[NUS Module Review] CM 2111: Inorganic Chemistry 2

CM2111: Inorganic Chemistry 2

(INTRODUCTION)

Tadah! Welcome to the 3rd set of module reviews... Hais, doing module reviews are such a drag. However, I am adding a few new sections in the review so take your time to read through to obtain a clearer view of the module you are about to take or want to take. 

So CM2111... To be honest, if I had 1 wish for 2018, I would turn back time to do my finals for CM2111 again. The mistakes I made cost me more marks than I could ever imagine. That's how bad it was. The worst part was that I knew I could have done so so so much better. Anyways, before I start, if any of you think that the bell curve would be anything like CM1111, think again, because its levels worse than that. So hang in there and let's start the review shall we?

(LECTURERS)

The module is split into 2 parts; namely Transition Metals/Structure of Compounds and Symmetry/Movement of Electrons. The first part was taught by none other than Prof JJ Vittal. The second part was taught by Prof Yip Hon Kay John.

To me, I think Prof Vittal is one of the more helpful science lecturers; both in academics and student life. He and Dr Chui from CM2191 are one of the better science lecturers this semester. Prof Vittal personally helped me accommodate a schedule in IVLE when I faced difficulty planning my timetable and he also offered lots of knowledge in his field. One bad thing about him is that he often like to say 'that thing', 'this thing', 'like that', 'you know'... And the thing is... WE DON'T KNOW. So it's often hard to really capture the essence of what he is saying at times. But he's cool and I would love to be taught by him in the future. 

Next we have Prof Yip. During his first lecture, I thought this was going to be the lecturer that will send me to sleep for good, because he has a really raspy(?) and low voice that can send you into a daze before sending you to sleep. But my opinion of him changed across the next few weeks with his good teaching and clear examples. He is funny and is super savage omg, kinda reminds me of my own savagery lol. He made lots of people happy during CA2 by setting probably the easiest paper you would ever find in chemistry history (even though I screwed the last question). Butttttt, my opinion of him changed after finals, when he suckered punched everyone with crazy ass symmetry questions to do.

(EXPANSION OF TOPICS COVERED)

The topics are not at all similar to CM1111. A bit more technical, certainly more content heavy and very confusing at times. Here are the topics covered:

• Solid State Chemistry and Structures
• Defects of a Structure
• Ligand Naming and Crystal Field Theory
• Coordination of Ligands
• 18 - Electron Rule
• Stretching Frequency
• Symmetry, Point Group and Character Tables
• IR Spectroscopy and Electronic Spectroscopy of Inorganic Molecules
• Term Symbol and d-d Transitions
• Orgel Diagrams and Larporte Rules

Certainly looks a lot but by no means more content heavy than Organic Chemistry that's for sure. Some of the topics may look easy, but do not be fooled by its simplicity, because for every simple topic, the bell curve gets harder and harder for you. Not much knowledge needed to be brought up from CM1111, other than HSAB theory and Pauli's rules. 

(SCHEDULE)

Similar to CM2121, there are two lectures each week, both two hours each. However, I think the lectures in CM2111 are less of a drag than CM2121, simply because you don't have a lecturer in CM2111 who will ramble on and on and on with a constant question mark in your head. The lectures are NOT webcasted and it will be best if you attend, though there are people who don't attend and still do really well. So it's up to you really.

For tutorials, it is held only once per week for just one hour. Tutorial attendance and participation are NOT graded, but it's still recommended to go. Dr Foo Maw Lin will be there to assist in tutorials too, so it's really good to attend in my opinion. 

(PASSING THE ASSESSMENT)

Again, similar to CM2121, the assessment percentages are broken down to the following:

• Mid-terms (CA1) - 20%
• CA2 - 20%
• Finals - 60%

Unlike CM2121, there isn't an option of a 3rd CA for you to choose from. So these 2 CAs are all you got to make or break this module. And I'm just gonna jump the gun here. The bell curve for the CAs and Finals are HELL ASF. If you were to ask me, it is very similar to CM1121, where lots of people got full marks for the papers. This is VERY applicable to CA2, especially when Prof Yip gave an extremely easy paper, which resulted in lots of people getting full marks.

(EXPERIENCE AND FINAL GRADING)

Wow, where do I even begin here?...

I honestly felt like CM2111 is really doable. You just need to take your chances when you're given to do well and give some room for error when the paper becomes hard. I did fairly well for CA1, earning a good 75th percentile. CA1 wasn't that easy, but it felt doable for me. There were some questions which I was unsure of, but I somehow got them correct through some good guessing. So when I got my CA1 results, I was definitely elated because I thought that I was on the right track to do well for CM2111.

Come CA2, I was very surprised when I saw the paper. It was just 10 blanks requiring to fill in the symmetry WITHOUT working, and an open-ended question on IR. Of course, being a really skeptical student, I felt like this was too easy to be true. Like there were definitely some hidden points of symmetry that you cannot spot or see. But no matter how I flip the paper, it seems like there wasn't any hidden tricks or traps in the questions. So I took around 20 minutes or so to complete the first 10 questions and went on to the last question.

The last question was very doable. Certainly a question that I saw in tutorials and I knew it was in the bag. But somehow, I interpreted the symmetry wrongly and gave another answer. Not giving excuses here, but after some post reflection, I realized that I read my notes wrongly zzz. Gotta thank Prof Yip for being generous and giving me 12/20 marks for that question. Really thought I would get a zero, but at least I wrote some stuff of the paper to justify that I know what I'm doing. But after hearing that 17 people got 60/60 (i.e full marks) for the paper, I think I was in the 25th percentile for this CA. Not good, really not good.

When it came to the finals, oh boy, I actually thought that I could answer the majority of the questions to be honest with you. It was difficult, don't get me wrong. But it was again, doable. Prof Vittal's part was easier than Prof Yip's part in my opinion, who tried to destroy us with some alien-like symmetry that made you question your answer every single second. And I actually walked out of the exam hall feeling rather confident that I could attempt most questions. That's when the nightmare came.

Will not tell you what the nightmare was because I think this deserves another blog post all on its own. But I was clinging on to the fact that I will still be fine because many others found this paper really hard. 

In the end, what I think ultimately killed me was this nightmare plus the fact that I didn't do well for CA2. Had I done well for CA2, I think I would have easily jumped possibly 2 grades up. But that's life, sometimes you gotta take it on the chin, and then to the face, and then to the nose, and mouth and then you realise that you could've done way better than this. :(

(CONCLUSION AND TIPS)

All I can say is that, do not expect the bell curve to favor you. One minor slip up, and it can cost you big time. I'm still gonna take inorganic modules though. The setback didn't really made me change my mind and I don't think that anyone facing a similar setback should let it derail you from taking the modules you love.

Ratings out of 5⭐:

• Rigor - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Degree of doability - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Bell Curve (to favour you) -  NO STARS BECAUSE BELL CURVE DOES NOT FAVOR YOU HERE