High school chemistry often conjures images of Bunsen burners, beakers, and reactions brewing over hot plates. These are all things that many students will experience, but are supplemented with plenty of long laboratory reports and challenging examinations. Like many other high school science courses, high school chemistry is time-intensive and conceptually challenging with long-term implications for students with aspirations to college or technical careers. Whether you need top Chemistry tutors in Syracuse, Chemistry tutors in Chicago, or top Chemistry tutors in San Francisco, working with a pro may take your studies to the next level.
High school chemistry classes usually focus on the basics of chemistry, which will be critically important in later, more advanced courses. Mastering these basic principles can often seem overwhelming when they are presented with many other less important facts in the course of a typical chemistry class session. Knowing what is important and triaging information is an essential skill to develop, and can be applied to any other class you are taking now or end up taking later. Varsity Tutors offers resources like free High School Chemistry Practice Tests to help with your self-paced study, or you may want to consider a Chemistry tutor.
Aside from recognizing what is important, one of the most challenging parts of high school chemistry for many students is developing the ability to think like a chemist. Critical thought and analytical consideration of results both rest on applying the scientific method, which can be a foreign way of thinking for many students. This approach, however, can pay dividends in future science classes, and on challenging exams students face later in their educational careers.
The real challenge, of course, is seeing this long-term value while also accomplishing the everyday tasks of studying and writing reports. Proper perspective is therefore critical, and something that is best afforded by working with other students, teaching and learning in groups or one-on-one. Quickly it will become apparent that analytical and critical investigation of questions holds great value in a variety of fields.
In fact, chemistry and the scientific method are important even if you never see yourself as a chemist working in a lab. Maybe you want to work in a field like finance or accounting or a technical field like automobile repair. Regardless, all of these fields will involve someone present with a problem that you will need to investigate and fix. A methodical approach to investigating the problem will be critical to efficiently and effectively completing your job.
Standardized examinations on the road to college also emphasize critical thinking, and some, like the AP Chemistry exam, directly test you on knowledge you likely learn in a high school chemistry class. You can also put critical thinking skills developed in high school chemistry courses to good use on exams like the ACT and the SAT. While all of these can be meaningful motivation for many students, finding enjoyment and satisfaction from the study of chemistry is also critical. You may not find everything fascinating, but taking a moment to reflect on the implications your new knowledge of chemistry has on your understanding of the world around you can help you appreciate remarkable aspects of even the most mundane parts of everyday life. In addition to the High School Chemistry Help section and Chemistry tutoring, you may also want to consider taking some of our High School Chemistry Flashcards.
Working in groups or one-on-one with other students of chemistry is a way to recognize and appreciate the enormous impact that chemistry has on everyday life. Consider that every atom is almost entirely empty space, and ask yourself why your atoms and the atoms of your chair don’t simply pass through one another, landing you on the floor. Chemistry has the answer, and appreciating new perspectives like these can help you find your passion, in chemistry or elsewhere.
If you’re having trouble fully understanding or appreciating a topic in high school chemistry, our High School Chemistry Help page might be just the tool to help you finally master the concepts that elude you. We divide up our High School Chemistry Help content into general topics as well as specific concepts, so you can study material at the level of detail that best suits your needs. Our Help content presents you with correctly-worked practice problems with full explanations, making it easy to follow along and start good problem-solving habits you can apply to similar questions in the future. High school chemistry courses offer many challenges, and our free Learning Tools can help as you work to meet every one of them.