A year of OChem, as told by a blog stat graph
**Today’s post is a guest post by James Ashenhurst, author of the fantastic blog Master Organic Chemistry**
If Google Analytics is any guide, here’s what a year of teaching organic chemistry looks like.
The typical year’s forecast calls for growing concern from September onwards, peaking in a mid December monsoon. This is followed by a cold January lull, which collides with a hot front of anxiety in February and grows in intensity towards a thundering, extended period of hail from mid-April to mid-May. Then all becomes calm. Sunshine peeks through the summer clouds, and the months from late May through early August are breezy, steady, and smooth. Then the cycle begins again.
I’m interpreting seasonal local maxima as popular midterm times; it’s pretty neat that the results show this (and the Thanksgiving lull). Does this jive with your experience, readers?
P.S. A big double fist bump to @azmanam and the other kind folk at the Chemistry Blog for letting me post this and for helping MOC to be such a successful project (600K visitors this year & counting). Thanks!
I’m surprised that there isn’t a ridiculous plateau during the summer semester.
Interestingly, summer is a whole “condensed year” in itself. Semester-based universities have one term, and quarter-based universities have two terms. These days, highly motivated students are using every bit of available time to get those O-Chem requirements completed!
This is a typical graph for all resources that deal with education in any way. Summer time data is a bit surprising here though.