Overview
Chemistry 1A03 covers basic assumed knowledge from highschool (bonding, gases, atomic theory, etc), electrons in atoms, periodic table trends, acids & bases, equilibrium, aqueous solutions and thermochemistry. This is a rather large first year class, so it's taught by 3 or...

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How are Britz McKibbin, Emslie and Goward as professors? I heard Lock is amazing or very good but how are the other 3 professors like?

I dunno why everyone hates Britz, I thought he was great. I sort of liked him better than Lock even.

Originally Posted by Harlequin90

I dunno why everyone hates Britz, I thought he was great. I sort of liked him better than Lock even.

I didn't hate Britz, I just preferred Lock a lot more. He's an alright professor.

Originally Posted by Harlequin90

I dunno why everyone hates Britz, I thought he was great. I sort of liked him better than Lock even.

So, I was in Dr. Lock's lecture section. I went to these classes religiously because I was scared. After reading all the reviews for the class I (who at that time lacked self confidence when it came to chemistry) figured I couldn't miss a class.

Now, don't get me wrong Dr. Britz is a really great person. I've had some great conversations with him especially about his awesome baby research. Anyways, back to my story. This one time, I needed to miss one of Dr. Lock's classes and decided I had no choice but to make it up with Dr. Britz. So, I went to his lecture and realized Dr. Lock was about 8-10 slides ahead of Dr. Britz so, I sat patiently and re-listened to his lecture. During his lecture, he had gone over 2 or 3 of the same examples as Dr. Lock. Now, here's where my problem comes in with Dr. Britz. He was going over one of the examples and he made a mistake. I was confused why he got a different answer than Dr. Lock, so I raised my hand and asked him if he could explain why his answer was that way and he realized he got it wrong. Whatever, people make mistakes right? Well, as he continued to go over the examples I got even more confused from the way he explained his examples. On top of that, he made 2 more errors which I didn't bother asking about because at that point I was scrambling to try to understand his train of thought and worried that maybe I had written things down incorrectly (which in the end, I had done just fine just like Dr. Lock).

That was just one class though, so either he had one bad day where he made mistakes, or he just make lots and lots of mistakes during the whole year.

I felt that by the end of the class I was scared to trust what he said incase it was flawed.

yeah the lab ta can make or break your lab experience. Looking back, I had a terrible, moody, snooty TA who was very condescending whenever we asked lab questions. Also, I always had random marks deducted for lab performance for one lab that I thought I did pretty well in, (only bugged the TA about where the stapler was). My second (Chem 1aa3) was great, answered questions, helpful etc.

Hi! for grade 12 chemistry, i didnt have the best teacher. What can I do over the summer to prepare for chemistry 1a03? Where can I find notes to look at over the summer?
THANK YOU!

Don't worry goldfish, I didn't have the greatest Grade 12 chem teacher either, and I still did fine (And I wasn't the most dilligent high school student either, so that kind of compounded the problem).

In terms of preparing for 1A03, your best bet would probably be to pick up the textbook in advance and start trying to teach yourself. You probably won't learn everything perfectly, but you'll absorb the lectures much more effectively if you've tried to learn the material yourself first.

This is definitely a class where I would recommend the textbook, I found it helped a lot.

There is a bit of high school review at the beginning, but we only had like 3 questions on it all year that appeared on midterms, so no biggy. It also wouldn't hurt to brush up on ICE tables and equilibriums if possible.

Kenneth mentioned something about Molecule of the Week and I was wondering if this concept is still done in CHEM 1A03, like was it done in Sept-Dec of 2008?

Probably will still continue it but it may be like what they did for Chem 1AA3. MOTW is still on the quizzes but not on midterms/exams.

Thanks. So was MOTW done for both CHEM 1A03 and CHEM 1AA3?

Yup but like I said ...in chem 1A03 MOTW was on quizzes and midterms/exams. But everyone complained about it so I guess thats the reason why they removed it from the midterms and exam for chem 1AA3 but it was still on the quizzes.

Just to clarify, the textbook for Chem 1A03 and Chem 1AA3 are the same? And have they use the same textbook for years now? If so, do you recommend getting the textbook now to review or just want until the first week of class.

Thanks so much

Originally Posted by smileyKT

Just to clarify, the textbook for Chem 1A03 and Chem 1AA3 are the same? And have they use the same textbook for years now? If so, do you recommend getting the textbook now to review or just want until the first week of class.

Thanks so much

The textbook is the same. I found Chem 1A03/1E03 were review from high school, but in greater detail. You shouldn't need to buy the books early to review from.

Originally Posted by smileyKT

Just to clarify, the textbook for Chem 1A03 and Chem 1AA3 are the same? And have they use the same textbook for years now? If so, do you recommend getting the textbook now to review or just want until the first week of class.

Thanks so much

Nah I don't think buying the book is necessary to review. Or if review is even necessary. If you want just briefly look over gr 12 notes.

I personally didn't use the chemistry book. I studied everything from the notes, I thought everything was pretty clear. I also did the practise questions that were posted (practise test/exams, tutorial questions, quizzes)