[Aemiliana]

One of my Chemistry teachers really can not teach at all, I don't understand a word that comes out of her mouth, she writes/tells us the wrong things and one of us has to then correct her and I never understand any of the homeworks she gives us, even if I understand the class work (the homework I'm supposed to be doing right now is so oddly worded that I'm going to have to ask her to explain it... Which will take about an hour for a stupidly small amount of work).

Anyway, I've already decided/started to self study, but as I have to go to the lessons (so I don't get kicked off the course and the so the school enters me for the exams), the extra work is really eating into my time. But that's okay if I get the grade I want in January.

Also, I know that it's not that me (as in, I'm struggling with it) because 1) I understand it pefectly from the book and internet resources and 2) Only about 2 people in my class haven't said "I only turn up so I don't get kicked off the course".

/rant - sorry really needed to vent.

Anyway, does anyone know any good websites for Chemistry (I'm taking Edexcel the 2008 spec) or has anyone been in a similar situation before and have any tips? I'm so tempted to just skive, but my school's so strict on that...

EDIT: It's AS Chemistry, probably should have added that.

[T kay]

Neither can mine! So I self teach

[clairebear123]

i know the feeling!!
i'm doing A2 OCR chemistry, im not sure how similar it is. the good news is that organic chemistry, whilst the most boring thing in the history of the universe, can be self taught from your notes - it's just pure learning. i recommend the CGP AS/A2 chemsitry revision guides - they tell you what you need to know for each exam board and present the info well
hope that helps!! good luck
x

[ooze]

Yep, same situation when I was doing A Level. I just used to use the specification religiously and teach myself straight from that with our text book. Worked fine.

[Transatlanticdrawl_]

this was me, my teacher was absolutely rubbish. I changed teacher asap, because at the end of the day you gotta put number 1 first, and if you want a good grade, you want the best possible chance. See your head of department asap and change teacher.

[Malsy]

if you need help on homework questions you could always ask tsr in the chem sub forum.

as for your teacher, i can relate as my bio teacher is then same, but it's a shame about your chem because chem is really good once you understand the concepts. i think you should just stick to what you're doing if it's working for you-by that i mean make your own notes. although that might not seem fair if it's working for you it's working.

also try and be optimistic maybe she'll improve or change her strategies once everyone in the class is complaining
...

[jamessimth5]

Yeah i am the same, as above stated just self teach, thats what I do even when shes talking in the lesson, i do the same in history and business. Good resources, if your at GCSE take a look at the CGP stuff and do some past papers, if at as/a2 level no idea, try some past papers?

[T kay]

(Original post by clairebear123)
i know the feeling!!
i'm doing A2 OCR chemistry, im not sure how similar it is. the good news is that organic chemistry, whilst the most boring thing in the history of the universe, can be self taught from your notes - it's just pure learning. i recommend the CGP AS/A2 chemsitry revision guides - they tell you what you need to know for each exam board and present the info well
hope that helps!! good luck
x

I agree

[Snobpence17]

(Original post by steffi.alexa)
One of my Chemistry teachers really can not teach at all, I don't understand a word that comes out of her mouth, she writes/tells us the wrong things and one of us has to then correct her and I never understand any of the homeworks she gives us, even if I understand the class work (the homework I'm supposed to be doing right now is so oddly worded that I'm going to have to ask her to explain it... Which will take about an hour for a stupidly small amount of work).

Anyway, I've already decided/started to self study, but as I have to go to the lessons (so I don't get kicked off the course and the so the school enters me for the exams), the extra work is really eating into my time. But that's okay if I get the grade I want in January.

Also, I know that it's not that me (as in, I'm struggling with it) because 1) I understand it pefectly from the book and internet resources and 2) Only about 2 people in my class haven't said "I only turn up so I don't get kicked off the course".

/rant - sorry really needed to vent.

Anyway, does anyone know any good websites for Chemistry (I'm taking Edexcel the 2008 spec) or has anyone been in a similar situation before and have any tips? I'm so tempted to just skive, but my school's so strict on that...

Mine are bloody terrible, I didn't learn a single thing in any Chemistry lesson in year 12, yet came out of AS level with 280 out of 300 UMS. (Not to brag to others just to show the OP it can be done).

Just get a good revision guide and eat it, that's what I do.

Mine always set a pointless task that has nothing to do with the exam, that or a stupid irrelevant experiment.

[Malsy]

(Original post by Transatlanticdrawl_)
this was me, my teacher was absolutely rubbish. I changed teacher asap, because at the end of the day you gotta put number 1 first, and if you want a good grade, you want the best possible chance. See your head of department asap and change teacher.

not always the answer as there is only one group in my year that does chem and probably the only teachers that teach it are taken for this one group. so asking for a new teacher in my school would be like asking for a one on one teaching sessions
hm...

