CHEM 30C
Organic Chemistry III: Reactivity, Synthesis, and Biomolecules
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Enforced requisite: course 30B with grade of C- or better. Third term of organic chemistry for Chemistry, Biochemistry, and engineering majors. Chemistry of enolates, enamines, dicarbonyl compounds, and amines. Molecular orbital theory and conjugated pi systems; UV/vis spectroscopy. Aromaticity and reactions of aromatic molecules. Heterocycles, pericyclic reactions, carbohydrates, and lipids. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2022 - If you’re taking this class, you’ve probably already taken 30B and 30A. Perhaps you thought to yourself, “Man, 30B is so much harder than 30A, I hope 30C isn’t even harder.” While 30C no longer has spectroscopy, which was hard, it is not easier than 30B. Not only is a very good understanding of 30B required (if you forgot carboxylic acid or amide reactions you better get on that), there are quite a few completely new concepts and topics introduced. That being said, all of this is more of a review of 30C and not Merlic. If you’re here for that, here you go: _____ Dr. Merlic is a pretty good professor, quite engaging in lecture, and helpful in office hours. He doesn’t assign any homework, and your grade is completely based on weekly quizzes, three midterms, and one final exam (which could be a pro if you hate problem sets but is probably a con). He does assign plenty of practice problems of all types and difficulties, which is extremely helpful. They are often much more difficult than exams, which is good, and he also gives practice exams that are practically copies of the real exams. Expect questions on both memorizing reactions/reagents and conceptual synthesis questions. Exams are difficult due to the subject, but extremely fair and straightforward to prepare for since you know what to expect. Quizzes are given weekly in discussion, and depend on the TA. They end up being scaled so each TA and section has similar averages, so don’t worry too much about certain TA quizzes being easier than others. As for grading, apparently the class is graded on a curve (as in there are a limited number of As) but I wasn’t aware of this while taking the class. Finally, lectures are recorded but the quality is really bad and he often forgets to record, plus you can’t see what is going on on the whiteboard, only the slides. Just come to lecture or be prepared to learn yourself from the slides (which are actually quite good in terms of content, though they are a bit messy).
Winter 2022 - If you’re taking this class, you’ve probably already taken 30B and 30A. Perhaps you thought to yourself, “Man, 30B is so much harder than 30A, I hope 30C isn’t even harder.” While 30C no longer has spectroscopy, which was hard, it is not easier than 30B. Not only is a very good understanding of 30B required (if you forgot carboxylic acid or amide reactions you better get on that), there are quite a few completely new concepts and topics introduced. That being said, all of this is more of a review of 30C and not Merlic. If you’re here for that, here you go: _____ Dr. Merlic is a pretty good professor, quite engaging in lecture, and helpful in office hours. He doesn’t assign any homework, and your grade is completely based on weekly quizzes, three midterms, and one final exam (which could be a pro if you hate problem sets but is probably a con). He does assign plenty of practice problems of all types and difficulties, which is extremely helpful. They are often much more difficult than exams, which is good, and he also gives practice exams that are practically copies of the real exams. Expect questions on both memorizing reactions/reagents and conceptual synthesis questions. Exams are difficult due to the subject, but extremely fair and straightforward to prepare for since you know what to expect. Quizzes are given weekly in discussion, and depend on the TA. They end up being scaled so each TA and section has similar averages, so don’t worry too much about certain TA quizzes being easier than others. As for grading, apparently the class is graded on a curve (as in there are a limited number of As) but I wasn’t aware of this while taking the class. Finally, lectures are recorded but the quality is really bad and he often forgets to record, plus you can’t see what is going on on the whiteboard, only the slides. Just come to lecture or be prepared to learn yourself from the slides (which are actually quite good in terms of content, though they are a bit messy).
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