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Need chemistry motivation


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I am taking the 2nd half of inorganic chemistry this semester and I am afraid I will be bored to death with it just like I was during the 1st half. Even though I studied and made an A on the 1st half, I still feel like I haven't learned anything about chemistry. I felt like it was more a math class dealing with chemistry elements. I need some advice on what I should learn from the class and what useful knowledge I could get out of it. Passing the class doesn't really cut it for me, I need to have goals in order to pursue something but the only goal is for now is to get a good grade in this class so I could apply for PA program. Anyone have interesting ideas on what useful knowledge I could get out of the class?

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Guest guthriesm

Chem 2 is more ground work - look at it as the foundation for your ultimate goals and dreams. It is slightly more interesting than 1 and the labs are usually a bit more entertaining. Still, it is about mastering the absolute basics which will allow you to jump straight into the more demanding ones - analytical chem, organic, biochemistry, etc. Focus on bonds, interactions, and reactions as they will be vital in your future! Good luck!

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I hated genchem1, genchem2 was great and more fun for me, loved ochem, didn't take biochem. Most of the inorganic classes were math and memorizing I felt like.. I didn't really have an appreciation for what chem meant till I got to ochem. Some programs will take you with just 1 semester of inorganic.. or none like Emed mentioned above.

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How important are people finding their chem classes in PA school? Have you found that you could have gotten by with none or very little chem? Most of my med school friends have said that they have very rarely used chem at all in school so I'm interested in the PA perspective. Thanks!

never used any beyond very basic concepts(diffusion, etc). there is none on pance or panre. I took only the min. chem( 1 full yr) because I hated it with a burning passion. if I liked it I would have gone to medschool. loved physics. loved almost all upperdivision bio.

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I think it depends on the instructor if the class going to be fun or not. All the labs I did were to do calculations and measurements, but I have no clue what the hell was I to learn from it and how I can use it in life. I feel like instructors just want to concentrate on students passing the class and not necessarily learn the essence of the subject. I have tried to use the book to get more ideas and understand it deeper but I found most of the book explanations inaccessible to my mind, other than the helpful demo calculations.

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I think ochem in the back of my head somewhere did help me out quite a bit when it came to understanding mechanisms and stuff. It's wasn't necessary, but i think it made my life easier and there was less stuff I had to memorize - conceptually things just made more sense with pharm.

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We never directly used chemistry in didactic year (organic or general) but very basic concepts are background you need to understand electrolyte stuff and acid-base. The stuff that was tough in OChem (reagents/catalysts, electron movement, steroochemistry, L/R/racemic mixtures...) never came up.

 

As EMEDPA said, it's mostly a hoop you have to jump through unless you plan to go into research.

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