Chem 3/4 without 1/2, What to Study?

[benmcleod]

Hi all,
I'm currently in year 11 and planning to take chemistry 3/4 next year, and unfortunately did not do the 1/2 this year. Because of this, I want to start studying the 1/2 content in my own time in preparation for next year. So I was wondering which parts of the 1/2 course are most important for the 3/4? Are there any sections I shouldn't waste time on, or areas that i should focus on?

[Jackie Chan]

Hey! I'm doing chem 1/2 now and am planning to do 3/4 chem next year!

I've skimmed through the 3/4 study design and have spoken to my chem teacher a few times about next year's content and what I believe are the most important parts of the 1/2 course are the mole concept calculations (the mole is the fundamental unit in chemistry!) and the redox reactions content too (which is covered in 1/2 but explored in more detail in 3/4)! **there may be more but these two topics have come to mind immediately**

You should definitely get your hands on a 1/2 chem textbook and do your best to learn and understand ^ those topics! Would also be best to see the 3/4 chem teacher and let them know that you're planning to do 3/4 chem (if they don't already know) and have them go through content with you where necessary!

Good luck! 

[benmcleod]

Thank you! This is exactly what I was looking for 

[gemmaruffin]

Currently studying 3/4 Chem, and would definitely second the redox component as well as the mole calculations. Try to learn a bit about acid-base reactions, organic compounds, and volumetric analysis because these come up again in the course. (Most of the 1/2 stuff will be revised, but if you need more help in detail, obviously ask your teacher)

[brenden]

Great advice, thanks Annie and Gemma!

[jsofianos]

Currently studying 3/4 Chem, and would definitely second the redox component as well as the mole calculations. Try to learn a bit about acid-base reactions, organic compounds, and volumetric analysis because these come up again in the course. (Most of the 1/2 stuff will be revised, but if you need more help in detail, obviously ask your teacher)

As well as this, galvanic cells, but mole calculations are the main thing you should get your head around, and once you do a lot of the calculations like pV=nRT and n=cv are a lot easier. It'll take a bit of work, but you'll get there I'm sure

[Bri MT]

Focus on the other suggestions thus far first, but knowing some organic chemistry basics would be useful (it's covered to more depth in 3/4)

[Srd2000]

Hey, I have actually skipped 1/2 and doing 3/4 very well. I'd say that the most important topics to cover in the summer holidays before you commence 3/4 are probably:

• Stoichiometry
• Types of Reactions
• Balancing Equations
• Titrations
• Solubilities

The depth that you'll need to cover depends person to person, if you already know how to balance an equation you can skip this.

I'm happy to help with content if you need.

[rocksonchan]

So in my opinion calculations are relatively easier to learn in 3/4, because it just requires a bit of maths and problem solving. But conceptually chemistry is one of the subjects where you need to know what you're actually doing so I would suggest learning all the concepts and making sure you know how both the practical and theoretical parts of chemistry work for a particular topic, rather than purely focussing on how the calcuations work.