CH302 Random Musings April 21, 2009
1. We are rolling downhill to the finish line. In these musings are the question types for Quiz 5, Exam 3 and
the Final Exam. Be thinking about the strategy you will be using to earn the grade you want in this course.
Some of you will need to think about how to achieve something close to perfection on exam 3 so you can be
exempt. Others will need to be concentrating on preparation for the final since they know it will be the way
they earn the grade they want. E-mail me if you have questions about the strategy you will use.
2. My office hours are in my office for the next week or so.
3. We will post a worksheet on main group chemistry later this week and two practice quizzes this weekend.
This material differs from what we have done the entire year in that basically it is a chance to explore lots of
interesting facts about chemistry. You can be sure that what will be on the quizzes and exams will come from
the lecture notes and in particular, what I emphasize in class, hence the reason to pay close attention to what we
talk about in the Tuesday and Thursday lectures.
4. Deep though on grading--can someone with a 83% and 73% on the first two exams still be exempt? The
quick and dirty answer? Yes. Why? Because If you turn in the extra credits you can miss up to 91 points and
be exempt. Scores of 83 and 73 percent correspond to missing 13 questions, and at 6 points each, that is 78
points. So you can still miss a couple on the combined quizzes and exam 3. Since exam 3 is by far the easiest,
many of you in here in that exam range will be able to just make it over the 609 barrier.
5. The final quiz is next Thursday the 30th. It will cover the material on main group chemistry presented this
week in lecture. Traditionally this quiz is intended to give students a very high grade and it has never been the
case that a score less than about 90 was earned. It does require some level of knowledge, but it is really a very
simple quiz. Here are the question types:
• properties and reactivity of alkali metals
• properties and reactivity of alkali earths
• properties and reactivity of the B family
• properties and reactivity of the N family
• properties and reactivity of the C family
• properties and reactivity of the O family
• famous chemical manufacturing processes
• famous gemstones
7. Question types for Exam 3 the last day of class are found below:
Question Types for Kinetics
1. assigning rate expressions
2. calculating reaction rates
3. units of rate constants
4. method of initial rates
5. integrated rate law calculation
6. integrated rate law calculation (half life)
7. extracting information from straight line plots
8. kinetic theory—collision
9 kinetic theory—transition state
10. Arrhenius equation
11. combined Arrhenius calculation
12. reaction mechanisms
13. reaction mechanisms
14. Ea and energy profiles
15. famous catalysts
Descriptive Chemistry
16. properties and reactivity of alkali metals
17. properties and reactivity of alkali earths
18. properties and reactivity of the B family
19. properties and reactivity of the N family
20. properties and reactivity of the C family
21 properties and reactivity of the O family
22. properties and reactivity of the halogen family
23. famous named manufacturing processes
24. identifying famous gemstones
Organic Molecules
25. hydrocarbon isomers
26. naming organic molecules
27. naming organic molecules
28. organic polymer chemistry
29 biomolecule structure
30. biomolecule structure
