I recall most of chem being “here’s a rule that applies to a very narrow subdomain but literally nothing else.” So we learned a lot of mostly useless rules and then we’d do a lab where most the chemicals didn’t use any of the same interaction rules or naming conventions as each other. Or here’s a lab test we can use only on chemicals that mix perfectly and don’t separate, cloud, etc.
Yeah this is exactly why I mentally checked out of chemistry. Memorization was being pushed harder than conceptual understanding.
What did you memorize?
I recall most of chem being “here’s a rule that applies to a very narrow subdomain but literally nothing else.” So we learned a lot of mostly useless rules and then we’d do a lab where most the chemicals didn’t use any of the same interaction rules or naming conventions as each other. Or here’s a lab test we can use only on chemicals that mix perfectly and don’t separate, cloud, etc.