To succeed in general chemistry (that is, to learn the course material and receive a reasonable grade) you will need a well-organized approach and the commitment to stick to a fairly rigorous and time-demanding study schedule. Here are some suggestions about how to approach doing well in the course.
1. Allocate your time and set study goals in advance. You will require no less than 10 hours of study time each week, beginning in the first week of the semester. You will get much more value for time and energy invested if you plan in advance what you intend to accomplish in each study session. Because you are trying to acquire useful habits, setting up your study sessions at regular times and in the same, comfortable place is a good idea. Choose these times and places to minimize interruption and distraction: this means no television and no loud music, and preferably a place where multiple friends will not drop by multiple times. Focus on work from the moment you sit down; relax during breaks.Your plan for each new topic should include the following activities:
2. Practice daily! Just as in studying a foreign language, multiple daily sessions yield better results than one marathon session each week (or even worse, the night before an exam). An important aid to efficiency is using your larger blocks of time for large jobs, like working problems, and your smaller scraps of time for small jobs, like drilling with flash cards.
3. Study actively, with pencil or pen in hand. Outline textual material rather than highlighting it. Highlighting is too passive. As you work, write formulas or draw structures for molecules mentioned by name. When you encounter a summary, write it down, preferably in your own words, don't just read it. Even speak the summary items out loud. Other active study methods:
Experimental psychologists have demonstrated that material learned by passive methods usually can be recognized as correct when encountered later, but cannot be recalled at will. Deliberate recall is the aim of learning!
4. Schedule short breaks at regular intervals during study. Ten minutes out of every hour is a good proportion. Use the break to stretch and walk around, get yourself a cold drink, make a short telephone call, or anything else that takes your mind off chemistry for a few minutes. Consider the break a reward for working hard during the preceeding 50 minutes.
5. Make sure your study plan includes reviewing for exams, but does not include "all-nighters" or frantic scrambling right up to the minute of the exam. These self-defeating measures only lead to panic. Instead, leave room in your schedule for an enjoyable activity in the few hours before the exam: a walk in the woods, dinner with a good friend (avoiding discussion of the exam), watching a favorite video. You want to enter the exam room calm and confident that your organized preparation has you ready for the exam.
Using Flash Cards. Inevitably, some things must be memorized. In General Chemistry, definitions of chemical terms are the most common targets for memorization. Make a 3" x 5" card for each term: the word or term on one side, the definition on the other. To use the card, do not merely glance at one side and then the other. This is passive studying! Instead, stack the cards face up. On a blank sheet of paper, write the definition as you recall it. Move on to the next card. Go through the entire stack of cards before checking your responses. The next time you work with the cards, stack them definition side up, and write the term to which the definition applies. (Some people use a vertically folded sheet of paper instead of cards. Write the term on one side of the fold, and the definition on the other.
These suggestions and the other learning and problem-solving methods taught during the course are based on long-term observations of (and by) many students, and on proven psychological principles. The approach works best if you support it in these ways:
1. Put your study plan into operation immediately! Begin even before the first class meeting. Try to anticipate temptations to break your study schedule, and fight them actively. Skip a study session only if you have managed to complete the scheduled work in advance. If you plan ahead, major social events need not become impediments to good grades.
2. Make a list of the reasons why you need good grades in general chemistry! Fasten it to the inside of your notebook cover. Then, if you feel yourself losing momentum, or are tempted to give up you study plan, look at the list.
3. Use all of the resources available to you. Many students don't. Some of the most important resources are:
4. Adopt a positive attitude about the course. Forget what you may have heard about the difficulty of the course or the nastiness of the instructor. Remember that many such comments originate with people not prepared or organized to do the work. Using the methods described here gives you a pronounced advantage. The instructor's job is not to entertain you or build your "self-esteem". It is to instruct you. Base your judgements of the instructor on how well the material is presented, what learning aids are made available, how accessible he or she is, and so on, rather than on the intangible of "niceness". The greatest possible enhancement of self-esteem comes from tackling a difficult job and doing well at it by hard work and perseverance.
5. Try to make other aspects of your life as comfortable as possible while tackling this difficult and demanding course. If possible, schedule chemistry when the rest of your course load is relatively light. Make time for exercise, which is the best stress reducer of all.
Above all, keep repeating to yourself, "I am going to stay on schedule in this course!"