This core Chemistry course aims to develop your skills and understanding of fundamentals of synthetic chemistry concepts that are essential for future career chemical industries. This course is also great preparation for a PhD and a career in chemistry research. On completing this course, you will be able to carry out laboratory operations in synthetic chemistry associated with the synthesis of organic and inorganic compounds. These may include reactions requiring heating, inert atmosphere, use of bio-reagents and handling reactive intermediates. You will be able to work in a safe and responsible fashion, showing consideration for others in the laboratory. You will be able to evaluate the risks inherent in the procedures and formulate appropriate precautions. You will be able to purify the products of the reactions using techniques that may include recrystallisation, column chromatography and distillation under reduced pressure. You will be able to obtain and interpret characterisation data that may include 1H NMR spectroscopy, infra-red spectroscopy, polarimetry and magnetic susceptibility measurement.
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Took in AY21/22 Sem 2 Grade: A
Exam format similar to that in AY20/21 as mentioned in the other review… and the questions sound almost 1 for 1 what I encountered in the finals during this year. The final paper is not available in the NTU library database. I’m honestly not surprised if the questions get reused >:)For this year COVID situation got better so you should be back to doing 7 experiments total, 1 virtual and 6 physical. Similar to 2061 BUT some of the experiments consist of 2 parts. You will be given like 6 weeks total for 6 experiments but some of the experiments require you to synthesise one thing (A), and then A has to be used for making B. You don’t need to stick to doing a specific experiment each week, and you can choose the order to do them in. As you can probably forsee, you are screwed if you screw up part A. So just KIV and plan ahead for mistakes. The TAs, as usual, range from helpful to clueless. You can ask them for help but trust your own gut because some of them don’t even know what they are in for lol.
Also mentioned by the other review, your proforma and papers will be marked but we didn’t get back any feedback or marks. End of the day no one knows what is right or wrong, everything rely on google or asking the TA: so take the opportunity to clarify doubts and don’t always keep quiet even if you not sure. The TAs might scold you but at least you can help yourself and your friends. My friends and I feedbacked this to the school but after 3 yrs in NTU I’m sure nothing will change… Also other than question proformas you have to write a “paper” style format for your results for some of the experiments. Again they don’t teach you anything other than give you written instructions… I worked in research lab before in poly for FYP so it wasn’t an issue but if you’ve never written one before please get some help on the formatting and the phrasing of a paper. It’s not the same as how you answer exam questions.
May 31, 2022 -
Taken in: AY 20/21 Sem 2
Grade: B+3 Lab Reports & 3 Proformas (50%): 1B, 2A for the lab reports. Proforma marks were not released
Finals (50%)Due to Covid, we only need to attend 5 physical lab sessions to do a total of 5 experiments, with 1 virtual experiment (watch the video & use raw data to do proforma). The experiments you do before recess week will require full lab reports (in journal format) submission, while the experiments you do after recess week will just require proforma submission. There will be some weeks that you’ll need to do 2 experiments. For the experiments after recess week, you can choose which experiments to do each week, so long as you finish all experiments within the stipulated time. There will be 1 submission date for all lab reports & 1 submission date for all proformas (different dates depending on which group you are in). Except for the virtual experiment (another submission date for this; should be after recess week, meaning you can do the virtual experiment during recess week). We are assigned to do either experiment 1 or 2 physically in the lab, but you’ll need to know the content for both experiments in the finals, so it’s best if you have friends doing the experiment different from you so you can ask them if you have any questions.
This module is less scary than CM2061, in my opinion, because the skills required are similar to CM2061 (hope you remember them hahah but it’s okay if you don’t as you can always ask the TAs). What makes this module quite “annoying”, is how time-consuming writing the full journals can be. Not only do you need to type everything in the format of the journal but you also need to draw the mechanisms using ChemDraw or any other platforms out there 🙃 For the finals, the prof did not disclose the format, so we had no idea if there were going to be MCQs, or a mixture of MCQs + open-ended questions or just open-ended questions only. Turns out, we had 4 open-ended questions with a few parts. They tested some structures of regents/starting material in the lab manual, drawing of set-ups for certain experiments, one 10 mark question on proposing a synthesis route to synthesise the given product from the given starting material, a few questions on why common errors are faced by students in the lab & how to overcome them, and also certain working principles of lab equipment (rotary evaporator, liquid-liquid extraction). I’m not sure if the format is going to be the same for subsequent years, but as usual, understand everything from the lab manual (understand why certain reagents were added like are they a catalyst/solvent/etc + why certain steps were done etc), know/memorize the structures of every reagent/substrate that appeared in the lab manual and know/memorize the mechanism for every reaction if applicable. Speaking of mechanisms, they only released the marks & comments of our lab reports 1 day before our finals 🙃 but did not release the marks & comments for the proformas. This means that we have no idea if the mechanism we submitted were correct or not & perhaps even studied the wrong mechanism for the finals … Hence, I have zero clue how I’m going to fare for this module as well & hope for the best again 🤞🏻
This review was reposted with the kind permission of Awesome NTU CBC Student. Originally published at https://awesomentucbcstudent.blogspot.com/2021/05/ay2021-y3s2-review.html
July 18, 2021 -
Year Taken: 18/19 Sem 2
This is an organic lab course like CM2061, but the lab sessions are less scary and usually ends early. Sounds good right? NOPE, the lab reports are much more difficult to finish than CM2061, and there are some group work too. This time the senior’s reports are less helpful cos some of the experiments are different from the past, so there is nothing to copy from. 🙁 I remembered using Shlenk line for quite a few times and I had to keep switching fumehood with other people. Finals tested on the chemical structures appeared in the lab manual, and also the names of apparatus. Some of the questions were quite similar to the finals questions inside the seniors’ report so take note of them~
Sometimes I question my degree choice since I have disliked labs since secondary school. But yay no more labs~~~
This review was published with the kind permission of Hairdryer. Originally published at https://ionhairdryer.blogspot.com/2019/12/ay-201819-ntu-spms-cbc-y3s2.html
June 30, 2021
