CHM1022: CHEMISTRY 2

10% Weekly pre-workshop quizzes
5% Tutorial assessments
30% Lab assessments
55% Examination

Overall impression: I enjoyed this unit far better than semester 1 but, I’m biased as I love organic chemistry. In the 1st half of the unit; organic chem only extends a little more than VCE chem, but it can be easily picked up by anyone, by memorization/ exposure to the different mechanisms and practicing nomenclature. I personally found stereochemistry difficult to understand, especially finding enantiomers and naming R/S configurations. The videos recommended on the PASS website were immensely helpful to simplify and visualize the isomers. The 2nd half; inorganic chemistry, primarily focused on ligands, which was a new topic for me (a topic I still haven’t fully understood). Every following week after W9 builds on the previously taught knowledge, so make sure to stay on top of the content. With notes, I would summarise the given pre-workshop info. and add to it after the lectures.

Pre-workshop quizzes (10%): Multiple choice, 10qs, unlimited time, 2 attempts
Similar setup to CHM1011 and were also relatively easy to full mark, given the 2 attempts with identical questions. This semester, it was a bit harder to directly search up questions as most were dependent on a specific diagram/ was calculation based, but they were doable since it's open book with unlimited time. I would skim through or make concise notes with the pre-workshop info, depending on my prior exposure to the topic, before trying the quiz. Something I regret is not keeping up with the lectures weekly as they weren’t tested, but later realized they would’ve been super helpful with the tutorial assessments + pre-workshop quizzes.

Labs (30%): includes a Pre-lab quiz (hurdle): MCQ + SA, out of 5 marks, unlimited time, 2 attempts
Lab reports (3.15-5%): MCQ + SA + discussion and conclusion (350 words), out of 45 marks, unlimited time
Each lab was presented with a video demonstration, discussion slides, a Q&A video, and its corresponding pre-lab quiz. The pre-lab quiz is easy to full mark and most of its answers can be found in the lab manual and discussion slides (aim, safety mechanisms, background).

This semester, the lab reports had a notes section on top of the MCQs, short answer qs, and graphs/ tables.
MCQs usually test theoretical knowledge behind the experiment – can directly be searched up or weekly content must be applied. Short answer qs are ‘fill in the blanks’ in the Method – use the lab manual, observations from the lab videos – I was extra detailed, but I believe its automatically marked as correct, so just write succinctly with keywords (eg: colour, transparency etc.), calculation section in the results – pretty difficult as you must be accurate with sig figs, attend the live lab session to discuss with peers/ tutor and use the given values in the lab video + discussion slides. Lab notes consisted of detailed observations/ results table or a ‘identify x’, providing evidence. My tutor stressed how she wanted a specific structure to our lab notes, so attend the live sessions, to clarify what they are looking for.

The second section consisted of the usual discussion (300+/-10% words) and conclusion (50+/-10% words).
Attend the allocated lab session after completing the pre-lab quiz, so you have access to the lab report section. Dot down the specifics of how your tutor marks the discussion – if they want you to answer the given dot points if you can use condensed formulas instead of words if you need to address errors/ ways to improve etc.
My structure to discussions:
1.Aim – successful/ or not – link to errors/ changes for improvement
2.Succinctly state-observed results – possible margin of error
3.Underlying mechanism of the experiment – usually answers the dot points
4.Errors/ improvement – DO NOT state human errors (if you’re stuck – search up the experiment on quora)
Tips: be clear and direct, use simple language, and include at least a small statement for each dot point

Tutorial assessments (5%): MCQ + SA, 40 minutes, 15-20qs, 1 attempt
These were the typical numerical questions requiring application of the equations and tests the concepts of the previous week. I recommend attending the tutorial zoom session each week/ watching the recording as you watch the lectures - they go through the tute sheets and explain the working out for each qs, I got lazy halfway and had to complete all the tutorial sheets during revision. I also encourage attending the PASS sessions and attempting their qs as well, to make sure your knowledge is solidified, during these you can also form separate study groups with peers in the breakout rooms. The PASS website also has a lot of links to videos and additional practice qs if you need it.

Exam (55%): 50% multiple choice and 50% long answer qs, 2 hrs and 10mins, open book and non-invigilated
My revision for this exam consisted of redoing the tutorial and PASS sheets, attending the SWOTVAC zoom sessions by the unit and the one by PASS. The mock exams were relatively representative of the exam, but the time limit does creep up on you especially when you’re nervous and some of my peers didn’t complete the exam. Read the question thoroughly, especially for the long answer questions and learn the different types of isomers and how to identify them (focus a bit more on enantiomers).
Goodluck!

