Chemistry: the subject people start in the middle

Chemistry arrives at school late and moves fast from the first day. Between the first lesson and the first test that already requires calculation there is very little time — and a great many children simply never get aboard.

What follows is the usual thing: what was not understood is replaced by what was memorised. Formulas are remembered, reactions copied out, marks hold for a while. Then comes a topic with nothing to memorise, and it all falls at once.

Three foundations, without which there is nowhere to go

The structure of the atom — why substances behave differently at all. Amount of substance — the mole, which trips up more people than anything else. And chemical bonding — why one thing joins with another and a third will not.

If those three have not settled into place, everything after them is not chemistry but a list to be remembered. A good tutor checks them first, even if you arrived with problems from a much later year.

If medicine is ahead

The road into medicine runs through chemistry in almost every country, and the standard is well above school level. Worth knowing early: starting six months before the exam is late, and starting two years ahead is normal.

Tell the tutor the goal at once. Preparing so there are no bad marks and preparing for medical school are different in pace, in depth and, frankly, often in the person you need.

If you are in a different school system

Countries teach chemistry in different orders and with different emphases: some reach organic chemistry earlier, some weigh practical work heavily, some give half the exam to calculation.

Do not try to find someone who recognises your system by name. Say which one you are in and what exam is ahead, and ask whether they have worked with it. Ask separately about language: chemical names are built differently in different languages, and a child learning them at a local school will have to carry both sets.

Online or in person

Everything to do with understanding and calculation travels through a screen perfectly well. Experiments do not. But experiments take up far less of school chemistry than people assume, and if the school has a laboratory, that is not what a tutor is for.

How to read the reviews here

Reviews on the site are thank-yous, so look in them not for a verdict but for the task the person handled. «She got into medical school» and «she finally stopped dreading tests» describe very different work.

See who is teaching chemistry: chemistry tutors with reviews.