Improve Chemistry Problem Solving: Tips & Advice from Fellow Students

[john16O]

Usually when I am reading my chemistry textbook and I come along a mathematical problem such as the gas laws or thermo chemistry I tend to shy away from doing them and vow to come back to them and look over them later but I never do. And in the end those are the questions that I miss on the exam. Can you guys give me some advice or if you had the same problem, what you did you do to fix it? I am also trying to improve my problem solving skills, is there any advice that you guys could offer up?

Thank you to all in advance!

 

[leon1127]

... tend to shy away from doing them and vow to come back to them and look over them later but I never do...

What about the solution 'do it'? It should be a very effective solution to your problem

 

[john16O]

lol, ill have to try that sometime. No but seriously, i tend to procrastinate when it comes to problems like that because it seems like if I stop and try to do the problem it will end up taking to much time to figure out. you know what i mean? and then I am just like, heck with this ill do these later. I guess i have to just stop being so lazy?

 

[Poop-Loops]

Don't skip over it. The book is written in that order for a reason. You'll need to know the math to understand everything all the way. You really just have to do it.

 

[G01]

I agree with the other guys. It seems you know fairly well where your problem lies. You may not like that answer, but you are probably going to have to do the problems.

Have you tried budgeting time to them. For example, set an hour a day, say 7:00PM-8:00PM to work specifically on chemistry work. Make a list of stuff you want to cover during the course of the week. Eventually, you'll cover everything but those problems you don't care for. You'll then have to spend time on them to fill up the hours near the end of the week and check off everything on the list. Maybe some structure like this will help you to curb your procrastination a little bit.

Another idea, along the same lines, would be to budget a smaller amount of time everyday specifically to those problems.

 

[ZapperZ]

Usually when I am reading my chemistry textbook and I come along a mathematical problem such as the gas laws or thermo chemistry I tend to shy away from doing them and vow to come back to them and look over them later but I never do. And in the end those are the questions that I miss on the exam. Can you guys give me some advice or if you had the same problem, what you did you do to fix it? I am also trying to improve my problem solving skills, is there any advice that you guys could offer up?

Thank you to all in advance!

lol, ill have to try that sometime. No but seriously, i tend to procrastinate when it comes to problems like that because it seems like if I stop and try to do the problem it will end up taking to much time to figure out. you know what i mean? and then I am just like, heck with this ill do these later. I guess i have to just stop being so lazy?

I'm puzzled here. It seems that you already know what the problem is and how to solve it. And from what I've read, several other people also see the same thing.

You know what you should do, you just don't do it. It is as simple as that, don't you think?

Zz.