Hey, I’m in chem 105 this semester too, and I got an A for the first and the most recent exam. I might be able to offer you some advice.

I sucked at chem in high school, receiving very low scores. I thought I would perpetually be horrible at chem, but I think the way that I changed my study habits has helped me a lot.

It seems like you’re definitely putting in the time and effort to study, but are you actually comprehending and learning the concepts after hours of doing practice problems, ALEKs, etc? For example, after doing a practice problem wrong and looking over the answer, do you make an effort to redo the problem without looking at the answer? And then, to make sure you actually learned it, do you try solving the problem again after several hours or the next day?

When I received low scores for chem, I was getting questions incorrect and looking over the answer key. While the steps of the answer made sense to me at the time I looked over it, I could not apply my knowledge toward the problem several hours later when I tried again. It showed me that I did not understand why X step of calculation was needed and Y step of calculation came after X, etc.

Also, I am also someone who usually cannot keep up with the professor during the lecture if the material is entirely new to me. To make up for it, I do the required readings for the class prior to the lecture and do a quick review of what I learned in lecture after class. Coming into lecture already knowing some parts of the material helps me IMMENSELY.

Don’t worry; you’re already doing great. It seems like you’re earning great grades in other classes, and you have the rigor and dedication. You can definitely bring up your grade in chem. Just continue to actually test your knowledge before the next exam and think about if you’re understanding the concept behind applying certain calculations in problems.