Billzene's catalytic isomerisation to benzene (aka Bill's Uni Journal Take 2)

It's been forever since I last updated my journal, took my very first L in my WAM farming history cuz I had to hand in a physical chem double lab report in late. Never had to hand in anything late in 2 years of biomed, colloidal chem is just that confusing I totally get why on the old unit reviews thread someone gave colloidal chem in pharma a 0/5. Like you half-understand how something works and when it's time to put pen to paper (finger to keyboard), you don't actually know what to write and the literature you consult are in the exact same foreign language that is colloid sci terminology. While Rico was pretty good at explaining how colloids work conceptually, the jargon required to express your own answer accurately is super convoluted. I shoulda done water chem instead honestly.

However, I did calculate that I'll still pass the lab hurdle if I get 30% on this report, 90% on the comp chem labs and 15% on both of the next double weighed reports. Had my first comp chem lab yesterday and the teaching team was extremely helpful, hoping to smash that lab section. Best of all, comp labs are on Zoom

T-minus 6 days until my first midsem, haven't touched most lectures, will spend 1 day on each chem unit watching them.

Med chem midsem may actually go very well since 80% of the examinable stuff was covered in BMS2021 which was one of my favourite units in biomed.

Inorganic, a mix of feeling elated since UV-Vis and magnetism are pretty nice and easy (except maybe the Gouy balance formula that apparently won't be given), but NMR has the potential to become pretty ugly especially now in 3rd year H-NMR can see other NMR active molecules in its splitting. Dave did say since last year too many people were complaining about essentially sitting a 2 hour exam in an 1 hour midsem, this year they'll make it super easy.

Physical, dread. Just dread. I'd think it's just a slightly harder version of essentially U3 VCE chem but I was dead wrong with colloids. Some concepts are coming together such as surfactants, surface tension, Laplace pressure/Kelvin equation (basically modelling droplet/bubble growth and shrinkage), contact angle and adsorption isotherms, but not others such as formal explanation of dispersion forces, emulsions and stabilisation of colloidal materials which remain in Chinese (not the best analogy since it's my native language, but the point is they're virtually incomprehensible). I'm looking at the formula sheet and it looks like it will scrape me that pass. Also not keen on the thermodynamics topic, since apparently most formulas won't be given on the formula sheet, but that's for the final exam. Looking ahead, the P chem course ends with solid, liquid and gas theory. It's almost a poetic bookends in that the hardest unit of the chem major at Monash finishes with the chemistry that started it all. I used to complain that year 7-10 chem = solids, liquids and gases and in year 11 you get bombarded with moles, organic, analytical, pH, redox etc. Now it all goes back to the very beginning.

At this point, still looking to get low-mid 90s in MTH1020. I just want to pass P chem now with the insanity of the content in it. Inorganic, still looking for a mid-high 80s HD (labs are very draining, the writeup is even more so) and for med chem, still wanting that mid 90s for a WAM farmer's pride.

Enough rambling from me, time to grind more lectures.

1st day back from the break and my most dreaded midsem result got handed back. Normally I wouldn’t be so happy with an 80% (leftover biomed WAM farming perfectionism), but since this is the inorganic midsem we’re talking about, I was elated. Many people have noticed that their marks were boosted and I definitely though I only got 60% maximum too, so scaling probably saved the day. Last year’s midsem for this unit was apparently even more insane with the top mark being 34/40 (with no one’s results being scaled up)

Exam timetables are out, luckily I don't have a repeat of the midsem situation with phys chem and inorg chem on the same day. What's better is that all my exams are in the afternoon, which is tailored to a night owl like me.

I'm most worried about inorg chem because my in sem grades are the lowest for that subject due to the difficult midsem we sat (and strict marking in the lab component). In addition, I heard from past students that the final will be absolutely cooked and practice materials are not very indicative of the actual exam. Sounds like the situation with CHM1022 when I did it.

Luckily, none of the chem exams are hurdles and for med chem + phys chem, since the in-sem assessments are worth 60% of the total grade, as long as I get above 83% in sem, I pass the unit. MTH1020 will not be an issue at all since Dan will allow a cheat sheet, effectively making it open book.

