College chemistry difficulty level?

Nursing Students Pre-Nursing

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One Of my pre-reqs I'll be taking in the fall is chemistry. I'm really nervous. I've never taken a chemistry class in high school. It wasn't because I was lazy or academically challenged, I had a whole lot going wrong in my life at the time that I was unable to keep up with the work load to my satisfaction and deal with the troubles in my life as well. So, I dropped it. Now, I'm nervous about passing. I'm a straight A student and I try my hardest. I'm just wondering how difficult college chemistry is? Would it be easier if i took it at a community college over the summer? Im so nervous :/ any advice would be great! Thank you!

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I think the answer is 'it depends'. I'm taking a shortened college chemistry course over the summer and last time I took chemistry was 15 years ago?

The community college I'm taking pre-reqs at has a non-credit 'intro chemistry' for people who want to learn the basics/go slower. That may be an option but I think it won't be that hard to just jump right into it. You might want to pick up a 'dummies' chem book to give you an idea of the basics but I wouldn't stress about it too much.

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Specializes in critical care.

For me, it was harder than statistics, easier than A&P. Not sure if that helps or not. You're applying math to theory, basically. If you have a hard instructor to grasp, you'll have a hard time. I really believe chemistry needs a great instructor, because if they're great at explaining, you'll get it easily and wonder why you ever got nervous. If you take it during a short semester, don't take it with anything else. If you take it during a regular semester, pair it with easier pre-reqs. It's not one I would take with a&p, but probably could squeeze by during micro, as long as my other classes were easy, like English or sociology.

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So... I majored in Biochemistry and taught high school chemistry for 2 years in Tokyo (and am now going back to do a 'real career' in nursing, go figure) so, my perspective is what it is.

Generally, classes are compressed in the summer meaning you have to learn more in less time, so probably not a good choice. There is no guarantee that you'll get a great teacher in community college or elsewhere, so do your research: ask around if some teachers are better than others.

Go to all the classes, read the book, and GO TO THE OFFICE HOURS. For students where chemistry isn't intuitive, it requires a significant time and effort investment. Most teachers have office hours and most schools have free tutors. Use them! Ask all the stupid questions you like! (we all have stupid questions) In my opinion, chemistry is only impossible for those who give up. There is no reason it should break your perfect GPA. Do as many practice problems as you can and use the internet to find other ways to understand it if your book and teacher aren't making sense. After doing chemistry so long, I sometimes found it difficult to explain as a teacher because it just seemed so obvious to me. It took me a while to figure out how to break things down so students could learn it. Unfortunately, not all teachers take the time to figure that part out...

If you really want to study ahead all summer and rock chemistry fall term, I highly suggest Chemistry | Khan Academy it basically has a year worth of excellent quality chemistry lectures. Also, if there is any lecture you don't understand well, look in the Khan academy or just google it and look on youtube. There are tons of explanations online.

Invest the time. Be creative and tenacious about finding resources that work for you (including study groups). Believe in yourself.

You'll do great.

See you on the nursing floor in a few years. ;)

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Specializes in critical care.

I totally second the go to office hours sentiment. I learned more on office hours than during lecture, and often times my professors were able to explain it better one-on-one than in class.

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Specializes in Primary Care; Child Advocacy; Child Abuse; ED.

Find out from other students about the instructor. I have heard it was hard at some colleges and easy at others. My class was hard and I am a A student also. Probably didn't help that I took physiology microbiology and chemistry all in the same semester but still ended with all As. You can do look for a tutor if you need it and don't worry you can do it!

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Thanks Leenak! The Dummies book is a great idea! I'll have to look into that.

Ixchel: yes! I wasn't sure how well I'd be able to grasp Chem so I'm take easier classes with it (sociology, nutrition, and drug terminology).

Thanks! I'm feeling a little less anxiety.

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Oh right! I completely forgot about office hours. I think I can do this! Lol thanks everyone for the advice and support! I'll definitely look into the khan academy as well.

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Specializes in Hospice / Psych / RNAC.

If you can get the concept that drives and "is" chemistry, you should be alright. It takes an active imagination to envision the Periodic Table as the basic contructs that are everything.

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I have the perfect book 4 you, the self teaching guide to chemistry. I got it from amazon.com for 10 dollars. It has helped me out so much. And I am definately not even a C student in Chemistry. lol

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Oh great! I'll check into that! Thanks so much :)

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Right out of high school in 1990-91, I took the standard freshman general chemistry "for scientific majors". I took it twice and FAILED it twice. What my school requires for nursing is an intro to chemistry for nurses. I actually loved it!! I took it online and made an A!!! It used a website called Mastering Chemistry which was very useful.

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