Chem 1100A/1200B Review
Written By: Bob AH W.*
Background
I took these two courses during the 2010/2011 school year with K. Calvin as my professor. K. Calvin is a great professor who is an excellent communicator. She takes her time explaining concepts in the course workbook clearly and effectively, but she tends to stick to what’s written in the course workbook and does not provide further insight, concept intuitions and explanations of material outside of course content. Don’t expect her to answer any questions outside of course material, because most of the time she will not provide you with a definite answer, but this is only my observation. Overall, I would definitely recommend K. Calvin if you are taking first year chemistry, because she explains concepts clearly, making them easier to understand, as understanding concepts clearly is absolutely crucial to your success in first year chemistry.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Course Review:
Chemistry 1100a:
Breakdown:
Knowledge Quiz – 1%. The knowledge quiz is a pass or fail completion mark .
Test #1 – 16%. Covers general review + chapter 1, and first section of chapter 2
Test #2 – 27%. Covers mostly chapter 2 and 3 with a few questions on content covered in the last test.
Final Exam – 40% Covers everything with focus on content after Test #2
Lab orientation quiz – 1%, again completion mark with unlimited tries.
Labs- 15%. 5 labs, 3% each.
Note: I believe this was the first time this course had 3 tests/exams, but in 2nd semester chemistry, the chemistry department realized that having 3 tests was too much, and went back to 2-exam format for chem 1200b. I wouldn’t be surprised if chem 1100a went back to 2-exam format or something similar.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contents:
General review:
-Atoms, Molecules and Moles
-Solutions
-Reaction Stoichiometry
-Reaction types
Chapter 1, Atomic Theory:
-Atomic Structure
-The periodic Table and Periodic Trends
Chapter 2, Structure and Bonding:
-Ionic and Covalent Bonding
-VSEPR Theory
-Valence Bond Theory
-Molecular Orbital Theory
-Intermolecular Forces
Chapter 3, Gases:
-Gasses
-The Ideal Gas Law
-Real Gases
Chapter 4, Thermodynamics and Thermochemistry:
-Heat, Work, and Energy
-Enthalpy
-Sources of Energy
Chapter 5, Entropy and Free Energy:
-Entropy and Spontaneous Change
-Free Energy
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chemistry 1200b:
Breakdown:
Midterm – 35% Covers chapter 1 and 2
Final Exam – 50% Covers everything with focus on chapters after chapter 2
Labs – 15%
Contents:
Chapter 1, Chemical Equilibrium
-The Equilibrium Constant
-Solubility of Ionic Compounds
-Weak Acids and Bases
-Buffer Solutions
Chapter 2, Electrochemistry
-Redox Reactions
-Voltaic Cells
-Electrolysis and Electrolytic Cells
-Batteries
Chapter 3, Chemical Kinetics
-Reaction Rates and Rate Laws
-Reaction Mechanisms and the Arrhenius Equation
Chapter 4, Transition Metals
-Electronic Configurations
-Crystal Field Theory
Chapter 5, Structure and Shape of Organic Molecules
-Functional Groups
-Infrared Spectroscopy
-Alkanes, Cycloalkanes and Alkenes
-Chirality
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The course content of 1100a is very similar to the content of Grade 12U Chemistry, and most of the concepts you will learn in 1100a are nothing but review of grade 12. But this will vary depending on your high school and what you were taught in grade 12. The content in 1200b also has a lot of material learned in high school, but it also focuses on new material such as transition metals and chirality. Having a strong foundation and understanding of 12U Chemistry is very important for your success in first year chemistry, as this will significantly improve your efficiency at understanding first year chemistry concepts. The exams in this course are fair and challenging at the same time. The midterms consist of multiple choice questions and a few short answer questions, while the final exam is composed of only multiple choice questions. The labs for this course are fairly straightforward, and instructions are very detailed. To succeed in labs, following instructions is crucial. The labs consist of a prelab to be handed in before the lab, a short quiz at the beginning of each lab (don’t worry, only 2 multiple choice questions, and you are allowed to use your lab book, as answers can be found in the lab book), doing the experiment and recording data in given data tables, and calculation questions and graphs (occasional) to be handed in the next time you have your chemistry tutorial.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tips:
The most important factor that determines your success is your understanding of concepts and how well you can apply it in new but familiar situations. During lectures, your professor will show you step by step solutions to example questions, but these questions are often very basic. Understanding how to do these example questions is important, but you need to go a step above that by understanding the concepts thoroughly enough to handle new situations. Questions on exams will be “trickier” as they require you to take a different approach and a new perspective, but again they are all based on the concepts you have already learned. Therefore, to be successful, you need to be able to flex your mind by understanding concepts well enough to be able to think in a different way and take a different approach on questions.
