Advice on chemistry

Refering to my reply to the replies on on my teachers blog (See link, click on title)

So here's my advice on chemistry:

Important Advice when learning chemistry:

1) Get your concepts right from the start. (very important)

2) If you have any questions, regardless of how funny it seems, question the teacher until they want to die >:D ie. Why is carbon black and dull but diamonds can be polished until its shiny and clear?

3) Use analogy to understand the concepts. Ie, why van der Waals forces stronger in longer molecules. I give you 4 basket balls (representing branched molecules), when I ask you to seperate them, its very easy. However when I give you 4 sheets of paper, and ask you to seperate them, its not so easy. Cause area of contact is larger.

4) Borrow your chemprodigy friend's work and copy not-blindly, relate the answers to the questions. If you don't know what he's doing and he won't explain, or if he explains and you don't understand, go find someone else whose explaination is powerful. Or find some way to steal the materials you need to carry out the experient (use at own risk)

5) Let testtube cool before dumping it in cold water to cool faster.

Not-so-important-but-valuable-if-you-want-to-live advice:

1) Any sulphide + Any Acid = not good. According to someone who did that, the whole school stank of rotten eggs for a week.

2) If your friend has a track record of breaking stuff due to overheating them so they shatter or setting worksheets on fire or burning metal (especially magnesium), stay about 5 tables away and dont look. First reaction is to duck under the table.

3) Keep lighters away from pyromanics.

4) Stay out of the line of fire from the test tube mouth when its boiling. That means looking directly into the tube too

5) Watch how you're holding the test tube and do not multitask unless you're very sure. Acid in your pencil box is not a good thing, alkali is fine though soapy.

6) Do not attempt to find out how hot anything can get with your hands. Do not try it on your friends either though its funny. Or put out anything thats on fire with your bare hands.

1,2,4,5 are based on observations.
3 & 6 are based on hypothesis.