How to Study for Chem 112
This document is a summary of advice that previous students have found
beneficial. If you are looking for the formalized expectations for this course,
please see the course outline posted on Blackboard.
There are many different learning styles; you need to find a method of studying
that works well for you.
Compared to high school, University puts a much greater emphasis on selfstudy. In high school, your teachers likely went over important concepts
multiple times and gave you time to work on practice problems in class. In
University, lectures proceed at a much more rapid pace, leaving little time for
review. For this reason, it is recommended that you read the relevant
textbook sections before coming to class. This way, when you attend lecture
you already have a basic understanding of the material and the lecture can
clarify any concepts you struggled with. You may have heard the rule of
thumb that for every one hour of lecture you need to spend three hours doing
self-study. This rule may seem excessive for some classes but with the
mandatory laboratories and the weekly assignments, you’ll find that this rule
applies to Chem 112. In fact, when students in my last class were polled, the
majority of students said they spent 6 – 10 hours a week doing
Chemistry homework.
Chem 112 is an introductory class that is designed to teach the basics of
General Chemistry. You may find that you have already learned a lot of its
material in high school. However, please be aware that in University you will
be expected to produce higher quality work and write more challenging
exams than in high school. Also, some of the methods you learned in high
school may no longer apply, now that you’ve advanced to a higher level or
they may not communicate your work to the marker properly. So please do
all the work for each topic, regardless if you learned the material in high
school or not.
Studying for a math based science class, such as Chem 112, is going to be
quite different from studying for your classes that aren’t problem solving
based. Re-writing your notes after class, making flash cards, and taking notes
from the textbook are excellent ways to study - however, these methods only
work for memorizations topics. There is a lot of memorization required in
Chem 112 but you do not get marks for regurgitating information on exams,
you have to apply your memorization to problem solving to receive marks.
For this reason, you’ll find that the best way to study chem 112 is to do lots
of practice problems.
It is best to do practice problems that have their problem solving method
provided in the solution. This way you can learn which methods are used for
each problem. On long answer exam questions, you will be marked on your
problem solving method so be sure to check that your method is correct when
you check your answer. If you make a mistake, try to think how you can avoid
making that same mistake in the future. If an answer is provided without a
problem solving method, you can still find mistakes in your solution by
comparing an incorrect answer to the correct answer. For instance, if you
receive an incorrect answer of 0.25 g and the correct answer is 0.50 g, your
answer is off by a factor of 2, go back through your work to see if you forgot to
multiply by 2 somewhere. Checking your work is discussed more thoroughly
in the document ‘Writing Chem 112 exams’.
On University Chemistry exams, you will likely be given less information on
the data sheet than you received in high school. When you are doing
practice problems, use the sample exam data sheet that is posted on
Blackboard. Any other data or information you have to look up to
answer the problem should be memorized before the exam.
The topics you are expected to master for this course are listed in the
chapter breakdown in your course outline. It is much better to study by
topic than to read through your notes repeatedly. Choose a topic from the
course outline and then do practice problems on that topic until you feel
you’ve mastered it. You’ve ‘mastered’ a type of problem once you’ve been able
to answer it correctly multiple times (showing all necessary steps and
without looking anything up).
If you want to prioritize your studying, look at each chapter and pick out
the topics that you believe to be the most important. These are the topics
that were emphasized in class the most, that you need to apply frequently in
labs and assignments, and/or that show up on most practice exams. Master
these important topics before moving on to others.
If being nervous has a tendency to cloud your judgment on exams, you
should ‘over prepare’ so you feel more confident while writing your
exam. Keep up with the lecture through out the term. Two weeks before the
midterm go through your notes to get an idea of how much time you should
be spending studying every night. Plan to ‘finish’ your studying a few days in
advance to give you time to do a few practice exams. Try to recreate the exam
setting as much as possible when you do your practice exams. Time yourself
and only use the exam data sheet for information. After, you’ve done a few
exams look through them and make notes of which topics you struggled with
as well as which topics you have mastered. Spend the last few days before the
exam reviewing the topics you struggled with.
If you are struggling on the assignments, you will find they are a lot
easier if you are caught up on the relevant lecture material first. In fact, if
you study prior to attempting the assignments, you may find that you save
time overall as you will be less likely to waste time doing the questions
incorrectly. The hint option on the assignments will usually walk you through
the problem solving strategy, leaving you to do the math. You will want to
practice developing problem solving strategies, as that is the hardest part on
your exam. If you use the hint option, pay attention to the prompts the
website gives you so you can learn the problem solving strategy for that
question. If you are really struggling with an assignment question, stop by the
Chemistry Learning Centre (Thorv. 162) to see one of the Chem 112 lecturers.
The best places to find practice problems are (in order of preference):
1. Examples from lectures and reviews. These have problem solving
strategies and answers. Do not simply re-read the solution, cover up the
solution in your notes and re-work the problem.
2. Review material (non-graded, practice assignments) on Mastering
Chemistry. Problem solving strategy provided through ‘hints’ option, answer
provided after submission of correct answer or selection of ‘give up’ option.
3. Practice problems at the end of each chapter (except some of the
challenge problems in chapter 3). Answers are found after the questions.
4. Mastering Chemistry assignments. If you have already done the
assignment, select ‘redo for practice’ option. Problem solving strategies are
provided through ‘hints’ option, answers are provided after submission of the
correct answer.
5. Any of the midterm or final exams posted on Blackboard. Answers are
posted on Blackboard. Problem solving strategies will be covered by request
at the pre-exam tutorials. To receive the most benefit from the pre-exam
tutorials, do all the practice exams before arriving and bring your work to the
tutorial. This way you can request the solution at the tutorial and compare
your strategy to the lecturer’s. You can also bring your solutions to the
Chemistry Learning Centre to check your answers with one of the lecturers
(Thorv. 162).
6. Practice session of online portion of lab 8 (reviews most of chapter 9
and 10, not available until later in the term). Submissions are marked correct
or incorrect.
7. Practice exams from Chemistry Student Society. Located in G5 Thorv.
You must purchase a CS2 membership to access the exam file. Answers are not
provided. Contact a tutor (tutor list on thecs2.ca) or bring the exam to the
Chemistry Learning Centre (Thorv. 162) to check your answers with a Chem
112 professor.