CM3121 - Advanced Organic Chemistry

Academic Year 24/25 - Semester 2

Assessments:

Test 1: 25%
Test 2: 25%
Finals: 50%

Lecturer(s): Asst. Prof Xi Yumeng (Part 1), A/P Valiyaveettil Suresh (Part 2)

No. of Responses : 1

Course Difficulty (1-5): 5

Time for learning content (hrs): 8

Time to complete assignements (hrs): 10

Course Pace: Just right

REVIEWS

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

Anonymous: This mod is extremely content heavy with a total of 13 chapters from Part 1 to Part 2 to study for finals. Although you are allowed to have a 2 sided cheatsheet, you would most likely not fully rely on your cheatsheet as you probably do not have time to refer to it much during exam. A lot of effort is required to understand the concepts taught in the lecture as some of the topics are challenging such as aldol and crossed-aldol reactions for part 1 and carbenes and coupling reactions in part 2. And, to be prepared for the exams, you must practice very consistently, and familiarize yourself with organic chem questions. For synthetic route questions, they are meant to be very difficult, but you should try to write something to gain some marks. Also, you should attend the tutorials live, even if you dont know how to do and never do some of the tutorial questions, as the tutorial questions discussed in tutorial, although some are challenging, will greatly benefit your understanding of the material. The tutorial questions also give you a sense of what exam questions will feel like.

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

Anonymous: The recorded lectures are very good for revision. There are ample lecture notes examples, exercise questions inside the lecture notes, tutorial questions, past year CAs, past year finals, but beware that you do not have ans key for the past year finals papers, and even additional questions that Prof Suresh provided, to practice.

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

Anonymous: CA1 and CA2 questions are tricky but manageable, as most of the questions are familiar, whereby they are similar to the lecture notes and tutorials. The finals exam's questions, however, were a lot more challenging because some of them are very unfamiliar questions, that you may not see in the lecture notes or practice questions, Try not to get caught off guard when you see such challenging questions and skip to other questions that may seem less familiar.

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

Anonymous: The lecture notes are enough to understand the content. The lecture notes, tutorials, past year CAs, additional practice questions given are a lot of practice. But, you can refer to Clayden's textbook for more practice.

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

Anonymous: Take CM3191 concurrently as there is a 2/3rd overlap (Diels Alder reaction & Sonogashira Coupling reaction) with the Organic Chem part of CM3191.

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