Tips for IB Chemistry HL - weak base

[curlayy39]

I'm taking IB HL Chemistry this year. What's surprised me is that I got a borderline 4 on my first exam. Generally, I get the some of the best grades in my class and I got a 7 in MYP Chemistry last year. So it's very difficult for me to understand how I'm barely passing this course. I am very weak in math, and also lack general basic knowledge in chemistry (my previous school's chemistry preparation in MYP was horrible), so I'm guessing that's what's bringing me down and throwing me completely off the questions. Can anyone advise me as to how I could quickly and efficiently catch up and build a good base in chemistry (and math if necessary) that will help me at least get a 6 in this course, as well as where I could look for study material online. There aren't good IB tutors in my country so that's not an option.

[Alex1307]

Buy the IB Study Guide by Geoffrey Neuss and practice as much as you can with past IB papers!

That's how I got a 7 in this course.

Hope this helps

[dessskris]

Oh I feel sorry for you

May I know what Chemistry textbook or study guide you have? I would recommend the IBID Chemistry by John Green and Damji. A lot of people say it's good but Pearson Baccalaureate is also good, I believe. You should also get the Study Guide by Geoffrey Neuss. I would suggest spending some time reading your textbook, study guide or notes so you would understand better. Should you require more info on textbooks, your questions may be addressed in this thread.

I would also recommend studying from past papers, so you know what kind of questions usually come out and how you are expected to answer them. You can ask your teachers to give you a copy or try to find them with Google's help?

As for basic knowledge, I don't know what you have studied in IBMYP and whether it is related to what you are studying now, but I am sure IGCSE has prepared me quite well in IBDP Chemistry. It teaches the basics in a very detailed way.

One out of 5 students in my Chemistry class didn't take Chem IGCSE and was really struggling in Chem. The other 4 took Chem IGCSE so we can manage to score better than him Then the school gave him extra tutorials so he is now studying the IGCSE topics and he has done better than he did early in the first quarter

So I guess you may want to study the IGCSE topics. If you are interested I can recommend good textbooks or you may also try doing past IGCSE questions

Wish you the best of luck!

[Drake Glau]

^That's the book we use for my HL chem class, it's pretty awesome. Occasionally it can get a little complicated (reaction mechanism and advanced energetics for example ) But other than that it's a nice book with sample problems and everything.

Also, please use that thread Mars mentioned because chances are you'll have a reply that day

[Eydie]

Can I just emphasise how brilliant the above mentioned Study Guide (Neuss) is!? It is really useful for test/exam preparation as it explains concisely exactly what is required of you to know. I recommend Pearson Baccalaureate chemistry book over Green and Damji - it's more colourful, interesting to read, with more real past paper questions (but the explanations offered by Green and Damji is good too).

Also have you been to ibchem ? It looks helpful...

Do you find any particular topic hard? In the real paper you can try to go around some.

[Drake Glau]

Do you find any particular topic hard? In the real paper you can try to go around some.

I would kind of not advise trying to do this Just because the topics work well in explaining themselves collectively, one could explain a concept present in another, could be my teacher doing this though. But making these connections between topics makes HL chem a bit easier because it almost feels like it's "less" to remember. If you have a particularly hard topic it'd be better for you to come use the help thread (mars's post) and we'll explain it less extravagantly than the IB books do so it makes more sense

Also you don't know what's on the exams, that would be bad if it ended up being the topics you decided to skate by

[ILM]

The best thing to do, is to look at the assesment statement, to know what is required, so you will not know more or less. For this you should choose a good resource, my advice is to study from:

i) IBID Chemistry; Very nice, lovely to ready, and contain good examples.

ii) Pearson Baccularate; also nice to read , filled with images, examples, but it was difficult for me to understand.

Because you do not have a base, read beyond, and start from begining. There is very good books that can help you to start, like chemistry for you for GCSE students, VERY NICE and easy to read.

For revision study from the Neuss Chemistry guide.

Study well, look to the internet, revise from interval to another. Pay attention to your labs. And any thing that you do not understand can be dicussed in IB survival.

there is a chemistry thread http://www.ibsurvival.com/topic/10834-chemistry-hlsl-help/, in which you can post your question.

Edited December 23, 2010 by inm

[dessskris]

ii) Pearson Baccularate; also nice to read , filled with images, examples, but it was difficult for me to understand.

there is a chemistry thread http://www.ibsurvival.com/topic/10834-chemistry-hlsl-help/, in which you can post your question.

