AY20/21 Y3S1 Review

This semester had a shift in assessment weightage.  CORE modules weightage in past semesters had been 40% CA and 60% Finals, but this semester was 60% CA and 40% Finals.  To me, it has its pros and cons.  Pros are that studying for finals was not as stressful as the 60% CA has more or less determined your grade.  Cons are that the workload during the semester increased with many graded assignments/homework which I was not used to so that definitely increased the level of stress for me.  Overall, I would say this semester was okay because the CORE mods I took was not the difficult ones, I am expecting my GPA to increase slightly (results ain't out yet) so that it can cushion the potential drop in my GPA next sem.  Because I have to take the difficult mods next sem which means my grades are likely to plummet 🙃 I also joined a new CCA with quite a high commitment level, so I hope I will be able to manage both my studies and CCA well 🤞🙏💪

CM3011 - Chemical Spectroscopy & Applications (Organic) | CORE | 3AU | A

Midterm 1 (20%): 81/100 [average: 74, median: 77]
Assignment (10%): 10/10
Midterm 2 (20%): 80/100 [average: 65.8, median: 68]
Problem Set (5%): 22.5/25
2 Online Quiz (5%): 4/5 & 5/5
Finals (40%)
If you did 2 quizzes and a survey on an app: 2 bonus marks

If you present in-class tutorial: 3 bonus marks (if your ans is correct), 2 marks (if your ans is incomplete), 1 mark (if your ans is totally wrong but you still tried): I did not present any answers

The first part of this mod was relatively simple, you will learn how to do structure elucidation using IR, 1H & 13C NMR and MS spectrums.  There is no memorization needed since all midterms and finals are open book, so what you need is a clear understanding of what to look out for in each spectrum to help you deduce the structure.  For the assignment, you have to predict or use actual spectrums of your assigned compound and assign the peaks to the corresponding hydrogens/carbons for eg. There's more to it, but it's not difficult, the prof will also have a sample for you, you just have to follow the format but do it for your assigned molecule.  The prof is also very nice (compared to the other prof hahah oops) 😶 The midterm was held online with zoom invigilation (coz covid).  The midterm was quite easy, you just need good time management and not make careless mistakes!  For some reason, I was really confused about DEPT135 spectrums and did not clarify and I thought it won't come out but it did ._.  Format: open-ended. Since this part was taught first, I thought 3011 was going to be a breeze, but boy was I wrong.

The second part was crazy difficult hahah 😂 I think the content has changed from previous semesters, the prof teaching the second half has changed too (so there isn't any pyp to practice for 2nd part).  In the past, seniors were taught different types of NMR, but now it has changed to point groups, symmetry, character tables, Tanabe Sugano diagrams and applications of Raman spectroscopy, XPS, XAS, etc.  There are ~2 in-class tutorial questions that students can choose to present their answers, but it means that you need to prepare your ans before class which didn't make sense to me because the content was taught on Mon and Tues, and at the end of Tues class is the in-class tut.  So to present, you need to learn the content yourself.  BUT his notes has blanks, so how are we supposed to learn the content ourselves?  Okay maybe it was possible but it will be super time consuming (a lot of people do not like this prof's teaching style lol) We were not sure if the applications examples were going to be tested in exams or not, I think it was not tested much in midterms but was touched on a bit in finals, but I'm not sure though because our batch was the first or second sem with this new syllabus.  I remember being super confused for this part, but after studying and rewatching parts of the lecture, it didn't seem too bad.  So I guess maybe the prof teaches really fast-paced so usually I'd feel lost in the lecture which is bad lol.  Midterm 2 was held physically in school.  If good time management is needed for the 1st midterm then superb/excellent time management is needed for the 2nd midterm LOL I didn't manage to finish the paper, left close to 10 marks blank/incomplete 🙃 His midterms will leave you writing to the very last minute.  A piece of advice is maybe don't refer so much to your notes, just do the question based on what you know, move on & check later.  A mistake of mine was that in the beginning, after each question I will refer to my notes to check if my ans was correct, which wasted a lot of my time.  It was only towards the end that I realised I don't have enough time then I just did the paper without touching my slides at all lol, thus I was super surprised by my results, was expecting to get 60+ only.  Format: MCQ, true/false qns and open-ended.

