[NUS Module Review] CM2191: Experiments In Chemistry 2

CM2191: Experiments In Chemistry 2

(INTRODUCTION)

Y'know, when I write about lab, there is really nothing that positive to talk about. Like for those of you who are majoring in Chemistry; how many of you actually look forward to lab? Chances are only a handful of you, while the rest of us are dreading going for that 6 hour lab every single week only to spend the next week trying to perfect a pro-forma/report and GET IT BACK ONLY AFTER THE EXAMS...

That's right, welcome to CM2191: Experiments In Chemistry 2.

(LECTURERS)

We have two lecturers for this module: Dr Hoang Truong Giang and Dr Stephen Chui. Dr Hoang will take the first half of the lab module (Organic Chemistry) while Dr Chui will take the second half of the lab module (Inorganic Chemistry).

Honestly, I think both are good lecturers. Both are nice, especially Dr Chui who helped me a lot when I had issues with the allocation of my modules. Butttttt, we are not here to see if a lecturer is good or not based on how much they help you outside of the module itself. It's about what they do inside the module that matters (well, to most of you at least). 

Dr Hoang adopts an online lecture method to teach his lab experiments (bless his soul). That's why for like half a semester we can just not go for lab lectures and OTOT watch his video before the lab session. His experiments are not that hard and are easy to conceptualize and understand. His pro-formas/reports are very straightforward and easy to answer. However, since he is a Vietnamese, his accent is really strong and it's hard to hear him properly when watching the video. Other than that, I heard he is quite a nice lecturer outside of lab.

Dr Chui adopts an old school live lecture :(. During the lecture, he will run through the background knowledge required for the experiment, some new content needed and go through the entire experiment process. Very draggy in my opinion and I feel that he could have followed Dr Hoang method of having an online lecture. Maybe because Inorganic is way more content heavy than Organic so it felt like a drag. His experiments are pretty difficult (I mean, if you compare his with Dr Hoang, its almost night and day really). His pro-formas/reports are slightly easier to understand and answer. Dr Chui has an accent as well as he is from Hong Kong but he is still manageable to hear and understand. He is also funny too! Give props for that.

Another lecturer that wasn't teaching, but was in charge of a lab class was Dr Jeremiah Chen, who taught CM1191 when I was there last semester.

I think Dr Chui is more lenient than Dr Hoang. But that's just my opinion.

(EXPANSION OF TOPICS COVERED)

To be fair, I think that the experiments that were done really covered a lot of the things we actually learnt in CM2121 and CM2111. Here are the experiments:

• Grignard Reaction (Taught in CM1121)
• Synthesis of Banana Oil (Ester Formation - Taught in Secondary School)
• Stereoselective Reduction (Axial or Equatorial Attack - Taught in early chapters of CM2121)
• Aldol Reaction (Main Crust of CM2121 - Short Report)
• Synthesis of Magnesium Complex (Stretching Frequency - Taught in mid CM2111)
• Synthesis of Nickel Complexes (Spins of Orbitals, Magnetization, HSAB Theory - Taught in mid CM2111 and CM1111)
• Synthesis of Cobalt Complexes (Rotation of Complexes and d-d transitions - Taught in mid and end of CM2111 - Short Report)

As you can see, we have a total of 7 different experiments to be completed in 8 weeks (Synthesis of  Cobalt Complexes comprises of 2 weeks). This is already more than CM1191, which had 6 experiments in 7 weeks. Okay, it's comparing a level 2000 module and a level 1000 module so we would expect the level 2000 module to be of a higher quantity; granted.

It may look like Inorganic is so much more difficult than Organic. But to me, I think that the questions given in the Inorganic pro-formas are less demanding. Furthermore, Inorganic consist of more calculations and require lesser analysis than the organic pro-formas. So if you got that you are good to go. The experiments, however, are more demanding for Inorganic than Organic.

Lab concepts taught in this module include: Reflux, Use of Rotorvap, IR Spectrometry, NMR spectrometry, Magnetic Balance, Slow Recrystallisation and UV-Vis.

(SCHEDULE)

For lab its pretty much standard I guess. Similar to CM1191, we have 2 hours of lecture and 6 HOURS OF LAB!!!!! Let that sink in if it hasn't so far..... Haha, I'm just kidding, it's not that bad. The 6 hours will fly past before you know it. The closed book written test will be done within the 2 hours of the last lecture.

 (PASSING THE ASSESSMENT)

The assessment for lab are rather distributed, which is quite normal for a Chemistry lab module. There is no such thing as doing an experiment for the 'fun for it' in this module, or any other lab module in this case. Your results obtained (i.e yield, purity, color) are all important to the grades for your pro-forma/reports. So here are the distribution of the marks:

• Pro-forma 1/2/3 (Organic Experiments): 5% each ~ Total 15%
• Short Report 1 (Organic Experiment): 10%
• Pro-forma 4/5 (Inorganic Experiments): 6% each ~ Total 12%
• Short Report 2 (Inorganic Experiments): 13%
• VIVA (1 Organic and 1 Inorganic): 10% each ~ Total 20%
• Closed Book Written Test: 30%

Pro-formas as mentioned earlier are easy to answer, but are hard to score. The answers need to be super precise. Results from the experiment will affect your grade in pro-formas. I remember getting horrible yields for the Manganese and Grignard Experiments and of course, got horrible grades for them as well. BUTTTT... For some people, even when you have low yields and you explain your reasons for a low yield or show that you are able to troubleshoot the issue, you are still able to get good marks for it.

