Recently in Exams Category

I will answer your questions on the material in chapters 1-9 on Tuesday, 6-7 PM, in Eliot 314.

By the way, I will be running for the door immediately afterwards to make it to an off-campus appointment at 7:30 so please don't wait until afterwards to ask special questions.

I just noticed that the Registrar's Office has posted dates and times for final exams. The final exam in this class will start at 6 PM on Tuesday, Dec 15 in the Psych auditorium and adjoining rooms. You can download the complete final exam schedule here.

Since no strong objections were raised to the schedule changes that I had proposed, I have made the following changes for the upcoming exam, homework and classes (all of the appropriate online schedules have been updated to reflect these chanes):

Exam #3 - Thursday, Nov 19, in conference. Please attend conference at your normal time and location. Bring a model kit. Keep in mind that some students may have already taken the exam or will be taking the exam later than you, so please do not blurt out anything about the exam and do not discuss the exam publicly until 2 PM.

HW #6 - out late Monday, Nov 9; due Monday, Nov 16, noon; returned Wednesday, Nov 18, 9 AM.

Syllabus - I am gaining an extra lecture day on Monday, Nov 16 and this will affect the lecture schedule for the rest of the term. I will start lecturing on Chapter 10 on Monday, Nov 16. There will be two additional lectures on Chapter 10 on Wednesday, Nov 18 (note that these first two lectures are coming before exam #3) and on Friday, Nov 20. There will also be a lab lecture on Thursday, Nov 19.

I've been looking over Chapter #9 and the schedule for the next two weeks and I'm kicking around two options in my mind.

Option #1
Exam #3 would still be on Monday, November 16. However, if the exam were to be held on this day, I would abbreviate the exam's coverage of chapter 9 topics slightly (and these topics would appear on the final exam instead). The "abbreviated" exam would not include sections 9.6-9.8, but would include 9.1-9.5 which is the bulk of the chapter.

Option #2
Exam #3 would be moved to Thursday, November 19, i.e., you would take the exam during your conference hour and in your conference room. The exam would cover all of Chapter 9 right through section 9.8. To support this, the next homework assignment would also cover all of chapter 9 and the due date would be extended. Monday, November 16 would just be a normal lecture (finishing chapter 9?, starting Chapter 10).

Frankly, option #2 is a much more sensible way to proceed (but it has never occurred to me before to use conference time in this way). I would like to follow option #2, but because this is a major schedule change, I would like to consult with the class first. Please let me know ASAP if you have any objections to option #2.

Exam #2 has been graded and is available for you to pick up in Kathy Kennedy's office.

Kathy will be out of the office on Th-F during Fall Break so please stop by early in the week if you want your exam back. If you would like to meet with me, I will be here the rest of Monday afternoon and most of the day on Tuesday. I will be out of town from W-Su.

This site will be updated periodically during summer '09. You can still look at the entire site, including all of the posts from '08-09, but not much has changed yet. Major changes will get announced by adding to this post. If you have nothing better to do, check back every few days. [last changes posted 8/30/09, see below]

Pre-registration for fall

• You must complete the pre-requisites for Chem 201 before you can pre-register. That means if you took intro chem (the equivalent of Chem 101/102, lecture + lab) at another school this summer, you need to provide evidence of satisfactory completion of these courses to Reed's Registrar's Office before SOLAR will allow you to pre-register for Chem 201. This requirement may create some difficulties for summer students at PSU (and possibly elsewhere) because the PSU summer term ends on Wed, Aug 26 and pre-registration at Reed is Fri, Aug 28. If you bring me a signed note on Th-F, Aug 27-28, from your PSU chemistry instructor (email is also acceptable) that says you have completed PSU Chem 221/222/223 with grades of C- or better, I will allow you to pre-register for Chem 201 by overriding SOLAR. [posted 8/10/09]
  

Changes

• Idiosyncratic study tips updated [posted 8/30/09]
  
• Fast Facts pages have been updated [posted 8/24/09]
• New syllabus [posted 8/24/09]
• New lab schedule. Some (all?) navigation links within the lab manual have been updated. The four pages inside the Lab Info section have been updated and should be read by 201 students before the first lab. [posted 8/15/09]
• New exam schedule [posted 8/12/09]
  
