With finals coming up, I just wanted to put together a few tips. Feel free to message me about anything you need help on and I’ll help you to the best of my abilities. Anyways, here we go!
Don’t leave your studying all to the last minute. I cannot stress this enough. Chemistry can be very confusing and therefore might take longer to study for then other classes. Five 1 hour study sessions beats one 5 hour session every time.
Use your textbook. Honestly, it’s surprising how many people just ignore their book and only use their notes. This is fine in some cases, but in most textbooks there are practice problems at the end of each chapter which may be very similar to the ones of the exam.
Double-check material. You may be tempted to only study the sections you don’t understand or forgot. Don’t do this. Seriously, I’ve done this before and when I got to the test I realized I had forgot the material I was confident with in the first place. Basically, review the hard things first, but don’t forget to go over the things you think you know already.
Memorize the formulas and constants. This should be obvious but you should know formulas and constants backwards, forwards, and upside down (I’m joking, but seriously..). Looking at a problem and realizing you don’t know the formula is literally the worst thing.
Practice with the calculator you are going to use on the test. Again, this should be obvious but just in case I’m going to put it on here.
Go over the steps. Drawing Lewis structures and balancing equations take many steps so make sure you know all of them, and which order the steps go in.
Watch videos. For auditory and visual learners (like myself), watching videos can be a helpful asset while studying for an exam. My favorites include Crash Course (more general) and Khan Academy (more specific). Pro Tip: I like to speed up Khan Academy videos 1.25x or 1.5x because they are a bit slow for me.
Use premade study guides. Sparknotes has some good ones, you can find a ton if you just google search. If you want the ones I make for myself just send me a message.
Don’t rely on flash cards too much. Flashcards can be useful but if your teacher is anything like mine, you will have to be able to understand and explain concepts, not just rattle off a bunch of definitions. I found that flashcards help me more on multiple choice tests, not so much on free-response ones.
Review your labs. Concepts found on your labs will most likely appear on your final, and it’s good to have the fresh in your memory. This is also helpful for tactical learners because they might remember concept better that they have seen and experienced themselves.
Keep track of your units. Always the unit on the end of an answer. There is usually a unit on everything.
Look over all of the questions when you get the test. Do the easy ones first. This seems counterintuitive, but seriously, trust me.
Proofread all of your free response questions before turning in the test.
Check your math. Twice. Thee times. Make sure it’s right. Stupid math errors are usually what makes the difference between and A- and B+.
Keep track of sig figs and don’t use rounded values. Rounding your answer should be the very last thing you do.
Write something. Usually you get some points for writing what you know, or guessing, rather than leaving the answer blank.
Re-check all answers at the end. Honestly, I never used to do this but surprisingly it helps a lot.
tons of downloadable content and notes
test where your weak areas are
answered questions on just about any topic concerning chemistry
calculator to balance equations
unit conversion calculator
a bunch of free online courseware
all of my personal study guides (made by me featuring material from my awesome chemistry teacher) are now available for free HERE.
Remember that grades don’t matter much compared to learning about how amazing the world is and the intricate processes that allow the universe to exist. Happy studying!
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