Chemistry tutorial sites

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v1et r1ce

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Well I'm starting college this Fall and took a few placement tests. One of them was chemistry, and I did really bad. So bad, that I have to take a basic chem summer course before I can get into 101.

The textbook I ordered is on the way (hopefully), and I was wondering if there were any sites that helped with basic chemistry? I don't want to sit here and waste time since the course closes on the 28th of this month.

btw, if it helps, the textbook is titled "Chemistry, The Molecular Science", 3rd Ed. The course covers the first five chapters, and they're titled...

  1. The Nature of Chemistry
  2. Atoms and Elements
  3. Chemical Compounds
  4. Quantities of Reactants and Products
  5. Chemical Reactions
 
This is pretty long so if you want to ignore it just go to the link provided. I just typed my thoughts and tips on this class.

Sounds like you are taking Chemistry 100 which should not be that bad if you take the time to sit down and study. Most important tip I can give you is to practice the problems and ask for help when you need it from your TA's or Teacher. Students have no trouble memorizing basic facts about elements and isotopes etc. Students tend to run into more trouble when they encounter the chemistry calculations (such as molarity, determining emperical formula etc.) Assuming you are getting your book soon, I say that if you go to class and take notes you should be fine at least for a week until your book comes. You will probably learn about basics like density, matter, solids/liquids/gases etc. The first week or so is pretty basic stuff that you can pick up easily by sitting down and memorizing. Another tip is to take a look at the periodic table, and get a feel for where the elements are. Metals are on the left side, non metals on the right side. You'll learn the other specific names like halogens later on. This will be useful because later on you will have to find a given element and you have to find it's atomic mass which is on the periodic table.

here is a fairly good site that explains the basics pretty well.http://www.chem1.com/acad/webtext/virtualtextbook.html
 
I took first-quarter Chem without the prereq (didn't take HS chem or anything) and did fine... the only tough part was vocabulary and naming... when you get the book, make flash cards of all the vocab words... then make flash cards for naming ions, your book might have specific ions to learn but you can find the usual suspects just by googling "common polyatomic ions" and "common monatomic ions"...

I shit my pants the first day of class when the prof was like "Okay, we're gonna review naming conventions for polyatomic ions today" and I was just wondering "what's an ion?"... I made flash cards, studied my ass off the first week memorizing vocab, it was easy after that.

My roommate a couple years ago took the remedial chem and it was pretty much all vocabulary (and a little about units / measuring / sig figs).
 
Thanks for the advice!

I forgot to mention that the course is all online, and they use like OWL and Cengage for the tests/prep etc. Because of this, I have to do pretty much everything on my own. Reading/studying textbooks isn't my strong point either..
 
With it being an online course you have to really want to sit down and learn this stuff. You will be tempted to say I know this without working the problems and you may pass the online tests. But it won't help you out in the long haul because in Chem 101 they generally review everything you learned in Chem 100 except in a faster pace. I think you will do just fine, just make sure you work the problems.
 
If you know basic math (like "convert 0.37x10^8 milliliters to liters") you can probably skip reading the chapters and just make flash cards of the ions... lione "HO-" on one side and "Hydroxide" on the other side... at least I think HO- is Hydroxide, I don't really remember, it's been a couple years & I'm Computer Engineering so fuck Chemistry (only needed first quarter)
 
I'm a chemical engineer. I enjoy chemistry, and would be happy to answer the occasional question over AIM or something. What school are you going to?
 
I love chemistry. Koggit's got a good point, in my experience knowing the names and charges of your polyatomic ions is important, at least for the two chemistry classes I've had. Flash cards are a must! I learned those before my first year of chem and still needed that knowledge at the end of my second year with AP chem.
 
ChibiJosh - I'm going to Drexel in Philly. And yeah it'd be awesome if I could ask you questions on AIM when I need it. My AIM is v1etr1ce ;)

pHi - Are you talking about the math aspect of chemistry? That's like the one thing I'm good at haha. I think on the placement test, the only questions I got right were the math related ones...but I still need to memorize formulas and such.

Koggit, Rocko - I haven't taken chemistry since Sophmore year. When you guys say ions and their charges..I only vaguely remember what you're talking about..haha. Guess I need to read up on that -_-

Thanks everyone!
 
[quote name='v1et r1ce']ChibiJosh - I'm going to Drexel in Philly. And yeah it'd be awesome if I could ask you questions on AIM when I need it. My AIM is v1etr1ce ;)[/QUOTE]

My AIM is ShinChibiJosh. Feel free to use it.
 
So I got my book today and I started the course.

Can anyone explain the difference between homogeneous and heterogeneous mixtures? I'm having trouble understanding it...
 
Homogeneous (Note that homo=same) mixtures have a uniform distribution. Everything is randomly distributed, there is no clear division between different components. Heterogeneous mixtures are not uniform, like oil and water.
 
For homo and hetero mixtures I generally like to tell my students to think about it visually. For instance I compare a homogeneous mixture to gasoline, in that you know there are different components in it but you can't pick out the difference. While a heterogeneous mixture is similar to a mixed salad, you can clearly identify where the lettuce is, the tomato is etc. Hope it helps even though Rocko's answer is more precise.
 
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