CHEM 205 & CHEM 211

CHEM 205 (with Dr. Guillaume Bussiere)

• Course Taken: MWF 8am (January, 2014 - April, 2014)
• Format: Typical 1 hour lecture with biweekly online homework questions that were for marks (around 15% of final grade). For these questions, you get 2 tries each and your mark is the better of the two. Keep in mind the questions vary slightly each time where the style/format is the same, but the actual numbers are different. The rest of the marks come from the midterm and final which is cumulative. You get quite a comprehensive formula sheet/ reference materials for exams.  
• Textbook: I didn’t bother. The lecture notes are great and there is also an online textbook on Connect. 
• Class Average: 78%
• Personal Experience: Dr. Bussiere teaches exactly what you need to know for exams. He does not go into unnecessary details; however, you can always ask him questions outside of class. While I found it hard to keep engaged (woot! 8am classes), he is always available for help outside of lectures. His office hours are Monday to Friday from 2pm-5pm...just walk right into his office situated in the lab, and he'll most likely be there. This class is pretty straight forward (especially the first unit, thermodynamics) if you are comfortable with manipulating formulas. Otherwise, there are a lot of practice questions available on Connect. 

• Advice: The exam questions are quite similar to the homework questions, so try not to be lazy and ask your friends for the answers. This is definitely a class that you can easily get an A in with a little effort.  

CHEM 211 (with Dr. Russ Algar and Dr. Nunez)

• Course Taken: Tu/Th 8am (September, 2013 - December, 2013)
• Format: This course included iClicker questions, online homework questions (~weekly), in-class reading quizzes (individual and group), midterm, final, and a lab component. You get two tries for the homework questions which are typically harder than exam questions. The midterm and final format is a "choose your own question" style where you have to choose 2 out of the 3 questions to do from each section. You don't get a calculator for the exams, but the numbers are extremely easy to work with. 
• Textbook: Quantitative Analytical Chemistry (Harris). I did not use this except to do the pre-readings for the in-class quizzes. 
• Class Average: 74%
• Personal Experience:
• Lecture: Dr. Algar's lecture notes cover everything you need to know. He posts a preliminary version of his notes before each chapter and then he also posts his final lecture notes at the end. I found his iClicker questions extremely well thought out. Dr. Algar is a good lecturer that likes to incorporate a couple sarcastic comments here and there. He is very helpful during his weekly office hours. The TA for the course also holds office hours, and she is extremely knowledgable about the course and the topic. 
• Lab: There are weekly labs with accompanying lab reports. These lab reports tend to take more time since there were multiple discussion questions as well as a lot of analyzing you must do with your data. Make sure to answer the discussion questions extremely thoroughly and show ALL your sample calculations. Be sure to get familiar with Excel, it will save you a lot of time. If you do not know how to use Excel, ask for help or read the very thorough lab manual. Dr. Nunez (the lab prof) can be easily found in the lab or in this office. He is also very helpful with answering questions. 

• Advice: Do the practice midterm and final. The exams were quite similar in terms of style. For homework questions, don't be afraid to go to TA's office hours since she is extremely knowledgable and great at explaining trickier concepts. This course has a heavy workload. Unless you are interested in analytical chemistry, I would not suggest this as an elective. I took this course because I wanted to keep my options open in case I wanted to switch my major to Medical Laboratory Sciences.