Pearson Baccalaureate

And yes I forgot to mention in my earlier post, we are here to help! We would try our best to help even though maybe not every single question would be answered, but I myself have been much benefited from this Chem HL/SL help thread

[curlayy39]

Thank you so much. I borrowed the Pearson's Baccalaureate book from my friend to study for the Periodicity unit test and freaked because there was so much content; although it did explain things quite thoroughly and nicely, I didn't have enough time to cover everything (but that may have been because I got the book three days before my test and I was cramming).

However, I just got my hands on the Neuss's IB Study Guide (Standard & Higher Level). It seems a lot less time consuming to study in comparison to the Pearson's Baccalaureate book, and I was wondering if I relied solely on that and did thorough revision, given my lack of prior basic knowledge, would I be able to achieve a solid 6 or a 7 in my tests?

Edited December 28, 2010 by curlayy39

[ILM]

No not always, this should be kept for revision, but for example you do not have time, then it can beneficial to study from it. But study from the book and revise from it. I have it, but i will not use it completely until finshing a whole topic.

[Drake Glau]

Thank you so much. I borrowed the Pearson's Baccalaureate book from my friend to study for the Periodicity unit test and freaked because there was so much content; although it did explain things quite thoroughly and nicely, I didn't have enough time to cover everything (but that may have been because I got the book three days before my test and I was cramming).

However, I just got my hands on the Neuss's IB Study Guide (Standard & Higher Level). It seems a lot less time consuming to study in comparison to the Pearson's Baccalaureate book, and I was wondering if I relied solely on that and did thorough revision, given my lack of prior basic knowledge, would I be able to achieve a solid 6 or a 7 in my tests?

Read the objectives, know what they are VERY thoroughly before reading through the topic. There's always information in the book that doesn't need to be memorized (such as the examples they use that may have some random special property making the example "easier", chances are you don't need to know it). Know what the objectives say you need to know. When my teachers makes notes (which generally come directly from the book...) she takes topics that take pages and pages and condense it into maybe 5-6 pages of notes...

[Sandwich]

Thank you so much. I borrowed the Pearson's Baccalaureate book from my friend to study for the Periodicity unit test and freaked because there was so much content; although it did explain things quite thoroughly and nicely, I didn't have enough time to cover everything (but that may have been because I got the book three days before my test and I was cramming).

However, I just got my hands on the Neuss's IB Study Guide (Standard & Higher Level). It seems a lot less time consuming to study in comparison to the Pearson's Baccalaureate book, and I was wondering if I relied solely on that and did thorough revision, given my lack of prior basic knowledge, would I be able to achieve a solid 6 or a 7 in my tests?

Read the objectives, know what they are VERY thoroughly before reading through the topic. There's always information in the book that doesn't need to be memorized (such as the examples they use that may have some random special property making the example "easier", chances are you don't need to know it). Know what the objectives say you need to know. When my teachers makes notes (which generally come directly from the book...) she takes topics that take pages and pages and condense it into maybe 5-6 pages of notes...

I have to say, that's the problem I had with Pearson's -- I object very strongly to learning more than I absolutely have to because actually there's only a limited amount of brainspace we each have, and I couldn't be bothered with wasting so much of my time looking up whether something was worthwhile or irrelevant. Also, I mean time is precious! I have quite a time-intensive method of note-making and making notes on things which I don't need to know takes me absolutely ages! What I personally thought was the best compromise was actually Neuss's Course Companion (not the study guide, which is actually quite useless for anything except for revision). The big thing is that a lot of Chemistry is about comprehension of theories and ideas and then the exam questions require you to be 100% confident about the theory so you can recognise which bit you need and then apply it. I didn't find the Study Guide explained any theories at all -- it does advertise itself as a revision book, so I'm not slating it, but basically you need to know everything prior to using it and then be reminded by it, not learn from it. You're never going to cover a topic in enough detail using the Study Guide as if it were a proper textbook. I found Chemistry a very hard subject myself and getting into 6/7 worth of detail requires a level of knowledge quite a long way beyond the basics that the Study Guide provides you with.

The Course Companion itself isn't ideal, but it's got decently detailed explanations of everything without doing what Pearson does and going overboard, and without doing what the Study Guide does and just failing point blank to explain anything. It doesn't have any additional material and the explanations aren't too bad. All in all, I found it the most useful textbook I ever used for HL Chem.

