What are the secrets to doing well in Chemistry? Do you find yourself lost even after countless practices and spending many hours going through school notes but still get back an unsatisfactory paper score? Here are some secrets to doing well in Chemistry.
- Secure a strong foundation in concepts:
Very much like other core sciences, the foundation is based on a set of definitions that students must be familiar with. This can be achieved by knowing the key definitions closely. To know these well, it is important for students to spend some time memorising key definitions, like keywords used in the topic of Chemical Bonding and the structures used in the topic of bonding. From these definitions, we form a network of solutions and link the concepts together by deriving logical results through connecting the dots. You need to know definitions, memorizing conditions for reactions to take place, so that when you approach the questions, you have an internal mind map of how the stage is set: how the chemicals are related to one another and how to associate the pathways to build a macroscopic view of the question. It is like getting an overview of the question and its settings by firstly identifying key points and skills tested in the question. In short, you cannot sit for an exam without knowing what is the condition for the foundation of isotopes, atoms vs ions, and the definitions and differences between strong and weak acid.
- Never let your academic debt accumulate.
Are you one of the students who procrastinate and leave work to the last minute? And cram the entire night before examinations? Last minute cramping is never recommended.
Studies show that varying your study methods and materials will improve your retention and recall of information, and enhance your learning experience. There is a “learning pyramid”, developed by the National Training Laboratory, where we can gather several important insights about studying. The pyramid is also known as the “cone of learning”, and suggests that most students only remember about 10% of what they read from textbooks, but retain nearly 90% of what they learn through teaching others. The Learning Pyramid model suggests that some methods of study are more effective than others and that varying study methods will lead to deeper learning and longer-term retention.
- Practice a variety of questions testing different topics and skills
Firstly there are many different forms of practice. Practice can take different forms: homework, ten-year series and past year exam questions. Are all of these actually necessary for us to command a strong score in Chemistry? My advice to you is not to spend too much time on the same type of questions, as well as topics. Do cross-topical revision, and also even as you are doing just one topic, remember to do a variety of questions that tests your skills and applications in different skills. My personal advice is to do a myriad of questions that test you to deduce data from tables and graphs. We address this as data handling. This allows you to organise your thoughts more clearly and approach the question in an orderly fashion to draw clues from the question context and thereafter find the pot of gold to rewarding results. This is another secret in doing well for Chemistry.
- Practise efficiently
The most important thing to me is to practice efficiently. After solving a question, one should carefully consider other possible cases/extensions/variations of parameters of the question – we call this extension to other cases or generalisation. It will help you internalise the whole concept better and you might not have to spend the time solving other related questions. Sometimes when you come across another similar question from elsewhere while doing practices next time you will recall the question you have worked on in a similar fashion before because you have shown thought and appreciation for the question, and thus it is another way of learning and information retention. This would help solving the questions in the long run efficaciously and with much ease.
