<p>What are chem 4b labs like?</p>
<p>From my experience, for the most part, they’ve been easier than the 4A labs, although there’s this one lab that gave everyone trouble. But the labs were mostly… weird… I mean, there’ll be days when you’re there for an incredibly short amount of time. The lab material was a bit more interesting than those for the 4A labs. Also, there’ll be a large emphasis on the special project. One day, instead of doing a lab, you’ll be planning materials with your partner. And the last few weeks are dedicated to doing your special project, which is kinda a huge focus of 4b.</p>
<p>On a random note, does anybody know where to get the lab manual for Chem 4B this semester? I checked a couple of the copy shops that are close to my dorm and they didn’t have it.</p>
<p>I remember getting my copy from this one office-type building on University and Oxford. Does it say where you can get your lab manual on bspace? If not, Douskey or whoever will let you guys know on bspace or in class. I’m assuming that Douskey’s teaching, right?</p>
<p>If Douskey’s teaching, be prepared to adapt a different mode of thinking than that required for 4A. She’s huge on “Why?” questions.</p>
<p>so is 4a/b really balls compared to chem 1a then on an off-note?</p>
<p>I didn’t like 4B as much as 4A, personally, mainly because the labs were not that interesting at all. We used the old spectrophotometers on the 2nd floor which took forever to analyze data. </p>
<p>I don’t think you can really compare the 4-series with the 1-series. I know in 1A, they start off with macroscopic chemistry, like equilibrium and then move to basic principles of quantum mechanics i.e. Pauli exclusion, quantum numbers, etc. In 4A, you start off with particle-in-a-box system, rigid rotor, vibrational spectroscopy, and then move on to macroscopic chemistry in the latter half of the semester. I felt 4A was a good preview of 120A, which is the physical chemistry course (quantum mech. aspect). 4B mainly deals with more an analytical approach to chemistry. So you’ll learn more about applying theory to laboratory techniques, including chromatography, spectroscopy, kinetics, electrochemistry. I do know that one of our labs in 4B was exactly the same as one of the labs in 1B (the electrochemistry one). </p>
<p>The special project for 4B…in my opinion (and don’t hate me for this) is really stupid (and yes I did well on that project so it’s my opinion is not out of anger or anything haha) and my reason for this was that it was due the day before finals began (and you had to make presentations on campus), and the grading from the GSIs were really arbitrary. I guess doing your own project in the labs for a few weeks is kind of cool, but trying to cram 20+ students with their own needs for chemicals makes working kind of tough, though the stockroom is really supportive and gives you everything you need. When you join a research group, you’ll find that you have more freedom to carry out your experiments.</p>
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<p>Say hello to a C+ for me in 120A then :)</p>
<p>But anyway, thanks for all the previews and opinions. Really appreciate them. I’m asking because my screwed up schedule has my chem lab overlapping with math lecture, and I’m wondering how much math lecture I’ll actually have to miss.</p>