5.111

5.111: Principles of Chemical Science is a general institute requirement (GIR) and as such it is required by all MIT undergraduate students to pass the course.

For those of you unsure what the differences are between the chem classes are, this is the rundown:

5.111: standard class most students take freshman fall. More details below.
5.112: an accelerated version of the class for those that really like chemistry.
3.091: nicknamed "3.09 fun," this is a version of the GIR taught through the material science department with lots of goodies and weekly quizzes instead of psets. Highly recommended for non life-science majors with an allegedly better lecturer. Do not take this class in the spring.

Also consult freshman advising groups for what they offer. I know concourse offers a version of this class (CC.5111).

For MIT's Chemistry material: 
To understand the concepts: my notes* (click link for pdf), watch OpenCourseware (a close friend highly recommends them) or Youtube!

While the lectures and textbook go very deep into chemistry, the exams are very similar to the AP Chemistry FRQ's (lots of math & applying formulas). While I read the textbook in the beginning of the semester, it was not very useful for the exams. The textbook is usually available somewhere online through a dropbox students share so don't consider buying one.

5.111 Structure:
Meet thrice a week (1 hr) for lecture and twice (1 hr) for recitation. Go to one with a good TA- not necessarily the one assigned to you.

Pre-lectures three times a week were assigned through mitx, small questions required before lecture. Concept Questions (CQs) that were given during lecture and purely participation grades. Psets twice a week: one that is handed in and one online through mitx. Three Exams + a Final.

I love chemistry and as such already learned a healthy chunk of the little-tested theory. Ironically, recitation and the psets were much more important than the lecture for the exam. Lecture summaries were available online and were pretty decent, I read those every week when I had Dr. Nelson Keith and Dr. Mei Hong for 5.111 in the fall of 2017**. With my very strong background in chemistry from my high-school studies, the later exams were not very difficult.


Key to Maya's Notes: 
Pink post it notes are CQs or examples,
w/o means without,
~ means about/approximately

*Please keep in mind the notes on this website are more for storage/my brother's use so if the handwriting is a bit difficult in some areas review books, videos, or even textbooks are also great studying tools.
** I did take this class on PNR so my notes are somewhat less detailed than normal (haha).