Chemistry Study Tips ?

Ideas to Help you Succeed in Chemistry

There is no 'magic formula' for learning chemistry. Basically it involves not getting behind, doing
your own work, and not psyching yourself out:
Don't procrastinate!
Cramming does not equal learning. es, yes, ! am a hypocrite... the queen of putting"off"
until"tomorrow. Take it from someone with e#perience: if you wait until the night before
a test to start studying you will suffer, your grades will suffer, etc.
Don't Procrastinate
!t's worth repeating$ !n chemistry you build from one concept onto the ne#t. ou need a
solid knowledge base to progress.
Try Flash Cards
%ey, they are used in elementary and primary school because &'()%C(*+) ,-*..
)ome of the information gets learned while making the cards and the rest can be learned
during practice.
ou get to switch around the order in which you view topics, which is something most
notebooks don't provide. /et some inde# cards and give it a try$
Try a Highlighter
0se it 1udiciously. The goal is not to turn your book or notes fluorescent. 2ost te#ts
already have important concepts in bold typeface. 0nless your teacher is very unusual, he
or she will almost always mention likely test questions, answers, and concepts. %ighlight
them$ )ome teachers take questions from a test bank, but those who write their own are
usually keeping a mental tally of concepts while teaching.
Make Mnemonic Devices
,hat you are doing here is taking the first letters of words in a sequence you are trying to
memori3e and making a phrase from them to serve as a memory aid. 4#ample: the
sequence of the first few elements in the periodic table %, %e, 'i, Be, B, C, 5, -, &, 5e
could be 6well, the one that came to my mind was actually dirty, which is easier to
remember7 %i %enry, 'ookin' Big, Bad, Certainly 5asty, -ld &riend " 5ot$ -k, it isn't
great literature. -ne popular mnemonic device is for metric prefi#es: .ilo" %ecto" +eca"
2eter 6liter, gram7 deci" centi" milli" .angaroos %opping +own 2ountains +rinking
Chocolate 2ilk. (lso, such phrases are even easier to memori3e if you put them to music.
no! "our Te#t
+o you have a glossary8 (nswers to problems in the back8 )elf"qui33es8 (ppendices full
of useful information8 &ind that out sooner rather than later. 0se the glossary. ou can't
communicate about a sub1ect without learning the terminology.
MUHAMMAD ZIA-UL-HAQUE
RATHORE
'ecturer in Chemistry
SZABIST !ntermediate College
2irpurkhas