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*girl04*

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hey im doing chem. at the moment but i think i should drop it ( im in year 11) coz im stressin' about it all da time!
coz like im worried about the practicals n stuff and the hsc and all things chemical. Im just wondering would everyone recommened sticking with it? will it click ( like will it all come together one day) i dunno chem. is just sooooo much harder than all my other subs. ie.e biz studies and im spending so much time on it and still not going perfect. damn im stressin again. anyways any replies will be preciated! thanking you!
 

juggernaut

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what aspect dont you understand?

imo chem (the hsc course) is quite easy (if you work hard)... not very conceptually based, just need to 'memorise' the syllabus points and know how to do a few calculation problems here and there.. its a very english course as u would have heard, so yeh
i say stick with it!!
 

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It will not 'click' automatically... you will have to think about it to make it click. I always tried to reduce everything in the course to a few rules of thumb/principles that I am comfortable with.
To do well in chem (and many other subjects) you have to condition your brain to think in 'chemistry mode'
 

SimGhost

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Hi.. well, i personally sucked at chem in the prelimary course (just passing to 73%). But then i didn't care that much.. cus it was only the prelim..

anyways, so far this year, I'm owning (almost) everyone =P

Its way more interesting in the HSC course (for me..)
Just make sure you understand the mole concept (its basically the only thing you need)..

so.. just try for like a term or something and drop it if its not interesting to you.
 

CM_Tutor

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If it helps, the following are the critical things you need to take out of Year 11 (IMO) to be able to handle HSC Chem:

1. You must learn to be comfortable with the language of chemistry - that is, understand terms like element, molecule, ion, solution, etc (note: new ones will keep appearing throughout the year), and be able to use such language correctly.

2. You must be able to write and balance chemical equations, including predicting the products for simple cases.

3. You need to understand mole calculations, presented mostly in modules 2 (Metals) and 3 (Water)

4. You need to understand and be able to answer questions related to intermolecular interactions, presented mostly in modules 1 (Chemical Earth) and 3.

5. You need to learn naming of carbon compounds, presented in module 4 (Energy), and it'd be good to understand the enthalpy of combustion experiment for alkanes.

Any other gaps can be filled in year 12 without too much trouble, or else don't matter.

I guess my suggestion is keep trying, and nearer the end of the year, re-evaluate in light of the above, and see how you're going. :)
 

*girl04*

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Originally posted by SimGhost
Hi.. well, i personally sucked at chem in the prelimary course (just passing to 73%). But then i didn't care that much.. cus it was only the prelim..

anyways, so far this year, I'm owning (almost) everyone =P

Its way more interesting in the HSC course (for me..)
Just make sure you understand the mole concept (its basically the only thing you need)..

so.. just try for like a term or something and drop it if its not interesting to you.
damn it, we did moles before and it was hard! pur teacher is teaching us at hsc level or something and goes beyond what we need for prelim " just for fun" and its like dude.

actually i like english based subjects ( replying to a post above) but chem is like maths based to me ( like calculations and stuff, and no essays to write)
im stressing over the pracs coz they count for like 30 percent of our assesment mark and i suck at determining what chemical is what. I would be happy to drop chem after year 11 but i cant as i really really really wanna get rid of extension maths as it is hard and stuffing me up on my 2 unit ( dont ask) so yeah thatz my problem
 

CM_Tutor

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Juggernaut is right in saying that there are a lot of written questions in HSC Chemistry. Take last years paper, for example:

15 MC questions, of which only 3 required a calculation

60 marks of written questions, of which only 8 marks related to calculations

25 marks of elective. Only the industrial chemistry elective had any calculations at all, and that was only 3 marks.

In other words, the HSC Chemistry exam is likely to be less than 15 % calculations.

Calculations have a greater emphasis in year 11, but this drops off in year 12.

As for 'essays', there are none in the English sense, but last years paper had 8 different sustained response questions, each worth between 4 and 7 marks. None of these involved any sort of calculation - they were based on responding to information in the question, plus material studied to discuss / describe / evaluate / draw some conclusion, etc.
 
