Course Overview
Chem 2OA3 (Organic chemistry, also known as "orgo") covers introductory topics in organic chemistry: chemical bonding, molecular orbitals, acid/base chemistry, stereochemistry, spectroscopy techniques (infrared spec, mass spec, proton & C13 NMR), functional group chemistry and reaction mechanisms (SN1, SN2, E1, E2). There are three 50 minute lectures every week, one three-hour lab and one two-hour tutorial every other week (they alternate with each other). Orgo is one of the more challenging courses you'll take in upper year, so you'll need to put in a fair amount of work to get a good grade.
Course Breakdown
Midterm: 25%
Assignments (3 in total): 5%
Labs (5 in total): 20%
Final Exam: 50%
Note: If you do better on your exam than your midterm, then the midterm weighting will be added to the final exam such that it's worth 75% of your final mark.
Midterm- Two hours long, 100 total marks
- Covers molecular/atomic orbitals, acid-base chemistry, stereochemistry, SN2 reactions, and IR/C13/Proton NMR spectroscopy
- 20 multiple choice questions, two marks each
- 3 short answer questions equalling 60 marks
- There are NO part marks for multiple choice questions: there are only part marks for short answer questions
Don't underestimate the midterm, because it was challenging. The first few chapters in the class deals with concepts that you're well familiar with from Chem 1AA3, so you might be tempted to breeze through them when you're studying. The midterm had a couple of tricky theoretical questions on the earlier chapters, so make sure that you understanding them thoroughly.
Several students were pressed for time during this midterm, and a lot of them didn't even finish writing the test. To be successful in the midterm, you need to make sure that you do a lot of practice problems, whether they be from the textbook, webCT or WileyPlus (an online assessment that comes with the textbook). In hindsight, a lot of the midterm questions weren't completely new at all,I just spent a lot of time on them because I hadn't practiced similar problems before.
Assignments
You get three written assignments throughout the term that must be completed in pen or pencil (not online). Everyone gets the exact same assignment with the exact same questions, so the average for these tends to be in the high 80s (which is why they're only worth 5% of your final mark). Like CAPA in physics 1B03 or the webCT quizzes in Chem 1A03/1AA3,
learn to answer the problems on your own. It won't help you for the midterm or the final exam if you just copy a peer's answers without understanding it.
Labs and Tutorials
Like in 1A03/1AA3, you have five three-hour labs every other week for the entire term. The experiments are related to the material you learned in class from the previous week, so the lab write-ups are relatively easy. There is a lot of waiting in organic chemistry labs: whether you're refluxing or re-crystallizing, so you're going to need to be patient during these labs (it does get boring at times however).
The tutorials in 2OA3 are two hours every other week, and like in 1A03/1AA3, the TA goes over the tutorials posted by the professor on webCT. I only have two comments on the tutorials: a ) go to them and b ) if you choose to attend them, try to attempt the tutorial problems before the TA goes over them. It's a lot more helpful come midterm time than just blindly copying what he/she writes on the board.
Final Exam- 3 hours long, 100 marks in total
- Covers every chapter, with emphasis on reaction mechanisms
- 20 multiple choice questions, 2 marks each
- 6 short answer questions equalling 60 marks
- There are NO part marks for multiple choice questions: there are only part marks for short answer questions
I found the exam easier than the midterm. It could have been a lack of preparation for the midterm, but it seemed like if you put in a fair amount of time studying the final, it won't be so bad.
Professor
Dr. Harald Stover was the lecturer when I took this class, and he was an amazing prof. He posts clean, detailed notes on webCT and paces himself well during the lectures. He's always willing to answer questions during the lectures and is a very approachable person (he even drops by the ABB labs to help students complete their experiments!) And he has a really cool German accent.
Difficulty et al
Organic chemistry is a hard class. It's not your convential physical chemistry class where you calculate the moles of product or gibbs free energy. Instead, you need to understand the conditions and implications of every problem: you can do this by asking yourself one of several questions such as "is there steric hindrance?", "what will stabilize the carbocation?", "what are the reaction conditions?", "what is the stereochemistry?", etc. Essentially, to answer an organic chemistry question, you need to understand what's happening spatially and consider all of the reaction implications that they discuss in class (it's hard to explain, but once you take the course you'll understand what I mean).
Again, I recommend doing a LOT of practice problems to prepare for the midterm and exam (especially spectroscopy and reaction mechanism problems). You'll need to put in a lot of work to get a good mark in this class, but it's very possible to get a double digit grade.
Good luck!
