CM2041 PHYSICAL & BIOPHYSICAL CHEMISTRY 1 (3.0 AU)

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

Midterm CA1 (100%): 82/100 [average: 74/100]
Guest Lecture: bonus 2 marks (perhaps this only applies to our cohort)

This module is also taught by 2 profs. Knowledge of partial differentiation from MH1804 is expected. However, the partial differentiation required is very simple. There are a lot of calculations. However, formulas that are needed will be provided so you do not have to memorise them, you just have to know how to use them. For example, you would need to know what the symbols represent and their units so that you can plug in the values after converting them to the right units. Understanding the different concepts and the relationship between them is very important. The content from the first half is more difficult than the second half. The content from the first half includes the 1st and 2nd law of thermodynamics, entropy, etc. Seems like the stuff you have learnt before? Well, trust me it is not that simple. Be sure to read the question properly, know what information you are given and what formulas you can use.

The midterm was surprisingly difficult, almost everyone came out of the test thinking we have definitely failed. However, because there was a problem with one question, the prof decided he will mark that question based on our approach instead of the final answer. The prof was also very lenient and accepted any answer that made sense and gave method marks which resulted in the average being so high.

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 AY20/21 Sem 2
Two halves to this mod: Kinetics and Thermodynamics, apparently our sem got swapped around (Thermo in first half, usually it’s second half) and had new content added for the kinetics portion, more in-depth about types of bonding, surface energy/wettability and colloids (in the end didn’t even test, so maybe future batches might get tested abt it idk). Kinetics is overall just number crunching, expect to see questions in exam u practised before. Thermo is harder, the prof likes to test ur understanding of formulas so other than number crunching you need to prove certain relationships. Usually exam will have a good number of proof questions. Random fact during this sem the exam paper had a lot of errors and the questions in the paper got changed like 4 or 5 times in the middle of the exam, which meant we have to keep changing our answers – go see NTU conf. So hope you can work well under pressure (just an excuse just cos as a prof you can’t set a paper for nuts)

Year Taken: AY 17/18, Sem 2

Midterm 1(20%)
Midterm 2(20%)
Final Exam(60%)

The course has a lot of math HAHA, a bit of differentiation and integration which were required to determine the rates of change. There are also some “show that…” questions which reminds me of simultaneous equations in o level math. I dunno how to describe HAHA you can look at the pyp for more info.

For midterms 1 and 2, I noticed that many of the questions were exactly the same as the ones given in the notes, so study the notes and practice questions carefully. ESPECIALLY for midterm 2, where the proving questions contributed to a big part of the test(the questions and answers were exactly the same as the ones given in the practice questions).
For final exam, the questions actually looked more straightforward than the previous years, do we seem less smart than the previous batches? HAHA But I guess I didn’t do well too, which I somewhat expected since I only started studying the content for the whole sem in 2 days. SHOULDN’T HAVE DONE THAT HAIZ. TOO COMPLACENT ALR

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