• New homework schedule [posted 8/12/09]
  
• New textbook and study guide/solutions manual [posted 7/6/09]

Summer reading

• "The Promise of a Cure: 20 Years and Counting". The inability of gene therapy to deliver a treatment for cystic fibrosis and the role of conventional (small organic molecule) treatments is reviewed in this interesting, non-technical article (Science, 19 June 2009, 324, 1504-1507, listen to podcast interview with author Jennifer Couzin-Frankel).
• "Antibiotics in Nature: Beyond Biological Warfare". Scientists are challenging the conventional paradigm that fungi and bacteria use antibiotic molecules to kill off microbial competitors. According to these scientists, antibiotics could be used for communication and metabolism (Science, 26 June 2009, 324, 1637-1639).
  

The answers to the final exam have been posted on the Exam page. Three points of interest:

• 205 points were possible, not 200 (apparently I have trouble adding up long lists of numbers correctly)
• The score distribution was amazingly consistent with scores on previous exams. 4 students scored 90% or better, 10 scored 80-89%, 13 scored 70-79%, 13 scored 60-69%, 9 scored 50-59%, and only 4 scored under 50%. The median score was 70%.
• As one might expect, some parts of the exam easier than others. Probably the most difficult pages were the three towards the end that involved fill-in-the-blanks and synthetic planning. Don't worry about synthetic planning, cultivating this ability is always a very challenging task, but give some thought to your performance on the "fill-in-the-blanks" problems. Chem 202 builds on 201. We expect you to stay conversant with all of the reactions covered in 201 even while you add (many) new ones in 202. This is not that hard provided you work at it regularly.

I have all of the exams (and any other work that you turned in) in my office and I'd be happy to return it to you if you stop by. Since the first couple days of the semester will be incredibly busy, I'd appreciate it if you would wait until the end of the week before picking up this stuff.

Exam #3 has been graded. You can pick up your exam from Kathy Kennedy (Room 303) starting Monday.

The overall results were remarkably consistent with previous exams:
median = 67 (compares to 68 on exam #1 and 67 on exam #2)
Breakdown: 2 scores of 90+, 11 scores of 80-89, 11 scores of 70-79, 13 scores of 60-69, 12 scores of 50-59, and 2 scores below 50.

I'm reading your HW #7 papers. The answers to Exam #3 and HW #7 have been posted already.

I was able to reserve a room for our pre-exam Q&A session. The location is our standard meeting place: Eliot 314.

The date and time are Tues, Dec 2, 6:40 - 8 PM.

I will also be arriving on campus around 10 AM (or shortly thereafter) tomorrow and will be happy to spend some time answering questions for students who come to my office.

Many of you have gone out of town for the weekend and will return wondering what's going on in Chem 201. Here is some information about what's happening during this long weekend and the following week...

I'm catching up this weekend, but I won't get all caught up. Look for the following items to get posted during the next 48 hours:

• Chapter 13 study guide
• Homework X3 (this will cover chapters 13-14, it won't be collected, but answers will be posted)
• Maybe an old exam for review?

I'm also going to spend time grading lab reports, but the posted materials seem more important (and there are 110 reports to grade) so I might have to let the lab reports sit.

Next week will bring all kinds of new things:

• Lecture. Chapter 11 will be discussed in lecture on Monday and Friday
• Exam. Exam #3 will be on Wednesday. The Q&A session for exam #3 will be on Tuesday evening (location to be determined)
• Lab. We are formally finished with lab work, but you will need to come to the computer room this week to print your acetylferrocene NMR spectrum. Details on what to print and how to print it will be issued later. If you set your acetylferrocene sample in your desk so that it could dry, then you can measure its melting temperature in lab. Right now it looks like there is a conflict between our use of the computer room on Wednesday and Chem 101 so Wed folks should expect some delays. Lab reports will be due the following week.
  
• Conferences for next Thursday (Dec 4) are canceled. Conference sections will meet, however, the following week on Tuesday, Dec 9 (normal times & locations, just a strange day; important note - all Tuesday classes at the College are canceled on Dec 9 and Thursday classes meet instead - see Reed College academic calendar).