CM2122 — Organic Chemistry

Academic Year 24/25 - Semester 1

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Lecturer: Asst. Prof Zhu Ruyi

Lab Instructor: Dr. Hoang Truong Giang

Assessments:​

• Spectroscopy Midterms: 30%

• Lab Report 1: 4%

• Lab Report 2: 8%

• Lab Report 3: 8%

• Organic Finals: 50%​​

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No. of responses : 4

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REVIEWS

What advice would you give to someone considering taking this course?

 

Anonymous: If your other modules require heavy memorisation, I don’t recommend taking this module together as this module especially taught by Prof Zhu requires a lot of time and memorisation if you don’t understand the content. Consistent effort is required for this module (especially for the reaction mechanisms chapters). Consistent efforts are needed to complete and understand tutorial questions, revise the topics using slides, textbooks, and online resources, and even consult with TAs to clarify doubts. You cannot leave the revision of this module till the last minute. Practical should read the manual beforehand and pay attention to details for lab report, Dr. Hoang is quite particular!

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Anonymous: Better to have consistent effort in this course and not leave everything to the end.

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George Teo: Instead of memorizing all the reagents, conditions, solvents and mechanisms, try to understand the motifs and reasoning behind each reaction. This requires more effort in the short term but drastically reduces the cognitive load closer to finals, where you realize that everything in Organic Chemistry makes logical sense and you will remember the ideas for the semesters to come (you would still need to take CM3121).

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Anonymous: Consistency is important, especially for the mechanisms part as the concepts build on each other so if you start falling behind at one point you might end up playing catch-up for the whole second half of the semester.

 

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What did you enjoy or find most useful from this course?

  

Anonymous: The practical skills learnt in this module is applicable to industrial practice! The learning of the different reaction mechanisms is very interesting and fun! TAs are super good!

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Anonymous: The reading of graphs like NMR, IR

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George Teo: Tutorial TAs by Dr Zhu's PhD students (Kuan Kok How & Kha Tuan Khoa) were extremely useful because they would always stay back after the tutorials to clarify any lingering doubts. They also bend over backwards to explain concepts that are beyond the exam requirements but would be helpful to know / reduce memory work.

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Anonymous: Basic spectroscopic techniques such as IR and NMR and basic OChem mechanisms were covered with good depth giving students a good foundation.

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What aspects of the course did you find most challenging, and why?

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Anonymous: Despite the fun content, we don’t have enough time to sit with the content and understand it, rather you need to rush to learn the content and end up not enjoying it! The Prof could provide more helpful practices related to the exams but very little practice was given so one needs to find additional practice questions from seniors and textbook questions! This course requires alot of independent study!

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Anonymous: Some reaction mechanisms were confusing and not very clearly explained.

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George Teo: The requirements of Lab Reports were extremely opaque.

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Anonymous: In the second half of the module when reaction mechanisms are covered, the content can feel very overwhelming and hard to process especially since the lecturer speaks very slowly during lectures making it hard to absorb much info.

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What resources did you find most helpful in helping you better understand the course material?

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Anonymous: TAs consultations, organic chem Clayden textbook, tutorials.

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Anonymous: Tutorials and Textbook is definitely helpful to supplement the lecture notes, the notes that he gave are essentially screenshots of the textbook.

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Anonymous: Textbooks: (1) Introduction to Spectroscopy by Donald L. Pavia; (2) Organic Chemistry by Jonathan Clayden

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Anonymous: The slides provided by Prof Zhu are quite comprehensive and contain all the information needed to do well in the course.

 

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What other courses do you think should be taken before or concurrently with this module?

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Anonymous: CM2112, CM2133.

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Anonymous: I think this module can be taken alone, but there are some overlaps with 2112 and 2133 that could possibly help you in your understanding.

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George Teo: Ideas from CM2122 do not really carry over to other Level 2 courses and hence this course could be taken last. However, hard-soft acid-base theories from CM2112 and spectroscopy from CM2133 are helpful but not necessary.

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Anonymous: Take with CM2112 so that you can put labs from both courses on the same day so that your timetable planning can be easier.

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