su16 chem 225 final exam guidelines 001

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NEW YORK UNIVERSITYDepartment of Chemistry

Summer 2016

CHEM-UA 225 ORGANIC CHEMISTRY I LABORATORY

Final Exam Policies and Guidelines

EVERYONE MUST READ THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION PRIOR TO TAKING THE

EXAMS. Before beginning the exam you will be required to consent that you have read and

understood the following information. If you do not read this document before coming to the

exam, then you will be required to read it during the beginning of the exam (copies will be

available in the laboratory).

GENERAL INFORMATION.

This laboratory exam will test your knowledge, skills, and efficiency in carrying out organic

laboratory techniques, characterization of organic compounds, and interpretation of data. Thecontent is cumulative and there will be both a practical and written exam, as described below.

The practical and written final exams are worth 10% and 25% of your final laboratory grade,

respectively.

Practical Laboratory Final Exam: The LaboratoryPractical Final Exam will take place on

Monday, June 27th, 2016 in the organic teaching laboratory (Brown 252) during your regularly

scheduled laboratory session (plan to attend the time period for the full session).

Items you WILL NEEDfor the Laboratory Final Exam session:

o A pen andpencil, goggles, laboratory coat, 5 pairs of gloves (and follow all of the

other safety requirements as described in the course syllabus posted on NYUClasses).

Do NOTbring to the Practical Laboratory Exam session:

o Electronic devices (including phones, calculators, computers, etc.), your notebook,

books, notes, backpacks, or any other forbidden laboratory materials as described

in the course syllabus.

Written Laboratory Final Exam: The Laboratory Written Final Exam will take place on

Tuesday, June 28th

from 12:00-1:50PM in Silver 207.

Items you WILL NEEDfor the WrittenLaboratory Exam: A pen and/or pencil ONLY.

POLICIES.

Tardiness and absence

If you arrive late you will still be allowed to take the exam, but you will NOT be granted

extended time. If you are absent without approval (in advance, from the Instructor of Record)

during your exam time, the exam will be scored as zero (0) points unless you provide a valid

notice to the Instructor of Record (NOT to the clinical/adjunct section instructors) which states


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you had an emergency or were otherwise excused within two (2) days of the exam. For students

who have a valid excuse for missing the exam, limited alternate arrangements may be available.

Communication between students

Once the exam (written and practical) has started, absolutely NO communication of any kind

(verbal, written, etc) between students will be permitted. Any communication between students

during an exam will result in a score of zero (0) on the exam. Use of an electronic device for any

reason will result in a score of zero (0) on the exam. If you have a question/concern/etc that

involves another student, contact an instructor.

Communication between students and instructors

Instructors will monitor the exams but they are NOT permitted to respond to any scientific

questions during the exam. If you encounter safety or logistical questions, the instructors will

assist you. The instructors may ask you questions (unlikely to be >2) during the practical portion

of the exam. Instructors will NOT indicate whether your answer is correct or not, unless you

present a safety risk. Do NOT attempt to interpret an instructor or anyone elses verbal or non-

verbal responses/reactions to anything you say or do during the exams. Do your own work and

make all of your decisions based solely on your own chemical intuition.

Sharing

Sharing of chemicals, glassware, information, advice, etc. between students will NOT be

permitted during any portion of the practical exam.

Academic Honesty

We take the academic honesty very seriously and if you fail to follow the rules in this document,

or other NYU policies, you will receive a score of zero (0) for the exam and you will be

immediately reported to the Dean.

EXAM DETAILS.

General advice. You will not be asked to design a completely new reaction protocol, but you

should absolutely be prepared to make your own decisions regarding the purification and

analysis of organic compounds. For example, it would be a good idea to understand how to

identify organic vs aqueous solutions, properly separate mixtures of molecules with various

functional groups (e.g. carboxylic acid, amine, no functional groups) using a extraction,

recrystallization, distillation, and column chromatography. You should be able to set-up a

reaction under reflux conditions as well. Understanding how to adjust variables to optimize TLC

analysis is also important.

