CM1031 BASIC ORGANIC CHEMISTRY WITH LABORATORY (4.0 AU)

Taken in: AY 18/19 Sem 1
Grade: A-

Midterm CA1 (10%): 8/12 (average: 7.43/12)
Midterm CA2 (15%): 31/40 (average: 25/40)
Online Quiz + Elearning (5%)
Lab (20%): 17.192/20
Finals (50%)

This module started off with somewhat basic content like H2 Chemistry but very soon starting on new topics with various new mechanisms and reactions. Before uni began, seniors have told me this module had reactions we needed to know 5 times more than that in JC. However, I was sceptical and thought that it would not be as bad as humanities subject where the content to remember is crazy. It is essential that you attend lectures as although lectures are recorded, the professor would sometimes make hand gestures or bring his molecular kit for demonstrations which may not be captured by the video camera. Although, he may teach at a relatively fast speed and you may prefer to watch the recorded lectures at home where you can pause the video, but I feel that attending lectures is better. If there are parts you do not understand, make a note in your notes and watch the lectures again at home to reinforce learning. Attendance for tutorials are not taken, but you should really attend all tutorials as they are really helpful. I was lucky to get a really nice TA, he created a WhatsApp group for our tutorial class, so the group was always buzzing before every exam because he encourages peer learning. He would not entertain any questions that people pm him. He will only answer questions posted in the WhatsApp group.

CA1 was all MCQs and relatively manageable if you do the PYPs and study hard for it, as the contents tested are not too overwhelming, but I was careless… I could have gotten 10/12 but oh wells. CA2 was a mixture of MCQs and drawing of mechanisms, which was a killer paper in my opinion. After the paper, I was thoroughly demoralised, the answers were released after the test on the day itself, and upon checking my answers, I got the products of the mechanisms all wrong, which sucked big time. I was relying on my MCQs to pull my grade up. However, the results I got shocked me. Apparently, my product was wrong, but the overall mechanism had no issues so I did not lose a lot of marks for that. But, it was enough to wake me up and realise I need to buck up for finals as it is not going to be easy.

Our year was the first year they introduced the ChemDraw platform, which had 2 graded assignments amounting to 2%, I hated this platform, and for an assignment worth 1% I would end up spending hours on it, redo-ing it countless times because I somehow could not upload up answers and the answers I did would just disappear. However, I end up getting 9/10 for it but due to technical issues, the professor decided not to grade the assignments. So, the 5% was used for chapters that were taught entirely online (flipped classroom), with quizzes at the end of the video.

Labs are, again, done in pairs, with a total of 5 lab sessions. Submission of lab reports is the same as CM1021. I was very lucky to get fun and friendly lab TAs, the professor would also keep emphasizing the importance of enjoying each lab session, which I did. I remember clearly my last lab session had a 30- minute waiting time (for the reaction to undergo completion) and my lab-mates and the TAs, just sat down, talked and joked with one another, really fun times 😊

To study for the finals, I spent close to 5 days (inclusive of distraction) making notes for every single chapter, which was super time-consuming considering I only had a week of study break, with other modules to study for as well. That stressed me out quite a bit because everyone knew CM1031 was going to be really tough and if you are not well prepared for the exam, you are not going to know how to do any of the questions in the finals which is super scary if you ask me. I did all 5 past year papers that were uploaded for us, rushing through the last few papers because I just had not enough time! The exam timetable was planned quite well in our favour, as we had a day off before CM1031 finals. I used that day to write a summary of all reactions and mechanisms to refresh my memory as this was the 3rd final paper I have out of the 5 modules. Making that summary helped tremendously. I also looked through all the tutorials, especially the last few tutorials which I had trouble doing initially. So, the finals were okay to me, as I felt I was quite well prepared for it, though after the paper I knew I had some careless mistakes I thought it was not too bad. There was a 10-mark question I had no clue how to do turned out to be a question most people cannot do as well, which comforted me slightly. Very few left the exam hall early, however, there was this girl sitting quite near me, she left the exam hall in 1.5hrs which was really impressive 👍

This review was reposted with the kind permission of Awesome NTU CBC Student. Originally published at https://awesomentucbcstudent.blogspot.com/2018/12/ay1819-y1s1-review.html

Year Taken: AY 16/17, Sem 1
Grade: A-

CA1 (10%)- 55/70 (mean: 49/70)
CA2 (15%)- 34/50 (mean: 30/50)
Online quizzes (5%)
Lab (20%)
Final (50%)

I actually thought I would score the worst for this course as I felt that the finals was really difficult, so I was surprised to get this grade. In my opinion, there were a lot more information to memorise than CM1021, and the number of reactions and mechanisms are like 5 times the amount learnt in JC.

