CHEM * 1040 – General Chemistry I F,W (3-3) [0.50]

This course introduces concepts of chemistry, the central link between the physical and biological sciences. Principles discussed include chemical bonding, simple reactions and stoichiometry, chemical equilibria and solution equilibria (acids, bases, and buffers), and introductory organic chemistry.





Posted By : Anonymous
Posted On : March 2, 2017

Is the textbook recommended by the student? Yes
Did the student enjoy the professor? Yes
Professor : Prokipcak

Comment :
It wasn\'t that bad of a course, the prof was super thorough and hilarious in lecture. I took it in F15 and if you do lots of practice questions before tests then you\'ll find it\'s easier than you think. A lot of the concepts are from high school! I barely used the textbook because I\'m lazy but I came out with a fairly good grade. Also, the labs seem daunting but they are totally do-able. And if you are given the option to do Sapling, I recommend it! It was a free 10% that came off of the midterm and exam, which is much less stress, plus it\'s extra practice.
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Overall Difficulty

Posted By : Anonymous
Posted On : January 9, 2016

Is the textbook recommended by the student? Yes
Did the student enjoy the professor? Yes
Professor : Prokipcak

Comment :
HONESTLY and i mean HONESTLY, this course is NOT as bad as anyone says it is...if you do the textbook questions and do the practice exams/midterms WHILE UNDERSTANDING THEM then i don\'t know how you can\'t pass. If you\'re having trouble, you need to go and get the help though. Im NOT some 90 student either, really average tbh so if i didnt find it hard, you shouldnt either! You got this (ps tho, the midterm is VERY easy and the exam was a bit more challenging)
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Overall Difficulty

Posted By : Anonymous
Posted On : March 19, 2014

Is the textbook recommended by the student? Yes
Did the student enjoy the professor? No
Professor : Houmam

Comment :
I had a difficult time learning from the lectures (Houmam, although nice, had a heavy accent and a habit of mumbling), so I more or less taught myself through Sapling/OWL and by attending SLG lessons (supremely helpful). Sapling/OWL was an easy 10%. Labs were tedious, but grading was fair (be careful of volumetric accuracy). I personally thought the midterm and final were fair (just a lot of material). Questions came from lecture examples and textbook.
Recommendation Rating
Overall Difficulty

Posted By : Anonymous
Posted On : December 12, 2013

Is the textbook recommended by the student? Yes
Did the student enjoy the professor? No
Professor : Not specified

Comment :
Not to scare you or anything - this course really is challenging. In high school I had a 92 in chem, but in 1040 I managed to earn the classic 60. -_- Here is a couple of words of advice if you are reading this and you have not taken the course yet. I cannot stress enough the importance to keep up with the labs and assignments through out the sem, ESPECIALLY the owl/sapling, an easy - well not really - way to get a boster 10%! CAUTION: be aware of Experiment #5. It is the last one and worth the most, most people failed it and really harmed their mark. I got a 92 on it though, and that saved my ass. Trick to doing well on the lab, START early. In fact never leave the labs for last minute, I mean it. The lab is just too long, and not something you want to be stuck doing till 5am. I started mine a week before . Don't overlook orgo. big part of the exam. Go to chem help in the learning commons, great help. Its not the content that makes the course hard- you have seen it all in high school, its just keeping up with it and of course no matter how hard you try, the exam always destroys you sadly.
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Overall Difficulty

Posted By : Anonymous
Posted On : January 8, 2013

Is the textbook recommended by the student? Yes
Did the student enjoy the professor? Yes
Professor : Auzanneau

Comment :
This course isn't really as bad as they make it sound, it's just a LOT of material. DO NOT miss a lecture, but if you have to just make sure to get good notes from someone else. It is fast paced and fairly in depth but nonetheless manageable. The textbook questions I found were very helpful so I recommend buying that if you can. The newest is the 10th edition, but I used the 8th and found it fine because I found a page that had the questions converted to the different ed. Organic chem was the worst part, esp since I didn't learn it AT ALL in gr12. Stay on top of the material and practice Qs and sapling (guaranteed at least extra 9% in the course) and you'll survive!
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Overall Difficulty

