CM3121 - ADVANCED ORGANIC CHEMISTRY
Academic Year 23/24 - Semester 1
Assessments:​
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Test 1: 25%
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Test 2: 25%
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Final Exam: 50%
Lecturer: Dr Hoang Truong Giang & Asst Prof Zhu Ye
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Course Overview:
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Reduction and oxidation of functional groups, Alkene chemistry, Enolate and alpha-alkylation reactions, Aldol and Claisen condensation, Conjugate addition, Retrosynthesis, Cycloaddition, Electrocyclic reactions, Sigmatropic rearrangements, Radical reactions, Carbene chemistry, Cross coupling reactions
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No. of responses : 4
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REVIEWS
What advice would you give to someone considering to take this course?
Nico: Consistent effort is definitely required when studying this course.
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Flanders: Knowledge of CM2122 is absolutely required for this course. Although not the focus in this course, students are expected to know all CM2122 reactions, because they may come out as part of exam questions. The entire syllabus is found in Clayden Organic Chemistry textbook. The first half of the course, taught by Dr Hoang, is on enolate chemistry. Students may find it useful to review the CM1102 Life section on how enolate chemistry works. The nitrogen analogues of enolates will also be taught, which helps students appreciate the subtle yet immense differences between C and N. The second half of the course, taught by Asst Prof Zhu Ye, squeezes four entire classes of organic reactions into half a semester (Pericyclic, Radical, Carbene, Organometallic). Each one of those classes probably has enough content to fill half a semester, so the pace feels very fast and many sections of Clayden were skipped. The tutorial questions are challenging, which pushes students to discuss and engage in higher-order thinking rather than just recalling reactions. Memorisation is hardly needed because cheat sheets are allowed for the two midterm and one final exams. The emphasis is thus on problem solving, rather than knowing reactions.
Anonymous: Try not to overload with this course if organic chemistry is not your forte or if you have not encountered keto-enol, pericyclic, radical, carbene reactions before. These new modes of reactivity might be hard to master in the first instance and would recommend students spend time revising each lecture to ensure they understand the basics of the new modes of reactivity.
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Anonymous: It is very useful to attend the lectures, especially for Prof Zhu’s section as he tends to write on the whiteboard a lot, and that is not typically captured by the lecture recording. There are also many new types of reactions introduced, so it is important to at least take some time to familiarise yourself with the ways these reactions work.
What did you enjoy or find most useful from this course?
Nico: Dr Hoang is an amazing lecturer and professor. He is extremely nice and patient. His explanations of the content are superb. His lessons are never boring and are always enjoyable. Asst Prof Zhu Ye is slightly dryer in his lectures but is still undoubtedly a very knowledgeable professor.
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Flanders: This course is challenging and effectively trains your organic problem-solving skills.
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Anonymous: Dr Hoang's lectures are very interactive and he often inserts interesting anecdotes into the lecture (e.g. findings from his own PhD thesis, real-life applications etc.) and he also tries to talk about how these abstract organic concepts are applied in the lab and the practical considerations of using certain reagents (e.g. pyrophoric substances etc) Overall, a very engaging lecturer and his lectures are well-paced which makes note-taking easier. Asst Prof Zhu introduces less-encountered reactions in his part but he goes relatively slower too, and he takes into consideration students' workload when setting the tests to make sure that it is doable. Overall, I found the course very enjoyable.
Anonymous: Dr Hoang is very engaging and very well-paced and I really enjoyed his lectures. Prof Zhu is also very patient at explaining the concepts, which is very useful as the concepts he introduces are newer to us and may require more time to digest. The tests are also quite reasonable. The availability of a cheat sheet for the exams also really helped alleviate the stress of having to remember all the reactions and reaction chemistries taught, and we can truly focus on understanding the reactions and appreciating their mechanisms.
What aspects of the course did you find most challenging, and why?
Nico: I would say it's pretty content-heavy. Even with H3 Chem and SChO, the second half of the course is almost completely new content. Content from CM2122 is assumed knowledge and a healthy dose of MO Theory was also required to understand some of the reactions. This is one of the harder 3k Chem core courses, hence there is a distinct lack of a “bell-curve”, with the grades being left-skewed.
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Flanders: Students may find that stereochemistry is surprisingly important for the second half. In particular, heavy 3D visualisation is required to determine the correct endo product for Diels Alder reactions. The structure is typically easy to determine, but the stereochemistry is much harder. Usually, no marks are awarded for a structure without wedge and dash bonds. A molecular model kit may be useful.
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Anonymous: The large amount of content. But at least we were able to bring 2-page cheat sheets into exams which helped. I find that cramming is less useful with the use of a cheat sheet. Instead, focus should be directed in really understanding different reactivity modes.
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Anonymous: The content is quite heavy, and really begins to dive into completely fresh content like pericyclic reactions and carbenes. These new reaction classes don’t conform to the same simple polar mechanisms we were first taught in H2 Chemistry and it takes some time to get used to identifying the reaction sites and mechanisms.
What resources did you find most helpful in helping you better understand the course material?
Nico: Clayden's Organic Chemistry Textbook is useful.
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Flanders: Clayden helps.
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Anonymous: Clayden 2nd edition textbook, and the answers accompanying the textbook.
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Anonymous: I really only referred to the slides, I think they are sufficient to understand the concepts taught.
What other courses do you think should be taken before or concurrently with this course?
Nico: CM1102 & CM2122 are absolutely essential.
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Flanders: The organic synthesis part of CM3191 has very significant overlap with CM3121, especially since a Diels-Alder reaction was performed and the CM3191 lecturer actually briefly teaches the pericyclic reaction.
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