For CA1(MCQs), more emphasis was placed on determining the R, S configurations, the types of isomerism, and stereochemistry of cycloalkanes. Make sure to review previous tutorials and do past year papers. The lecturer was very kind to accept multiple answers for a few questions after discussing with the students, so I got 10 marks added.

For CA2(SAQs), mechanisms are tested as well as reagents and conditions to convert the starting product to the end product. Take note not to neglect the factors affecting acidity and basicity of reactants. Basically just study everything in the notes and do (and redo if you have time) the practice papers uploaded.

For final exam(SAQs), it is the scariest chem paper I have ever taken. A lot of content to remember, and you have to be very familiar with all the reactions to do well. For those who are bad at memorising, make summaries and reaction tables and highlight and draw on them to remember better. Make multiple copies if possible. ( This method may not work for everyone, as I learn best through repetition). Doing past years papers is important as one of the past questions came out for the final exam.

For lab, it was fun as we made dyes and learnt to use the lab equipment. Do try to familiarise yourself with the equipment as I heard that year 2 labs are conducted individually so there won’t be a lab partner to help you. Like CM1021, I wished I had put in more effort on the lab reports. Oh and although lab sessions are allocated 3 hours in the timetable, most of the experiments can be completed in 1 or 2 hours.

The remaining 5% was from online quizzes as some topics were taught entirely online.

Random ramblings for this course: I procrastinated too much and didn’t pay attention to lectures, which resulted in me not understanding anything during tutorials, which scared me a bit so I crammed a lot a few days before both mid terms.

This review was reposted with the kind permission of Hairdryer. Originally published at https://ionhairdryer.blogspot.com/2016/12/ay1617-ntu-cbc-y1s1.html

Year Taken: AY19/20, Sem 1
Grade: A

As part of the Major-PE requirement (For ECO and GEO track), you’re required to do both organic and inorganic chem for Y1S1 and Y2S2. I decided to get organic chem over and done with first because it was (supposed to be) harder. This is basically H2 plus some H3 chemistry for JC kids.

Lab (20%)
Lab pracs were pretty interesting, playing with dye and stuff like that. I had a pretty cool lab partner (Yes ES kids, time to make some SPMS friends) and I swore we almost burned down the lab…but if no one sees it its fine amirite? The lab reports are pretty easy considering how they are essentially the same as the seniors. Just remember to wear COVERED PANTS and SHOES, don’t inhale the toxic fumes and you should be fine.

Mid-terms 1 (15%) | 98/100
First half was taught by some chinese prof whom accent was really hard to understand so I just relied on the lecture slides. The first question was an empty page with lines asking you to write a story on how organic chemistry is relevant to your life, *BAM* 25 marks. The rest were just typical organic chem structure drawing questions.

Mid-terms 2 (15%) | 78.5/100
Second half was taught by Motoki Yamane Sensei. Fun fact: If you see his Nike ninja tabis, he painted them himself (yes i asked) and he has a judo black belt so don’t mess with him. His accent was slightly easier to understand and he actually used it to his advantage by making his lectures really funny. Anyways, this part was ALOT of memory, if you can memories (and apply) all the reaction pathways and reagents you’ll probably be fine for this mid-terms. 20 MCQs, 3 essay questions.

Finals (50%)
What matter most was that Dr Yamane cut his long and lush hair away OH NO. Moments before the exam you can see everyone frantically memorising all the reactions while some just gave up because it was really too much information to digest. The MCQ was really difficult because the options were all so similar and the essay questions were similar to the previous year papers (apparently the sylllabus was condensed from our year onwards… poor seniors).

This review was reposted with the kind permission of Roy. Originally published at https://djtangent.wordpress.com/2020/05/13/testing/

Probably one of the hardest y1 CBC mods apart from Math, memory-heavy and also require very strong understanding of the underlying concepts, like steric hindrance, stability of intermediates, kinetic vs thermodynamic control. Pay attention to the synthetic labs, even though it’s just part of the grade not as high weightage as finals and test but the things you learn will be needed when you work solo next time and they won’t repeat all this in future labs.