[PIF]

Not really new. Back when I was in college in the 60s chemistry profs had no problem - some classes were lucky and one or 2 people passed. Organic and solid Chem are very hard.

[NTHockey]

A friend told me the only way to pass Organic Chemistry was to memorize the book. He was right. 50% of our tests was a “road map”. That’ where you start with coal, limestone and air to make A. Then a sequence of reactions gets you to Z. If you don’t know all the reactions and their products, you’ll never get to Z.

[exDemMom]

Organic and solid Chem are very hard.

Not really. They have distinct, logical rules which you only need to apply in order to solve problems. What is hard is trying to guess what an English teacher wants, when the rules (if they exist) are malleable and obscure, and no two teachers have the same grading standards.

Of course, I got a PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology, and would never consider getting even a BA in English.

I could substitute any soft subject here and still be accurate.

[TheDandyMan]

I had similar experiences. Don’t see that as a positive either, it tells me two things — the professor is complete garbage at teaching, confirming the adage “those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach”, and the university uses it as a cash cow, forcing students to pay for the same class over and over.

Nobody who is unqualified should pass a class. But when an undergrad class physics class has the same failure rate as BUD/S, year in, year out, that’s nonsense.

[cpdiii]

“Not really new. Back when I was in college in the 60s chemistry profs had no problem - some classes were lucky and one or 2 people passed. Organic and solid Chem are very hard.”

Yep! Chem, math and physics is what weeded out the unsuitable students in pre pharmacy. The vast majority changed majors. Oddly of those that made it into pharmacy school, the vast majority passed and became pharmacists.

[combat_boots]

I remember that, too.

Organic chem. Famously failing pre-med students who needed 4.0s.