Getting Back into Chemistry?

Question

I haven't taken Chemistry since high school, 8 years ago.

I want to go to medical school and need to complete my science pre-reqs.

What advice can you offer someone who's been away from Chemistry this long. I did well in High School and took AP.

Are there any Chem for Dummies books you can recommend? Thank you for any help.

Answer 1

Try the online course notes/lectures at MIT under general chemistry. Also Virginia Tech has a good one I've been teaching my 13 y.o. general chemistry using it. General chemistry will be the least of your struggles fulfilling pre-med chemistry. Organic chemistry is where they seperate the grain from the chafe.

Answer 2

You went to high school 8 years ago.  I went 45 years ago!  I just finished an accelerated chemistry class and lab and got straight A's (of course, I had an outstanding teacher).  I found 2 chemistry for dummies books at the bookstore (go take a look and you'll find some)and read them before the class started.  It did help to make me more familiar with things we covered in class but not a whole lot.  Considering the background you've described, you should do fine in college chemistry.  Unfortunately, the prerequisites for medical school require more than one chemistry class and more in depth study than that which my accelerated class covered.  There was quite a bit of math (I took algebra in high school 45 years ago too) and I did fine.  The only problem I had was with logs, but found someone in the class who knew how to work them out on the calculator and showed me how and that was that.  Actually, I thought the class was a blast and the labs were really fun (my teacher liked to blow thing up!) so give it a chance.  You might find you really like it.  You'll have to study hard but that's true of all the classes you'll have to take for pre-med.  Good luck!

Answer 3

I highly recommend picking up a Schaum's Chemistry Guide. There are a lot of problems you can solve and it gives a pretty reasonable explanation.

I took Gen Chem in college last semester and we used the book Chemical Reactivity by Kotz. His books are amazing, You can pick up the earlier versions for a lot cheaper, but his content is pretty easy to understand! :D