Posted By : Lexie D.
Posted On : December 22, 2012

Is the textbook recommended by the student? No
Did the student enjoy the professor? No
Professor : A. Houmam

Comment :
This was a very difficult course. If you want a good mark you need to be prepared to spend a lot of time on this course. Houmam was hard to understand at times and I don't think he was the best at explaining things clearly. The textbook wasn't much help either. The labs were fine as long as you prepared for them. In terms of marking, it really depends on your TA. My TA was very picky so I had a terrible lab mark. However you don't need to pass the labs to pass the course, so keep that in mind. Sapling assignments were very easy and you can find the solutions online in most cases. The midterm and final were very difficult. You need to make sure you stay on top of everything in order to do well. Don't take this course unless you need it. It's no walk in the park, it's designed to filter out all the lazy students from the real hard working ones. Make sure you make friends that are in this class because you will need each others help. A smart idea would be to buy a textbook to share amongst a few of your friends because it's a terrible textbook but it's nice to have the practice problems.
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Overall Difficulty

Posted By : Anonymous
Posted On : December 11, 2012

Is the textbook recommended by the student? Yes
Did the student enjoy the professor? Yes
Professor : Professor

Comment :
Killler Chem! It's called this for a reason. Basically, a course with probably 1000 first year students taking B.Sc, B.Eng and BASc, that is made to weed out the weak students. It's basically survival of the fittest in this course. If you've taken enriched/AP/IB/advanced chemistry in high school, this course should just be a review. The midterm and final are fairly difficult. It's based on your skill to apply the knowledge you've learnt so not alot of memorization. The average is usually in the 60s so if you get higher, be happy. A great indicator of wheather or not you should be taking science/engineering as a career or not.
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Overall Difficulty

Posted By : Anonymous
Posted On : December 4, 2012

Is the textbook recommended by the student? No
Did the student enjoy the professor? No
Professor : Not specified

Comment :
If the devil was a university course, it would be this one. Failed it twice. Hoping for a pass this time around, not entirely sure it's possible.
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Overall Difficulty

Posted By : Anonymous
Posted On : April 25, 2012

Is the textbook recommended by the student? Yes
Did the student enjoy the professor? Yes
Professor : Not specified

Comment :
As long as you remember ANYTHING from grade 12 then you should be just fine. Just make sure you stay on top of the material, its really not had as long as you go to class and do the problems
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Overall Difficulty

Posted By : Anonymous
Posted On : December 28, 2011

Is the textbook recommended by the student? Yes
Did the student enjoy the professor? Yes
Professor : Prokipcak

Comment :
Not the easiest course around, it was my lowest mark. Make sure you keep up with all textbook questions and read over your notes during the semester, it will help with comprehension on the midterm and final. Some of the course was review from high school, the rest was new to me. Lab write-ups can be a little tricky, try to get your hands on old ones if you can! Midterm wasn't overly difficult, but the final was brutal. Do Sapling, its easy marks and every little good mark you can get in this course is worth it!
Recommendation Rating
Overall Difficulty

Posted By : Anonymous
Posted On : December 18, 2011

Is the textbook recommended by the student? Yes
Did the student enjoy the professor? No
Professor : Not specified

Comment :
Course moves really fast so keep up with the material, and don't fall behind. I found almost all of it to be a grade 12 chem review (with a bit more depth in organic chem reactions), but i have friends who were learning the material for the first time. Depends what high school you came from but if its all a review, you have a good advantage over everyone. Print off all 3 copies of the midterm off courselink and do every single one, they're all in the same format and it will test you on the exact same material for your midterm/exam!! Do sapling they're easy marks, the labs can be annoying with the way they mark it (-1 if you don't have correct sig figs for a value) and most of them are out of 10. DO NOT LEAVE ORGANIC CHEM FOR THE LAST WEEK. This is a huge part of your exam and a lot of people looked over it because we didn't learn too much in class but don't make that mistake and do the package ahead of time!
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Overall Difficulty

Posted By : Anonymous
Posted On : December 2, 2011

Is the textbook recommended by the student? Yes
Did the student enjoy the professor? No
Professor : Not specified

