5 top tips for high school chemistry study

Chemistry is generally considered a hard subject. And sure — it does require wrapping your head around some pretty tricky concepts, have solid math skills (eg to balance chemical equations and undertake titrations), AND to be able to discuss concepts and processes in a clear, logical and concise manner. Hmmmm. So yeah, chemistry is not really a subject that you can just 'wing' on the day...

BUT! There is good news! Because chemistry requires both math-based and writing-based skills, the same skills that help with math and writing are also helpful for chemistry study.

With that in mind here are my 5 top tips for studying chemistry at high school:

1. Start by thinking about concepts at a high level

Example: There's no point in trying to answer a question about electrolysis if you don't actually understand what electrolysis is. This might sound obvious, but hear me out.

You might recall (or not!) that electrolysis has something to do with ions and the separation of an aqueous fluid... and there's something about a cathode and an anode in there somewhere... But if you can’t explain what electrolysis is to yourself or another person, then that's a good indication that you don't understand it well enough.

So before your teen tries to answer any practice questions or write pages of study notes, you could suggest that they first take a step back and look at the topic as a whole. What does it involve? If you could sum it up in a couple of sentences what would that summary be? A quick Google search for an overview of any topic can be immensely helpful here.

Once they understand a brief summary of a topic they can build up their knowledge and come to understand more of the details.

2. Write study notes and draw your own diagrams

For most students there's not a lot that’s more effective for processing, understanding and retaining information as writing study notes.

The physical act of writing forces us to come to terms with information in a way that is harder to achieve by simply reading. This is why writing study notes could be hugely helpful for your teen’s understanding of chemistry and all of its crazy concepts. To be truly effective for their understanding and memory retention, your teen’s study notes should be written in their own words as much as possible.

And if there's one thing the human brain finds easiest to process and remember, it's a diagram, which is why drawing their own diagrams can be such a fantastic way to come to grips with concepts and processes. Whether it's a chemical structure or a chemical process, your teen should be able to represent a lot of chemistry concepts in a diagram. For instance, the chemical structure of an organic compound or the process of hydrolysis is going to be a LOT easier to remember with the help of visual representation.

Also — using colour can be a great way of highlighting different parts of a diagram to make it even more memorable. Diagrams do not have to be works of art. No one is going to see your teen’s diagrams but them, so do whatever works for them. And remember that study notes can be written by hand, on a computer or a mixture of both. Developing a Study System is all about figuring out what study techniques are best for YOU.

3. Practice equation-based questions as if it were math

As I have discussed, the key to good grades in math is repetition and practice. Students who get good grades in math have solved enough practice problems that they become easy. This exact same strategy can be applied to chemistry questions that involve math.

For instance, balancing a chemical equation is basically a math problem, and so the majority of your teen’s study time on chemical equations should be spent smashing out as many equations as it takes for them to feel really comfortable with the process. By the time of the exam your teen should see a question that asks to balance an equation and without hesitation or fear think — 'Aha! I know exactly how to do this'. That's the level of understanding they should be striving for.

4. Get the fundamentals sorted if you’re confused

I once tutored a high school student in chemistry and math, and it become apparent very quickly that they needed to get the basics sorted before there was any point in looking at what she was supposed to be learning in class. One of the topics she was learning in class was Acids and Bases, a common Chemistry topic, but this poor girl had no idea what an atom even was.

For those of you who haven't done Chemistry this century, because atoms are the units of matter, it's really important to have an understanding of what an atom is and to be familiar with at least a proportion of the elements of the periodic table before you can hope to properly understand anything in chemistry.

How can you hope to understand how different substances react together if you don't know what an atom is?! It would be like trying to solve an algebraic equation without being able to add, subtract, multiply and divide.

So if your teen is finding that they’re struggling to understand a topic, perhaps it's because they don't understand one or more of its underlying concepts. I would suggest taking 15 minutes to look up the underlying concept they’re confused about, and then hopefully the main topic will be easier to understand.

5. Attempt past or practice exams

Chemistry is very much a topic that requires you to APPLY what you've studied. It won't be enough that your teen can regurgitate information. They will have to understand what the question is asking of them (and the question might not make it obvious) and apply what they’ve studied to fit the specific question and answer it exactly.

This still takes practice. This is why I love practice questions and past exam papers so much and why I suggest doing as many practice questions as they can.

Simple strategies for a hard subject

As with most things study, you can see that these tips for chemistry are simple. Chemistry study doesn’t need to seem like an impossible mountain to climb. It just requires some simple planning and strategy, and like any subject it’s absolutely conquerable.

Thanks heaps for reading.

Clare

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