Go to the library reserve desk. Often, a college library has copies of active textbooks and solutions manuals at its reserve desk. Students cannot check out these copies to take home, but can use them inside the library for periods of an hour or two. This enables students to do their homework without buying the textbook, if necessary.
Begin working on problems in the textbook. Keep the solutions manual and the calculator handy. Students tend to need some amount of practical math expertise to understand many general chemistry problems.
Use the solutions manual if stuck on a problem, but not by looking up the answer to that problem: Find a problem of the same type and open to the answer for that one, then work through the other problem until the techniques and principles involved seem clearer. This makes it easier to solve chemistry problems similar to the pre-solved problem by using the same techniques.
Remember to use your school's resources when in need of help. If a particular type of problem presents difficulties, find a professor or tutor and ask a question about it.
After mastering a problem, try to explain it to a friend. This helps secure the information in your memory, according to Dr. Brenna Lorenz at the University of Guam.
Finally, check out some books to take home. Usually, the shelves contain older chemistry textbooks and hint guides available for checkout. These often help just as much as the class textbook and provide a good source of free practice problems.
Decide what problem topic to pursue. Different resources exist for different topics in chemistry. A Google search for problems on that specific topic will turn up more free practice problems than a general search for chemistry problems.
If studying VSEPR (valence shell electron pair repulsion), visit Purdue University's resource for VSEPR problems.
If studying molarity, density, stoichiometry, thermochemistry or solubility, solve chemistry problems of these types at the Chem Collective website.
For other topics in general chemistry, visit Chem1.com's extensive list of tutorials and resources for students.
If studying organic chemistry, find free practice problems at Professor Steven Hardinger's UCLA website.