Student Success

This page is in answer to the often asked question 'What can I do to succeed in this class?' In addition to the tips/flow listed here, visit the Study Skills page. 

BEFORE LECTURE (as in DAYS before, not hours...)

• Read the text, correctly (see the Study Skills page). Do this ASAP to allow yourself time to get help with the concepts.

  • • • Don't skip the reading because you believe you are a visual learner - check out this video on Learning Styles if you find yourself thinking along these lines.

• Check the appropriate Unit topic page (ex. Kinetics: Chemical Reaction Rates.) for topic objectives, and tasks for each topic. Links to the reading and supplemental videos can be found here, as well. (Note that these pages also serve as a 'Study Guide', as the primary topics are listed, and the items listed under 'By the end of this section, you will be able to' give you an idea of how your learning will be assessed for that topic.

• Do not expect to have the material mastered at this point. Beginning to master the material comes at the next step:

DURING LECTURE

• Come to class. Students who attend class do better than students who do not. Focus on following the discussion rather than on taking perfect notes. (Remember that links to all slides are available on the website.)

• During LA group work, PARTICIPATE. Even if you just contribute "Hey, how did you do that?", it will help. Stay engaged, try to follow (or lead!) the discussion, and you will find it is the most beneficial component of the course.

• Again, do not expect to necessarily have the material mastered at this point, although it should be starting to come together a bit.

AFTER LECTURE

• Review the material. It can be very helpful to take 20 minutes when you get home and try to write down everything that you remember from the class. 

• Re-read the text. It should make much more sense this time.

• For any material you need extra help with, use the resources on the Unit Materials pages, such as supplemental videos, practice problems, etc.

• For even additional practice, there are practice problems in Aktiv Chemistry broken down by individual topic.

• NOW, after reading, going to lecture, re-reading, watching videos, doing practice problems, etc, you are now ready to do the graded HW in Aktiv Chemistry. Working on graded HW should not be the first time you are encountering problems. Remember there is a 10% penalty for every incorrect attempt on the HW questions.

• At this point, you are likely beginning to master the material, HOWEVER, be sure to revisit it after you've had a chance to sort of forget it. With this in mind, your studying for the course will always have three components: what we are about to cover, what we are currently covering, what we have already covered.

Use ALL of the resources available! There is a plethora of resources available on this site, but that's certainly not the limit of resources available to you. Use the magic of the internet to find even more resources. Use your classmates on the Brightspace discussion page for questions, etc. Kahn Academy has dozens of videos that you might find helpful. Tyler DeWitt has videos on nearly every topic we cover, as well, and students have also reported these videos to be useful.