[becky.fm]

Don't worry, mine can't either. The Chemistry department is the worst in my school, and every year at least half of the A Level grades are U's. Ahh the joys It's funny, because every year they swap all the teachers around, and it never gets any better.

Last year i got a D when i was predicted an A. There was one A in the whole of AS Level grades (Chem) and 65% were U's. Hahaha it's halarious seeing it written down

[EierVonSatan]

Yeah, my teachers were pretty useless for A-level too, I taught myself mostly from a book called Ramsden

also here's a good site

[Aemiliana]

(Original post by clairebear123)
i know the feeling!!
i'm doing A2 OCR chemistry, im not sure how similar it is. the good news is that organic chemistry, whilst the most boring thing in the history of the universe, can be self taught from your notes - it's just pure learning. i recommend the CGP AS/A2 chemsitry revision guides - they tell you what you need to know for each exam board and present the info well
hope that helps!! good luck
x

Thanks goodness! I've been told by so many people that organic chemistry is really hard and I was dreading having to self study that.

Also, I've tried self studying in class, but because we never use the textbook, she knows what I'm doing and keeps looking at me...I glared at her yesterday when she did it - I was pretty angry lol...

Oh, and the head of Chemistry was on probabtion last year...For too many people failing *slams head on keyboard in despair*

And my school is supposed to be "the best non-selective sixth form in the county" as they're so proud of constantly saying...

[Aemiliana]

(Original post by Malsi101)
not always the answer as there is only one group in my year that does chem and probably the only teachers that teach it are taken for this one group. so asking for a new teacher in my school would be like asking for a one on one teaching sessions
hm...

Yeah, there are only 2 chemistry classes and I'm in Maths when that Chemistry class is on...

[Kalashnikov]

At AS, I had a Biology teacher that couldn't teach a thing. I ended up getting a C and just dropped the subject.

[herecomestrouble]

Revision guides can be a lifesaver for a-levels. They are pretty concise nowadays and even though they are no replacement for teaching they definetely make a difference when you have a rubbish teacher (speaking from experience!)

[ooze]

(Original post by EierVonSatan)
also here's a good site

I love that website <3

[Aemiliana]

(Original post by Kalashnikov)
At AS, I had a Biology teacher that couldn't teach a thing. I ended up getting a C and just dropped the subject.

One girl from my class has already dropped it, but I can't because I want to do medicine, besides, it might be a little dry, but I like it... I just don't like the lessons...

[Kyle_S-C]

(Original post by steffi.alexa)
One of my Chemistry teachers really can not teach at all, I don't understand a word that comes out of her mouth, she writes/tells us the wrong things and one of us has to then correct her and I never understand any of the homeworks she gives us, even if I understand the class work (the homework I'm supposed to be doing right now is so oddly worded that I'm going to have to ask her to explain it... Which will take about an hour for a stupidly small amount of work).

Anyway, I've already decided/started to self study, but as I have to go to the lessons (so I don't get kicked off the course and the so the school enters me for the exams), the extra work is really eating into my time. But that's okay if I get the grade I want in January.

Also, I know that it's not that me (as in, I'm struggling with it) because 1) I understand it pefectly from the book and internet resources and 2) Only about 2 people in my class haven't said "I only turn up so I don't get kicked off the course".

/rant - sorry really needed to vent.

Anyway, does anyone know any good websites for Chemistry (I'm taking Edexcel the 2008 spec) or has anyone been in a similar situation before and have any tips? I'm so tempted to just skive, but my school's so strict on that...

EDIT: It's AS Chemistry, probably should have added that.

I was going to say "ask EierVonSatan", but he's already been here. Chem subforum is good for any specific queries. Books are often a good idea too, do Edexcel have specific course books (like AQA, which publish little books which contain what you need to know for the course)? I don't know about it, but this came up on Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Edexcel-Chem...7376910&sr=8-1

Oh, and I'm willing to help with anything I can...pm or MSN or something if you want.

[marlyly]

I had two chem teachers for A-Level, one of whom we probably had for 4 months out of the whole 2 years because she was pregnant and had a baby and so couldn't come in (so all her parts of the course we taught ourselves) and the other teacher spent her entire time telling us we'll all fail and setting class exams once a week that everyone would get Us in and get letters written home to our parents telling us how lazy we were and that we were failing the year. I didn't learn a single thing in my whole 2 years of chem lessons and just found a really good textbook and taught myself from there instead. My only advice would be to only turn up to enough lessons so as to not get thrown off the course, and use the time from the lessons you do miss to do private study. Oh, and put forward a formal complaint about your teacher. Generally no one will listen, but if you do get lower grades than you expect in chem then at least you can say that you said from the start that your teacher wasn't teaching you properly, and it won't seem like something petty you just came up with because you missed your grade and wanted to throw the blame onto someone else.