Dr Sara Kyne (Unit Coordinator)
Prof. Philip Chan
Prof. Andrea Robinson
Prof. David Lupton
Dr Drasko Vidovic
Dr Victoria Blair
Prof Stuart Batten
Dr Brett Paterson

Yes, 2 mock exams provided

4/5

Workshops and complementary videos (including a demonstration) for labs were recorded, tutorials and lab discussions with TAs were only through zoom and

Chemistry Blackman et al, 4th Edition – an online copy (2nd ed) is provided

2 x 1hr workshops weekly
1 x 3hr lab
1 x 1hr tutorial weekly
Approx 1-1.5hr online activities

2020, Semester 2

88 HD

30% from all labs
2 x 2.5% timed Moodle quizzes (organic and inorganic)
10 x 1% pre-workshop quizzes
55% end of semester exam

Overall impression and lecture content: After the dosage of pure awesomeness that was CHM1011, TBH this unit was pretty underwhelming, none of the lecturers stood out as much as Chris even though from the recorded lectures they certainly knew and taught their content well. Maybe if I had taken the time to go to the workshops in person, it would be more awesome, but the only non-clashing session available was in the early mornings and I’m a night owl. This might be an unpopular opinion, but I really liked learning about the different reaction mechanisms, Tanja (who also taught BMS1011) did a great job at explaining them, especially given that CHM1022 caters to beginning chem students. I survived by understanding the features of mechanisms eg nucleophile to electrophile. The inorganic section wasn’t ran so well, an entire workshop was a medical case study on how Cr6+ causes cancer, probably advertising for CHM3930 (medical chem). However, the lecture slides were all pretty clear so I could get all the info I need from there as I follow along the recorded lectures. Understanding the key trends of high spin/low spin complexes, transitioning wavelengths, splitting energy etc rather than memorisation is crucial to success in the inorganic section.

Timed quizzes: 1 hour for 10 multis, pretty manageable, just avoid dumb mistakes.

Pre-workshop quizzes: Easy to full mark similar to the CHM1011 ones, except Google is less reliable.

Labs: Well ran but severely flawed. However, Connor (my TA) helped me so much to navigate the sometimes confusing instructions of the online proforma report. There were 2 x 2 week experiments worth double the marks as a typical 1-week lab. They were IDEA experiments and were conducted in groups assigned by your TA. I ended up with a bad group both times and one of the reports were due on the same day as my BMS1062 mid-sem. I had to do a report on an esterification synthesis all by myself (it was a chemical very similar to aspirin), but got full marks on it. I wasn’t so lucky the next time. In both experiments, I had to clean up after Chinese international students who had bad attitudes. Even though I spoke their language and tried to help as much as I can, they still hated me and didn’t listen to my instructions. That’s why for an alloy composition analysis our calibration curve was messed up because they measured one of the samples with a BEAKER, not a burette as I wrote in the instructions. Then in the oral examination, none of my teammates knew the answers to the TA’s questions and since the TA isn’t our usual TA, he was pretty harsh and gave each member a limit of 1 question to answer, which means I couldn’t even help them by discussing the right answer with them. I was happy and not happy at the same time when the TA told us we got 74/95 for the lab, Schroedinger’s sad I know. Karma got to the lazy guys though, when entering their marks, the TA found out that they didn’t do the pre-lab quiz, which means they got big fat 0s and failed the lab. Still pissed that they dragged me down though but I guess sh*t happens. I did have the pleasure of working with a hard working group member who passed with me for both labs, even though his section of theory can have many technical errors in them. At least he’s trying, unlike the other guys, I respect that.

Exam: *incoming rant*. 2 hours for 120 marks SAQ, with 60 in organic and 60 in inorganic, The exam for CHM1022 was an absolute trainwreck, it was nothing like the practice exams given to us at the end of week 12. I was told by the lunchtime tutors that in the past few years, although mechanisms feature frequently on exams and were even once out of the course, it would be worth 5 marks at most. Most of the required mechanisms were very complicated and might actually belong to higher year levels from what I have heard. They brought the pass mark really low and scaled up the exam by a ton, because when we walked out, everyone was complaining that they failed. Luckily, the inorganic section was easier than the practice exams, but I ran out of time for a chelating ligand question as well as the NMR question in organic due to drawing those mechanisms. The good news is that the unit coordinators are pretty eager to improve things since they seem to have recognised the problems this year. They have invited students to a focus group interview just before O-week to survey us individually on how the unit can be specifically improved, our career aspirations as well as why we chose to study chem. I’ll be sure to voice my constructive criticism to improve this unit for future students, as a potential chem teacher in the future I want to play a part personally in the improvement of chem education in such a crucial unit as CHM1022 that serves as a prereq to many other majors.

