In this course, you learn a bit of everything chemistry.
There's a math/stats section that teaches all the math you need to know related to analytical chem, quantitative and volumetric analysis, acids/bases, titrations with monoprotic and polyprotic acids/bases, chemical equilibrium, complexation (including EDTA titrations), electrochemistry and electrodes, electron transfer (including redox titrations), light absorption and high throughput screening, light emission/fluorescence and biomolecular interaction assays (this part goes beyond what is in the textbook) and many many kinds of chromatography. The textbook in Sept 2009 was Exploring Chemical Analysis (4th ed) by Daniel Harris, and we covered the entire textbook and then some. In my opinion,
it's the huge amount of content that makes this course so difficult. Apparently it tends to be people's lowest mark, but people HAVE gotten 12s in it, so don't write it off immediately!
There are seven labs, and most of them are titrations. Seriously, you have no idea how many different kinds of titrations are possible until you take this course. In the labs, you learn good lab techniques (really...the lab coordinator scares you into doing techniques properly, until it becomes second nature), and all work is marked on both precision and accuracy, despite occasional inherent flaws in the procedure that prevent you from actually getting accurate results.
The marking scheme is very flexible for this course:
- 2 (very long and difficult) assignments worth 5% each, but these are both optional and should be done in groups.
- one very easy (but long) midterm worth 15%, which is also optional.
- The labs are mandatory and worth 35%, which includes prelabs, postlabs, random lab assignments and a lab exam. You must pass the lab component to pass the course.
- The exam will be worth anywhere from 40-65%, depending how much of the course work you did. The exam is difficult, so you should do the course work! The marks on the exam were a perfect bell curve, with marks ranging from 7% to 93% and an average of 50.0%..and the prof was happy with this.
- If you do the coursework, but it ends up bringing down your mark (ie you're one of the rare people who did really well on the exam), then your exam will count for 65% anyways--they take your highest mark.
The prof for this course was Dr Brennan, but I think next year (Sept 2010) is the last year he's teaching it. Some people really like him, some people really don't. He definitely knows his stuff, though, and I found he explained things pretty well.
Although this course was my lowest mark for second year, I learned a LOT, especially in terms of lab skills. Seriously, orgo labs are a JOKE compared to **** labs