How I learnt AL Chemistry in the Early Days: The Alchemical Work Flow

Al Chemistry is Arguably one of the critical subjects for Al Science Stream Students. With Many Biological Science Students cherishing it and Many Physical Science ones loathing it. It has a mixed reputation among the student community. With there being people who breeze through these as some sort of whiz kids. And Those who go to lot of classes for Chemistry alone and barely surviving.

We are going to see how I have specifically learnt and practiced Most of the Chemistry in the beginning. Considering that I have got two A passes and a C pass in My A level with a 1.94 Z Score. I hope at least I have done some decent work in Chemistry. So, I am sharing what I did early on.

For Us, O levels were kept on 2022 May. And for a long while, I considered going to tuition Classes not worth my time, If I could absorb the material faster than in that way. (I last went to Classes in 2020 prior to it. And mostly on the first month of it. So, you knew how much I would have been eager to go for Classes!)

So , just after the O level, I begun going through all the Resource books of Chemistry.(I went through other subjects’ too , But that is for another post!) It took nearly a month for someone who do not know what is aliphatic amine and what is thiosulfuric acid to go over all the resource books.(I went over Tamil books primarily , despite them being poorly written in relation to their English Counterparts.) Then I went over English too. This time things begun to Click. Things I first even have not noticed in first skim, I began to notice. So, the first month went like it. Just Exploring.

By the end of the first month, I did have a good feel for the entire syllabus. So, I knew this is not some crazy amount of nonsense that you somehow need to work ‘hard’ on. So, you could ‘pass’. Rather it is a beautiful thing. Something you could learn for its own sake. (Of course, I haven’t got this feeling, Just Seeing the Resource books. Only After seeing The Reference books I got this sort of certainty.)

And if you are working on your own, it is always good to track your progress. Especially if there is no External feedback that you could receive. So, if I worked for an hour. I would jot it down in a piece of paper. Then would transfer the sum of the day’s work time for each subject in to a separate piece of paper. So, I could see visually how much qualitative work I have put on.

When I work. I work. I don’t nibble on bags of chips or peanuts. Nor Chat on One side and Read on another. For the first few months, I rarely use any mobile apps actually. I just learnt and it is incredibly rewarding.

Then the Month went on and I got the point that some sort of qualitative reference is necessary for understanding the ‘Why’ behind Chemical Phenomena. So, I downloaded all the references mentioned in the back of the Resource books and begun Exploring them.

And Voila! They are just too good. They are beautifully written, with all kind of vivid pictures and illustrations. They give practical examples and show how to apply things in real life. In Short: They are Fantastic. And I was Eager. So, I begun learning all the basics: from Oxidation numbers to Hund’s rule to Electron Orbits from these books.

I would learn them. After each section would write a summary of them. (Of course, mostly in English, Since the reference are in English). And this went on amazingly.

So, I begun to do some crazy experiments during these periods. I would learn Some Kinetics on the first day then some Energetics later. I just learn things in my own way without an arbitrary order. And I did the Questions from Past papers. And Voila it worked!

Most of the Questions from Past Papers , I have been able to do with this process. (Especially the Physical Chemistry and General Chemistry ones, which rely on one’s understanding of the processes of things.)

Then Later I saw some Organic and Inorganic textbooks and seen their Scopes are very wide. But the Al Questions seems to be within a certain pattern and scope. So, I figured it out, it must be a very small part of the content from the references. So, I begun to reverse-engineer for Organic and In-organic.

I would try the question. It won’t work. Would see elaborations. Something might be graspable. Then I would go on and read on those topics. It would then click. And I would write a good summary. The whole process would just be beautiful.

This is not to say there are no challenges. There are a lot! I just do not allowed things to become stagnant. If something is not moving forward. I don’t try to push it recklessly. I leave it for a while. Work on something apparently altogether different. Then If I come to the same thing later. It worked. So, I went on.

And this is how I laid a strong foundation for Chemistry In the very beginning. This is not to say anyone should emulate this. That’s not intelligible. Cause the situation that I was in may not be the one that you are in. But the underlying practices; When Modified, could come in handy for anyone. Whether it is trying to write summaries in a free-flowing way. Or Reverse-Engineering questions. And that’s how the first few months went on.

Thank you.