The finals was okay to me, not really sure how others felt because I didn't take this mod with my close friends.  Also, because my finals were quite spread out, so I had time to do all 5 pyps for 1st part, there was actually the same qn that came out phrased differently, so I could just copy hahah, IF I had to deduce the structure during the finals, I probably won't be able to finish the paper lol

Didn't realise this was going to be so long 😅 hope the info helps! :)

Edit: Heard that the prof for the 1st half is leaving NTU which means that the content and assessment format may change, just take note!

CM3031 - Organic Reaction Mechanism & Synthesis | CORE | 3AU | A

Midterm 1 (20%): 15/15

Homework 1 & 2 (15%): 4/5 & 10/10

Midterm 2 (30%): 87/100 [average: 72]

Finals (40%)

This mod was not as intimidating as CM2031, but some reactions from CM2031 are used to teach new concepts/models, such as Michael Reaction.  The first part regarding Diels Alder, sigmatropic, electrocyclic reactions, etc was more difficult because a lot of visualising is needed.  BUT once you get it, it becomes quite straightforward, just be careful not to make mistakes.  The 1st prof gave us 2 homework which, in my opinion, was very difficult so maybe y'all would want to discuss answers with your friends before submitting, only 1 submission is allowed.  Both midterms are closed book, but finals are open book.  Both midterms and finals are held physically in school.  Also, because of covid-19, for the 1st half, the prof would record herself teaching the content and upload it onto blackboard, you can just watch it at your own time.  Lecture time would be delegated to Q&A, but most of the time there would be no questions lol so the Q&A would end within 30mins or so.  For midterm 1, do her pyp, as there is a chance the same qns maybe asked (the exact same definition qn was asked for our batch).  The type of qns are also the same as pyp.  I think because her homework was very difficult, so she set a relatively easy midterm for us.

For midterm 2, it was not difficult, but do take note of everything covered in lecture and tutorial qns that is not printed in the slides.  So during the lecture, the 2nd prof would show extra slides of additional examples that are not in your notes, I thought those were not necessary, but apparently, a midterm qn was set based on those additional examples.  So the entire 10 marks I had no idea what the qn was asking, was surprised I even got 2 marks for the nonsense I wrote 😂 And of course, I was super surprised by my results, the prof was super lenient, I must say.  He is very nice too! :) Maybe a tip for the 2nd prof qns: just showing the mechanism for the favoured pathway is enough to get full marks, don't need to waste time to show for the minor product although the prof says it's good to show both pathways.  

For finals, I was too complacent (because I did relatively well for the 60% already and finals were going to be open book), so I made many careless mistakes.  Hence, I am not sure how my grades are going to turn out lol 🙃 

CM3062 - Chemistry & Biological Chemistry Lab 4 (LAB) | CORE | 3AU | B+

Lab Reports (50%): Grade A for all

Finals (50%)

There are 9 experiments in total, 3 are physical and the rest are virtual lab.  The cohort will be split into groups A, B & C based on the alphabetical name list.  Virtual lab means raw data will be uploaded for you and you just need to complete the lab report/proforma. There are 3 full lab reports, the rest are proformas. BUT it doesn't mean proforma is easier, because, for certain experiments, the post-/pre-lab qns are very difficult 🙃 Expt 1 requires using a remote desktop to use the application from there, but the system is very laggy and keeps hanging, so I'd suggest going to school and use the computer, just choose a day that you need to go to school for something else (that's what I did).  Most, if not all experiments are group/pair work, not that difficult (for physical labs).  For finals, the format is 50 MCQ, with ~20 qns that requires justification to get full credit.  Make sure you understand everything in the lab manual and questions in lab report/proforma.  If you don't, go google and read up on extra stuff regarding the machines/graphs because some qns tested info that isn't explicitly stated in the lab manual.  Know how to calculate the molar coefficient for DNA also (expt 7 I think), the lab manual tells you to use an online app calculator, but the finals ask us to manually calculate and none of our friends could get any of the answers in the options LOL even though we knew how to calculate, so I'm not sure what went wrong 🙃 Not sure if this qn will come out again, but good to know ya.  I feel like i will lose ~32 marks from finals, so I'm not sure what grade I'll get haiz, hoping for the best!

