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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Are the textbook questions easier than midterm questions in terms of difficulty? Isn't buffers in CHEM 1AA3?

Originally Posted by lankan_4lif

Are the textbook questions easier than midterm questions in terms of difficulty? Isn't buffers in CHEM 1AA3?

I think buffers are in 1A03.

You should just do the practise/old midterm tests. I didn't do any textbook questions but relied solely on the practise/old midterms.

Buffers were in 1AA3.

According to the course outline for 1A03, buffers are part of it. But then again it might be a section in both courses?

Oh..they may have switched around the stuff then? Either way, buffers sucked.

Maybe I actually kinda liked them.. but..

Originally Posted by ~*Sara*~

According to the course outline for 1A03, buffers are part of it. But then again it might be a section in both courses?

In the course outline, it doesn't include buffers. Buffers is in chapter 17 I checked in the textbook and thats not covered in CHEM 1A03 so its in CHEM 1AA3.

Originally Posted by lankan_4lif

In the course outline, it doesn't include buffers. Buffers is in chapter 17 I checked in the textbook and thats not covered in CHEM 1A03 so its in CHEM 1AA3.

Yep, I know, but it's also mentioned in one or two of the chapters of Chem 1A03 I was looking through, and of course how can you do Chem 1A03, acids, bases, titration and such.. without buffers..

Oh gosh, I'm overwhelmed by the amount of assumed knowledge in this course >.<

Originally Posted by Sultan

Oh gosh, I'm overwhelmed by the amount of assumed knowledge in this course >.<

You're not alone :( There's 5 chapters of assumed knowledge, and the quiz #0 that I still have to do :(

The assumed knowledge is everything you learned in grade 11 Ontario Chemistry (SCH3U1), don't worry about it.

There is assumed knowledge on midterms and exams right? That's what the course outline says.

The assumed knowledge is basically Chem 11 and 12, so you'll need that background anyway in order to read and understand the new concepts.

I had Landry as a professor, and even though a lot of people didn't like him I didn't find him bad at all. Hatala is definitely the best teacher, though.

The course is very well structured, interesting and has a lot of relevant material. It's not easy at all, but if you actually spend time on it you can get a 12 no problem.

Chem 1A03 is basically, a review of Grade 12 chemistry, just with some new concepts. Covered atomic and molecular structure (quantum), VSEPR, thermochem, electrochem, chemical and acid-base equilibrium (no titrations/buffers), and Gibbs free energy stuff.

I had Hatala as my instructor. Very laid-back guy, who's really funny, and took the time to answer questions in class. Love his stories, and his usage analogies to explain concepts. I do wonder how he goes 50 minutes YELLING in lectures (doesn't use a mic). Probably the best instructor for 1A03 out of the four (the others being Landry, Goward and Britz).

Labs are worth 15% of your course mark. There were supposed to be 5, but because of the strike, there were only 4. They took your top 3 out of 4. Most labs were informal (meaning you hand in your report at the end of your lab period). Only one lab was formal, but it was still worth the same as the informal ones.
There was a filtration (precipitation) lab, an equilibrium lab, an ice calorimetry lab, a copper lab in which you look at how copper undergoes various changes to become copper again, as well as an electrochem lab that we didn't do.

Tutorials are useful in taking up tutorial questions and refreshing your problem-solving skills. My TA was decent at taking questions. These tutorials are 'mandatory' as there are 2 iClicker questions, which are worth 2% of your mark. There are also iClicker questions in lecture as well.

There were online quizzes as well, which were released about every two weeks. They helped in keeping you stay on top of things, and were worth 8%.

There were two midterms, composed of 25 and 30 multiple-choice questions respectively and worth 15% each. Note that the 2nd midterm is cumulative, meaning you have to remember all of the content that was covered in the 1st midterm. There are a mix of several 2-mark questions, which tend to be easy, and 3-mark questions, which are more challenging. I found them to be easy if you kept up with all of the work and completed all of the tutorial questions.

Exam was worth 45%. 35 multiple-choice questions, and a similar format as the midterms. Again, the difficulty was fair, and if you adequately prepared, you should have no problem with the exam.

Chem 1A03 was a great course, which is structured very well and covers alot of review material from grade 12. If you keep up with each chapter, you'll have no problem pulling off a double-digit grade.