[biomiracle]

Hello!

I am a college freshman who will take the introductory analytical chemistry on upcoming semester.  I was very curious as to what should I know and how can I prepare for this course.  I just completed a semester-long advanced general chemistry course, but it was heavily focused on the physical chemistry (50% thermodynamics and 50% quantum mechanics).  I have a general chemistry textbook called Principles of Modern Chemistry by Oxtoby, but I rarely used it and I doubt I can complete it within three weeks (before the next semester starts).  Will you give me important topics from the general chemistry that are essential for analytical chemistry?  Also do you think I should go over some light books on general chemistry like AP Chemistry prep books and Schaum or should I just read my Oxtoby textbook?

Thanks you very much in advance, and happy New Year!

[Borek]

Brush your equilibrium calculation skills.

[Arkcon]

I think you'll find university level analytical chemistry to be, like you said, 50% basic statistics (computing ANOVA, that sort of thing) and 50% laboratory techniques (using a burette properly, weighing by difference, instrument techniques, etc.)  But definitely review your basic statistics so you're prepared -- know how to plug and chug in your calculator or spreadsheet for mean, standard deviation, ANOVA, know what "degrees of freedom" means, stc.