Learn chemistry in six months
Six months of consistent work — 30 minutes a day plus weekend problem sets — gets a learner from atoms and bonding through stoichiometry, equilibrium, acids and bases, and basic thermodynamics. About 110 hours total. The level of a strong first-year university course.
6 months · ~110 hours · balance equations, reason about reactions, read a chemistry paper
1.Khan Academy — Chemistry
The structural backbone of this path. Khan's chemistry course is sequenced cleanly from atomic structure through electrochemistry and uses the same mastery system that makes its math work. Do every exercise. The "reaction stoichiometry" and "equilibrium" units are where most self-learners stall — slow down, redo them, don't fake your way past.
Free
Khan Academy Chemistry →2.Brown — Chemistry: The Central Science
The textbook used in roughly half of all university gen-chem courses for thirty years. Read one chapter alongside the matching Khan unit; do the in-text exercises and a sample of the end-of-chapter problems. Older editions cost $20 used and are functionally identical for this purpose. Treat the textbook as the rigor layer — Khan teaches, Brown drills.
~$25 used (older editions)
Chemistry: The Central Science →3.Tyler DeWitt — YouTube
When a Khan video doesn't click — common targets are moles, limiting reagents, and ICE tables — search Tyler DeWitt for the same topic. He's a former high-school chemistry teacher who explains slowly, with the kind of patient repetition that the textbook deliberately avoids. Use him as a tutor, not a curriculum.
Free
Tyler DeWitt →If this doesn't fit you
If your goal is organic chemistry specifically — for medicine, biology, or curiosity — skip this entire path. General chemistry is barely a prerequisite. Read Klein's Organic Chemistry as a Second Language and watch Chad's organic chemistry videos. Six months of organic with a tutor will serve you better than a year of gen chem first.
Why this path
Chemistry is taught poorly almost everywhere — too many formulas, not enough physical picture, and a textbook full of margin trivia. Khan keeps the path narrow and the exercises honest. Brown gives you the rigor and the harder problems Khan skips. DeWitt is the safety net when the standard explanation refuses to land. Skipping the problem sets is the failure mode; chemistry is half memorization and half pattern recognition, and pattern recognition only comes from reps.