WrittenExam

Content of the written portion of the exam may include any experiment and topic that was part of

the laboratory course this term. As emphasized many times over the term with regards to the

laboratory protocols, it is important to understand WHAT you did, WHY you did it, and HOW it

works. You can expect questions to probe your understanding in this regard. For your

convenience, a list of key topics/terms is provided below. This is a good list, but should not be

treated as comprehensive. As a reminder, while you are studying you can refer to your

experiment handouts for topics/page numbers and key terms. If you understand what you did,


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Techniques/skills, e.g.:

Hot vacuum filtration

RecrystallizationExtraction

Column chromatography

Distillation

Drying organic solvents

Molecular modeling

Concepts/terms, e.g.:

Limiting reagent

% recovery% yield

Stereochemistry

Stationary phase

Mobile phase

Eluent

Analysis and characterization, e.g.:

Melting point analysis

TLC analysisChemical tests

GC-MS

GC-FID

IR spectroscopy13

C- and1H-NMR spectroscopy

why you did what you did, and how it worked throughout the term, exam preparation should be

rather straightforward. It is important to understand the theory, but also know how to apply it.

You do not need to memorize isotopes, pKavalues, or IR absorption band reference tables. If this

information is needed for the exams, it will be provided for you.

PracticalExam

NOTEBOOKS and other notes will NOT be allowed in the laboratory during the practical

exam. If you forget and bring it, hand it to your section instructor as soon as you enter the

laboratory.

Information Sheets.At the start of your Practical exam your instructor will provided with paperwhich will serve as your means of record-keeping. These sheets will be called Information

Sheets and you will use them as if they were your laboratory notebook (you will also record

some specifically requested information which will be clearly indicated during the laboratory

session). Your Information Sheets MUST be submitted at the end of the practical exam,

otherwise you will receive a score of zero (0) for the exam.

You will be given some guidance on how carry out the given experiment via a handout that will

be distributed at the start of the exam, but you will also be required to make some of your own

scientific, experimental, and logistical decisions. You will complete a detailed written account of

your procedures, observations, results, etc. on your Information Sheets during the experiment.By the end of the designated time period you will be required to submit to your section instructor

the following:

(1) your information sheets (instructors provide these at the beginning of the practical exam),

(2) your clearly labeled TLC plate(s), if you used any,

(3) your clearly labeled vial(s) containing your isolated compound(s), if you purified any.

(A reminder of these required items, as well as label content, will be included in

information that you will receive at the practical exam)

The quality of the items listed above, along with your technique and decision making skills

during the experiment, will determine your grade for the practical portion of the exam. All workmust stop once time has expired. Items that are not submitted by the end of the designated

time period will not be accepted, but you will be evaluated on the work you completed. Do not

forget or otherwise fail to submit the items listed above; late submission will NOT be

accepted.

Post Final Laboratory Exam

Due to the possibility of delayed make-up exams, after you complete the laboratory exam you

are NOT permitted to share ANY information related to the exam (practical or written) until


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after July 6th

, 2016. Even discussion between students who have completed the exam is

forbidden. Violation of this policy will be viewed as cheating, result in a score of 0 on all

parts of the exam, and you will be immediately reported to the Dean.

Alternative Testing Conditions

Note that Moses Center accommodations are typically for written exams only and are not applied

to the hands-on (practical) laboratory portion of the exam. If you have university approval andwould like to take the written portion of the exam at the Moses Center, you may do so if you

make arrangements following the Moses Center scheduling requirements. Schedule your written

portion of the exam to be completed on June 27th

, 2016. If this is not possible, send me an email

with the subject Organic lab - Moses Center Exam Scheduling and we may be able to make

other arrangements.

***Note that the total exam time reported to the Moses Center will NOT be 110 minutes (exactly

the number of minutes from 12:00-1:50PM). The total exam time reported to the Moses Center

will match the exact amount of time that the rest of the course will be allotted for the exam,

taking into account a few minutes used for distribution and collection of the exams. The Moses

Center will then rescale the amount of time you will be allotted for the exam, if that factorapplies to your specific accommodation.

Locker Check-out

At the end of the practical exam laboratory session you will complete the checkout process. All

personal glassware that was assigned at the beginning of the term must be present and in

acceptable condition in order to complete checkout. Missing or damaged items must be replaced

by purchase from the stockroom. As a reminder, NYU Campus Cash is the ONLY form of

payment that the stockroom can accept.

su16 chem 225 final exam guidelines 001

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