Blog #1
– For my first blog I am going to be talking about Exam 1 and how it felt for me to take that exam. When I walked into class that day, I spent most of the night before studying hard for this exam. I worked mainly on studying how to name organic compounds which ended up being such a good thing that I did that because there was a lot of those question on the exam worth several points. After getting out of the exam now I wish I put more focus on other things in the exam because I missed almost every single multiple – choice question on this exam and two parts of the short answer. Another thing about this exam that I plan on fixing for the next one is time management because on this exam I started on the short answers first, so I don’t run out of time and worst-case scenario with that is guessing on the multiple choice questions. This did lead to that happening because when I finished the short answers, I ended up really rushing through the multiple choice questions and as a result I missed several questions that if I didn’t rush and properly read I know I would have gotten correct. Now after getting my test back I realize that I need to work much more on finding molarity because of the fact that I missed every question involving molarity. Even after doing the exam correction I still am having a hard time mostly finding how to get the liters and knowing which numbers to use to find it. Other things that I need a bit more studying on are the extra credit questions that came last. Even though they may be extra credit I really want to know how to get the correct answers because I attempted the first two out of three and got them completely wrong. For #1 on the extra credit I see my mistake and know what I did wrong and I am able to fix that going forward but for #2 I have no idea how to calculate the number of atoms in the cubes and need to study that most of all. For #3 I know how to do it but I don’t remember how to do the first step to the problem because you have to organize it and by doing that it changes the H°, so I need to work more on that but if I was given the numbers and just had to use the standard enthalpy of formation equation I would have gotten it correct. Overall for a first exam I felt good about how it was, and I am happy of my grade on it because compared to my Gen Chem 1 exams I am doing much better and I am off to a good start.
Blog #2
-For my second blog about general chemistry 2 I decided to talk about my experiences around the second exam we took earlier today for me. First reactions coming out of that exam are not good for me. After spending a week studying, I wish I had studied more than I actually ended up doing because of what I feel I got as my score. Even though I did put in all the effort I could I really need a better understanding of some of the topics like Aqueous Ionic Solutions, Titrations, and Buffers, but with everything else I did understand how to do it and stuff like that. While taking the exam I did the same skill where I start the short answers first then and again move on to the multiple-choice questions where worst case scenario I can just guess on the multiple choice instead of having to do that on the short answer where I would definitely guess the answer wrong. I also finished the Exam 2 with 15 minutes to spare but with that being true it wasn’t like I flew through the questions especially the short questions that’s where I found the most trouble. After reviewing all the assignments, handouts, and worksheets I feel like I may need to review them more. One thing that I usually do to study is make a notecard gathering all the information I may need for the exam and when I did it I ended up having to up 4 notecards into 1 which was a struggle. The thing I think I need to review the most that was on the exam is knowing pH or pOH because just looking at the reaction needs to be done better. Overall, I feel like this exam was a rough one but at least I got it done. Now it has been a couple weeks and I now have the grade I received on the exam and its disappointing. I received a 71.11% and that compared to my 94.6% is a major step down. Next exam and for the final I am definitely going to do all the strategies that I brought up before and maybe look up a few more. I am also going to complete every handout and make sure to ask questions is even the smallest thing doesn’t make sense, that mixed with maybe rewatching the videos. I can also get help on the slack group chat if im home and wanted to ask a question.
Blog #3
-For my third journal entry I am going to discuss exam 3 and how I feel the best about it for some reason then how it’s going for me personally. This exam covered the following topics: Thermodynamics, Entropy, Electrochemistry, Volcanic Cells, Coordination Compounds, Kinetics, and Nuclear Chemistry. The real reason I found this exam to be easy was because of the time we had to complete it as well as the fact that it was an open book exam. This all together made me really understand the questions that were on the exam as if it were a regular exam just with some added help. Without this I feel I may have done absolutely terrible because these topics were harder to learn for me and then with CNM moving to completely online it was rough to really understand what I was learning because I would need to zoom on the days that you were available plus I lost the ability to talk and ask to my table mates as well as those around me. The topic that I liked the most happen to be Nuclear Chemistry which is the study of chemical and physical properties of elements influenced by changes in the structure of the atomic nucleus. I found this topic to be a challenge but one that I understood more than the others at least. I feel like this exam was a bit different because there were no multiple-choice questions, all of them were short answers. This is because of the fact that we cannot go in to take the test, but instead we have to do it at home due to COVID-19. When I submitted it, I felt good but now that some time has passed, I’m beginning to doubt my own skills when I comes to exam 3. After studying more to see If I was right on exam 3, I am starting to think there may have made a few mistakes because the equation I wrote on my notecard is wrong. With this and more I feel like since the stay at home order chemistry although being a sudden change wasn’t as bad as it really could have been. Now this week is my final week and I feel a bit swamped with homework and tests for other classes. For this class the remaining assignments that I have left are Blogs 3 and 4, then the two take home quizzes for the lab and that it I will be done.
Blog #4
-Now for my fourth and final blog I am going to discuss how I felt about this class and how things have been going since COVID. I have found this class this semester to be really good and I have to admit that I actually learned so much more than I thought that I would have. Coming from General Chemistry II I felt like this class was going to be such a struggle because I barely passed General Chemistry I with a B- which was me putting the maximum amount of effort in the class. Even for an into course I was hard from the start and I always felt that there was never enough time to actually learn what we were taking notes on. Another thing was that the notes we were taking were so long and boring in just the way they were presented, but all that has changed because of the way you have decided to structure this class. I liked having to watch the provided videos as homework then coming in to class and actually applying those topics by filling out worksheets and working with others. It’s the things like this that I felt was perfect for a course like this where these is just so much to cover and not enough time to cover it in class. Then after all of this the outbreak of COVID slowly came throughout the semester. It had been so crazy since the stay at home order. I have been going on several walks with my dog just because I am so sick of being inside which is where I would always be as a result of me being more of an introvert rarely going anywhere before the hand. Another thing I find wild is going shopping because I am actually scary to be near others while all of this is happening. I also find it scary getting mail and packages from amazon. I may be a bit paranoid, but I’d rather be safe than sorry. One major thing that has been ruined since this was me going to the movies. Since the start of 2020 I have gone to the movies every weekend with friends and family and for some reason this is the thing that I miss doing the most and is going to be the first thing that I do once this is all over. I also had my birthday and like I could do anything when I wanted to simply just go out to a nice restaurant and now in a couple weeks my little sisters birthday is about to happen and my mom is planning a birthday drive by in the cars which should be interesting.
WORD COUNT: 1758
Christopher Herrera Blog 