Overview
Chemistry 1AA3 is a continuation of Chem 1A03 and discusses organic chemistry, additional bonding topics (orbital hybridization), chemical kinetics, buffer solutions, intermolecular forces, and a new topic,...

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Originally Posted by ragedevil67

I see....thanks
but if thats the case would you say there is really any advantage in choosing one professor over another?

Each professor has his/her teaching style. So depending on your learning style you'll want to learn from the teacher that teaches you best. I would recommend sitting in a lecture for each professor to see which one you like best. Just remember that if you aren't registered in the section, don't stay there if the room is full and people are looking for spots because you're taking that person's spot. So go to your normally registered section, but also attend others if you can.

Notes/tests, etc pertaining to the Winter 2010 session (Hatala)

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=OROREE45

I'm so glad I joined this everyone has given such great advice

Apparently they're cutting a lot of last year's content out for the coming year because of the ridiculously bad exam marks (my friend is retaking it this summer and they're testing it).

Still wished they fixed our marks first...dropping three levels is pretty unreasonable, IMO.

Thanks for the reviews, these are great!

Originally Posted by britb

Apparently they're cutting a lot of last year's content out for the coming year because of the ridiculously bad exam marks (my friend is retaking it this summer and they're testing it).

Still wished they fixed our marks first...dropping three levels is pretty unreasonable, IMO.

For me, it wasn't even the amount of content that was an issue, it was that they seemed to go out of their way to make the tests more confusing and difficult than need be. The material itself is easy, but the evaluations are hard. And don't worry, the exam made me drop 4 levels on the 12-point scale. All in all, I wasn't impressed, haha. :/

Originally Posted by britb

Apparently they're cutting a lot of last year's content out for the coming year because of the ridiculously bad exam marks (my friend is retaking it this summer and they're testing it).

Still wished they fixed our marks first...dropping three levels is pretty unreasonable, IMO.

Are they actually?! Unless they added a ton of stuff last year from the 2008/2009 year when I took it (which I doubt, but it's possible), the content shouldn't be a problem. Overall in science, people's averages were way higher this year than in previous years too, so it's not like the chem mark is seriously impacting people's averages.

Cutting content will only make it worse in 2nd year, especially since 1AA3 has a lot of orgo in it, and most people will end up taking 2nd year orgo at some point. And for orgo, dropping 2-4 grade points from the exam is pretty much expected. Cutting content from 1AA3 could (depending what is cut) make the stuff at the beginning of 2OA3 that was 'review' new material, which will make it way worse.

And for my program, one of the major complaints was that we didn't have nearly enough chemistry knowledge going into second year. Having even less background knowledge is going to seriously hurt anyone thinking of majoring in chem or chembio...even biochem students would be at a bigger disadvantage, since they take many of the same courses as chembio in 2nd year.

If everyone is doing really poorly in chem 1AA3, then maybe something needs to be changed, but it's definitely not cutting content from the course. You can make the course easier without cutting content. Also, if they haven't had this problem before (with an unusually large number of people failing or nearly failing), and they haven't changed anything from 2008/2009 to 2009/2010, then the problem likely isn't with the course material.

Originally Posted by nerual

If everyone is doing really poorly in chem 1AA3, then maybe something needs to be changed, but it's definitely not cutting content from the course. You can make the course easier without cutting content. Also, if they haven't had this problem before (with an unusually large number of people failing or nearly failing), and they haven't changed anything from 2008/2009 to 2009/2010, then the problem likely isn't with the course material.

I agree with you! It's definitely the style that makes Chem way harder than it should be. They stress know the concepts, main ideas, etc. And then for the exam, they expected us the know random little details, like (infamously) the formula of a random caboxylic acid (the common, not IUPAC name was given). Which would be fine, if they EVER did that before, which they did not. Or they made a point to say "oh, erm, know the chemical formulas of common named compounds, even though we say every class that if you know the concepts you should be fine."

I also remember seeing more than a few time questions about concepts that were only covered in the textbook (I studied from it mostly). Which is unfair, when you have profs telling you "only use the textbook were you are unsure about something" in class.

