geNERAL cHEmistry
What I Was Supposed to Learn:
What I Actually Learned:
The introductory chemistry series took me by surprise because it challenged my study habits and grade expectations. I received my first C fall quarter and automatically I started re-thinking my career path. Looking back at that it seems silly to be so dramatic when I still had the rest of college to improve my grades, but I was a freshman and drama was necessary. As I moved through the series I learned to adjust how I studied and even how I listened in class. The snapshot below shows some grades I received in my last quarter of general chemistry. It really shows an important lesson of being at the UW, sometimes 50/100 is a good, no fantastic thing, why? Because if the average is 40% you just got a high B, you didn't fail. In addition to that, class lecture is 700 students and that means that when the TA's grade that many tests there's bound to be mistakes. In the final of Chemistry 162 I found a mistake in the point addition, went in to talk to the professor AFTER school got out and the correction boosted my class GPA by .2! Needless to say, I've been meticulously checking my tests ever since.
- general bonding
- covalent bonding: orbitals
- chemical kinetics
- liquids and solids: structure and intermolecular forces
- properties of solutions
- transition metals and coordination chemistry
- organic and biochemical molecules
What I Actually Learned:
- Always, ALWAYS double check your test for grading errors
- The curve is your friend (sometimes); you didn't ACTUALLY fail!
The introductory chemistry series took me by surprise because it challenged my study habits and grade expectations. I received my first C fall quarter and automatically I started re-thinking my career path. Looking back at that it seems silly to be so dramatic when I still had the rest of college to improve my grades, but I was a freshman and drama was necessary. As I moved through the series I learned to adjust how I studied and even how I listened in class. The snapshot below shows some grades I received in my last quarter of general chemistry. It really shows an important lesson of being at the UW, sometimes 50/100 is a good, no fantastic thing, why? Because if the average is 40% you just got a high B, you didn't fail. In addition to that, class lecture is 700 students and that means that when the TA's grade that many tests there's bound to be mistakes. In the final of Chemistry 162 I found a mistake in the point addition, went in to talk to the professor AFTER school got out and the correction boosted my class GPA by .2! Needless to say, I've been meticulously checking my tests ever since.