Week 1 Monday: phys chem

Week 2 Wednesday: med chem

Week 3 Monday: inorg chem

Week 3 Wednesday: calculus (MTH1020)

From here, my study plan would be to grind for phys chem during SWOTVAC, grind for med chem right after phys chem, grind for inorg intermittently between phys and med chem (due to overlaps in content), and YOLO MTH1020

End of week 9, have 2 assignments due at the end of next week at the exact same time (4:30pm Week 10 Friday). One of them is the radiopharmaceutical assignment on PET imaging for med chem, already finished half of that worksheet, will get help from TAs on the other half.

The comp chem assignment is the hard one, I chose kinetics of RAFT polymerisation as my topic and the results are really easy to analyse since it’s a lot of Excel spamming and plenty of literature is available online. Katya has been super helpful as well. I’m still a bit apprehensive about the assignment, since Katya published many papers on this exact topic herself which means I probably can’t get away with any inaccuracies in my report, everything must be spot on.

I survived 2 weeks of Schlenk line labs in inorg without blowing something up, so I’ll take that as an W. The other day in the lab, the final colour of the product was different for everyone in the lab group despite everyone supposedly following the same method. I had an orange extract, other people have black or bright yellow ones

Well and truly into SWOTVAC, have phys chem on Monday afternoon, not pumped at all. Thermo which will be worth 50% of the exam should go pretty well.

Finally figured out how to fiddle around differential equations to survive kinetics, I hope Alison goes easy on us for those because there's no way I'm passing that section of the exam if she throws in competing 2nd order reactions or subsequent 1st and 2nd order reactions. Should get some pity marks for writing a few rate laws that make some remote sense/identifying molecularity/plugging + chugging, but in the worst case scenario that I get 0 on that section, it's only 30% of the exam.

Pretty confident about solid-liquid-gas equilibrium even though I haven't formally revised it. It's the part of the unit that makes the most sense for some reason.

While I haven't really been thinking of my other exams in detail, a brief overview of the med chem content revealed that it's a watered-down version of my biomed units I've taken before, so I'll use part of the gap between phys chem and med chem finals to study for inorg instead. Inorg is scary, I don't even know what's examinable in the organometallics part because there are so many required readings. Luckily I don't need a high score to pass that unit (30% on exam to pass atm, 11% on exam to pass if I get 100% on the last lab report). MTH1020 isn't too optimistic either with only a day's rest between inorg and the MTH1020 exam. I'll aim to pick up all the complex number marks, half of the vector marks, 80% of functions/calculus marks and I'll forget about limits.

Got last assessments marks back for phys and med chem, already passed these units as the exam isn’t a hurdle. Still need ₃₁% to pass inorg, but that should be lower once the last lab report is marked

SWOTVAC pre-exam update: finally going to finish studying for phys chem in a few hours, watched weeks 4-7 lectures of med chem, still have weeks 8, 10-12 to go. Haven't touched inorg, will start studying for that directly after I finish studying for med chem which should take another 2 days after phys chem. Organometallics will end me on the exam.

One more week until I’m free. Med chem exam today went so smoothly, should bag a 90+, maybe even the mid 90s with scaling. Watched all inorg lectures already, only need 16/120 to pass the unit but still want to aim high to save my WAM. MTH1020 has the scary hurdled exam and my mock exam performance varies from 59% to 89% for some reason. Should be better once I have my cheat sheet sorted

Exam season's over, MTH1020 exam was mostly what I expected.

I will start writing unit reviews for the units I've taken this semester. Will publish these on the new forum

Long overdue update after all my exams. This semester my work life balance is much better cuz I was essentially taking 3 organic units, and SCI1000 took no effort. The exams all went really well, so I'm expecting mid to high 90s for all 3 units. Unit reviews are coming right up, will post them when results are released so that I can provide comments on exam scaling.

I've applied for MTeach in early October and sat the new MTest which is Monash's version of the CASPER. Still haven't received an offer though. I heard people are starting to get MTeach offers (probably those who applied early), hopefully that means I'll get it soon.

Definitely will be updating more regularly next year. MTeach looks pretty exciting (especially placements).

Been made a conditional offer to MTeach accelerated mode at Monash, with the only condition being successful graduation of BSci with a WAM of at least 60. Already have that in the bag according to my calculations.

Plans for rest of summer break:

-Get better at driving
-Don’t overeat on Christmas/New Year and Chinese New Year holidays
-Cook everyday
-Sit the LANTITE