Advice for doing well in chemistry 3/4

[rosecookiie]

So I am doing Chem 3/4 in year 11 and just want to know what are the important areas to really understand, how to revise efficiently, etc.
thanks

[blacksanta62]

Hello again
I did unit 1/2 chemistry in year 1 and I'm doing 3/4 this year so I haven't already gone through it or know the topics we cover in great detail. But I do know that unit 3/4 chemistry will be building on the knowledge gained in 1/2. This link should show you what the 'important' things to revise over before 3/4 starts: http://www.learnmate.com.au/a-basic-introduction-to-vce-chemistry-34-a-must-read-for-students

The actual study design is here: http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Documents/vce/chemistry/ChemistrySD-2013.pdf but I just look at the textbooks content page and then assume that's what be covering throughout the year and the study design for me looks a bit over complicated instead of being plain and simple :/

And if you want you can also read this, but it's not necessary: End of year examples

Effectively revising for me was to do every relevant question in the textbook. The teacher might of set 1a-d, 3a-b etc but I would do every single relevant question, especially when it came to stoichiometry, acid-base reactions, redox reactions etc to really understand how to solve them. Also read the chapters, highlight key areas and if you go through the chapter in class then mistakes will easily be addressed. Look on khan academy and YouTube for videos on the topics.
Any other questions?

[lzxnl]

Make sure you're rote learning as little as possible. Rote learning generally just doesn't work in physics or chemistry. Trust me, I've tried rote learning electromagnetism equations in physics. It doesn't always work very well.

Make sure you understand every step of a solution process for a question and ensure that you can, yourself, come up with it. Questions like 'how many double bonds are there in this molecule' when told how much iodine was added are simple when you see the answer, but you have to both understand the solution and be able to reproduce it. This is important.

Don't cram things; it's not good for long-term retention. Revisiting the content every few weeks helps more than you think; from my experience with memorising song lyrics, I can NEVER remember them in one go, but if I try again the next day, I'll retain so much more content.

The above is, of course, applicable to VCE in general and not just chemistry.