CM9101 - Food Chemistry & Nutrition | UE | 3AU | S

Midterm (20%): 15/20 & 19/20 → 19/20

Lab Reports (30%)

Finals (50%)

Had high expectations for this mod because last sem's food chem mod was so fun!  BUT the fun was diminished by covid-19 :( All the experiments that were previously done in groups had changed to become individual work.  The workload, however, was not reduced (okay, maybe a small portion was removed).  Apart from the 1st experiment that had a long waiting time, the other experiments had all of us scrambling to finish everything within 3 hours.  Also, because there was previously 9 experiments that were cut to just 5, the lecture content and expt content were not synced. I'm not sure if that was intentional or not, because, in CM9102, we would learn the content first before the expt that incorporated the same concept, so we were better able to understand the experiment and do the proforma.  I think this was why I got 2 Bs out of the 5 proformas lol, therefore I have no choice but to S/U this even though I did rather well for the midterms.  The 2 midterms were all MCQs and the better score of the 2 will be your CA marks (similar to CM9102).  Finals was not difficult if your memory is good, I think I did not bad for the finals.  You just need to memorise the answers from the pyp he provides you as there will be some qns that are the same as pyp that will come out for the finals.  Oh and this mod was taught by another prof, not the same as CM9102, but he says he will be retiring after next semester, meaning this is the last sem he is teaching this mod so I'm not sure if there will be any changes to the content/teaching style in future with the new prof.  

CS8207 - Fifty Discoveries, Fifty Inventions | UE | 3AU | S

5 Online Mini-tests (2% each, total 10%): 10/10

Online Midterm (25%): 32/50

Group Assignment (20%): 85/100, A+

Individual Assignment (20%): 82/100, A

Online Finals (25%): 29/50

I took this mod because there are not many UE choices available that fits into my timetable & that I'm slightly interested in it.  This mod teaches you more than 50 discoveries and 50 inventions, most of which are very interesting.  The format before covid-19, I think was close book midterms and finals with one group and one individual assignment.  But because of covid-19, the format remained the same except that midterms and finals are open-book and there are 5 online mini-tests (conducted biweekly most of the time).  The mini-tests are conducted during lecture and comprise 10 qns to be done in 10mins, but we feedbacked that 10mins is too short, so the prof gave us 12mins.  Since it's open book so no stress, just need to finish it within the stipulated time.  Most ppl will score full marks so it's like free 10% for you.  The group assignment is to be done in groups of 3, I took this mod with another friend, so we needed another group member.  As this mod is conducted online this semester, it was difficult to form groups.  Instead of spamming the chat, a student actually created a google sheet for us to input our name and handphone number to form groups which was a fantastic move on her part 👏 The assignments are not difficult, just need to understand the requirements and write accordingly.  The midterm and finals though, we are not sure how exactly he wants us to answer the qn, because the qns are open-ended with no word-limit, so you can write however long you want, just that u got to finish the paper within the 1hr.  A sample qn would be: "discuss the impacts of the invention ... on society", without copying directly from your lecture notes, so till now I'm not sure how he wants us to answer the question hahah, there is no answer key.  So maybe take this mod, if you have S/U available!  Oh and also, this prof is very nice and also very excited to share every lecture so I enjoyed the learning process since no memorization = no stress hahah (i suck at memorization).

HN9010 - Singapore: Imaging the next 50 years | UE | 3AU | Pass

12 Online LAMS MCQ Quizzes, 5 qns each (30%): 56/60

Reflection Essay (50%)

Class Participation (20%)

I think there are many reviews on this everywhere lol so shall be brief.  How this mod is carried out: alternate wks of physicals seminars and alternate wks of online discussion. Online discussion (meaning you can do it at home) is just using a blackboard platform to discuss your response to a qn that your tutor will give you beforehand. After discussing, a randomly appointed scribe will have to collate, summarise and submit 1 response per group.  For physical seminars depending on your tutor, you may be required to participate in discussion every physical seminar or you can just sit, listen and leave hahah but my tutor was the kind that asks for our views and input every lesson, some lessons we will have to do up powerpoints, or write our responses on padlet and present it.  Seems like a bit much for a pass/fail mod, but anyway you do not have to present very well since pass/fail right 😂 For the online LAMS, it is meant to be done weekly for 12wks, but honestly you can just finish it as early as you want and just forget about it.  The reflection essay was 1000 words max, not difficult!  But our tutor said because most students have a "heck care" attitude and do not turn up for physical seminars because we all just need to pass so it is in discussion to make this mod letter-graded, not sure when it will be implemented though.

Results have not been released yet, so I'll update here after I get my results! Also, I actually prefer online lectures, because I can save on travelling, but don't like the fact that we have to do virtual labs, because it'd mean we miss out on the opportunity to use the different machines.  Hope this covid-19 situation improves worldwide! :)

Edit: yayy results were satisfactory!  Am hoping next sem will be good or even better but I'll have to be very disciplined 💪