Any chemistry undergrads here? I be needing some advice

Hey guys! I just got admitted to King's for Chemistry Bsc. I'm **** at studying, so I thought I'd try and "get ahead" before the semester starts.
Except I have zero idea how to. I've found some online resources and lectures, but I don't know if they're appropriate for my course. I don't wanna read ahead on some topic then find out I didn't get ahead at all! I suppose that's my main problem, I don't know what's on my course.

So far on the site it says I've got:
General chemistry
Organic 1&2
Physical 1&2
Inorganic
Mathematics for chemists
Integrated chem labs 1&2
...all lined up for my first year.I've heard some of those are the same on every chemistry course at different universities...right? Chemistry is new at Kings , so I'm guessing they don't have any online resources yet. If I watch some random lecture from another uni, will that work?

And textbooks! Yes. Do different universities ask you to get different textbooks, or are there set textbooks used for all chemistry courses?Thanks

Reply 1

Cobalt_

21

Original post by lazy mitchey

Hey guys! I just got admitted to King's for Chemistry Bsc. I'm **** at studying, so I thought I'd try and "get ahead" before the semester starts.
Except I have zero idea how to. I've found some online resources and lectures, but I don't know if they're appropriate for my course. I don't wanna read ahead on some topic then find out I didn't get ahead at all! I suppose that's my main problem, I don't know what's on my course.

So far on the site it says I've got:
General chemistry
Organic 1&2
Physical 1&2
Inorganic
Mathematics for chemists
Integrated chem labs 1&2
...all lined up for my first year.I've heard some of those are the same on every chemistry course at different universities...right? Chemistry is new at Kings , so I'm guessing they don't have any online resources yet. If I watch some random lecture from another uni, will that work?

And textbooks! Yes. Do different universities ask you to get different textbooks, or are there set textbooks used for all chemistry courses?Thanks

Most universities use the same textbooks tbh.

For your first year you want to look at:

Good overview: http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199691852.do

Organic: http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199270293.do

Physical: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Atkins-Physical-Chemistry-Peter/dp/0199543372

Inorganic: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shriver-Atkins-Inorganic-Chemistry-Peter/dp/0199236178/ref=pd_sim_14_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=14MNQ37V40FC23J8PRGW

In terms of maths, it will be basically AS/A2 maths and further maths but this varies from university to university.

If you have anymore questions, let me know.

Reply 2

lazy mitchey

OP

I'm a total noob here so idk if I'm supposed to reply like this, but thank you so much! Now I can finally get on with it. Is there a thing like up votes here or something?

Reply 3

dragonkeeper999

17

Original post by lazy mitchey

Hey guys! I just got admitted to King's for Chemistry Bsc. I'm **** at studying, so I thought I'd try and "get ahead" before the semester starts.
Except I have zero idea how to. I've found some online resources and lectures, but I don't know if they're appropriate for my course. I don't wanna read ahead on some topic then find out I didn't get ahead at all! I suppose that's my main problem, I don't know what's on my course.

So far on the site it says I've got:
General chemistry
Organic 1&2
Physical 1&2
Inorganic
Mathematics for chemists
Integrated chem labs 1&2
...all lined up for my first year.I've heard some of those are the same on every chemistry course at different universities...right? Chemistry is new at Kings , so I'm guessing they don't have any online resources yet. If I watch some random lecture from another uni, will that work?

And textbooks! Yes. Do different universities ask you to get different textbooks, or are there set textbooks used for all chemistry courses?Thanks

First thing I'd recommend doing is revising your A level Chemistry and Maths - it's surprising how much you forget over a summer! Then perhaps scan through some of the textbooks, your uni might have a recommended reading list online, and I'd also recommend all the textbooks Cobalt mentioned - all of them are on my uni's reading list too and they're very good at explaining things, although often the first few chapters is a bit of A level revision the end of them goes into second/ third year stuff :smile:

Might be a good idea to try and borrow the textbooks from your local library though, they're pretty expensive and you can probably just borrow them from the uni library once term's started to save some money :smile:

Chemistry courses can be very different between universities btw, it's not like A level where exam boards set exams across all sixth forms and there is a standard syllabus. The RSC (which most good Chemsitry degrees should be accredited by) sets some guidelines on what core content should be covered I believe, but a lot is still up to the university/ lecturers to decide.

