Study.com Chemistry 101 Help & Answers β€” General Chemistry Support

Expert help for the hardest chapters in Study.com’s General Chemistry course.

Study.com Chemistry 101 Help β€” General Chemistry

Five high-difficulty chapters. One cumulative final. FMMC handles both.

Quick Answer

Chemistry 101: General Chemistry is a 3-credit, ACE-recommended Study.com course covering 13 chapters from atomic structure through thermodynamics. There are no assignments and no lab component β€” grading is 100 points from chapter tests and 200 points from the final exam. All assessments are open-book and unproctored. No prerequisites are required. Students who need a lab component should see Chemistry 112L.

What Chemistry 101 Covers

Study.com’s Chemistry 101 is a standard general chemistry course accepted at over 2,000 colleges for lower-division credit. It satisfies science general education requirements and serves as a prerequisite for nursing, pre-med, pre-pharmacy, and allied health programs requiring college-level chemistry without a lab. FMMC has supported students in these programs through general chemistry since 2016 β€” on Study.com and through traditional chemistry courses.

The course runs 13 content chapters. Each ends with a 15-question chapter test β€” open-book, up to 3 attempts, highest score counts. Chapter tests account for 100 of the 300 total points. The remaining 200 points come from the 50-question cumulative final exam.

Chapter Topics Difficulty
Ch 1: Intro to Matter Units, dimensional analysis, significant figures, physical vs. chemical changes Low
Ch 2: Atom Atomic structure, subatomic particles, isotopes, electron configuration Medium
Ch 3: The Periodic Table Periodic trends, element families, reactivity patterns Low
Ch 4: Nuclear Chemistry Radioactive decay, half-life calculations, nuclear reactions, applications Medium
Ch 5: Chemical Bonding Ionic and covalent bonds, Lewis structures, VSEPR, molecular geometry, polarity High
Ch 6: Liquids and Solids Intermolecular forces, phase diagrams, phase changes, crystal structures Medium
Ch 7: Gases Ideal gas law, Boyle’s, Charles’s, Dalton’s law, kinetic molecular theory High
Ch 8: Solutions Molarity, solubility, concentration calculations, colligative properties Medium
Ch 9: Stoichiometry Molar mass, mole ratios, limiting reagents, theoretical and percent yield High
Ch 10: Chemical Reactions Balancing equations, reaction types, net ionic equations, predicting products Medium
Ch 11: Equilibrium Equilibrium constants (K𝐢, K𝑃), ICE tables, Le Chatelier’s principle High
Ch 12: Kinetics Reaction rates, rate laws, reaction orders, Arrhenius equation, half-life High
Ch 13: Thermodynamics Enthalpy, entropy, Gibbs free energy, spontaneity, Hess’s law Medium


Bar chart showing difficulty level of each chapter in Study.com Chemistry 101, with Chapters 5, 7, 9, 11, and 12 rated High

Where Students Get Stuck

The first four chapters are accessible. Units, atomic structure, the periodic table, nuclear decay β€” mostly conceptual and descriptive. Students with any high school chemistry background move through them quickly. The course changes character at Chapter 5.

Chapter 5 (Chemical Bonding) is where general chemistry starts demanding real problem-solving. Drawing Lewis structures correctly requires applying octet rule exceptions, formal charges, and resonance β€” all at once. VSEPR geometry adds a spatial reasoning component that trips up students who are strong at procedural chemistry but weak at visualizing molecular shapes. Students who rush Chapter 5 pay for it on the final, where molecular geometry questions appear repeatedly.

Chapter 7 (Gases) is the first chapter that is heavily calculation-dependent. The ideal gas law (PV = nRT) looks simple until students need to apply it with unit conversions, identify the correct variable to solve for, and combine it with Dalton’s law or Graham’s law in multi-step problems. Algebra errors and unit mistakes are the most common point-loss locations.

Chapter 9 (Stoichiometry) is where the gap between watching and doing becomes expensive. Students who watch the video lessons and feel like they understand limiting reagents are often surprised when the chapter test reveals they cannot execute the calculation independently. Multi-step mole conversions require procedural fluency that only comes from working problems repeatedly β€” not watching them solved. Students who enter the Chapter 9 test without having worked through problems from scratch routinely burn all three attempts.