Here are some of the things I did that I found useful. During lectures, take down everything such as notes and solutions of the example questions, and definitely pay full attention to what the professor is saying. When listening to the professor explain concepts, ask yourself why is it so, and how does it work. Try to make sense of the concept by relating it to previous concepts you have learned, and try to prove it in your head that it makes logical and intuitive sense. Doing practice problems in the course workbook and past exams found in the lab manual is extremely useful, because they test how well you understand the content and how well you can apply it to problems that require a modified approach. Past exams will give you an idea of what to expect, but expect the actual exam to be harder than past exams, as you will find during the exam that the time limit along with pressure to succeed will cause your performance to go down. This is why I recommend doing past exams with a time limit, as this will train you to manage your time wisely. It is wise to keep up with practice problems as this will indicate how well you understand concepts, and if you don’t understand something, then you should look at the full solution posted online and try to understand why it works instead of simply memorizing the steps. Always ask someone if you are unsure of a concept. I found that doing practice problems and past exams a week or less before the exam acts as a good review, as this will stimulate your mind into thinking in different approaches. What you will find is that you often don’t have time to do all the problems again. A solution to this is when you are doing practice problems, write solutions down in a notebook and organize them in a way that you can easily refer back to them and reread them a few days before your exam.
You should always reread the sections in your course workbook that’s covered on the exam thoroughly and as many times as needed when studying for the exam. Every single sentence you read, you must be able to relate it and understand how, why, and when does it work. You must be able to understand how concepts work, how you can apply them, and in what way can you use them. Don’t simply read a line and accept it is true, try to see why it is true. Again, I’m stressing the fact that you absolutely need to be able to fully understand concepts in order to do well. Try to redo the questions given in your tutorials for extra practice.
Labs are generally not hard to do well in. Everything you need to know about the lab is given in the lab book. Your lab book is the key to your success. Prepare for an upcoming lab by reading the lab introduction and instructions thoroughly, and again, you are not reading because you have to read, instead you are reading to try to absorb and understand the concepts and the intuition of what, why and how something works. Once you are done with reading, the prelab must be completed and handed in before you enter your lab station. The prelab often times are calculation questions that are simplified versions of what you will be calculating at the end of the lab. The lab quiz right before the lab is again quite simple. If you read and understood the lab, you should be able to answer the quiz without referring to your lab manual. When doing the lab, following instructions is crucial, and the big thing here is not making preventable mistakes. The calculation questions at the end of the lab are fairly straightforward if you read and thoroughly understood the lab. In order to get the highest mark possible, you should perform labs carefully thus reducing experimental errors. Depending on your TA, having experimental values off a percent or so will cause you to lose marks. You must also watch out for significant digits, rounding, units and showing your calculations in full detail. The labs are out of 10, a few 0.5 offs can add up quickly, and that’s why attention to detail is crucial for success in your lab component. There are also 2-4 lab questions on every exam asking you general concepts regarding the lab, but reviewing these labs before an exam is sufficient as the questions are asking for the big picture instead of small details.