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*girl04*

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^^^ lol another prob i have with chemistry is they keep asking why. like the ask a question and im like hey i know that and then they are like why 3 thousand times and you have to really know what you are on about to justify your answer. If you dont know an answer you a stuffed coz you cant just guess, because then you wont know the "why" part
 

SimGhost

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Originally posted by *girl04*
^^^ lol another prob i have with chemistry is they keep asking why. like the ask a question and im like hey i know that and then they are like why 3 thousand times and you have to really know what you are on about to justify your answer. If you dont know an answer you a stuffed coz you cant just guess, because then you wont know the "why" part
Try "babytalking" through those questions (if you have the time).
 

funrun

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stick with it

Take a deep breath and dont strese out
Do u understand basically what is going on in class? If you have absolutely no idea what the chemistry is about and I mean like absolutely NO IDEA and like comin last in the class by a mile then obviously its the wrong subjct but if u are passing the tests and getting ok reports then it is probably a matter of reviewing each days work a little bit each night. Stick with it and try ur best its amaxing what can results u can get.
U dont have 2 luv a subject to do well. (though its good to have at least 1 subject u like). If u have stuck out one term u r 1/3 of the way through yr 11 work. Look on the positive. Chem does scale well and its a shame to drop it if u can do it.
If u have lack of motivation then get a tutor like one that comes to your house and goes through it with u it sure can help get u back on track and motivated havin someone to help u and encourage u
Dont leav things 2 the last minute just keep up with the work. do your best and be positive
Also dont stress over it it doesnt matter if its not going perfect just yet and if ur teacher is teachin u at hsc level it will probably be easier next year. Have u got a school report yet that gives an indication how u r goin in chem.?
And chemistry is fairly englishy in some ways too. Its not a bad thing to have a mixture of subjects and u could start another subject now and hate it and end up wishing u were still doing chem.. if at the end of yr 11 if u still felt the same could u drop chemistry next year if u absolutely wanted to?
I say stick with it 2, get a tutor for a while and be positive. Dont give up on it now.
 

*girl04*

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^^^ thanks for all your advice. i would be happy enough to sticki with chem for year 11, and then drop it after BUT i cant coz i really wanna drop extension maths as we skip the m2 unit stuff in class and its stressing me! so i would have to do chem for hsc. I am stressing so much and so yeah im like if i got rid of it MAYBE i would do better at my other stuff. btw im gonna do 12 units for the hsc so chem would be extra i would drop it but i dont, wish to do 10 units as if i stuff up on history/english extension

okay im breathing!

i am doing okay in chem. for our 1st test i got about 75 percent, although it was on all the stuff i like
 

*girl04*

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hey just while im stressing ill try and explain. i do 12 units this year ( 11) next year i wish to drop ext maths ( thus id be on 11) and then pick up ext history ( back 2 12) so i guess if chem is really killing me i can go back to 10, but then in my 10 id have 3u eng and 3u history and i REALLY wish to have an extra unit. Its just if i suffer all the year through chem and it doesnt count id be so devasted grrr
 
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cko

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well i did accel chem n it was ok... just coz i was doin it a year early i would get lazy coz i had no real pressure to perform... but still it was cool coz i only studied tha night befo tha chem hsc n i got 82 woot woot!

anywayz my frend he did accel chem too but he REALLY REALLY hated it (like you're implying) and prefered humanities based subjects much more. Anyway he completed the chem course and everything but he didn't get a really good mark.. its was like seventy something. so i think u should really think about it. If you're doing twelve units n you're going good with the other subjects then maybe u could drop chem n pik up somethikng else coz it's still early in the year and u could get better marks for something u emjoy rather than something that makes u look smarter than your grade :) :p
 

04er

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Chemistry is the best science!!!! (and my fav. subject quite frankly) hmm... perhaps its not such a good idea for me to give you bias advice!

:D


DONT DROP CHEMISTRY, YOU'LL REGRET IT FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE!!


:eek: I couldn't help myself! ;)
 

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