CM4211 - ADVANCED COORDINATION CHEMISTRY

Course Overview: Basic concepts of coordination chemistry, electron transfer, metal-ligand multiple bond, metal-metal multiple bond, bioinorganic chemistry, and dihydrogen as a ligand. 

Overall Difficulty: Easy 

Difficulty of Assessment: 

Test 1: Easy 

Test 2: Easy 

Essay: Average 

Finals: Average 

Pace of Course: Just Right 

Duration provided to prepare for Tutorial: 1-2 days 

Workload of Course (Average Number of hours spent per week): 

To learn the content: 6 hours 

To complete assignments: 3 hours  

How did you find the contents (how it was delivered) and the assessments of the course? 

Overall, the course has some overlap with its prerequisite course CM3212 (Transition Metal Chemistry), though it is largely unrelated to CM3212. Test 1 and Test 2 had relatively straightforward questions. Mostly memory recall and concept check questions, not a lot of application needed. Each test was 1 hour, which was more than enough time to finish the tests and check through your answers. The essay was also quite doable. Each student received a unique essay question, and the prof also sent us 2-3 reference articles for our unique essay question. However, more research articles are definitely needed to supplement the essay. We were given 1 month to do the essay, and the due date was the night before the final exam. The final exam had more application questions and was slightly more challenging than Test 1 and Test 2, though still very doable. We were given 2 hours for the final exam, which was more than enough time to finish the exam and check through everything as well. 

How was your experience with the course? 

I appreciate the prof's attempts to make the course interesting by sharing with us some relevant real life examples of the content he was teaching. He also introduced bioinorganic chemistry into the course, which explained certain phenomena we see in our daily lives. The course might be more useful for a) students who intend to take a PhD in the future on biochemistry or coordination chemistry b) students who plan to go into a field which requires prior biochemistry or coordination chemistry knowledge. Though I do not fall into either of those categories, I still enjoyed the course and encourage others to give this course a try! 

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