[dnbwise]

Next semester I am signed up for both organic I and physical chem I, as well as a couple of electives. Is it a bad idea to take both at the same time? If so, which one should I wait to take? It's been almost a year since I finished calculus III, so I may need to go ahead and take physical first since it involves calculus. Thanks for any advice.

[movies]

Both take a lot of time if you aren't familiar with them.  Organic is unique because it's a different way of looking at chemistry than you encounter in gen. chem.  Physical chemistry is tough for a lot of people because they get bogged down in the equations.

Personally, I had a tougher time with P. Chem. because I could never relate the equations to the reality of what the atoms were doing.  The problem sets and lab reports probably took me twice as long as they were intended to.  Organic came a lot easier to me, but it still takes a lot of time because there is so much new information crammed into the course.  Once you get the hang of it, it's not so bad, but it can take a while to get used to the organic chemists' mind set.

All in all, I would say that if you other courses are not going to be time consuming, you could do both if you are willing to put in all the time.  However, I personally always avoided taking two chem. courses at the same time because they just took too much of my time.  I was also working on idependent research at the time though, so I didn't have as much free time anyway.

[GCT]

then I would imagine that taking p. chem, anal chem. intrumental analysis, and mega lab (combination of p chem, analy, instrumental, inorganic concepts) all in one semester is a really bad idea, something I'll be going for next semester.  dnbwise, I can relate to your situation, and I don't think it's going to be very fun for me either.

I've taken up to differential equations, and I've aced all my math courses so far, I have not taken calc III or linear algebra though...my guess is that it should'nt be too difficult for you, since you have calc III, although some of the derivations (I've taken a peek recently) are still difficult to understand.

I'm just hoping that the four courses would not be so time consuming.  An ideal schedule for me would be to take a math course, a major chemistry course, up to three lab courses, however things have just not gone that way for me....if I wish to graduate within one year (that's my priority), I'll need to go with it-I don't plan waiting another year.

As far as Org. Chem goes, it is really time consuming.  Like movies said, it is has a somewhat different approach then gen chem, and for most people it requires a lot of memorization.  I would not recommend taking org. chem and p. chem at the same time, unless you're mathematically fluent, so that you can breeze through p. chem.

[Qazzian]

Depending on what you're covering in P Chem, it may be tougher. I know that courses that focus on quantum mechanics have alot of equation work, thermodynamics a bit less, and kinetics, well, I have no idea but I'll find out soon enough. Most profs will go over the math you're going to need for the course, and there's bound to be people in the class, or a TA, who can help you if you need a refresher. Right now I'm doing something like what GCT is doing next term, taking Organic II, Thermodynamics, and multiple other courses making up a 33 hour in class week.

If you're up to working at it, take them both. It'll make you learn to manage your time, and I've found this term that you suddenly start seeing connections between all your courses, so it helps it makes sense. You should also look at what you're going to be taking later, to see if you can put one of them off, or if it's a prereq for another course.

[dnbwise]

thanks for the advice guys. It is going to be a tough decision because I could try to find another class to take instead. I don't really have many other courses to complete but chem courses though. I changed my major last semester from engineering, so I have all my physics and math courses completed already.

Yeah, I have been looking at what my prereq's are for future courses and I need to complete organic II for a lot of my 400 and 500 level courses. I was also checking to see what semesters the courses I need are offered. Physical I isn't offered in the spring and that is why I wanted to get it out of the way in the fall.