Stuart Batten
Victoria Blair
Philip Chan
Tanja Junkers
David Lupton
Brett Paterson
Kei Saito
Drasko Vidovic

No, 2 (highly irrelevant) sample exams provided

2 out of 5

Yes, with screen capture

Blackman Chem, digital copy given to us for free

2 x 1 hour workshops/lectorials
1 x 3-hour lab
1 x 1 hour tutorial (optional)

2019 Sem 2

92 HD

4 x tutorials (10% total)
4 of your tutorials in the semester will involve an assessment - 2 for organic, and 2 for inorganic chem. One assessed tute per topic is an individual worksheet, while the other was team-based, where you would work through a worksheet with the people sitting on your table. The individual assessments are open book, while the team-based ones were closed book.

8 x online quizzes (10% total)
Each of organic and inorganic chemistry consisted of 2 pre and 2 post lecture quizzes (8 total). The pre-lecture quizzes involved you watching an introduction video about what you will learn in the next 3 weeks or so, and then answering some quiz questions on Moodle. The post-lecture quizzes were similar to the pre-lecture ones, although a bit more difficult, since they are done after you have already learnt the content in lectures. The pre-lecture quizzes totalled 2%, and post-lecture quizzes totalled 8% of your total mark. These are relatively easy marks, so be sure not to forget to do them!

Laboratory work (30% total)
Before each lab, you are required to complete a pre-lab quiz (worth a small amount of marks), so some preparation is required before you come to lab. I would advise you to read through your lab manual as well, so you have a general idea of what you're doing. The remainder of your lab marks come from a pro forma which you complete based on the experiment and your results (it is essentially a guided lab report), as well as things such as whether you were late, and if your handwriting is neat. You upload this onto Moodle, and your lab demonstrator will mark them. Some of the questions on the proforma can be easily answered if you read the introduction material for the lab carefully, so once again, be sure to read your lab manual! The lab component of this unit is a hurdle (need 50% to pass).

End of semester exam (50%)
This was a 2 hour, scientific calculator-allowed, short answer exam on all lecture content. You are provided a 'formula sheet' of sorts, which had the structures of amino acids, and chemical shift values for different types of environments in NMR spectra, but note that IR spec data wasn't on there! Lab content was not explicitly assessable. The exam is also a hurdle (need 30% to pass).

The lecture content in this unit was divided into organic chemistry and inorganic chemistry (6 weeks of each), and can be summarised as:
Organic: nomenclature, interconversions/reactions (addition, etc.), isomerism, spectroscopy, proteins, carbs, nucleic acids and synthetic polymers
Inorganic: d-block (transition metal) elements, transition metal complexes/compounds, ligands, isomerism, crystal field theory (colour, magnetism), and a small section on bioinorganic chemistry.

While there are some aspects of this unit that I think could be improved, I think that this unit provides a good introduction to organic and inorganic chemistry, as well as how they can be applied to our everyday lives.

Organic Chemistry:
A/Prof David Lupton
Prof Patrick Perimutter
A/Prof Toni Patti

Inorganic Chemistry
Dr Victoria Blair
Dr David Turner
Prof Cameron Jones
Prof Stuart Batten

There were 4 lecture streams - with generally a different lecturer taking each per topic.

Yes - two 'mock exams' were uploaded to Moodle, both with answers. They were pretty indicative of the content in the final exam, although I would say the exam was slightly harder.

3.5 out of 5.
The unit was relatively well-organised - the flow of lecture content was well set out. However, I think that there are some areas of improvement. For example, I found it disappointing to find that there was no detailed feedback available for the IDEA experiments or the tutorial assessments (you can't see what questions you've done wrong, you are only given your mark). I also thought there should have been some form of peer assessment for the IDEA experiments.

Yes, with screen capture. However, there was an unrecorded revision lecture during SWOTVAC.

Per week: 3 x 1 hour lecture, 1 x 1 hour tutorial, 1 x 3 hour lab (most weeks)

Note in 2018 the teaching style will be changed - there will be 2 lectorials rather than 3 lectures.
The final lecture in each week is actually called a 'workshop', which typically involves the lecturer going through questions (sometimes exam style) about the week's lecture content. There are also some live experiment demonstrations some weeks.

In tutorials, a tutor will go through exam-style questions based on the previous weeks' content. They are not compulsory, except in the weeks you have an assessed tute (see under 'Assessment'). Suggested solutions are eventually uploaded onto Moodle.

There are a total of 8 weeks of lab work, split into half organic and half inorganic chem. The final experiment in each topic was an 'IDEA' (Inquire, Design, Explore, Answer) experiment which ran over two weeks. The first week would involve an introduction to the problem, and then working in teams to design an experiment and do some initial analysis that would help you to answer the question (for example, in the first IDEA experiment, we had to identify the structure of an unknown white powder). In the second week, you would carry out the experiment (for example, try to synthesise the powder).

Semester 2, 2017

Not yet available

Yes, plenty. Answers available for plenty of them, but only at the library for short term loan

5/5

Yes with screen capture

(per week) (this will change next year!!)

• 3x 1 hour lectures
• 1x 3 hour lab

2012 Semester 2

94 HD