Watching random online lectures from other unis probably won't hurt, and may help to give a different perspective on what you are studying compared to your lecturer's at Kings. I'd recommend doing online MOOCs if you can find some good Chemistry ones, they tend to offer a more structured course that follows the curriculum at a particular university. Also, MIT recorded a load of their lectures and put them on YouTube a while back, might be worth a look :smile:

Reply 4

lazy mitchey

OP

Thank you! So much detail!

Reply 5

username913907

10

Original post by lazy mitchey

Hey guys! I just got admitted to King's for Chemistry Bsc. I'm **** at studying, so I thought I'd try and "get ahead" before the semester starts.
Except I have zero idea how to. I've found some online resources and lectures, but I don't know if they're appropriate for my course. I don't wanna read ahead on some topic then find out I didn't get ahead at all! I suppose that's my main problem, I don't know what's on my course.

So far on the site it says I've got:
General chemistry
Organic 1&2
Physical 1&2
Inorganic
Mathematics for chemists
Integrated chem labs 1&2
...all lined up for my first year.I've heard some of those are the same on every chemistry course at different universities...right? Chemistry is new at Kings , so I'm guessing they don't have any online resources yet. If I watch some random lecture from another uni, will that work?

And textbooks! Yes. Do different universities ask you to get different textbooks, or are there set textbooks used for all chemistry courses?Thanks

Some ideas for areas to cover in the chemistry side of the course. The maths i studied at Uni was very different to all other courses as far as I can tell so i'll pass over the maths.

If you are already stuck into this stuff by the time you start you'll have a massive advantage. Don't worry if a lot of this is really difficult. You'll be working with stuff not designed for total self teaching and it's hard content!

Organic: Familiarise yourself with the basic mechanisms. You probably covered many some of them in As/A2 (depends upon your course and the teacher) but you need to go into more detail.
Acid/Base chemistry. Research about predicting the relative acidity/basicity of different organic compounds. (Remember that as a very common 1st year problem but not really tested after 1st year)

Inorganic: Orbital theory of bonding. Radial distribution functions - how they affect the energies of orbitals & shielding. (sort of under the umbrella of atomic structure. Learn about the Quantum numbers) Factors affecting physical and chemical properties in periodic trends. The ionic model and crystal structures.

Physical: Basic thermodynamics

Reply 6

langlitz

17

Original post by Cobalt_

In terms of maths, it will be basically AS/A2 maths and further maths but this varies from university to university.

At Edinburgh the 1st year maths courses went significantly beyond advanced higher (and thus A-level)

Reply 7

Cobalt_

21

Original post by langlitz

At Edinburgh the 1st year maths courses went significantly beyond advanced higher (and thus A-level)

So was mine but the thread was about "catching up" before university so doing alevel maths/further would be enough for a good head start.

Reply 8

lazy mitchey

OP

Original post by JMaydom

Some ideas for areas to cover in the chemistry side of the course. The maths i studied at Uni was very different to all other courses as far as I can tell so i'll pass over the maths.

If you are already stuck into this stuff by the time you start you'll have a massive advantage. Don't worry if a lot of this is really difficult. You'll be working with stuff not designed for total self teaching and it's hard content!

Organic: Familiarise yourself with the basic mechanisms. You probably covered many some of them in As/A2 (depends upon your course and the teacher) but you need to go into more detail.
Acid/Base chemistry. Research about predicting the relative acidity/basicity of different organic compounds. (Remember that as a very common 1st year problem but not really tested after 1st year)

Inorganic: Orbital theory of bonding. Radial distribution functions - how they affect the energies of orbitals & shielding. (sort of under the umbrella of atomic structure. Learn about the Quantum numbers) Factors affecting physical and chemical properties in periodic trends. The ionic model and crystal structures.

Physical: Basic thermodynamics

Thanks man! But which topic do most universities do first? Im not sure where to start...

Reply 9

BJack

19

Original post by lazy mitchey

Thanks man! But which topic do most universities do first? Im not sure where to start...

We (JMaydom and I were at Oxford) studied all of these topics at the same time, from the start of our first term. You don't need to have covered all the material before the lectures start – it's usually easier to understand the material after it's been explained to you, after all. I would focus more on enjoying the last few weeks of summer, if I were you.