During the exam:
I strongly recommend you to bring a watch to the exam. You don’t have to wear it, you can just put it on the table. Keeping track of time is absolutely essential for managing time wisely in order to get as much marks as possible. I found that a lot of exam rooms don’t have a clock, and the TAs monitoring the exam will only remind you of how much time is left on a fixed interval such as 15minutes or 30 minutes. Therefore, you can never go wrong by having a watch.
You should try to bring a water bottle to the exam as well, because staying hydrated helps you to maintain proper brain function. Bubble your student number, exam code, section code, and other things immediately when you see one, as this will save valuable time to do problems.
The questions on the exam will contain tricks that you must watch out for. You MUST read the questions carefully, I cannot stress this enough. Understand what the question is asking and then decide the proper way to approach the problem. Sometimes you may need to look past the obvious and realize that there is something else you need to do.
Skip whatever problem you are stuck on, and come back to it later. I also like to put a star beside the question that I’m debating the answer to. When I’m done the exam, I will go back to these starred questions and do them or check them. I also cannot stress this enough, DON’T LEAVE EARLY. This applies to every course you will ever take in university. Check as much as possible, since this is the best way to guarantee success. Many mistakes are preventable, and NO, leaving an hour early does not make you look like a genius. So use whatever time left wisely and do not let it go to waste. Finally, learn from your mistakes, if you made a silly mistake, then you shouldn’t be worried, but if you made a mistake because you didn’t know why or how to do when you entered the exam, then you must seek help, as this will continue to haunt you since exams are cumulative.
Overall, the course is fair but challenging. Your success heavily depends on how much effort you put into studying, preparing, and executing on an exam. Good luck, and may the force be with you.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Disclosure: I’m going into second year here at UWO and I’m registered in the HSP module of the BMsc program. I took regular 12U chemistry course at a TDSB high school in Toronto. I did well in both of these courses and I hope what I wrote can help you.
*This author can be contacted through our website contact form under the About section. Please specify in the contact form if you have a question for this author.
Background
I took these two courses during the 2010/2011 school year with K. Calvin as my professor. K. Calvin is a great professor who is an excellent communicator. She takes her time explaining concepts in the course workbook clearly and effectively, but she tends to stick to what’s written in the course workbook and does not provide further insight, concept intuitions and explanations of material outside of course content. Don’t expect her to answer any questions outside of course material, because most of the time she will not provide you with a definite answer, but this is only my observation. Overall, I would definitely recommend K. Calvin if you are taking first year chemistry, because she explains concepts clearly, making them easier to understand, as understanding concepts clearly is absolutely crucial to your success in first year chemistry.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Course Review:
Chemistry 1100a:
Breakdown:
Knowledge Quiz – 1%. The knowledge quiz is a pass or fail completion mark .
Test #1 – 16%. Covers general review + chapter 1, and first section of chapter 2
Test #2 – 27%. Covers mostly chapter 2 and 3 with a few questions on content covered in the last test.
Final Exam – 40% Covers everything with focus on content after Test #2
Lab orientation quiz – 1%, again completion mark with unlimited tries.
Labs- 15%. 5 labs, 3% each.