Chapters 11 and 12 are the late-course spike. Equilibrium requires understanding K expressions, writing ICE tables correctly, and applying Le Chatelier’s principle to predict shifts β€” a combination of algebraic and conceptual reasoning. Kinetics introduces rate laws and integrated rate equations, which require identifying reaction order from experimental data. These two chapters together represent the largest cluster of final exam questions that students most commonly get wrong.

What makes Chemistry 101 harder than it looks: the five high-difficulty chapters are spread across the course β€” Chapters 5, 7, 9, 11, and 12 β€” not clustered at the end. There is no safe stretch where students can coast and recover. A student who struggles at Chapter 5 has eight more chapters to go, including two more high-difficulty spikes, before the final exam unlocks.

How FMMC Helps with Chemistry 101

Chemistry is one of FMMC’s core subjects. We support students through general chemistry on Study.com as well as institutional courses through platforms like our chemistry help service.

Chapter Test Support

Expert guidance through Chapters 5, 7, 9, 11, and 12 before you use your attempts. Bonding, gases, stoichiometry, equilibrium, and kinetics covered thoroughly.

Final Exam Preparation

Targeted review of the five high-difficulty chapters before your first or remaining exam attempts. The final draws heavily from stoichiometry, equilibrium, and kinetics.

Full Course Completion

FMMC handles all 13 chapter tests and final exam prep. Most students finish within one billing cycle and move on to their next science requirement.

If your program requires a lab component, Chemistry 112L is the lab-bearing sequel. FMMC supports that course as well.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Chemistry 101 include a lab?

No. Chemistry 101 is lecture-only with no lab component. Students who need a lab for their program should enroll in Chemistry 112L, which uses Labster virtual labs and carries an additional fee beyond the Study.com membership. Confirm with your advisor which version satisfies your requirement before enrolling.

Does Chemistry 101 include assignments or just exams?

Just exams. Chemistry 101 has no written assignments or projects. The full 300 points come from chapter tests (100 pts) and the final exam (200 pts). With five high-difficulty chapters and no assignment buffer, how students perform on those chapter tests directly determines how much pressure they face on the final.

Is there a prerequisite for Study.com Chemistry 101?

No. Study.com lists no formal prerequisites. The course assumes basic algebra proficiency β€” particularly for gas law calculations, stoichiometry, and equilibrium. Students with no prior chemistry background should be direct with themselves: Chapter 5 (Chemical Bonding) will be genuinely difficult. Lewis structures, formal charges, and molecular geometry require logical and spatial thinking that does not develop from watching videos alone.

Do I need to complete all 13 chapters before taking the final exam?

Yes. All 13 chapter tests must be completed before the final exam unlocks. Chapter test scores are locked in permanently before you sit for the final. Students who treat the chapter tests as low-stakes warmups β€” especially on Chapters 5, 7, 9, 11, and 12 β€” arrive at the final in a worse position than they realize.

Which chapters are most heavily tested on the Chemistry 101 final?

The 50-question cumulative final draws from all 13 chapters, but the five High-difficulty chapters β€” Chemical Bonding (Ch 5), Gases (Ch 7), Stoichiometry (Ch 9), Equilibrium (Ch 11), and Kinetics (Ch 12) β€” generate the highest density of calculation-based questions. These are also the chapters where point loss is hardest to recover from because the problems require multi-step reasoning rather than simple recall.

Can I use a calculator on the Chemistry 101 final exam?

Yes. The final exam is open-book and open-note with no proctoring software. Students can use a calculator and refer to course materials during the exam. For chemistry, having a periodic table and formula reference nearby matters β€” the challenge is applying formulas correctly under time pressure, not memorizing them.

I already failed one final exam attempt. Can FMMC still help?

Yes, as long as you have attempts remaining. You have three total with a 3-day wait between each. Contact FMMC immediately after a failed attempt β€” the window is enough time to diagnose which chapters cost you the most points and prepare specifically for those before attempt two or three.

Does FMMC help with other Study.com science courses?

Yes. See the Study.com Help hub for all supported courses, including Chemistry 112L, Physics 101, Physics 112, Statistics 101, Math 101, and more.

Need help with Study.com Chemistry 101?

Chapter tests, final exam prep, or full course completion β€” FMMC handles it. A/B grade guaranteed.

Also support students in traditional chemistry courses and Chemistry 112L.

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