For students that got an A on the first midterm, how did you study?

[906032986]

I tried using the syllabus problems and re-doing all of the lecture problems, but I noticed that they were a lot more calculations-based in comparison with the conceptual questions that made up most of the midterm. I've also been to a few Step-Up sessions and I noticed that the problems we solve there are also more calculations heavy. How did you manage to get a good understanding of the concepts and what resources did you use?

[705968765]

The textbook problems were honestly the biggest help in preparing for the midterm. I understand, however, that these were much more math based than the midterm, but I think it's important to analyze the problems that you are solving as opposed to simply trying to get the right answer. For example, if asks you to calculate a pKa value and it comes out pretty low, think about what that indicates about the acid in the problem.

Specifically for one of the questions on the exam:

If pKa is low, we know that Ka is high (Just based on how -log(x) and 10^-x work, pure math). If Ka is high, that means that the ratio of P/R must have a higher P than R (If a fraction is big, the top half must be larger than the bottom half). If there are more products than reactants, the acid must have dissociated a lot to form a lot of product indicating it is strong (This is where the concept comes into play). Now, you could have just calculated the pKa of an acid in a textbook problem and thought nothing of it, or you can understand how the pKa interacts with the different concepts we've learned about.

[Niyati 1F]

I have found that the best way to study is to do all of the assigned textbook problems and also redo the achieve problems. Some of the textbook problems will appear on the midterms and final verbatim. This will give you more familiarity with how to do the calculations.

[105736938 AADL]

I feel the midterm was very content heavy, what is the best way to study this way?

[Ali Nosseir]

I feel the midterm was very content heavy, what is the best way to study this way?

I noticed that by fulling understanding mathematical concepts, the conceptual questions become much easier to learn as opposed to memorizing. If you understand the reasoning behind something, there's no need to memorize it which makes the conceptual questions much easier. I think the best way to study is to do all the textbook problems and look back at the achieve homework questions and their solutions.

[Megan Wang 3D]

By completing all the practice questions as well as UA worksheets, it was able to test my conceptual knowledge since the calculation-based questions are applications of concepts. However, for some details that can be hard to understand, flashcards are useful if you must memorize something.

[Karissa_Lee_1A]

Reading the textbook to fill in missing information that is not completely covered in lecture is very helpful.