Note: I believe this was the first time this course had 3 tests/exams, but in 2nd semester chemistry, the chemistry department realized that having 3 tests was too much, and went back to 2-exam format for chem 1200b. I wouldn’t be surprised if chem 1100a went back to 2-exam format or something similar.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contents:
General review:
-Atoms, Molecules and Moles
-Solutions
-Reaction Stoichiometry
-Reaction types
Chapter 1, Atomic Theory:
-Atomic Structure
-The periodic Table and Periodic Trends
Chapter 2, Structure and Bonding:
-Ionic and Covalent Bonding
-VSEPR Theory
-Valence Bond Theory
-Molecular Orbital Theory
-Intermolecular Forces
Chapter 3, Gases:
-Gasses
-The Ideal Gas Law
-Real Gases
Chapter 4, Thermodynamics and Thermochemistry:
-Heat, Work, and Energy
-Enthalpy
-Sources of Energy
Chapter 5, Entropy and Free Energy:
-Entropy and Spontaneous Change
-Free Energy
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chemistry 1200b:
Breakdown:
Midterm – 35% Covers chapter 1 and 2
Final Exam – 50% Covers everything with focus on chapters after chapter 2
Labs – 15%
Contents:
Chapter 1, Chemical Equilibrium
-The Equilibrium Constant
-Solubility of Ionic Compounds
-Weak Acids and Bases
-Buffer Solutions
Chapter 2, Electrochemistry
-Redox Reactions
-Voltaic Cells
-Electrolysis and Electrolytic Cells
-Batteries
Chapter 3, Chemical Kinetics
-Reaction Rates and Rate Laws
-Reaction Mechanisms and the Arrhenius Equation
Chapter 4, Transition Metals
-Electronic Configurations
-Crystal Field Theory
Chapter 5, Structure and Shape of Organic Molecules
-Functional Groups
-Infrared Spectroscopy
-Alkanes, Cycloalkanes and Alkenes
-Chirality
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The course content of 1100a is very similar to the content of Grade 12U Chemistry, and most of the concepts you will learn in 1100a are nothing but review of grade 12. But this will vary depending on your high school and what you were taught in grade 12. The content in 1200b also has a lot of material learned in high school, but it also focuses on new material such as transition metals and chirality. Having a strong foundation and understanding of 12U Chemistry is very important for your success in first year chemistry, as this will significantly improve your efficiency at understanding first year chemistry concepts. The exams in this course are fair and challenging at the same time. The midterms consist of multiple choice questions and a few short answer questions, while the final exam is composed of only multiple choice questions. The labs for this course are fairly straightforward, and instructions are very detailed. To succeed in labs, following instructions is crucial. The labs consist of a prelab to be handed in before the lab, a short quiz at the beginning of each lab (don’t worry, only 2 multiple choice questions, and you are allowed to use your lab book, as answers can be found in the lab book), doing the experiment and recording data in given data tables, and calculation questions and graphs (occasional) to be handed in the next time you have your chemistry tutorial.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tips:
The most important factor that determines your success is your understanding of concepts and how well you can apply it in new but familiar situations. During lectures, your professor will show you step by step solutions to example questions, but these questions are often very basic. Understanding how to do these example questions is important, but you need to go a step above that by understanding the concepts thoroughly enough to handle new situations. Questions on exams will be “trickier” as they require you to take a different approach and a new perspective, but again they are all based on the concepts you have already learned. Therefore, to be successful, you need to be able to flex your mind by understanding concepts well enough to be able to think in a different way and take a different approach on questions.
Here are some of the things I did that I found useful. During lectures, take down everything such as notes and solutions of the example questions, and definitely pay full attention to what the professor is saying. When listening to the professor explain concepts, ask yourself why is it so, and how does it work. Try to make sense of the concept by relating it to previous concepts you have learned, and try to prove it in your head that it makes logical and intuitive sense. Doing practice problems in the course workbook and past exams found in the lab manual is extremely useful, because they test how well you understand the content and how well you can apply it to problems that require a modified approach. Past exams will give you an idea of what to expect, but expect the actual exam to be harder than past exams, as you will find during the exam that the time limit along with pressure to succeed will cause your performance to go down. This is why I recommend doing past exams with a time limit, as this will train you to manage your time wisely. It is wise to keep up with practice problems as this will indicate how well you understand concepts, and if you don’t understand something, then you should look at the full solution posted online and try to understand why it works instead of simply memorizing the steps. Always ask someone if you are unsure of a concept. I found that doing practice problems and past exams a week or less before the exam acts as a good review, as this will stimulate your mind into thinking in different approaches. What you will find is that you often don’t have time to do all the problems again. A solution to this is when you are doing practice problems, write solutions down in a notebook and organize them in a way that you can easily refer back to them and reread them a few days before your exam.
