I'm doing my gcses this year and I am just absolutely terrible at chemistry. No matter how hard I try to understand it and how much revision I do, It makes NO SENSE.
I revised loads for my last end of unit test on elements, compounds and mixtures and boiling point, melting point and separation methods etc. I thought I understood it but I did really bad, I got 77%. I go to a grammar school so i'm not necessarily stupid, I usually get 80s and 90s but chemistry i get in my 70s. I just don't understand it. It's not just one specific topic within chemistry, its EVERYTHING.
At the moment I'm doing Atomic Structure and Bonding about the periodic table, ions, ionic bonding, balancing equations etc.
l understand it a bit, but when i think i do there's always a question that seems to be completely different from what I've learnt for example....
The symbol for Chlorine is Cl but we were doing this table with the headings Name, Formula, Number of Atoms and Elements present. Under Formula for chlorine it was Cl2. I know that the 2 means 2 chlorine atoms but why is the formula not just Cl? Then on the same table there was Sodium Chloride which formula was NaCl, why?
Another question was, "Write a balanced symbol equation for the reaction of magnesium with oxygen." The answer was, "Mg2+O2-->2MgO" I wrote "Mg+O-->MgO" is that not balanced? Why did we have to put "2" in?
I have a test next week on those 2 topics, I'm so scared because I cannot do chemistry and no matter how much I revise, I always get in my 70s
If you can recommend any sites that would help me with this revision, I would really appreciate it!
Thanks :)
Update:Thanks but I can't get a C or our school makes us repeat, I'm aiming for As but Ill accept a B in chemistry
Answers & Comments
Verified answer
There are a lot of people who go through a course and for some reason or another do not understand the basics. I have seen it with math and other subjects and tried to get points across to people but sometimes it just does not stick. Now, that being said, I tutored one particular student that was just not getting the simple concept of a trick to add quickly. I believed that this trick to add quickly was holding her back from grasping concepts being taught in class. Eventually she stopped coming to me for tutoring and then the school year ended. The next year I found out that in the new school year she had started taking peer tutoring lessons and her marks improved by about 10 points.
I am not sure what caused the change but I suspect some of it may have been committment and some of it may have been the peer connection.
By the way, the simple trick to adding goes like this:
10 + 10 = 20
So the easy next step is:
10 + 9 = 19
The easy next step is to replace the 10 in the above equation with one less than 10. This means that your answer will be one less than 10 + 9.
So,
9 + 9 = 18
To extend that to other numbers, take 2 less than 10 and the answer will be 2 less than 10 + 9.
So,
8 + 9 = 17.
This seems really easy if you get the concept. This girl could add but for some reason she was not grasping the concept. I wrote it out for her and repeated it. It did not take.
There are a number of things that we as humans are able to do. One of them is to train the mind. With martial arts people train repetitively so that the correct motions become part of the person so that when they have to react to defend themselves they do not have to think. If you have to think to defend against the punch you will get hit.
Your problem with with chemistry is that you do not understand the concept of shells of electrons around the nucleus of the atom. In the first shell there is a maximum of 2 electrons possible to be held in that shell. Some atoms have 2 electrons and some do not. If the atom or atom of the element does not have 2 electrons then that atom will easily make a bond with another atom.
This is a basic concept with chemistry. To help yourself understand this concept, take the Periodic Table and memorize all the elements. Do not worry about spurting out all the elements at one time if you cannot do it already. To help yourself understand the concept of electrons in shells around an atom you should write out the information for the element and then draw the nucleus. Around the nucleus draw the number of shells for the atom and the proper number of electrons in those shells. Go step by step, shell by shell, taking account of all the electrons as they are drawn.
You can do this in your spare time. There is always a Periodic Table available in the Web to assist you in this task. Once you finish this task two to three times over you should start to understand the concept of electrons and electron shells. From there it is easier to understand when electrons are more available and less available to make bonds with other atoms. Remember that atoms can share electrons. Make sure you understand how many bonds can be made depending upon how many spaces for electrons are available.
By the way, I like to lead people to think about things so they can arrive at their own answers. Repetitive training can have that effect on people - to learn their own answers.
One more thing, WISC-ONLINE is a very good website for tutorials on lots of different subjects.
You should check out:
http://www.khanacademy.org/science/chemistry
Mostly everything wants 8 electrons in its outermost shell. An analogy you can use to understand this is that a harry potter fan will own all 7 books, anything less won't do. Similarly, most atoms want 8 electrons in its outermost shells but Cl only has 7! So it gets "together" with another chlorine and they share one ("book") electron. Hence, Cl2. This is a very vague analogy. I suggest you check out the website above!
I found khanacademy very useful, you should check it out. Give it time, do a lot of example problems!
Im taking gcse chemistry too i know how you feel, im not good at maths so im definatley not good at chemistry.. but i took the higher paper and got a c which is good enough for a subject i find really hard, its not that hard to get a c i mean im sure i only answered like 4 questions ahah... im sure you can get extra help from a teacher? no one can say anything as long as you try your best
Also our school have given us a website with the text book we are currently using for the course... if you live in the uk maybe ask your teacher if they've heard of it and see if they can look into it...
it is www.kerboodle.com
goodluck :)
use your chemistry book or find a tudor