CM3041 PHYSICAL & BIOPHYSICAL CHEMISTRY 2 (3.0 AU)

Taken in: AY 20/21 Sem 2
Grade: A

Learning Catalytics (5%): ~4.9/5
8 Mastering Chemistry Homework (15%): ~14.7/15
Midterm (30%): 40/75 [average: 41.7, median: 43, highest: 73]
Finals (50%)

This is my most dreaded yr3 core mod 🙃 Don’t know why quantum exists & why it is linked to chem hahah jk 😂 The LC questions are asked during lectures (not every lecture but you wouldn’t know when they will be asked), as long as you submit an answer you will get 50% of the marks, if you get it correct then you will get 100% of the marks. The LC questions are a way of encouraging students to attend lectures instead of watching recorded lectures but some people don’t really bother since it is just 5% lol. The 8 MC HW will take you an average of 2hrs to complete. The number of questions ranges from 7 to 17, so you may do the HW in different sessions. In the previous semester, they were given 6 attempts before you are marked wrong, but it became 2 attempts for our semester so take note. I had the impression we had 6 attempts & lost some marks 🙃 You’ll be able to find the solutions to most questions online I believe. The midterm tested the entire 1st half & 1 topic from the 2nd half. I think it is important that you try/understand the pyp/tut questions because the style of questions will be similar although you won’t be able to guess what topics he’ll test. My midterm results were below average probably due to my severe lack of understanding & also I had CM3021 midterm on the same day, back to back. You’re allowed to bring 3 A4 handwritten/printed cheatsheets (6 sides) for both midterm & finals. From my experience, writing almost everything from the slides will only take up about 3 sides & 5 sides for the midterm & finals respectively. In the remaining space, you can write examples from difficult questions with answers you have encountered in pyp/tut or unit conversions that you don’t remember by heart. For the finals, the questions from the 1st half’s content took me by surprise because the prof tested on a new model not taught before & expects you to know how to derive the answer yourself. This tests a lot on your understanding of how the equations are derived from previously taught models instead of just blindly applying. Thus, I have no idea how I fared for this module, just hoping for the best, I don’t aspire for an A, but don’t want a B lmao, wonder if it’s possible.

1st half: Just some comments on the content, there will be a lot of foreign equations & content that you’ve never heard of, for example, Hamiltonian, eigenvalues, eigenenergies, etc. Do not be afraid, just need to really spend time to understand & draw links between all the models & note how they differ. I did not do this for the midterm & blindly applied & guessed which obviously did not work. In pyp, the questions will explicitly tell you what model to use, but a question in our finals describes the model without telling us explicitly so we need to choose the right model with the right equations. Oh, & the prof said this is not a math module, so there won’t be a lot of intense integration & differentiation. I think I was complacent as there was a question in our finals which I believed needed integration by parts & it became super complicated lol, but my friends weren’t able to solve that part too, so I felt better hahah. Anyway, my point is, try to still know how to do basic integration & differentiation.

2nd half: The content here is much easier, mostly calculations & some formulas we have seen before. Be sure to not make careless mistakes in units conversions & be consistent with the units used. Since everyone will probably “die” for 1st half so you need to “grab” all the marks you can from the 2nd half & not be careless! Heard from my friend that in the previous semester, the prof surprised everyone by testing heavily on the concepts instead of calculation type questions in the finals. So be sure to not only know how to apply the formulas but also know the concepts behind them.

Oh & due to time constraints (I think), both profs won’t go through all pyp/tut questions, so if you get stuck or want to know the answers, you got to schedule consultations with the profs or discuss them with your friends. Hope you survive this module lmao, definitely did not enjoy this module at all 🙃😂

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

Year Taken: AY 18/19, Sem 1

Midterm – 40% (restricted open book)
Finals – 60% (restricted open book)

This course is almost entirely calculations, the most used constant would be the Planck’s constant HAHA. There are quite a few formulas to know too. The lecturer was saying how a few years ago, the top student scored 90+ % for the final exam, and the second student only scored 70+. When asked how did he managed to get such high marks, he said that he attempted all the questions from the Atkins and the David Ball textbooks. Sooooo you all can try this too xD. Oh the worked solutions for the Atkins textbooks exercises can be found in the NIE library so go take a look if you feel hardworking. We were allowed to bring 2 or 3 (I forgot) A4 cheat sheets to the exams. Mid term was in week 11 and tests both the first and second part of the course.

This review was reposted with the kind permission of Hairdryer. Originally published at https://ionhairdryer.blogspot.com/2019/08/ay-201819-ntu-spms-cbc-y3s1.html