You should always reread the sections in your course workbook that’s covered on the exam thoroughly and as many times as needed when studying for the exam. Every single sentence you read, you must be able to relate it and understand how, why, and when does it work. You must be able to understand how concepts work, how you can apply them, and in what way can you use them. Don’t simply read a line and accept it is true, try to see why it is true. Again, I’m stressing the fact that you absolutely need to be able to fully understand concepts in order to do well. Try to redo the questions given in your tutorials for extra practice.
Labs are generally not hard to do well in. Everything you need to know about the lab is given in the lab book. Your lab book is the key to your success. Prepare for an upcoming lab by reading the lab introduction and instructions thoroughly, and again, you are not reading because you have to read, instead you are reading to try to absorb and understand the concepts and the intuition of what, why and how something works. Once you are done with reading, the prelab must be completed and handed in before you enter your lab station. The prelab often times are calculation questions that are simplified versions of what you will be calculating at the end of the lab. The lab quiz right before the lab is again quite simple. If you read and understood the lab, you should be able to answer the quiz without referring to your lab manual. When doing the lab, following instructions is crucial, and the big thing here is not making preventable mistakes. The calculation questions at the end of the lab are fairly straightforward if you read and thoroughly understood the lab. In order to get the highest mark possible, you should perform labs carefully thus reducing experimental errors. Depending on your TA, having experimental values off a percent or so will cause you to lose marks. You must also watch out for significant digits, rounding, units and showing your calculations in full detail. The labs are out of 10, a few 0.5 offs can add up quickly, and that’s why attention to detail is crucial for success in your lab component. There are also 2-4 lab questions on every exam asking you general concepts regarding the lab, but reviewing these labs before an exam is sufficient as the questions are asking for the big picture instead of small details.
During the exam:
I strongly recommend you to bring a watch to the exam. You don’t have to wear it, you can just put it on the table. Keeping track of time is absolutely essential for managing time wisely in order to get as much marks as possible. I found that a lot of exam rooms don’t have a clock, and the TAs monitoring the exam will only remind you of how much time is left on a fixed interval such as 15minutes or 30 minutes. Therefore, you can never go wrong by having a watch.
You should try to bring a water bottle to the exam as well, because staying hydrated helps you to maintain proper brain function. Bubble your student number, exam code, section code, and other things immediately when you see one, as this will save valuable time to do problems.
The questions on the exam will contain tricks that you must watch out for. You MUST read the questions carefully, I cannot stress this enough. Understand what the question is asking and then decide the proper way to approach the problem. Sometimes you may need to look past the obvious and realize that there is something else you need to do.
Skip whatever problem you are stuck on, and come back to it later. I also like to put a star beside the question that I’m debating the answer to. When I’m done the exam, I will go back to these starred questions and do them or check them. I also cannot stress this enough, DON’T LEAVE EARLY. This applies to every course you will ever take in university. Check as much as possible, since this is the best way to guarantee success. Many mistakes are preventable, and NO, leaving an hour early does not make you look like a genius. So use whatever time left wisely and do not let it go to waste. Finally, learn from your mistakes, if you made a silly mistake, then you shouldn’t be worried, but if you made a mistake because you didn’t know why or how to do when you entered the exam, then you must seek help, as this will continue to haunt you since exams are cumulative.
Overall, the course is fair but challenging. Your success heavily depends on how much effort you put into studying, preparing, and executing on an exam. Good luck, and may the force be with you.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Disclosure: I’m going into second year here at UWO and I’m registered in the HSP module of the BMsc program. I took regular 12U chemistry course at a TDSB high school in Toronto. I did well in both of these courses and I hope what I wrote can help you.
*This author can be contacted through our website contact form under the About section. Please specify in the contact form if you have a question for this author.