Physical Chemistry. Some of the students take it as a course requirement, while for some biochem students this is required. Its all related THERMODYNAMICS, chemical equilibria, physical equilibria, transport phenomena, kinetics and enzyme kinetics.
Course: FORMULAS! LOTS OF IT! the worse part is there are so many formulas but you are not given a formula sheet for any of the tests/exams. I know that doesn't make any sense right!!?? There are over 20 formulas, why would anyone expect us to memorize all of it?? The answer: You aren't expected to memorize it. You are expected to underestand it. If you know a few of the formulas, you can actually derive some of them. All the formulas are interrelated. It was very frustrating at first and I got really mad and kept complaining about it. Eventually I stopped and started to realize that it was actually really interesting that everything is all interconnected. Try and think of a more simple way for you to rmb it. For alot of the concept questions, the prof require you to be able to know the variables, how it changes and what effect it has, why it is there. For the calculation questions, it requires you to use multiple equations to equate them and mix them around in order to find the final answer. It gets frustrating when it isn't obvious, but hopefully you can calm down and think harder! Also, i suggest trying to be on top of lecture, or else you get lost and want to fall asleep.... melacini is a bit boring sometimes, talks fast, dont' understand what he says sometimes cause i'm too lost and behind in class. stay on top of it, or else it just gets worse for yourself.
Homework: Each week, there will be these homework assignment posted. I recommend doing them before the tutorials. The tutorial TAs will go over hte question and give you the answers to them. Althought you have to show your work in your homework when you hand it in. I usually fell behind w/ the homework and didn't learn as much from it. By the way, Reza is the best TA!!!! Go to him if you have questions, he is really patient, helpful and clear with his explainations! I liked him more than the prof...
Tests: The tests are all m/c. no matter if it is calculations or not. So it was nice for him to have that. At least yo ucan guess and have 25% of getting it correct! YAY!!
Of course, dont' reply on that. DO THE PRACTICE QUESTIONS. I had alot of trouble w/ the first and second test. I was scared from memorizing so many formulas and I never really understood the concepts. I studied and studied but didn't do the practice questions, which was a horrible mistake!! I eventually learned my listen before the final exam and did every single practice test there was and when I walked in to the exam, I was so confident and did really well. Dr. Melacini uses similar questions sometimes, or changing one variable in the question, so use the question as practice to learn his style. PRACTICE IS THE KEY!
Group project: It was werid how he gave us only 2 weeks to finish the group project, not enough time. Oh well. It was just picking a specific journal article and writing a small paper for it w/ the help of around 10 people. so you only had to write a paragraph.
Generally, everyone gets a high mark to bump up the grades!
COURSE BREAKDOWN- Homework - 15% (optional to complete, if not the % goes towards exam)
- Test 1 - 15% (option of dropping one test and % goes toward exam)
- Test 2- 15% (option of dropping one test and % goes toward exam)
- Group Project- 15%
- Exam - 40%