Instructor: Sergey Vyazovkin
TA: Jia Bei
This class took concepts from general chemistry and then elaborated on them. You will review significant figures, standard deviation, titrations, and even more titrations. Dr. Vyazovkin is the type of instructor where his lectures are hard to stay interested in since he just reads off his PowerPoint slides. The material for this class is mostly mathematical and not so much concepts so the PowerPoint are especially difficult to try and learn the material from.
The only way to succeed in this class is to do all the problems assigned for homework for each chapter. There are a lot, but Dr. Vyazovkin likes to pull questions directly from them and the examples in the chapters or slides. DO NOT fall behind because the amount of material is massive for each test and there is no way you can cram for this class. Plan on studying the very first day or else your life will be miserable.
Attendance is key only because he offers a 3-point bonus towards your final grade for perfect attendance. The final is an ACS standardized test so don't expect to do well in it. The only way to ace this test is to memorize the entire textbook and nobody expects you to do this. In the end, I thought I did miserably on the final but it did not bring down my grade. I've heard it really only boosts your final grade if you did exceptionally well, but that could just be hearsay.
The lab is a crucial part of the class because the total lab grade counts as one test grade towards your lecture grade. The tests are very hard, so it is very important to spend time achieving a perfect lab grade. The TA is very helpful throughout the labs and really wants you to do well. Most of the labs involve titrating an unknown solution to find a fairly accurate concentration. These titrations require a steady hand and patience because if you don't record every little increment you are off in your final answer, your grade for your unknown decreases by a a letter grade. The lab grade is comprised of 3 unknowns, lab reports, a midterm, and a final. This TA is a hard tester and when she says know it all, she means it. The labs were fairly straight-forward. You have to do calculations on your own to find the concentration of the analyte, but make sure you are using the correct significant figures and error percentages because she will take off for lack of detail.
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