Studying Chemistry Classes - Reading the Books

[cnidocyte]

I'm reading the book (Organic Chemistry by John McMurray) for my organic chemistry class at the moment and when I looked at the past exam papers and course structure I noticed it doesn't cover a lot of what I've read so far. My course only seems to cover a handful of chapters in the book. Its a single semester class. Are classes always like this as in they only cover a handful of chapters in the book?

 

[Borek]

One semester organic class is awfully short, no wonder it doesn't cover too much. Back in eighties I have attended three semesters course. Organic chemistry is wast.

 

[cnidocyte]

A semester in my college is half the year.

 

[General_Sax]

Are classes always like this as in they only cover a handful of chapters in the book?

Yes -- in my experience.

You should always coordinate your readings with the class syllabus, so you don't "waste time".

 

[cnidocyte]

Yes -- in my experience.

You should always coordinate your readings with the class syllabus, so you don't "waste time".

There no such thing as wasting time when you're learning chemistry. I learn concepts so that I know them forever, not to pass my chemistry course. Besides a lot of the extra currular stuff I learn helps me understand the stuff I do in college better. Takes revision and putting the theory into practice to make the memories permanent though.

 

[jtbell]

Textbooks almost always include more material than can reasonably be covered in a single course (or multiple-course sequence that the book is targeted for). This is because different courses and instructors cover somewhat different sets of topics, and publishers want to maximize sales by appealing to as many instructors as possible.

In physics, I don't remember ever taking or teaching a course in which the entire textbook was covered. (This covers a span of about forty years.)

 

[General_Sax]

Well, if you've enough time to self-study topics that aren't covered in your course, then your method works just fine.

Personally, I try to maximize my grades, so I don't study concepts that aren't covered in my courses.

 

[cnidocyte]

Well, if you've enough time to self-study topics that aren't covered in your course, then your method works just fine.

Personally, I try to maximize my grades, so I don't study concepts that aren't covered in my courses.

Good point, I often spend loads of time learning extra curricular topics and when I do the test I don't do that well because it doesn't include half the stuff I learned. Maybe its best to concentrate on what the course covers.

 

[Borek]

A semester in my college is half the year.

And the three semester course I have mentioned lasted a year and the half. There were several two semester courses (like GenChem, PhysChem, Analytical), but only one longer.