another life blog

The final exam is a standardized cumulative final given by the American Chemical Society. It’s 70 questions, 2 hours long and damn, it’s pretty hard. I really hate multiple choices and I keep thinking that I messed up on half of the questions because it’s always “either or.” Oh well, I hope [...]

It’s organic song day! For future reference, Dr Phanstiel sets up a home camera one side of the room, and you go up and perform! If you get the basic of your lyrics down and have fun, it’s all good =)
Quite a few groups chose to do it live, and you can see [...]

I sure messed up more than I thought I did! I worked an entire problem backward… ahh… sometimes I wonder if I actually know the stuff, or it’s all just fragments of memorization. Oh well…
No lecture today, only went over the test. For the final exam, we have to bring a pink [...]

Another test down, final to go. I thought this test is quite tough…. a lot of little things that add up which I probably missed. Ah well, I shouldn’t think about it too much.

We finished chapter 24 today and Test #4 is on for this Wednesday! I’m starting late on chapter 24 again — hopefully, I’d have enough time to pull through this one too. I’m such a lazy bum.
Lecture Notes
Summary:
We started the day with a different reductive agent (for me anyway) – sodium cyanoborohydride that [...]

I erm… opted to sleep in to rest my brain for the biochemistry test.

To be able to get to school in less than 15 minutes is making me tardy. Because I had to anticipate additional delays from all the traffic lights before, I gave myself more time to get to school. Nowadays, I know it’d take 12 minutes exactly, no matter the traffic light condition…. so [...]

We finished up chapter 23 today and did a quick teacher’s evaluation. I don’t think teacher’s eval helps that much – if a teacher is good, they’re good. If a teacher sucks, they won’t be changing their ways after so many years.
Lecture notes
Summary:
Michael’s reaction – 1,4 addition across a conjugated system with nucleophilic attack [...]

Dr Phanstiel is a bit crazy about the songs. He started singing today and it’s just… wow. The length he goes in attempts to make us remember these things is bordering nutty =) I can’t believe how soon end of semester is approaching, and it’s time to sing another song. This [...]

I really must go to bed earlier and not fall asleep in class! POOP! I’m rather worried about the Organic Chem final exam. Since it’s nationwide and I suck at multiple choices, I think I’d fail horribly.
Lecture Notes
Summary:
Today we talked more about aldol-condensation and the various possible products. The whole process [...]

Lecture Notes
Summary:
We talked about only aldol condensation today and worked many problems. It’s really a simple concept where the base abstracts an alpha hydrogen and the resulting nucleophile attacks the eletrophilic carbonyl.

Test #3 Avg = 61.2 Top 5 = 94 Top Score: 100
A > 85 = 9
B > 75 = 11
C > 66 = 19
D > 56 = 13
F < 56 = 25
Avg of top 5 = 264
A > 238 = 12
B > 211 = 13
C > 185 = 23
D > 158 = 14
F < [...]

Wow, this was a really long test! Or is it because I’m just not ready for it like I was for the last two? I know I missed some questions, and I know I didn’t do very well. *sighs* If only if I wasn’t so sickly.

We finished up chapter 22 today and went over a couple of homework problems. Test is on Wednesday, will probably be pretty hard since I’ve been slacking pretty badly. Did 9 hours of organic homework last night to review, but still failed. I suck.
Lecture Notes
Summary:
Haloform, which would convert methyl group next to [...]

So I haven’t scanned the notes for Chapter 22 yet. See how everything is a downward spiral? Soon as I start slacking (skipping on the day of the biochem test), I start to fudge everything. Ah, I’m stupid like that. At least I still come to class =) That’s a [...]