The real shock to students creeps in when they find themselves perplexed due to nightmare named chemistry. Yes, indeed an unavoidable fact. Â Even I had faced the same when I was in my high schools. The nomenclature of organic chemistry, the role of reagents and catalysts in inorganic chemistry, and the tough numerical problems of physical chemistry seemed to haunt me. Halloween day seemed better than the eve of chemistry exam day.
Conquer your distress
People around me used to advise me with a variety of words. They used to cheer me up with few metaphors and analogies. But it is my personal experience that sometimes in life one has to pick oneself and move. I never knew that chemistry would bring me to such a difficult stage in life. The paradox lies in this very fact.
Look around you, and you will discover that more than half the objects are gift of chemistry. The pickles, jams in kitchen, the utensils, and the gadgets we use, fertilisers and pesticides used in crops all are but boon of chemistry. So, just make it a vital point to master the theories of the science. Enumerated below are few tricks that shall help you in the process.
Science is more of practical than bookish factsÂ
Quote this to memory and use this logic when you are memorising laws of Avogadro or Charles’s. Remember that it is nothing out of the world. Everything mentioned is under the earth, try to relate it with the natural phenomenon around you, and ease your tedious task of memorising the long laws. With this respect, the following needs to be kept in memory:
- Understand and assimilate the concept well through its graphical representation.
- Learn by heart mathematical formulae.
- The application of the law should be well implicit.
Generate your own abbreviationsÂ
The metal reactivity series goes as potassium, calcium, sodium, magnesium ….(K,Ca,Na,Mg…) can dredge up by abbreviating the same as “Private Second-class MacZitl he can make some gun powderâ€. Just recap how it was when we were kids, the seven colours of the rainbow was remembered as VIBGYOR. It didn’t even take any effort for us to learn them. Apply the same here too. These jovial thoughts never go wrong. They play a vital role in exams too as they help in fetching grades quickly. Twirl the creative cells of your brain and turn the boring stuffs into attention-grabbing ones.
Chemistry is the science of shades
Cations have a particular colour, their flames look vibrant, and so do other salts and reagents. The resultant fact is that chemistry is a science that involves hues. As a teenager, when in my high school I found painting more interesting than the facts and figures that chemistry offered.
It was my mathematics teacher who proposed me the idea to turn my hobby into mode of easing the theories. I made big charts that were literally visual treat, and depicted all the chemical reactions on them. Book learning from the chart seemed easy than learning it from hard bind books. Students can put to use this trick to soften their lessons.
Cook up your stories
How does like fairy tales? Wouldn’t it be so nice if we had to read story books instead of the brain storming van der Waal’s law and kinetic theory? But such a possibility cannot be all total discarded. Make up your stories with molecules and atoms as the protagonists and also some other physical quantity as the antagonist. Once you are done, just see how magically you will succeed in mastering your lessons. It shall hardly seem like a burden.
Let us take up an instance. There are two siblings, pressure and volume. Both of them never agree upon each other’s’ opinion. If one goes upward, the other comes down. Temperature is the constant friend who keeps them stable. Guess what this is nothing but Boyle’s gas law. Don’t you find it easy to grab the concepts this way?
Resourceful use of the internetÂ
The internet is a power house of resource. There are many a brilliant ideas, which shall boast up your liking for subject. E-learning, although, in its foetus stage, has already succeeded in helping students across the globe. If you have access to the internet, then surf through and download few of the best tutorials. The essence of smart learning has no bounds. It shall surely draw your attention towards the subject.
Cleanliness is godliness
Whichever mode you apply, it is essentially vital to keep the environment of your work neat and clean.
- Keep your study neat and tidy
- Keep your room aerated
- Try to grow indoor ornamental plants
- Keep distractions like iPod, mobile or so miles away
Divide and conquer policy
This policy is especially useful for chemistry projects. The huge assignments need to be broken down into modules. Solve these individual modules separately. Once this is done, sit and reassemble the solutions. The problem when solved bit by bit doesn’t seem like a big deal. During my high school days, this was a trick that was bound to click.
Another good habit is to pick up regular reading of tabloids and science journals. It is indeed an incredible habit to be nurtured. It not only creates awareness about the current scientific researches but also sparks interest in you. It lights up the curiosity you have. These eventually help you to develop liking for the subject.