Originally Posted by britb

I agree with you! It's definitely the style that makes Chem way harder than it should be. They stress know the concepts, main ideas, etc. And then for the exam, they expected us the know random little details, like (infamously) the formula of a random caboxylic acid (the common, not IUPAC name was given). Which would be fine, if they EVER did that before, which they did not. Or they made a point to say "oh, erm, know the chemical formulas of common named compounds, even though we say every class that if you know the concepts you should be fine."

I also remember seeing more than a few time questions about concepts that were only covered in the textbook (I studied from it mostly). Which is unfair, when you have profs telling you "only use the textbook were you are unsure about something" in class.

Hm, we had a couple of questions where you had to know the names of the compounds (one on each midterm), but no one really had a problem with them. We went over nomenclature briefly, and so it only warranted a single question on each midterm. I don't remember about the exam, though I think it was expected to know the common names of many compounds (such as formic acid, acetic acid, etc).

We never had any questions that were only covered in the textbook. I don't think I opened my textbook once, and if there was anything I didn't know, it was because I hadn't studied it enough, not because I'd never learned it in class.

I wonder why they changed the testing format? I know for chem 1A03, our second midterm was much much harder than previous years, as were both exams. One girl cried during the 1A03 exam. But really, it wasn't THAT bad. The profs in our year (Lock, Berti & Valliant) didn't seem to feel that it was any harder than in other years, though. Stover taught orgo first term and 1AA3 second term, so I can definitely see where any test contributions he made could have been challenging, especially if he was thinking along the lines of orgo testing, where names of random compounds are fair game Landry was new as a prof, so I have no idea what his testing style would be like, but Valliant taught both years, so there wouldn't have been anything new from him.

when you take orgo next year. Do you just do pure orgo or acid and bases as well? Because I hate acids and bases stuff.

Originally Posted by mcmastergcdb

when you take orgo next year. Do you just do pure orgo or acid and bases as well? Because I hate acids and bases stuff.

Hm...pure orgo involves acids and bases. Like, carboxylic acids are acids, right? And amines tend to be bases, so a lot of the reactions draw on acid-base theory. I don't think there was a heavy emphasis on it though, other than going over the basic first-year stuff, so it shouldn't be too bad--it's mostly just how it applies to the organic chemistry that you're learning about.

I seem to remember going over the basics in 2OA3, but 2OB3 was when we dealt with carboxylic acids and amines (the entire 2OB3 course is pretty much about carbonyl reactions), so I think it comes up in both parts of orgo. It's nothing more advanced than first-year acids and bases, though.

There might be a little bit about amino acids (which are polyprotic and thus a bajillion times worse), but I could just be confusing that with my other courses I don't think they make you do calculations of pH for anything, though--it's mostly just the theory.

thanks for the review

I just took this course during winter 2011 and i must say it was my fav course at mac. One big advice i can give anyone reading this is go to office hours, all the profs are really helpful. If you want very good explanation on acid/base, go to Dr. Landry; for general help go to Dr. Lock. I wish i realized this during the begining of the semester because I could have done so much better in the course. Also do the tutorial and past exams and past tests before the midterms and exams. I found that doing this really prepared me for the exam. Try to make use of the discussion board because the TA's answer any questions with great detail. All in all, this course was well designed and the profs really fair.

As long as you do this and dont leave questions till last minute, you'll definitly do well in this course.

I didn't find stover that amazing, he went off topic all the time talking about his polymers, and he expect us to know everything already and doesn't really explain well, i found it boring when he lectured, but then what i had to do was study from the textbook and by making notes from the textbook it was interesting and understandable. As long as you understand the concept and practice, you'll do fine.

I had Dr. Landry for this course (as well as 1A03), and in three words = BEST. PROF. EVER! I enjoyed each and every lecture, and he explained clearly and went at an easy to follow pace.

Labs were WAAAAAY easier and more fun than 1A03...and I had a heckuva great TA (Allen). He was laid back, ready to help, and just all-out awesome.

Tests...meh, I didn't write the first midterm, which significantly impacted me later. SO DON'T DEFER YOUR MIDTERMS UNLESS YOU'RE DYING. Seriously. It's not worth it. The second midterm...I didn't do so great. The final was a lot easier than I expected.

The organic part isn't that hard. The difficulty...to be honest, I can't judge. I didn't put in much work into this course at all, so I'm in no position to claim how difficult it is. ATTEND ALL TUTORIALS. You can do it. Do those practice sums and questions. Go to office hours, study hard, and you can probably ace the course easily.