Finished another sem of uni, only 3 more sems left. Not exactly looking forward to it, as I prefer school > work. This sem has been another disappointing one in terms of results (my grades dropped again, but at least it was in the median of my predictions), but otherwise I felt that I've achieved a lot. I took on a part-time job during the sem (finally! I've been thinking of doing this for ages but haven't got to it), was really busy with CCA stuff and somehow still manage to keep up with the modules and assignments.
A bit of advice for my CBC juniors:
Don't take 4 cores (especially if you're taking either CM3041, and maybe CM3031) unless you can cope and allocate enough time to study. I didn't have enough time, so welp.
CM3041 isn't as hard as everyone makes it out to be, as long as you have a good math foundation and spend time practicing. Again, I didn't do the practice part, welp. If you're smart enough, I guess you don't need much practice. But for the rest, be prepared to work hard.
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CM3011 - CHEMICAL SPECTROSCOPY AND APPLICATIONS (3 AU)
Type: CORE
Grade:B+
Comments: Taught by Prof Yoshikai and Prof Leung. Yoshikai's questions are known to be the 'killer' questions, but he is pretty generous with his mark scheme, so it is possible to do decently for the first midterm. Prof Leung's lectures were really funny and interesting, but he does spend quite a lot of time on analogies and other stuff, so you don't feel like you've covered a lot of content. Didn't do as well as I thought, as I got tricked for some questions and didn't complete a question (this usually doesn't happen to me). But with practice, and help from the SPMS club answers, you'll most likely be able to do better than me...
CM3021 - ORGANOMETALLIC CHEMISTRY (3 AU)
Type: CORE
Grade:B
Comments: Taught by Prof Soo and Prof Zhou. Han Sen's lectures were interesting, but his pace is a little too quick, so be prepared to have to rewatch lectures n times till you catch everything he's saying. For his part, there were weekly quizzes so it forces you to revise the topic every week. Not for busy people who want to cram lecture content before the major tests. There's also a group presentation for CM3021 in Sem 1, where pre-assigned groups have to do a 5 min presentation on a relevant journal article + answer questions, so if you want to avoid that, then don't take in Sem 1 :)
For Prof Zhou's part, well, I didn't catch what he was saying most of the time. His notes are also not that easy to understand and are lacking some things, so it was pretty confusing for me. Best to self study his part. It is very important to do well for his midterm though, as it has a higher percentage than Han Sen's midterm. And in case the finals were not kind to you (like they were to me), you won't do too badly. For the finals, Han Sen's part was pretty similar to his usual midterm format, and for Prof Zhou's part, he tested the same topics that came out for the midterm. Makes me wonder why we are learning all the other stuff if it isn't tested... As for my grade, I just passed the second midterm, and couldn't really do much of Prof Zhou's part, so that's why I got a B.
Edit: Have heard from my juniors that there are changes for this course in Sem 1. The presentation is no longer compulsory (instead, it awards bonus marks) and seems to be for presenting tutorial answers instead of a research paper. Please confirm with others and don't take my word for it.
CM3041 - PHYSICAL AND BIOPHYSICAL CHEMISTRY (3 AU)
Type: CORE
Grade: B
Comments:Both lecturers for Sem 1 (Prof Loh and Prof Edwin) are really good - they have a good understanding of the content and can teach pretty well. The only challenge is that the content is pretty hard to digest, so multiple revisions are needed. But once you see the light, then you won't think it's difficult anymore. Enough said here.
CM3062 - CHEMISTRY AND BIOCHEMISTRY LABORATORY 4 (3 AU)
Type: CORE
Grade:A
Comments: The only A to save my results this sem, haha... For physical lab, we manage to end early most of the time ~ the lab reports are harder, but still manageable. Lab finals seem to get tougher every sem ever since CM2061, so be prepared to study your lab manual carefully + remember how data collection is done etc. For people not taking CM3041 in Sem 1, they may find Experiment 2 hard to understand. In that case, make sure you ask your friends studying CM3041 about everything you're not sure of because it will definltely come out. As usual, they will ask questions related to every experiment. And this sem, our final exam had all MCQs, with some needing justification in order to earn the full credit. Not sure how mark allocation is done though.
LJ9004 - JAPANESE LANGUAGE LEVEL 4 (3 AU)
Type: UE
Grade: S
Comments: My tutor this semester was Saito Tsugumi. She's very funny and likes to tease certain students in class haha. Ugh, there are quizzes every lesson, except for a few breaks. Seems like there's a lot of content to study also. I felt like I couldn't catch up fully (and I didn't have much time to dedicate to studying it out of class). Oral test format was related to the comprehension topic (dreams during childhood + your current dreams). 6 minutes per person, and talk for as long as you can. Sensei will ask you questions. The comprehension questions in the written exam were a tad tricky. In the end, my written test results were below average, although listening was slightly above average. Guess my oral results and skit won't be good again this semester, so I clicked the S/U option immediately.
CM9101 - FOOD CHEMISTRY AND NUTRITION (3 AU)
Type: UE
Grade: S
Comments: The labs are more demanding than CM9102 labs. They take up almost all of the 3 hours (or longer), and usually you're stuck waiting for other groups to weigh stuff etc, because the size of the lab group is pretty large. Skill-wise, not that demanding but the lab reports certainly require more effort than just copying the notes. More googling and understanding needed. Seems that the lab and lecture contents are not closely related also, so more time is needed -.- Both midterms are ok and the instructor (Prof Li Tianhu) will take the better score. Finals was okay as well. 3 questions with many sub-parts (up to j for one?). Thought I could finish earlier, but spent 1h30min writing out my answers. Not hard though, just recall + thinking for some questions. In the end I decided to S/U as I predict that my results this sem will be bad (due to me not doing well in my core subjects this time)
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