This entry is special, because a few days ago I reached 1,000 followers on Twitter and I dedicate it to a friend who is going to start studying chemistry this 2019-2020 academic year. Taking advantage of the fact that the course is about to begin, I am also making this entry for those of you who are going to study chemistry or are in high school and want to access a chemistry degree Molecule Database.
TIPS FOR BACHELORS
I’m going to start with the advice for those of you who are either in high school or are going to high school.
1. Type of high school: In each autonomous community in Spain, the high school is organized in a way and has certain names. I advise you that if chemistry is among your possibilities, choose the high school that has the subjects of biology and geology, physics and chemistry and mathematics in the first year and physics, chemistry, biology and mathematics in the second year. Be careful, in first physics and chemistry is a subject and in second it is physics on the one hand and chemistry on the other. If you can take a statistics subject, I advise you to do so since statistics is used a lot in chemistry and this will simplify things a lot for you.
2. Calculator: In high school the calculator that is given at Cola Cao® is no longer useful, it is necessary to purchase a scientific calculator. I advise you to buy one in particular, which, even if it is a little more expensive, can save you money in the future. At the end of this section I will put the photo. In any case, I am going to tell you about the characteristics that it should meet in my opinion:
-It must be intuitive, that is, you write the accounts in it just as you write them on paper
-That it has the possibility of recording constants and results in memory so that you do not have to type them, which reduces the risk of making a mistake
-That in the statistical mode you have the possibility of working with two variables.
These are the characteristics that I consider it should meet, but the calculator that I am going to show you the photo of also does integrals, equations, systems… Things that although in high school they require you to do them by hand, in college it is a small pain. of sand of all the problem you have to solve.
3. Basic concepts:The subjects of mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology can help you a lot because the first year of the degree is what is given. But within these subjects, there are a series of things that can greatly simplify your first year of study and that will mark your foundation throughout it.
– In mathematics, based on my experience I can tell you that integrals and derivatives are very important. It is also advisable to know how to clear without difficulties.
– In physics, everything related to changes in units and interpretation of magnitudes (a distance cannot be negative, neither can a volume…).
– In chemistry, the formulation (for university professors it is unforgivable not to know that the formula of sulfuric acid is H 2 SO 4 , or at least know how to deduce it…), the calculations of solutions and stoichiometry (molarity, molality, normality, limiting reagent, yield… it is something that teachers take for granted) and adjustment of reactions (both by trial and error, and by the algebraic method “it is valid but chemists usually don’t like it very much”, as by the ion-electron method) .
– In biology, everything related to biochemistry (carbohydrates, lipids, proteins and nucleic acids) can be useful both for the biology subject in first year, for some organic subjects and for the biochemistry subject of the degree.