CH 302 Random Musings, Bottom of the Ninth 1. Sadly, the semester has come to an end. Today in class I will make ice cream for 500 people, hand out a brass penny to use as a gold coin in a pinch, review issues related to examinations and final grades, and let you fill out a form to return that will tell me things to assist with your grading. 2. Evaluations. It is your responsibility as a student to complete course instructor evaluations for every course you take. The college is participating in an effort to make these evaluations electronic and I have agreed to use this method. You should have received an electronic invitation to complete this survey, but if you haven’t, you can do so by going to the following web link: https://utdirect.utexas.edu/diia/ecis/ and opening up the survey for CH302. You have until 5/ 2/2008 (this Friday) to complete the survey. Thanks for remembering to do this. 2. Reprinted below are the grading cutoffs for the course. There are both the original cutoffs that reflect a 90%, 80%, 70% cutoff and the new cutoffs of 87%, 77%, 67%, 57% and apply IF you turn in all your extra credits. The weight of the extra credit depends on the grading scheme but corresponds to 1% of the grade for each extra credit handed in. Do not worry about which of these grading schemes applies to you. I will assign the one that best benefits you. Exemption scale (700 max) Cumulative scale (1000 max) Final Exam scale (300 max) Letter Old cutoff New cutoff Old cutoff New cutoff Old New cutoff grade (3 EC scores) (3 EC scores) cutoff (3 EC scores) A 630 609 900 870 270 261 B 800 770 240 231 C 700 670 210 201 D 600 570 180 171 4. Extra credit points. You have had the chance to 3% back on your grade from extra credit. There will certainly be some errors in recording your extra credit what with the manual recording process so please do not panic if points are missing. I will reconcile what I have for your totals versus what you say you have done the green sheet you will turn in today. If there is a contradiction, I will e-mail you to confirm. I need these extra credits to determine exemption, so please get them in as soon as possible (in principle tomorrow at 5 pm.) 5. If you are missing QUEST scores or believe that they are in error, it is your job to fill out a regrade request. After today Travis will set up some time during dead days to contact him. 6. By Friday around midnight I will have determined whether the exemption cutoffs will be reduced below the 609 value posted above. Remember that QUEST totals DO NOT reflect my grading scheme so ignore the grades it assigns and instead simply add up your three exams and your four best quizzes. Compare that result to the appropriate cutoff above or any new cutoff value I assign. 7. At this point they still haven’t fixed things so that bad questions can be tossed. I can’t tell you how sad this makes me, especially since my sad varies proportionally with your sadness, which you tell me about regularly. Would it do any good if I told you they almost have it fixed? They say they do, and so I simply have to claim that it will be fixed, and you will be notified of this, in the next day or two. Regardless, it will happen in time for you to know you grading and exemption status even if I have to go through and do it by hand for all 6000 questions.8. You have been a very fine class and the grades will reflect this. Expect to see about 160 exemptions and the final overall grade distribution: 210 As 170 Bs 80 Cs 30 Ds 10 Fs (most of whom did not complete the course). 9. Telling me what I should know. In a class of 500, it is possible I will make mistakes or that I will not find out things you want me to know. So please fill out the green form, “Things I want Dr. Laude to know”, if there is anything of an academic or non academic nature that will assist me in deciding your grade. I will respond to each of these individual so take the opportunity seriously. For example, if you and I have made some kind of arrangement about make-ups, missing quizzes, incompletes, or something significant has come up this semester, please write it down and turn it in.Things you need to know about Exam 3. 10. I provided a practice exam 3 that I posted on the web. 11. On Sunday I gave a review on the 30 question types on Exam 3 and the hand written notes from that session are posted on line under lecture notes. 12. Exam 3 will be held tonight between 7 and 9 pm. The exam will consist of 30 equally weighted questions worth a total of 180 points. I have included an updated list of question types that removes the transition metal material and replaces it famous gem and manufacturing processes. 13. I am forgoing a posting of the normal format and procedures for exam 3 and remind you that the usual exam rules apply. Your location for the exam is as follows: Last name A-Ma, WEL 2.224. Last name Mb-Z , W.C. Hogg 1.120 (the room under my office, not the auditorium) 14. If you have received my approval to take the exam Sunday, please come to this room, WEL 2.224, for a make-up exam from 6 till 8 pm. I continue to take make-up exam requests and if you haven’t heard back, e-mail again. I am out of pocket tonight till 9 pm so unfortunately will not be able to grant the make-up explicitly until then. But I have been pretty sympathetic to most requests including work and family issues as well as other inconveniences. I do appreciate that this change of make-up procedure was forced on us at the last minute. 15. Some advice as you study for exam 3: Be aware that this test is light on calculations (only about 30% of the test) and heavy memorizing stuff, which is the nature of an exam filled with descriptive chemistry. Like it or not, those of you who really understand my notes on organic nomenclature, biomolecules, main group chemistry, catalysts and batteries, will breeze through this material and it will be a short test. It is definitely a “you know it or you don’t” experience for many of these problems. And quiz 5 is definitely a barometer for much of the kinetics. Nothing should be surprising on the exam and I expect an average in the low 80s (I can dream.) 16. Exam 3 Question Types: Question Types for Kinetics 1. assigning rate expressions 2. relating reaction order to rate 3. units of rate constants 4. method of
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