Academic Year 23/24 - Semester 1
Assessments:​
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Lab Proforma: 20%
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Test 1: 20%
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Test 2: 20%
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Final Exam: 40%
Lecturer: A/P John Yip
Lab Instructor: Dr Chui Sin Yin Stephen
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Overview of content covered in module:
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Part 1: Atomic orbitals, Trends in periodic table including relativistic effect for heavy transition metals, Valence bond theory, Molecular orbital theory, Acid base chemistry, Redox chemistry
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Part 2: Chemistry of selected main group elements, including groups 1, 2, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18
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No. of responses : 7
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REVIEWS
What advice would you give to someone considering to take this course?
Yihan: If you are overloading, it is recommended to take this course in semester 1 as the workload is low, and content covered is mainly JC chemistry and CM1102 plus pure memorisation.
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Anonymous: This course has a relatively light workload and is generally quite funny with the jokes he makes during lecture.
veryllium: It is manageable to overload with the course, and it is also possible to last minute chiong everything. However, while the lectures are all recorded, they are quite tough to get through, so don’t watch the lectures too last minute.
udonzzz: The first part of the course is closely related to the content taught in the first part of CM1102 by Dr Chong. Hence, if you feel like you were weaker in that part of CM1102, it would be good to do a bit of revision on it prior to the start of CM2112.
Anonymous: Students can overload with this course but the first 10 weeks of content were more manageable to learn than last 2 weeks of content.
Anonymous: You can take this if you’re looking to overload!! But i feel that most of the memorisation work comes in the last few weeks of the semester.
What did you enjoy or find most useful from this course?
Yihan: There are a lot of random interesting facts about random chemicals that are closely related to our lives. There is enough practice to prepare us for the exams.
Anonymous: The enjoyable part of this course was the many many examples he shared during lecture.
veryllium: I found the content interesting.
udonzzz: I found the labs useful as the many of the steps/techniques involved in the labs were not repetitive of the other courses labs, so it was something new to take note of.
What aspects of the course did you find most challenging, and why?
Yihan: Humans should not be competing with hard drive. I feel that the focus on memorising and regurgitating content should be reduced. Sometimes a few of the sample answers for tutorials were not very helpful as well. The pace of lecture and tutorial was on the slower side which could hinder the learning process for some students.
Anonymous: The challenging part for this course could be the lack of practice given to us since this is a relatively new course. Some of the questions given as practice and the actual exam papers are generally fine but there were some questions which require extra thinking and linking concepts across chapters.
veryllium: The tests were difficult compared to the past AY22/23.
udonzzz: The most challenging aspect of the course to me was that the tests and finals were closed book, so we had to memorise all the content, and I did not allocate enough time for revision.
Anonymous: Memorising the bunch of chemical reactions for all the different elements.
Anonymous: Memorising all those reactions in week 12-13…
What resources did you find most helpful in helping you better understand the course material?
Yihan: Slides and practice exercise given, and my prior knowledge.
Anonymous: Online chemistry libraries were helpful.
veryllium: Not really required to use external sources.
What other courses do you think should be taken before or concurrently with this course?
Yihan: Basic A levels knowledge will do.
veryllium: Can take with anything.
udonzzz: Nothing in particular.
Anonymous: Usually taken with CM2122.
Anonymous: Most students take it together with cm2122 since they’re inorganic and organic but i didn’t… Can be good or bad because these 2 had midterms on the same day.