6.+Managing+Impulsitivity

MANAGING IMPULSITIVITY I've always been someone who is prone to making careless mistakes, especially when it comes to solving math-related problems. In chemistry, I always approached these problems with a bit of overconfidence, thinking it wouldn't be as difficult as the math I do in Calculus. With this attitude, I would attack the problems without really processing the question. I acted on impulse rather than logic, because I assumed my impulse would be enough to help me solve the problem. I was able to get by using this tactic until recently. Once we entered moles and pH, I found that it was more than just "simple math". If I tried to be impulsive with these problems, I would miss out on a crucial step, or give an answer that was different from what the question was asking for.

When we did our quizzes on acids and bases, I would always give a pH value when it asked for pOH, or vice versa. I often impulsively take the numbers listed and plug them into the equations I know.

For this problem, I just noticed that pH was what I was supposed to be calculating, and just plugged in the number. I failed to notice that the numbers provided were for KOH. Had I slowed down a bit instead of jumping right into the problem, I would have noticed this.

After that, I took care to read the questions carefully, and make sure I actually knew what all the values were representing. This paid off and I was able to not make carless mistakes on similar questions.