ATAR Notes: Forum
VCE Stuff => VCE Science => VCE Mathematics/Science/Technology => VCE Subjects + Help => VCE Chemistry => Topic started by: Jason12 on March 19, 2014, 10:50:44 pm
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our teacher gives us notes on handout sheets which are summaries of the textbook. Is it worth it to copy down/make my own notes in a book so it is easier to refer to them than handouts or is it just a waste of time?
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Well it depends on your learning style.
I think with math/science subjects the best way to learn and have the stuff be consolidated in your head is through questions so maybe it's better to use your time on the questions rather than writing notes.
But if understanding the main concepts is your problem (and you can't do the questions properly before this important step) then try writing notes to see if that works for you. If it doesn't maybe watch youtube videos; I know khanacademy (teaches general chem) and mrjasongoudie (who teaches vce chem) on youtube are really good. If you are more the auditory type then try podcasts, there should be a link somewhere on mrjasongoudie's channel of them. The podcasts are amazing so give it a go perhaps.
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Also! If you don't know where to find questions there are past exams and A+notes and study guides etc. You might find some study guides in your school library for you to borrow for free too (i know my school does :P).
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I agree with what serenaaa.s said.
For the theory aspect of chemistry (biochem, organic chem etc, spectroscopy to an extent etc) I'd suggest making your own notes as sometime the notes given to you don't always explain it in the best of ways. For the typical numerical aspect however (stoic, calibration etc), you might want to just grab a copy of the data booklet used in the exam and just add things here and there; the purpose of this is that once the exam comes around you will already be quite familiar with the data booklet so you won't need to waste time going through it if you need to.
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If you are using the Heinmann books for chem don't bother with too many of the questions, I don't think they can prepare you well for the exams.
Doing checkpoints throughout the year is a much better option as they're from past exam questions.
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I like writing my own chem notes because it helps me summarise and remember the little bits of information, but if you are not that type of learning person then don't waste time. As my teacher always says, chem is about doing the questions. You can spend hours doing notes and memorising them but u won't get good at doing the questions on the exam if you don't practice them, so I highly recommend you to do as many questions as you can