CM2031 ORGANIC & BIOORGANIC CHEMISTRY (3.0 AU)

Taken in: AY 19/20 Sem 2
Grade: B+

Midterm CA1 (100%): 41/50 → 82/100 [average: 74/100]

This module lives up its name and is very scary. This mod was taught by 2 profs (Dr. Chiba & Dr. Ito), the same profs that teach this mod in sem 1. Dr. Chiba teaches the 1st half and Dr. Ito teaches the 2nd half. In sem 1, the arrangement is the opposite. I would suggest taking this module in sem 2 because the format of midterm 1 is easier as it is set by Dr. Chiba. My friends and I were guessing that maybe the tests set by Dr. Ito is more difficult meaning our midterm 2 will be extremely difficult (no one knows for sure). But turns out there was no midterm 2 at all yay. As I have mentioned, midterm 1 was unexpectedly simple, a 1.5hr test could be completed in 15-30mins. I left after about 30 minutes expecting to get almost full marks. I think I was too complacent and made careless mistakes haiz… who would have thought it will become 100% of my grade 🙃 Heard from some of my friends who took this mod in sem 1 that their midterm 1 was super difficult and that they left the entire retrosynthesis question worth 10 marks blank and the average was super low too.

There is no running away from memorisation for organic chem. A tip could be instead of blindly memorising, try to understand the mechanism and how the electrons move to form/break bonds.
P.s. good luck with jap accents! 💪🏻

This review was reposted with the kind permission of Awesome NTU CBC Student. Originally published at https://awesomentucbcstudent.blogspot.com/2020/07/ay1920-y2s2-review.html

Taken in AY 20/21
Advanced version of CM1031, if you got away from there by memorising reactions you will definitely die for this one.
Split into two halves, first half on SN1/SN2 and addition reactions, second half more on carbonyl chemistry. YMMV depending on the prof, while the content doesn’t change much. The second prof is nicer, able to answer your questions quickly if you email her or she will immediately address it to the rest in the coming lecture, but her content gets confusing when the heavier parts of carbonyl chemistry get unloaded. The first prof is infamous (same guy teaching 2021 in one of the sem), the pacing is quite bad: a lot of the heavy topics rushed out at the end, and his questions are trickier. Recorded lecture also uploaded late, so we have to study ourself in advance (nothing new, that’s uni). One question will be thinking question that you never really see before. Think our batch paper easier than a lot of pyps, but can’t say about future batches. There was also a presentation portion worth like 10% of your grades where you teach your tutorial class a reaction mechanism assigned to you in a group of 4/5, so just be prepared for that (my groupmates all quite useless other than this one person I was in contact with).
Try to understand certain patterns and why some reactions proceed in certain ways, rather than memorising everything. Organic chem is just like that lol.

Year Taken: AY 17/18, Sem 2

Mid term 1 (20%) 47%, average: ~60
Mid term 2 (20%) 52%, average: ~60 (average before moderation was 32/100 HAHA)
Final exam (60%)

I thought CM1031 was scary, but CM2031 was 10 times worse! (In terms of the amount of content taught) Also mainly cos I didn’t study/ wrong study method. Oh and I will try to upload all my notes with filled blanks by July as I’m still busy with work. Take note that for CM2021 and CM2031, the way the content are being taught and tested are different for different sems, I only realised that recently HAHA

Something different about the 2nd part of the semester was that we were able to choose whether we want to attend the real lectures or just view the e-lectures online via LAMS. There were different sets of notes for the different types of lectures too.

For mid term 1 and 2, around 50% of the test required us to draw the structures of the product when the reactant and reagents are given. I guess that means there is less emphasis on memorising the reagents and conditions?? BUT the other 50% required us to provide the synthesis and retrosynthesis routes of the product and reactants, so we still had to know the reagent and conditions. Mechanisms would also be tested but not as much.

For the final exam, I thought I was well prepared and the questions seemed manageable but I still managed to flunk it real badly. That’s what I got for being too complacent.

This review was reposted with the kind permission of Hairdryer. Originally published at https://ionhairdryer.blogspot.com/2018/06/ay1718-ntu-spms-cbc-y2s2.html