead, strive to understand the fundamental principles of each chapter. If you need to memorize pieces of information, you can do this after understanding the material.
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Take Good Notes
Taking notes gives you an accurate record of your lectures. It also helps you learn more actively in class, so you are not constantly zoning out.
Taking down chemistry formulas makes them much easier to remember later on during individual study. This works far much better than trying to rely on memory.
Having good, clear notes also makes revising better. If you do not have any information gaps, studying becomes easier as you do not have to look for textbooks to fill in the missing information.
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Be Committed
There are courses where you can read notes without being in class and comprehend everything that was taught. Unfortunately, chemistry is not one of these.
To be successful in chemistry, you must first attend all classes religiously and be attentive to them. By doing this, you pick up essential details that will help enhance your studying.
One other thing you need to do is to dedicate an hour every day to review what you have learned. During this time, look at your notes, attempt to solve chemistry problems, and so on. These actions will help you get better at chemistry and keep things fresh in your mind.
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Use Study Tools
Reading from textbooks can get monotonous pretty quickly if it becomes your main mode of study day after day. It, therefore, helps to augment reading textbooks with different study tools and resources during your private study time.
One somewhat helpful study tool is flashcards. These are especially effective because they help students learn formulas, scientific symbols, and term definitions.