[NUS Module Review] CM2101: Physical Chemistry 2

CM2101: Physical Chemistry 2

(INTRODUCTION)

Ah, darkness, we meet once again. Oh, oh you know that viral meme that's been so widely used:

Yep, that is how I felt on the very first day of the new semester walking into the LT preparing to be wrecked by the impending doom of Physical Chemistry. 

I'm gonna fast forward a bit here to the end of this blog post. If you were to ask me what are the top 3 worse modules I've faced so far, they would have to be CS1010S (Scorn of the Earth), CM1131 (Devil's incarnate of all that is evil) andddddddd surprisingly not CM2101. :o Well, actually I haven't thought of the 3rd module yet because I felt that the other modules were all quite okay. But anyone who knows me or read my blogs before would know how I feel when it comes to Physical Chemistry. But surprisingly, CM2101 is not even close to being one of the worse modules, and I'll explain why in the next few sections.

(LECTURERS)

There is only 1 lecturer for this module and his name is none other than Dr Adrian Lee. What I can say about him is that he is a really funny and a dedicated individual when it comes to spectroscopy. He is one of the best lecturers across the level 2000 Chemistry module series and is literally the master of spectroscopy and I think the only one who rivals his knowledge is Dr Tan Wee Boon, who is assisting Dr Lee in teaching tutorials. What I don't like about Dr Lee is that he uses all those chim words and scientific words instead of using layman words, leaving students to actually feel lost during lectures. And I think wherever Dr Lee lacks in this area, Dr Tan makes up tenfold in tutorials,  allowing students to be like "Ohhhhhh... I understand now."

(EXPANSION OF TOPICS COVERED)

The topics covered include:

• Schrodinger Equation and Particle-in-the-box
• Group Theory and Reducible Representations
• Absorption and Intensity
• Rotation Spectroscopy
• Vibration Spectroscopy
• Raman Spectroscopy
• Electronic Spectroscopy
• NMR Spectroscopy (Not Tested in Exams)

Yep, just by seeing the first topic, I could already hear myself shriek in fear. Remember CM1111 and their first topic was about quantisation of energy? I was like I'm screwed. Surprisingly, the first topic of this module wasn't as daunting as I thought it would be. I mean, it could've been worse, but I think we didn't learn too in depth when it comes to particle in the box. 

I think the real killer comes with the spectroscopy topics (i.e. Rotation, Vibration, Raman, Electronic). It gets progressively worse with each spectroscopy topic, because one question can incorporate all the different types of spectroscopy inside it and it's scary asf. But if you were to ask me which one is easier between CM1131 and CM2101, I would hands down declare CM2101 as the easier one.

There is NO WEBCAST for this module. However, we did have 4 weeks of E-Learning, where we just watched videos prepared by Dr Lee at our own time. 

(SCHEDULE)

Similar to all Chemistry modules, this module will have the usual 2 hour lectures and the usual 1 hour tutorial. However, unlike other Chemistry modules, this module will utilise the pseudo one hour lecture to conduct computer lab sessions. The skills obtained from the computer lab sessions will be useful for the homework assignments and modelling test.

 (PASSING THE ASSESSMENT)

This module is split into many different parts that while it may be good for those of you who don't really perform for midterms and finals, you need to understand that the sub-parts have MOST people scoring full marks or close to full marks. So if you happen to screw up one of those sub-parts, good luck:

• Surveys and in-class questions: 5%
• Homework Assignments using Microsoft Excel: 3 x 5% each = 15%
• Topical Quizzes: 5% 
• Modelling Test: 20%
• Mid-term Test: 15%
• Finals: 40%

Okay, first of all, let me just say that this is likely not gonna be the same breakdown of grading if your lecturer-in-charge isn't Dr Adrian Lee. Only Dr Lee will come up with something like a "Modelling test" or "Homework Assignments using excel" kind of grading. It also involves a small amount of computational and excel knowledge so if you're like me and quite clueless when it comes to excel, you're gonna struggle a little bit here. But I think with enough practice you should be able to overcome all of these obstacles.

