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Teach myself Chemistry? (1 Viewer)

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My teacher is rubbish. Last lesson was her ranting on about how the council wants to build a sewage thing near her house. When someone asked for examples of homogenous and heterogenous mixtures, she had a blank look on her face then proceeded to boot her netbook and Google the answer.

It's been 5 weeks and we've barely touched the syllabus. Me and some other students have lost hope and have begun to teach ourselves from textbooks and the internet. I've done up to Lewis-dot diagrams and it's been pretty easy. I've done review questions in the textbooks and haven't had any trouble.

So my question is: would I be severely disadvantaged if I taught myself Chemistry from textbooks, the internet and YouTube videos (of experiments and stuff)?
 

Mature Lamb

wats goin on
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It's better to teach yourself if you think your teacher is rubbish. Later on if you still don't understand some of the content, get a tutor
 

jp92

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no you wont be disadvantaged. Most of the blokes that go well in subjects rely on themselves.
 

MetroMattums

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People like to say it's "your" HSC, so I assume that it applies in this case as well.

If you work hard enough you'll do fine. :)
 
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Thank you :)

This makes me feel very good, I've got Jacaranda Chemistry, Chemistry Contexts, revision guides and resources from BoS. I might go to a coaching college or get a tutor if things get too hard.
 

h3ll h0und

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tbh at the beginning of yr 11 i thought my chem teacher was shit because he talks like a fob. but i started to change my attitude and stopped complaining all the time because it was pointless and found out he wasnt too bad if u put in some effort. so in ur case, maybe your exaggerating it a bit, so try to pay a little bit extra attention in class, otherwise, if he really is uber shit, then just self teach by answering dot points from syllabus using good textbooks like conquering chem and jacaranda chem.
 

x jiim

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You might want to try Conquering Chemistry as well- I used it for prelim/hsc and it's pretty good with the explanations and examples and stuff :]
 

FCB

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Conquering Chem + Chem is context isnt to shabby.
 

mioumiou

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My teacher is rubbish. Last lesson was her ranting on about how the council wants to build a sewage thing near her house. When someone asked for examples of homogenous and heterogenous mixtures, she had a blank look on her face then proceeded to boot her netbook and Google the answer.

It's been 5 weeks and we've barely touched the syllabus. Me and some other students have lost hope and have begun to teach ourselves from textbooks and the internet. I've done up to Lewis-dot diagrams and it's been pretty easy. I've done review questions in the textbooks and haven't had any trouble.

So my question is: would I be severely disadvantaged if I taught myself Chemistry from textbooks, the internet and YouTube videos (of experiments and stuff)?
I'm in the similar situation too..... :(
 

anulik

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My teacher is rubbish. Last lesson was her ranting on about how the council wants to build a sewage thing near her house. When someone asked for examples of homogenous and heterogenous mixtures, she had a blank look on her face then proceeded to boot her netbook and Google the answer.

It's been 5 weeks and we've barely touched the syllabus. Me and some other students have lost hope and have begun to teach ourselves from textbooks and the internet. I've done up to Lewis-dot diagrams and it's been pretty easy. I've done review questions in the textbooks and haven't had any trouble.

So my question is: would I be severely disadvantaged if I taught myself Chemistry from textbooks, the internet and YouTube videos (of experiments and stuff)?
I was in exactly same situation in year 11!!
My teacher knew nothing, and he wasnt even doing experiments and stuff!!
I tought myself, all the concepts, there were times I explained the concepts to the class, and evryone would understand. The point is, that it is more than possible to teach yourself with good resources, and good studying techniques. From my example I did, and I topped the class!
But then, at the end of year 11, I just claimed to the principal, and complained about him, saying that he doesnt do anything, he talks about his life, etc :)
So from this year we have got new teacher, she is head techer and she is so good!
So everything is possible...
 

mioumiou

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I was in exactly same situation in year 11!!
My teacher knew nothing, and he wasnt even doing experiments and stuff!!
I tought myself, all the concepts, there were times I explained the concepts to the class, and evryone would understand. The point is, that it is more than possible to teach yourself with good resources, and good studying techniques. From my example I did, and I topped the class!
But then, at the end of year 11, I just claimed to the principal, and complained about him, saying that he doesnt do anything, he talks about his life, etc :)
So from this year we have got new teacher, she is head techer and she is so good!
So everything is possible...
LOL, but I'm in the similar situation where our teacher SOMETIMES talks about his personal life. He doesn't really seems to follow the Dot Points and I get really confused sometimes. We had a Chemistry topic test on Friday, and half of the stuff in there, he either told us to do research by ourselves or did not teach us on that topic. :(

But it's good to know that you've got a good teacher in your HSC!! :)
 

warezfan

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I think you need a tutor, studying chemistry by yourself is nearly impossible since this is the hardest subject in the HSC. Only way you can survive is if you get a tutor or go to a reputable tutoring centre such as preuni.
 

mioumiou

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I think you need a tutor, studying chemistry by yourself is nearly impossible since this is the hardest subject in the HSC. Only way you can survive is if you get a tutor or go to a reputable tutoring centre such as preuni.
Well, I go to the tuition centre, they've provide some good information and the teacher is quite good, so I can learn stuff ahead. However, they're materials are just copy straight from the textbook Conquering Chemistry. Which makes everything a bit disappointing. :(
 

anulik

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well, its so relative to say that chemistry is the hardest. It all depends on a person! Someone can find physics harder or ext 2 or english if its their second language. I would personally say that it is more than possible to selfteach chemistry, if you really like the subject, and even if you are the only one from your class who wants to study!
 

mioumiou

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well, its so relative to say that chemistry is the hardest. It all depends on a person! Someone can find physics harder or ext 2 or english if its their second language. I would personally say that it is more than possible to selfteach chemistry, if you really like the subject, and even if you are the only one from your class who wants to study!
I LOVE Chemistry and I'll just try my best to study. (btw, english is my second language too :) )
and did u have a chance to visit some useful site that people have posted LOADS of past papers? there's like 200+ for maths (2U/3U/4U) each and all of the science subjects. hope they're some how useful! :)
 

harrisony

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Go complain to your head of science and of principal
 

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