Overview
Chemistry 1A03 covers basic assumed knowledge from highschool (bonding, gases, atomic theory, etc), electrons in atoms, periodic table trends, acids & bases, equilibrium, aqueous solutions and thermochemistry. This is a rather large first year class, so it's taught by 3 or...

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Originally Posted by batman

I remember that second midterm. Looked around the room and 90% of people looked like they wanted to cry.

Yeah the 2nd mitterm was pretty hard.

I know this thread is from last year but in case anyone is going to be taking this course:

The chapters mentioned ("1-4 +6") but not covered is assumed knowledge, meaning you must know this stuff in order to use it to build upon with the lectures. Unless you had Grade 12 Chem the previous year and reviewed chemistry over the summer you should go through these chapters thoroughly.. being intimately familiar with rudimentary concepts like gas laws, chemical composition, balancing, etc will give you a significant edge to proceeding chapters, and test will be a lot easier.

You don't have to be able to do the examples 100% but you shouldn't be too terrible at them either...
(this is advice i wished somebody had given me)

hello, i am going to attend mcmaster university for 1st yr life science in september 2009
i was just wondering what the most difficult courses are for 1st yr life science at mac?
i know it depends on ur strengths/weaknesses, how hard ur school was and the concepts you covered
i just wanted to hear overall which courses students had the most difficulty in 1st yr

thanks a lot for your time

Originally Posted by lankan_4lif

hello, i am going to attend mcmaster university for 1st yr life science in september 2009
i was just wondering what the most difficult courses are for 1st yr life science at mac?
i know it depends on ur strengths/weaknesses, how hard ur school was and the concepts you covered
i just wanted to hear overall which courses students had the most difficulty in 1st yr

thanks a lot for your time

Chemistry, Chem1A03 specifically

I had an 89 percent on the first Chemistry midterm. I thought I was gonna ace the course until I wrote the second midterm. Then, the exam, for me was the killer since I had to cram Biology and Chem together in one week! So, in conclusion, cumulative tests suck and there's too much assumed knowledge in this course!

Originally Posted by mumbojumbo

I had an 89 percent on the first Chemistry midterm. I thought I was gonna ace the course until I wrote the second midterm. Then, the exam, for me was the killer since I had to cram Biology and Chem together in one week! So, in conclusion, cumulative tests suck and there's too much assumed knowledge in this course!

Omg I remember that.. Bio was the next day after Chem that was horrible.
I did really well on the exam though.. probably because i focused on chem more than biology.
For me, I found the more practice questions I did the better.. so all the previous tests, some of the textbook questions, the tutorial questions.. even redoing some of the quiz questions.
What I liked about the quizzes was that there wasn't a time limit (unlike bio....) n u could collaborate with ur friends to finish it.
I liked the course overall though... but that's just cuz I like chem

Originally Posted by lankan_4lif

hello, i am going to attend mcmaster university for 1st yr life science in september 2009
i was just wondering what the most difficult courses are for 1st yr life science at mac?
i know it depends on ur strengths/weaknesses, how hard ur school was and the concepts you covered
i just wanted to hear overall which courses students had the most difficulty in 1st yr

thanks a lot for your time

I really hate chemistry but I personally did not find Chem 1A03 to be that hard. However, you do have to work in order to get a good grade in this course. If you keep up with the material, it should not be too bad.

For me, physics was definitely the hardest course. I suppose it all depends on your background (ex. how the courses were taught in your highschool and how much knowledge you have retained).

Hope that helps.

EDIT: im not sure where my member review came from. I would NOT give this course a 10 in easiness or a overall rating of 4. i would probably give the course a 6 in easiness and an overall rating of 6. i had Dr. Pippa Lock and she was amazing! I would give her a 10/10!

You can change your review on the first page, just click on "Rate Now"

Originally Posted by jhan523

You can change your review on the first page, just click on "Rate Now"

thats much better! thanks

Hey I'm selecting courses for my timetable, and it says that there's four professors who teach Chemistry 1A03: Lock P, Britz McKibbin P, Goward GR and Emslie DJ. WWhich professor would people recommend going with?

I would recommend Lock. Avoid Mckibbin, I didn't like him.

I had Dr. McKibbin and I loved him. Also had Lock. She is also very good..probably better at explaining concepts than Britz but he is still a good prof (in my opinion anyway).

I had Goward and Lock, and I found them both effective.
I'd say goward is especially good for the first few units of the course,
and Lock is REALLY good with acid base i swear her reviews saved me.

Do the CHEM 1A03 and CHEM 1AA3 textbooks come with solution manuals that you can purchase along with the main textbooks?
Are there solution manuals as well for the PHYSICS 1B03 and MATH 1LS3 textbooks too?