So basically, Dr Lee's computer lessons during that 1 hour lecture time slot is to prepare you for the homework assignments and modelling test. In a nutshell, you will be using regression techniques, solver, and a whole bunch of keying in of equations to obtain things like the radius of a molecule, spectral line energy and rotational/vibrational constants. The modelling test will just be a combination of everything you've been taught in the lab sessions and homework assignments.

The topical quizzes should be okay. It gets progressively difficult, but it is doable. Midterms should cover all the way to rotational spectroscopy and of course, the finals will cover everything. I personally think that the battle is mostly won or lost during finals. Because most of the marks will be roughly the same for MOST students, as most students tend to get full marks for the homework assignment, topical quizzes and surveys/in-class questions.

(EXPERIENCE AND FINAL GRADING)

Looking back, I truly felt okay for this module. It wasn't too hard that you couldn't understand it completely, but it wasn't too easy either. I admit that there were some parts that just left me like "dafuq he saying" but as I said, it was his chim words and phrasing that makes it really hard to understand.

I think the point where I got lost in this module was during the chapter of rotational spectroscopy. I was like huhhhhh what's all this crap. Not to mention, vibrational spectroscopy was just round the corner. And these chapters ARE NOT INDEPENDENT OF EACH OTHER!!!!!! Not knowing one is like a freaking domino effect.

Okay, so here's some funny shit. I initially thought the computer lab sessions were just ADDITIONAL INFO for this module and it won't be tested at all... Hehe, I know... I'm dumb. I was like wondering why so many people were paying so much attention when it's not even tested lmao. I only realised that it was gonna be tested after the 3rd computer lab session, which was like the last computer lab lesson we had. And I was like shit, I'm screwed lolol. But I still did well for the homework assignments. One tip that you might want to know is that these homework assignments, though the values are all unique for each person, are still doable with your friends. This is where having friends are helpful because if you do not know how to do, you can discuss with your friends and figure out the method to solve the questions.

Although I have to say, I didn't do well for the modelling test because my values were so off from the expected values. Like my values were say 5.34, and my deviation from this value is 14. How even? And that's when I knew, I was truly screwed. In the end, I still did pass it, though it was majorly depressing during that two hour ordeal tryna get the correct values, but you can't get it, because you don't know what tf and where tf your error is lol.

Midterms felt pretty much the same as my modelling test; depressing. I actually got 30,000 for my J value. This means that the molecule is rotating like no one's business. Just imagine your fan speed at 3; it's already super duper fast. Now make that 30,000... Lol. And the flipping thing was that I thought it was plausible. Like I thought that Dr Lee was purposely tryna trick us and I actually bought into it. Lucky enough, I realised towards the end of doing my paper that I made a calculation error beforehand, which led to an error carry forward. Thus, I changed it and got a much more plausible answer of 5 and 6. It was still the wrong answer, but it's still more believable than that initial crap.

Last but not least, finals... I actually am not too sure of how to make out of the finals. It was harder than all of the past year papers that I've done, but yet I did manage to somehow have an answer to every question, whether correct or not. That said, I've had worst finals this semester in LSM1102, and CS1010S compared to this so I guess it was alright. The questions were very heavy of spectroscopy, as expected and while most people weren't expecting particle-in-the-box to come out, it actually did and I'm sure it left quite a number of people stunned.

I thought that it was doable despite what other people say. For once, I actually walked out of the exam hall feeling that I could actually do well in that paper and my results will be alright.

Update: Received my results and woah, it was unexpected! Based on my results, I think that ultimately I did do well for finals. Thought I was gone for this module when I got 25th percentile for midterms and modelling test. But in the end, I managed to turn it around, which was great hahahah.

(CONCLUSION AND TIPS)

Certainly out of the 3 level 2000 core modules (i.e CM2111, CM2121), this is still the hardest one out of them three. Most will say it is CM2121 that is the hardest, but maybe it's because I have a nick for organic chem over the other two that I think CM2121 is okay. But nonetheless, it is certainly not as hard as CM1131 so for those who are worrying about the module, I assure you that it is okay.

One important tip is to perhaps take in the content taught as it is, even if you don't understand why it works this way or that way. I've heard friends of mine telling me that that's not the way to learn stuff, but I feel like sometimes you gotta take it as it is because it will only confuse you even more if you don't do so.

Ratings out of 5⭐:

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