Chemistry Tutorials: The Ones That Actually Work
I looked through a bunch of online chemistry tutorials over the years. Most of them are decent for beginners but skip over the parts that actually matter when you run into trouble. Here is the Top 10 Chemistry Tutorial list I recommend after going through dozens of sites and books. The first one on my list is Khan Academy's chemistry section. It covers everything from basic atomic structure to organic mechanisms. The videos are short and to the point. No fluff. They do make you watch the whole thing before moving on though, which some people find slow. Second is ChemLibreTexts. It is basically an open textbook platform. The coverage is massive and it updates regularly. I use it when I need a quick reference on reaction mechanisms or thermodynamics. The navigation is a bit messy, but the content quality is solid.
Third is the MIT OpenCourseWare chemistry courses. You get actual lecture notes and problem sets from MIT classes. The material is harder than most beginner resources. If you can handle that level, it is worth it. I found their 5.111 Principles of Chemical Science course notes particularly useful for balancing redox reactions. Fourth is PhET Interactive Simulations. These are free chemistry simulations you can run in your browser. They are great for visual learners. I use them when explaining concepts like molecular geometry to students who struggle with 3D thinking. Fifth is Organic Chemistry as a Second Language by David Klein. The book goes beyond just explaining topics. It teaches you how to think through problems. I wish I had found this book earlier in my teaching career. It saved me hours of trying to explain the same concept in different ways.
Sixth is Chemistry: The Central Science by Brown, LeMay, and Bursten. This is a textbook, not a tutorial, but it is worth mentioning because many free tutorial sites pull directly from it. If you are serious about chemistry, owning a copy is helpful. Seventh is Professor Dave Explains on YouTube. His chemistry playlists are well organized and cover a wide range. The production quality is decent. He breaks down complex topics without talking down to the viewer. I show his videos when students need a second explanation after class. Eighth is Master Organic Chemistry by Jonathan Woodward. This site focuses on organic chemistry specifically. The mechanism guides are excellent. I use it as a reference for reaction prediction problems. The site used to have more content, but what remains is still accurate.
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Ninth is Bozeman Science. The videos are short and cover high school and AP level material well. Paul Andersen explains things clearly. His electrolysis and electrochemistry videos are particularly good. Tenth is the ACS (American Chemical Society) website. They have a resources section with study guides and practice exams. The membership gives you access to more material, but even the free content is useful. I downloaded several of their exam prep guides for students preparing for the ACS exam. One thing these tutorials share is that they all assume you have basic algebra down. If you struggle with solving equations, that will hold you back. I spent extra time reviewing logarithms and exponents with students before jumping into acid-base chemistry. It made a noticeable difference.
I also found that most tutorials skip over unit conversions. They just assume you know how to convert grams to moles and vice versa. This is where most students lose points. Make sure you practice dimensional analysis separately before relying on any tutorial for calculations. Some tutorials are outdated on their treatment of certain topics. The VSEPR theory explanations on a few older sites don't account for modern computational insights. Stick to the newer resources when possible. The ones I listed above have been updated within the last few years. If you want the full Top 10 Chemistry Tutorial resources in one place, the links are scattered across educational websites. I compiled the direct URLs in my personal notes, but you can find most of them by searching the names I listed. The Khan Academy and ChemLibreTexts links are easy to find. The MIT OCW pages might require a search.
There is no single perfect resource. The best approach is mixing a few of these together and doing the practice problems. Watching videos alone will not make you good at chemistry. I have seen students watch hours of tutorials and still fail exams. The practice is what matters.
