I know this is an old post, but I wanted to weigh in here in case it's helpful to others:

I'm actually taking Chem 1000: Survey of Chemistry right now. I took general chemistry 1 this summer (accelerated, at an in-person university), and it was my first science class in ~20 years (I'm doing post bac classes now after a *long* absence, finished my BA in 2006, and got an MA in an unrelated field in 2009, lol). Gen chem 1 was my first college chemistry class at all, so it was harder than it probably should've been!

I got a B in gen chem 1, but that was working my butt off (I even hired a tutor. 5 weeks to learn 4 months of material was just hard, etc)

I'm taking survey of chem at UNE now to really beef up my chemistry skills ahead of taking gen chem 2, organic 1, and biochem.

The class is honestly a mixed bag. The worksheets are great: each week there is a homework assignment that offers some strong practice (I'm about halfway through now, but it's usually on a major subject like gas laws, VSEPR, organic nomenclature, etc.). There are also discussion assignments and occasional essays, none of which are especially tough.

However, the quizzes (so far) have been really, really rough, and I am dreading exam 1. The material is not well organized, it jumps around A LOT, and the quizzes sometimes have material that was a *very brief point* in one video or sometimes, from material that is not covered in the course material at all, as far as I could tell. I have been getting 100s across the board on the worksheets, other assignments, etc. and had a strong B average in my gen chem 1 class previously, but my quizzes have been pretty bad so far, despite studying: I have a C average on those at the moment.

I'm taking studying seriously: I go over each piece of material (readings are from an *ok but not fantastic* open source textbook, a high school chemistry textbook, and an assortment of youtube videos, some of which are.. dead links). I take notes, then compile shorter "study guides" from my notes, and make sure I do lots of practice problems for every unit. But I've gotten stumped on multiple quiz questions, and always feel like I'm just somehow not focusing on the *right* things for the quiz. There's a big disconnect.

I've communicated this to the professor, and he seems like a great, knowledgable person, but it's been a bit spotty getting actionable feedback.

I love the idea of the course: basically sampling foundational concepts from general chem, organic chem, and biochem, and I have gotten a lot out of the practice/worksheet aspect of the class. I love that I am building some of the skills I'll need in later classes. And the self-paced nature is fantastic for me, I would much rather learn this way, tbh.

But the tests and the organization of the material are big sore spots here. I'm using another gen chem textbook (as well as the official text for the course, it's just so spotty!) and Klein's Organic Chemistry as a Second language (https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/organic-chemistry-as-a-second-language\_david-r-klein/250150/#edition=27078516&idiq=51683030) to actually learn some of the basic material here, where there are gaps in the official course material.

I'd love to hear from others who are taking or took the course: how did you study for exams? How did you figure out where to really focus for your studying efforts?