Having a good personal tutor is, in my opinion, essential, as Chemistry is very much a subject of understanding. If you don't understand it (and its nuances!) perfectly, you can find yourself in a very difficult place. I mean, I had an awful Chemistry teacher who couldn't explain anything for toffee and ended up employing somebody to give me catch-up lessons outside of school. Money has never been spent better! Honestly, when you finally understand something with clarity, it's like a shining light has descended from the skies. If you can find anybody, even outside your school, that they recommend, go for it. You should also ask after people teaching "A Levels", if you know anybody who does. The tutor I found was actually a teacher for A Level students and they have more or less the same course, just an easier method of questioning than the IB because, unlike the IB, the questions lead you through problems rather than simply posing them.

If you REALLY lack basic Chemistry knowledge, they do BRILLIANT revision guides for Chemistry GCSE. Only if you feel you're really lacking, because GCSE Chemistry isn't exactly that advanced, but look up CGP revision guides and you want Higher/Triple Chemistry. Those revision guides really are the best, it saddens me so much that they don't do them for the IB, they have absolutely everything in them to help you remember and understand things, no matter what sort of a learner you are. When I was doing my GCSEs I would happily have married them

[curlayy39]

Thank you so much. I borrowed the Pearson's Baccalaureate book from my friend to study for the Periodicity unit test and freaked because there was so much content; although it did explain things quite thoroughly and nicely, I didn't have enough time to cover everything (but that may have been because I got the book three days before my test and I was cramming).

However, I just got my hands on the Neuss's IB Study Guide (Standard & Higher Level). It seems a lot less time consuming to study in comparison to the Pearson's Baccalaureate book, and I was wondering if I relied solely on that and did thorough revision, given my lack of prior basic knowledge, would I be able to achieve a solid 6 or a 7 in my tests?

Read the objectives, know what they are VERY thoroughly before reading through the topic. There's always information in the book that doesn't need to be memorized (such as the examples they use that may have some random special property making the example "easier", chances are you don't need to know it). Know what the objectives say you need to know. When my teachers makes notes (which generally come directly from the book...) she takes topics that take pages and pages and condense it into maybe 5-6 pages of notes...

I have to say, that's the problem I had with Pearson's -- I object very strongly to learning more than I absolutely have to because actually there's only a limited amount of brainspace we each have, and I couldn't be bothered with wasting so much of my time looking up whether something was worthwhile or irrelevant. Also, I mean time is precious! I have quite a time-intensive method of note-making and making notes on things which I don't need to know takes me absolutely ages! What I personally thought was the best compromise was actually Neuss's Course Companion (not the study guide, which is actually quite useless for anything except for revision). The big thing is that a lot of Chemistry is about comprehension of theories and ideas and then the exam questions require you to be 100% confident about the theory so you can recognise which bit you need and then apply it. I didn't find the Study Guide explained any theories at all -- it does advertise itself as a revision book, so I'm not slating it, but basically you need to know everything prior to using it and then be reminded by it, not learn from it. You're never going to cover a topic in enough detail using the Study Guide as if it were a proper textbook. I found Chemistry a very hard subject myself and getting into 6/7 worth of detail requires a level of knowledge quite a long way beyond the basics that the Study Guide provides you with.

The Course Companion itself isn't ideal, but it's got decently detailed explanations of everything without doing what Pearson does and going overboard, and without doing what the Study Guide does and just failing point blank to explain anything. It doesn't have any additional material and the explanations aren't too bad. All in all, I found it the most useful textbook I ever used for HL Chem.

Having a good personal tutor is, in my opinion, essential, as Chemistry is very much a subject of understanding. If you don't understand it (and its nuances!) perfectly, you can find yourself in a very difficult place. I mean, I had an awful Chemistry teacher who couldn't explain anything for toffee and ended up employing somebody to give me catch-up lessons outside of school. Money has never been spent better! Honestly, when you finally understand something with clarity, it's like a shining light has descended from the skies. If you can find anybody, even outside your school, that they recommend, go for it. You should also ask after people teaching "A Levels", if you know anybody who does. The tutor I found was actually a teacher for A Level students and they have more or less the same course, just an easier method of questioning than the IB because, unlike the IB, the questions lead you through problems rather than simply posing them.

If you REALLY lack basic Chemistry knowledge, they do BRILLIANT revision guides for Chemistry GCSE. Only if you feel you're really lacking, because GCSE Chemistry isn't exactly that advanced, but look up CGP revision guides and you want Higher/Triple Chemistry. Those revision guides really are the best, it saddens me so much that they don't do them for the IB, they have absolutely everything in them to help you remember and understand things, no matter what sort of a learner you are. When I was doing my GCSEs I would happily have married them

Thanks! I was so confused about which way to go about my revision but what you said has told me exactly what I need to do.