Introduction

Chemistry is undoubtedly the most interesting of all science subjects. Yet, a lot of students, after taking a mere look at the Chemical formulae, go into a tizzy - probably due to a fear of the unknown. The fear of Chemistry pervades basically from a lack of understanding of the subject which itself stems from following a random approach to learning Chemistry

I reiterate here that Chemistry is a very interesting and easy to comprehend subject. However to understand it, Chemistry must be learnt in a systematic manner. The subject itself follows a beautiful pattern and as one learns, the pieces fall into place, fitting well into each other.

The Basics of Chemistry. For those with little or no background of Chemistry, the first step must start with the learning about the atom itself. One must completely understand the structure of atom, the way the electrons, protons and neutrons are arranged and how they affect the properties of substances. The ideal way of learning this is by animated tutorials

The next step is to graduate to the Periodic Table which gives complete insight into the Chemical and Physical behavior of elements. I will give a example here - the Sodium (Na) atom has 11 electrons. If one looks at its electronic configuration which is 2-8-1, following the Octet rule, Sodium can lose one electron - this makes it a metal. The same analogy is applicable to the other elements of the periodic table which can lose electrons. Thus one simple concept is applicable to a number of elements of the Periodic Table and can be used to predict their metallic and non metallic nature. From the periodic table itself, one can learn how to write chemical formulae. Once that is done, its easy to write Chemical equations and balance them.

Learning Advanced Chemistry. So far so Good. While I will not attempt to give the topics and various aspects to be studied in advanced Chemistry here, it is obviously clear that Advanced Chemistry delves further into depths of Chemistry. Hence sustained efforts to learn Chemistry and understand it well become more and more important. For advanced chemistry, the learning by Tutorials and reinforced by interaction with tutors must be supplemented with attempting quizzes on the subject. The ideal way of achieving it is as follows - First understand the topic fully by the tutorials. Next identify the gaps in knowledge and interact with a Chemistry Tutor to assimilate the topic. Thereafter attempt maximum quizzes on the subject to test himself/herself on the understanding of the topic. These are available aplenty on the internet.



Happy learning - May you all succeed in your endeavors.

by Uma Sharma