Short Reports are like pro-formas, just open-ended. Cover all the grounds as much as possible to gain more marks I guess. Once again, please do not copy from senior's reports. They could be wrong and if you do such a thing, chances are, you could be caught for plagiarism as well, so no point taking such a risk.

VIVA is basically an oral test on your lab content/skills with the lecturer. You will have 7 minutes to answer all the questions thrown at you based on a certain topic/lab experiment that they give you. The tester will prompt you and give you hints if you're stuck. But when they do that, you kinda know you're more or less screwed for the VIVA.

The closed book written test is basically a final that isn't actually a final. I think that is the best way to describe it. It covers content from the lecture and lab experiments. I kinda prefer this written test to the CM1191 final exams. The test actually had some correlation to the lab experiments done in CM2191 but in CM1191, it was like a complete sucker punch to us. 

(EXPERIENCE AND FINAL GRADING)

I think I got too excited in mentioning about some of my experiences in the earlier sections, but I'm just gonna repeat some stuff that you might be interested in.

If you know me, you would know how blur I am in lab. Usually, I will have my lab partner remind me of certain stuff like to take this, or do that. However, this semester, everything was different. On the first day of lab, my partner literally didn't know what lab experiment we were doing on that day and brought all the wrong notes. Like ALL the wrong notes. That's when I had a hunch that this semester was going to be me doing all the reminding and stuff.

True enough, I ended up reminding him stuff like to take certain apparatus, do certain actions and what not. Certainly not something you see every day from me when I'm in lab. Okay, he got help me here and there also ah, but you get what I mean. Lab partner, if you're reading this, you're still a really, really awesome lab partner and I would love to have you as my lab partner again heh. Okay, nevermind, back to my experience.

I found lots of difficulty in the Manganese experiment because during the decanting part, I obtained very little liquid. Although I should've done the decanting process over again, I continued the experiment and obtained SPECKS OF POWDER. And by specks I mean specks that cannot be even scraped off the filter paper. Worst part was that not only did I require to redo the whole decanting process again, but I was racing to finish the experiment before my organic chemistry (CM2121) mid-terms right after.

In the end, I did a haphazard job and got sh*t results. That's the best way to put it, I guess.

VIVA was really bad for me as well. The person who took my VIVA was Dr Jeremiah Chen, who was supposedly the 'nicer' one compared to Dr Hoang and Dr Chui. So I was happy. Unlike Dr Hoang and Dr Chui, Dr Chen allowed us to select cards faced down containing the question instead of throwing us a question of his choice. I did reflux, which was supposed to be easy buttttt, I was asked to describe the 'basis' of reflux. And I was like... oooookay, I AM DEAD. So I rambled on about what I knew about reflux. And as I rambled, Dr Chen constantly asked me questions pertaining to reflux and the more he went on, the more question marks filled my head. So yeah, in a nutshell, the whole VIVA was crap. And don't get me wrong, I did prepare for it... I'm just a lil salty lmao. The same goes for my second VIVA and even though its better than the first, it's still quite crap. Let's not talk about that.

For the closed book test, I kinda screwed up (I screw up a lot in lab lol) in the IR graphs and some mole calculations. As you can see, lab is seriously not for me. But oh wells.

In the end, I think I got what I deserved lol. I certainly could have done better for the VIVA and the closed book test, but lots of errors truly destroyed any chance for me to get an A for this. And yes, I should've done better for the pro-formas as well.

On a side note, I need to talk about this. I'll just keep it short and sweet in the most polite way possible. It would be really awesome to receive back our pro-formas before our exams and not after so that we could review them and learn from our mistakes. It will also be even more awesome to receive some, or any feedback of what went wrong. I mean y'all kinda did ask us to seek specific feedback in the cover page right? Kinda defeats the purpose of asking us to request feedback and not get feedback in the end. :/ 

On a lighter note, big shout-out to Dr Chui for putting the effort to write long feedback to us so that we are able to learn from our mistakes. 

(CONCLUSION AND TIPS)

I think part of the process of surviving lab is understanding what you are doing. Build some rapport with your partner. I've seen partners who do not get along or barely talk to each other. Building a strong bond with your partner goes a long way; be it in experiments or pro-formas or reports or exam tips.

On a side note, I think content wise CM2191 is gonna be easier than CM2192. Oh gosh, I hope and pray that I don't die next semester... Stay tuned!

Ratings out of 5⭐:

• Rigor - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Degree of doability - ⭐⭐
• Bell Curve (to favour you) - ⭐⭐