How I did it: I registered, I panicked, I conquered. I took undergrad pchem one and two. Before you take pchem I, take calculus I, II, and III. Take linear algebra and differential equations before taking pchem II, if possible. Those are not super necessary, but they'll make it easier. Obviously, having taken organic, inorganic, and general chemistry makes the class a bit easier. If I could do it all again I would take it WITH analytical chemistry, since the instrumentation is all really pchem stuff.

I studied a lot. I went to lecture every class. I did assigned problem sets. I read the book and underlined important bits, and then I went back and outlined the chapter, and then I condensed everything from my outline into a formula sheet to look at later for the ACS final. Man, it helped a lot, especially in thermodynamics when every equation is related to every other equation. I know it takes time but it is really worth it and you'll get a better understanding seeing things a second (or third... or fourth) time.

For quantum, I looked at the situations (particle in a box, free particle, harmonic oscillator, rigid rotor, hydrogen, hydrogen-like) each separately and tried to understand the schrodinger equation for each, the hamiltonian, the energy, and the whole derivation. I drew them a lot. When I wasn't trying to remember those, I was focused on the mathematical methods-- eigenvalues and eigenfunctions, whether something is odd or even, kronecker delta and orthogonality, how to do the huckel method for molecules, basics of diff eqs, etc. I didn't worry too much about quantum numbers since it made sense from gen chem. We did a lot of spectroscopy but after I understood the quantum portion, the spectroscopy section didn't scare me too much-- just remember stuff from inorganic (and if you didn't take it, just remember how to convert units and you'll be okay :) )

Lessons & tips: DO NOT WING IT. Make formula sheets. Keep everything. All sorts of things will come back to haunt you. Maxwell loves you!

Resources: Luck & notebooks

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May 12, 2011, 08:14PM PDT | 0 comments | 1 cheer