i’ve been in the mental health field for a decade and went to school for that. i’m returning to school for chemistry. no kids. not married. no mortgage.
have not done any type of rigorous math in a decade.
I start classes next month but I have a pre-calculus book I’ve been working through independently and it is tough. My goal is to be ahead one chapter every week so I know what questions to ask if issues present themselves.
is there any advice anyone in the hard sciences can give me? I would greatly appreciate it.
it’s an online program. The lab work will be done with a lab kit that you order.
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Youtube is very helpful for when you get stuck on certain math problems.
As for how to do it? Keep at it. Read up before classes. Figure out how you prefer to take notes.
If you’re a chemistry major and intend to make a career out of it, you’ll want to do some of the later lab sections in-person, especially for o-chem and p-chem. It’s where you’ll learn the skills that industry wants. Fortunately, they’re offered at pretty much every state university.
No at-home kit will have the gear you need for said lab sections, nor will you have the safety gear required for said projects.
Examples? A nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer takes up a small room, while a rotary evaporator-condenser takes up an entire lab bench. And you’ll need an external-venting fume hood to avoid knocking yourself out with ether (and I still got dizzy, lol).
Source? 34 with over a decade working in medical labs, currently in flow cytometry doing cancer research. Also an ex who runs a p-chem lab at BASF.
P.S. You could always Walter-White it in a shed or garage, but that can be a little dangerous for a new student. Not to mention expensive.
I went back to college when I was 35. I was much more productive and efficient at studying and learning. What I struggled with when I was 22 was super easy this time around, mostly because I was more interested in learning than being done.