Friday, 1 January 2016

CM1501 - Organic Chemistry for Engineers

Type: Core Module
Difficulty: Normal
Workload: Normal
Lecturer(s): Ms Ong Yue Ying & A/P Lai Yee Hing
Assessment: Labs, Midterms and Finals

CM1501 is a buildup of JC's H2 Chemistry. I never liked chemistry, hence that probably justified my grades for this module. About 30% of the content is familiar if you did H2 Chemistry, the remaining 70% is just a buildup on the usual O.Chemistry topics. Textbook is optional, I always believe that lecture notes are sufficient, because lecturers will never test you something they didn't teach.

Topics are as such:
  1. Structure and Bonding
  2. Acids and Bases
  3. Functional Groups introduction
  4. Alkanes
  5. Stereochemistry
  6. Organic Reactions in general
  7. Alkyl Halides
    1. Nucleophilic substitution
    2. Elimination substitution
  8. Alcohols, Ethers & Epoxides
  9. Alkenes
  10. Alkynes
  11. Conjugation
  12. Organohalides
  13. Benzene-Aromatic Compounds
  14. Carbonyls
  15. Acids-Nitrile
  16. Acid Nitrile
  17. Acid Derivatives
  18. Amines
There were 2 lab sessions, and the second is a build-up on the first lab. Basically you'll make crystals in the first lab, and then use these crystals which you've made to perform experiments in the second lab. Hence it is very very very very important to perform your first lab carefully. (I must stress it a lot). Otherwise, it will snowball over to the second lab and get marked down for it.

Read the lab manual before attending the lab sessions. This is because there are many time consuming steps in the process. Finishing on time before the lab session ends in a challenge.

As for finals, you are allowed to bring in a single piece of paper cheatsheet (double sided). This is really very helpful because I can't possibly memorize all the reaction pathways and reagents used.

* A Hint: In organic chemistry, everything is linked. You can convert one molecule to every other molecules in the world, some even with different pathways. I'd suggest drawing an overall big mindmap to visualize the entire picture.

Expected Grade: B+
Achieved Grade: B (SU used)

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