Is HSC chemistry a lot different compared to Prelim Chemistry ? (1 Viewer)

[RyanT7]

Did you find it easier/more enjoyable than prelim Chem ?

Do you need a whole lot of prelim knowledge to do well in HSC chem ?

 

[InteGrand]

Did you find it easier/more enjoyable than prelim Chem ?

Do you need a whole lot of prelim knowledge to do well in HSC chem ?

It's pretty different. Most of Prelim Chemistry knowledge is irrelevant for HSC Chemistry. Different people have different preferences of Prelim vs. HSC Chemistry.

 

[DatAtarLyfe]

I actually like prelim chem better, its a lot more pure. Hsc chem is completely about the applications, which is nice but yeh

 

[Speed6]

It's quite different to prelim. I enjoy HSC chemistry more than I did for prelim. I particularly like The Acidic Environment topic for HSC Chem because mainly you get to do really enjoyable pracs like titrations (by far my favourite) and esterifications.

There's a lot of rote though lol, be warned.

 

[Nailgun]

chem sucks

 

[InteGrand]

chem sucks

What is the main reason you think it sucks? haha

 

[Nailgun]

What is the main reason you think it sucks? haha

Nothing made sense to me intuitively lol
I basically rote-learned everything
like everything was random bits of information that somehow were meant to make sense

eg. you use a mixture of titanium(III) chloride and a trialkylaluminium as a catalyst to form HDPE in the Ziegler Natta Process.

Legit nothing in that sentence has any intuitive meaning to me
Why do we use a mixture? What happens if we change the proportion of quantities
Why do different titanium (forgot what they're called the transition metal thingos like Iron (II) and Iron (III) ) have such different properties
What is a trialkylaluminium, and why do we use that specifically? What special properties or effects does it have
How do catalysts even work, I know they decrease activation energy but that's what they do not how they do it
How does that specific catalyst induce unbranched chains

Legit all I know is HDPE is denser than LDPE because it has no branching so it can be packed closer togther.
This is just a small portion of the syllabus - I don't understand why everything happens, I just know it does - that's what I remember
Hence why I hated it lol
The biggest use of brainpower in that subject was like balancing equations and stuff lol

 

[Trebla]

Nothing made sense to me intuitively lol
I basically rote-learned everything
like everything was random bits of information that somehow were meant to make sense

eg. you use a mixture of titanium(III) chloride and a trialkylaluminium as a catalyst to form HDPE in the Ziegler Natta Process.

Legit nothing in that sentence has any intuitive meaning to me
Why do we use a mixture? What happens if we change the proportion of quantities
Why do different titanium (forgot what they're called the transition metal thingos like Iron (II) and Iron (III) ) have such different properties
What is a trialkylaluminium, and why do we use that specifically? What special properties or effects does it have
How do catalysts even work, I know they decrease activation energy but that's what they do not how they do it
How does that specific catalyst induce unbranched chains

Legit all I know is HDPE is denser than LDPE because it has no branching so it can be packed closer togther.
This is just a small portion of the syllabus - I don't understand why everything happens, I just know it does - that's what I remember
Hence why I hated it lol
The biggest use of brainpower in that subject was like balancing equations and stuff lol

That's kinda HSC Science in general. You don't learn the concepts properly until uni.

 

[InteGrand]

Nothing made sense to me intuitively lol
I basically rote-learned everything
like everything was random bits of information that somehow were meant to make sense

eg. you use a mixture of titanium(III) chloride and a trialkylaluminium as a catalyst to form HDPE in the Ziegler Natta Process.

Legit nothing in that sentence has any intuitive meaning to me
Why do we use a mixture? What happens if we change the proportion of quantities
Why do different titanium (forgot what they're called the transition metal thingos like Iron (II) and Iron (III) ) have such different properties
What is a trialkylaluminium, and why do we use that specifically? What special properties or effects does it have
How do catalysts even work, I know they decrease activation energy but that's what they do not how they do it
How does that specific catalyst induce unbranched chains

Legit all I know is HDPE is denser than LDPE because it has no branching so it can be packed closer togther.
This is just a small portion of the syllabus - I don't understand why everything happens, I just know it does - that's what I remember
Hence why I hated it lol
The biggest use of brainpower in that subject was like balancing equations and stuff lol

Yeah, usually they don't explain the "why"s (and going through the effort of trying to understand it is usually not rewarded in the exam, due to the nature of questions asked etc.).

 

[Nailgun]

Like, at least with physics it's not hard to puzzle your way to at least a basic understanding of almost how everything works
like, relativity is a very counter intuitive concept, but if you accept einsteins assertion of constancy of c, then it does start to make sense intuitively
even the rote learning parts of motors make a lot of intuitive sense - like its fairly logical that AC is better than DC, you can show mathematically its more efficient

(although im told there's quite a few things later on which aren't done properly like BCS theory)

plus if there's something you don't understand, you can legit just think about it and try and relate it to your real life experience, or even try it

 

[InteGrand]

Like, at least with physics it's not hard to puzzle your way to at least a basic understanding of almost how everything works
like, relativity is a very counter intuitive concept, but if you accept einsteins assertion of constancy of c, then it does start to make sense intuitively
even the rote learning parts of motors make a lot of intuitive sense - like its fairly logical that AC is better than DC, you can show mathematically its more efficient

(although im told there's quite a few things later on which aren't done properly like BCS theory)

plus if there's something you don't understand, you can legit just think about it and try and relate it to your real life experience, or even try it

Yeah, the BCS theory as taught in HSC Physics is actually wrong.

 

[Nailgun]

Yeah, the BCS theory as taught in HSC Physics is actually wrong.

lol rip

well, its mostly intuitive

 

[Trebla]

I really wish they teach the electron transfer mechanisms of some reactions in HSC chemistry rather than uni. It would intuitively explain so much of the reactions in organic chemistry as well as why acids and bases react the way they do in the HSC course.

 

[strawberrye]

HSC chemistry for me, at least, I found it far more interesting than preliminary chem, you need a solid foundation of calculation skills and practical skills and moles and certain topics in prelim to do well in HSC.

 

[eyeseeyou]

Prelim chemistry is a foundation wheras HSC is application of the foundation