Course Philosophy

All of you are grown-ups and have to take responsibility for what you are doing. It was your decision to enroll in the course and it is you, who must decide what is necessary to do in order to succeed in the course. You have a grace period of two weeks to decide if you think that you can handle your course load or not. Once this period is over, it is usually extremely difficult to drop out of the course without any penalty because the course is impacted. A signature from the instructor is usually not enough to withdraw from the course without getting a “W” on your transcript. Note that the instructor is under no obligation to allow you to drop the course. Not doing as well as you expected is not a reason to drop the course. The administration only allows you to drop late in cases of extreme hardships i.e., prolonged illness. Please keep this in mind!

The instructor and teaching assistants are available to assist you in your goal to master the course material and to pass the course with decent grade, but it is your job to study the material, do the reading and perform the experiments in the laboratory. You will most likely need this material as you move on in your career i.e., chemistry or biochemistry courses, MCAT, pharmacy school, GRE, etc. The most important point is to master the subject. The grade that you receive in the course is a result on how well you accomplished this goal. Your goal should be to retain as much information as possible for future courses that build on this knowledge. Honestly, what do you think will be more valuable on the long run: Having a high grade with very little knowledge or having mastered the subject? A decent/high grade might increase your chances to be invited for an interview, but the people interviewing you will notice very quickly your degree of competency (or in other words: what is the grade that you received in the class really worth?).   In the working world (=real world), it counts how well you perform in your job and not what a piece of paper says. If you are competent, you will be more likely to be an asset to your company than a person who has a high grade and did not master the subject.

 There are many ways in order to get a passing and good grade in the course. One of the most important prerequisites is that you have a firm grasp of the materials covered in previous courses i.e., 20 A, 20 B, 20 L, 30 A, 30 AL, 30 B, 30 C (?), etc. After all, you received credit for the courses, and that means that that you had a certain knowledge in this area at some point. A review of organic chemistry and lab techniques before the course starts cannot hurt either, especially if you have not taken any chemistry course for some time (more than six months).

 Students who transfer in from community colleges or other schools tend to struggle the first couple of quarters at UCLA. The quarter system requires that the courses move at a faster pace than in the semester system. You should check the materials covered in the classes that you received credit. It is your responsibility to make sure that you have an appropriate background. Complaining about your lack of background knowledge shows lack of maturity on your side.

 

When should I get help?

 1. If you were weak (“C”-grades) in previous chemistry classes, you should seek help soon.

 2. If you are consistently significantly below average in the in-lab quizzes, it will be advisable to seek help. Keep in mind that the quizzes are supposed to prepare you for the final exam. Easy quizzes do exactly the opposite in this regard. Students who do not have the theoretical background in the lab tend to make more mistakes and usually perform extremely poor in the final exam as well and often failed the course. L

 3. If you feel insecure about certain points while you prepare your pre-lab or post-lab.

 

Where can I get help?

1. Attend your TA’s or any other TA’s office hours, who teaches the course (OH are posted on the course website and on the bulletin board outside the instructor’s office (YH 3077E)).

 2. Attend your instructor’s office hours or make an appointment if you cannot attend them.

3. Attend study groups/tutoring services that are offered on campus.

 4. Attend the spectroscopy workshops offered for the class.

5. If you feel too stressed out or are overwhelmed by classes or have any other problems, see somebody in the counseling center at John Wooden West (http://www.counseling.ucla.edu/, (310)825-0768 (24/7 access))

Bottom line is that it is up to you to seek help, and not to your teaching assistant and instructor’s responsibility to run after you. Their job is not babysitting you.

 

General hints on how to take the in-lab, the online quizzes and the final exam

 A general problem in many quizzes and exams is that people do not follow directions or even bother to read the entire problem. Here are a few pointers:

 1.      Read the entire problem (first word to last word), understand it and extract the given information.

 2.      Evaluate which depth of explanation is expected for the answer. Many students just ‘yes’ or ‘no’ and expect to get full credit. A concise reasoning has to be provided in the response as well. Please keep in mind that your response and the reasoning have to be consistent to earn any credit.

 3.      It is not the quantity, but the quality of the written material that is evaluated. Students who write a lot are usually unsure about the answer and try to cover everything. Often times they contradict themselves in the response and lose points. The use of proper terminology and proper spelling also demonstrates higher degree of competency.  

 4.      Go through the entire quiz/exam first and evaluate which questions you want to answer quickly. There is no rule that tells you to start with the first problem and then continue with the second problem. Try to solve the problems first that you feel most confident answering. This will build up your confidence level and make it easier for the exam/quiz.

 5.      The time should be budgeted appropriately. Many students waste too much time to answer one problem and do not get to some of the others, even though they might have been able to solve those with more success.

 6.      Leaving a question blank will ensure you an automatic ‘zero’. You should at least attempt to offer an answer in order to get partial credit. Partial credit will only be granted if the answer shows a correct approach that could lead to the right answer. A comment does not earn credit if it does not answer the question or does not even demonstrate some understanding of the material.   

 

Grading policy

Despite other rumors, the majority of the students pass the course. However, if you show a poor performance in the lab (quizzes, reports, in-lab work, etc.) and/or do extremely poor in the final (<50 %, independent from average in course), you will receive a grade for the course lower than a “C-“-grade. This essentially means that you actually do have to study for the final exam, and not like many students in the past quarters come unprepared to the exam and therefore performed very poorly. You just do not have the tools to move on to higher-level courses (Chem 153L, Chem 30CL). In other words, showing up to the lab and the exam is not enough to pass the course. The grade reflects the knowledge that you showed in the course, and not what you would need in order to attend medical school, pharmacy school, etc. Please keep also in mind that this class is primarily supposed to train chemists and biochemists. In addition, you are enrolled in one of the top universities in the U.S. Expect the academic standards to be accordingly.

 Once the grades are assigned, there is usually very little chance to get them changed, if you do like the grade or not, or in other words: debating about grades with your instructor does not improve the grade, just ruins your chances to receive a recommendation letter later on. The instructor usually re-evaluates the borderline cases and decides very carefully which grade is appropriate based on the presented materials. In general, a change in grade only occurs if the total points in the final exam are added up incorrectly or a gross error in grading was identified. There will be no re-grade on the final exam (University policy). It is also the student’s responsibility that all grades have been properly reported before the course is over. This means that you should talk to the TA about this before the last day of instruction to get things sorted out.

 

General

If you plan enrolling in Chem 30 CL, you will be expected to have a firm grasp of the techniques and methods used in Chem 30 BL i.e., recrystallization, standard setups, chromatography, infrared spectroscopy, etc. It will reflect extremely poorly on you, if you are not able to do those things in the laboratory without getting many help from your teaching assistant or other sources. As a result, you will receive a poor lab performance grade.

Lastly, if you consider asking the instructor for a recommendation letter upon completion of both courses (Chem 30BL and Chem 30CL with grades “B+” or above in both courses), it might be very useful to attend to office hours, at least occasionally. It is very difficult to make a qualified statement about a student beyond the academic performance (=grade) if you do not know the person. If you plan to ask for a recommendation letter, please keep in mind that the instructor has the right to refuse to write one without further explanation. Allow at least three weeks for completion of the letter. Request for shorter periods demonstrate poor organization skills on the student’s part. Please make also sure that you informed yourself about the application process itself. Often times, the student is not familiar which forms have to be submitted together with the recommendation letter or other details that are important. Many schools have particular procedures that have to be strictly followed i.e., format, forms, deadlines, etc.