Year 12 chemistry self-learnable?

[m@tty]

LOL back-titrations are a hard concept? Never knew that.

But yeah, understanding the procedure and theoretical basis of NMR is a little ... confusing at first.

Also, as you said, the spectra appear complex initially, but they become really, really simple (VCE ones at least .. not the types which gave rise to discussion here.)

[stonecold]

LOL back-titrations are a hard concept? Never knew that.

haha not at all, but the first time you read it it's a little confusing.  but yeah, unless vcaa puts uv vis + back titration in the same question (as in Q10 VCAA09) they are very simple.

hopefully you do one in class.  much easier to understand once you've actually done it.

[lisafaustina]

I did most of unit 3/4 chemistry self taught. I regret having had a tutor cos it was jut a waste of time and made me exhausted. If you're really motivated to learn chemistry then it shouldn't be that hard. Plus , you got this forum lol

[happycat]

I would think that it would be self learnable, I didn't in my experience find my teacher helpful. I find self teaching to be better seeing that yourself is the best teacher IMO. What's more you can go at your own pace during the holidays unlike the teacher that may act as if on speed or something.

[Greggler]

I self taught my self unit 3 over the holidays, it wasnt very hard at all, just an extension on from earlier stuff, and some of the stuff id done in 3/4 biol the year earlier. Spectroscopy is really the only new stuff.

just get your head around the calculations, dilutions etc. if you are comfortable with this stuff you should be alright.

Spectroscopy isnt hard, but rather confusing when you first encounter it, especially by yourself.

[golden]

Can anyone please explain to me as to why sodium hydride is a base?

[pi]

Can anyone please explain to me as to why sodium hydride is a base?

Because it is able to accept protons, especially from weak acids, hence it is a strong base.

[golden]

Can anyone please explain to me as to why sodium hydride is a base?

Because it is able to accept protons, especially from strong acids, hence it is a strong base.

Accept it to form NaH2+? Or what?

Moderator action: removed real name, sorry for the inconvenience

[pi]

Can anyone please explain to me as to why sodium hydride is a base?

Because it is able to accept protons, especially from strong acids, hence it is a strong base.

Accept it to form NaH2+? Or what?

It is a strange (yet strong) base in that it is an ionic compound

If it reacts with water (water acts as an acid): NaH (s) + H2O (l) --> NaOH (aq) + H2 (g)

SO the reactions do not look like normal acid-base reactions

(NB, it can only accept protons from weak acids, not strong acids -I made the mistake in my above post)

Moderator action: removed real name, sorry for the inconvenience

[longy1991]

very self learnable

just make sure you cover acid-bases, redox, electrovalencies and solubilites in some revision coz you need these basics to do well.

Then just do titrations (including back titrations and gravimetrics) and all chrom/spec techniques until you don't understand some stuff, then ask questions or look them up on youtube (i found youtube really useful for analytical chemistry).

Also, don't listen to the people on here that say you don't need to know much about each analytical technique, try to know as much as you can because they truly can, and do, ask anything.

[dptjandra]

Can anyone please explain to me as to why sodium hydride is a base?

Because it is able to accept protons, especially from strong acids, hence it is a strong base.

Accept it to form NaH2+? Or what?

It is a strange (yet strong) base in that it is an ionic compound

If it reacts with water (water acts as an acid): NaH (s) + H2O (l) --> NaOH (aq) + H2 (g)

SO the reactions do not look like normal acid-base reactions

(NB, it can only accept protons from weak acids, not strong acids -I made the mistake in my above post)

The reaction is correct - the thing to note is that the "base" part is actually the H- part.  H- + H+ --> H2.  As you might expect, this makes it a very strong base.  The Na+ is there as a counter ion to ensure neutrality of the compound (in the reaction, it is actually a spectator ion).

Similarly, with NaOH:  OH- is the base part while Na+ is the counter-ion.  In reaction, OH- + H+ --> H2O while Na+ is a spectator ion.

I don't reckon Unit 3 can be truly self taught in the way that, say, a maths subject can be.  There are far fewer questions than in maths where you can get heaps and heaps of practise for each type of question.  (That said, if your teacher isn't very good and doesn't provide many questions, that doesn't help much anyway.)  You can certainly get a bit of a basis for it by yourself, but some concepts are notoriously confusing, and the problem with analytical techniques in Unit 3 is that there is so much junk to sift through.  The other problem is you can think you understand a concept, but in fact you have part of it 'half-right'.  I'm a bit biased because my chemistry teacher was so good so I really gained a lot by listening to her.  I also find that VCE textbooks do not explain some concepts fantastically (eg. back-titration).  I had already read Zumdahl's Chemical Principles before Yr 12.  It is a great reference book which cleared up a lot of things for me.

Moderator action: removed real name, sorry for the inconvenience

[Bozo]

Do you guys even listen to your teachers, cause i'm worried i might be faced with an incompetent teacher in year 12. But from what you guys are saying i can still excell.

[Greatness]

Chemistry is one of my favourite subjects and i found that i was able to absorb almost everyhting the teacher said. Then without doing that much work outside of class i was able to get very high marks for tests, sacs exams etc.
I think listening in class is extremely important, if your teacher isnt great maybe you shld hire a tutor?

[Zien]

Most of the time, it's not really the teacher that's terrible. I mean, sure there are plenty of teachers out there who are truly terrible but most of the time it's just the students not being used to their teaching style. It sucks but we just have to learn to adapt to get the most out of it. : / Listening in class is really the best thing you can do for our studies.