General Study Skills

When you answer a question on a test, you should ask yourself, “Is this answer articulate, and is it complete?” In other words, you want to make sure that your answer is clear and easy to understand and that it shows the teacher everything that you know about the subject.

If a test asks the question, what is an acid?

Most C students would say.

Something that breaks apart in water and one of those parts is H⁺.

Most B students would say.

Acids are substances with a low pH. There are many different ways to define an acid.

The Arrhenius definition of an acid is that an acid is a molecule that will break apart in water and give H⁺ to the solution.

Most A students would say.

Acids are substances with a low pH. That means it will have a pH well below 7.

The Bronsted definition of an acid is that it will donate a proton, H⁺, to other chemicals. The Arrhenius definition of an acid is that an acid is a molecule that will break apart in water and give H⁺ to the solution. Some strong acids are HCl, HNO₃, and H₂SO₄. Acetic acid is a weak acid. This is what it looks like when it dissociates.

CH₃COOH -> CH₃COO^- + H⁺

Core Concepts

These are some important concepts that we will cover. Most of them are very hard. My philosophy is that if you learn the hard stuff now, your classes will be super easy for you later on.

• How to write good answers to test questions and how to write good reports.
• Stoichiometry. Balancing chemical reactions and unit conversion.
• What a chemical reaction is, and what is not a chemical reaction.
• Basic kinetics. Rate laws, rate constants, catalysts, and energy barriers.
• The ideal gas law. Relationships between pressure, volume, and temperature.
• Lewis Structures and the shapes of molecules. Bonds and orbital hybridization.
• Significant figures
• How to name organic molecules and some very basic organic chemistry.
• The basic concepts of biochemistry and molecular biology.