Comment :
Called "Killer Chem" for a reason. The midterm and final are brutal. Spend lots of time on all of the lab work, as those are easy marks.
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Overall Difficulty

Posted By : Anonymous
Posted On : June 10, 2011

Comment :
Brutal course, not so much in terms of difficulty.. but more so that lecture moves extremely fast. If you miss a lecture, or don't get something, you're screwed unless you catch up right away. The labs are terrible, midterms and exams are tough but fair if you do all the work. Make sure you do the Sapling/OWL homework.
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Posted By : Anonymous
Posted On : March 18, 2011

Comment :
A scary course for first year. Just passed the course (squeaked through the midterm and final). Take the marks you can get, focus on doing well on your online assignments, quizzes, and labs and you should be ok. Definately buy the textbook and do all the assigned questions, they will help you when youre studying for the exams.
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Posted By : Anonymous
Posted On : March 12, 2011

Comment :
Course really depends on how much you retain from high school chemistry and what/how you learned chem in gr 12. If your gr 12 teacher wasnt so great, this course is extremely hard. The midterms are very hard. Sapling should be done 3-4 nights in advance at least. Dry labs are very hard but wet labs are o.k. Even for those with minimal lab experience they are ok. Definitly get a tutor from day one if you think you will need one and do not waste too much time on the txt. It is helpful for something buts definitly not others like acid/base material. Also, try not to get Lori Jones as a prof as she talks down to students like they are dumb and its overall frusterating beause she obvisouly knows the content but doesnt understand when others dont understand content. She is definitly nice and willing to give advice though. It will definitly consume ALL of your time (weekly homework, labs, studying, etc). Don't take it if you dont have to!
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Posted By : Anonymous
Posted On : March 7, 2011

Comment :
Knowing/loving/memorizing organic inside and out will save you in this course. The large majority of the final is on organic.
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Posted By : Anonymous
Posted On : February 13, 2011

Comment :
This course is NOT hard. Textbook not the best -- use lecture notes and other resources instead. Do problems from lecture notes, and try not to waste too much time on mundane online assignments. It's not hard to do well in if you actually put the time in. Don't leave organic stuff until the last minute.
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Posted By : Anonymous
Posted On : January 29, 2011

Comment :
never learning organic chem in high school was major detrimental to someone who failed this on his first go. and was considering a chemistry major. carbon is your friend.....the textbook isn't.
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Posted By : Anonymous
Posted On : January 23, 2011

Comment :
Exams will be harder than you expect.. make sure you do well on quizzes and labs since you will need these "free" marks.
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Posted By : Anonymous
Posted On : January 18, 2011

Comment :
This course wasn't hard at all. Just requires a lot of practice and expects you to know everything taught to you in grade 12. Know your OWL questions. print off your quizzes and owl questions you are getting wrong and study them well. The organic chemistry part though, is HORRIBLE. That orgo map memorization was depressing.
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Posted By : Anonymous
Posted On : January 12, 2011

Comment :
Not quite as difficult as I expected, it's just like 4U Chemistry except with a little more detail. The online dry labs are a real P155 off when there is only 3 pieces of data that you input, some stupid mistake can get you a mark of like %16 on the dry lab. The rest of the course wasn't too difficult, even the midterm wasn't too bad. But on the final, you really get f***ked over.
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Posted By : Noel
Posted On : January 11, 2011

Comment :
If you had a half decent chem teacher in high school this course should be mostly review. Just do the owl homework and you'll learn it just fine. Get it with Joe Pro if you can
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Posted By : Anonymous
Posted On : January 8, 2011

Comment :
Study your notes and do all the quizzes and labs when they open rather than the night before they close and this course doesn't have to be your worst nightmare. Also the learning center isn't bad for help.
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Posted By : Anonymous
Posted On : January 7, 2011

Comment :
just do well on the OWL, quizzes, and labs midterms and exams will screw you over no matter how hard you try
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Posted By : Anonymous
Posted On : January 4, 2011

Comment :
I found this course really difficult. Equilibrium and organic...just nuts. Glad that's over with.
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Posted By : Anonymous
Posted On : January 4, 2011

Comment :
I agree with the above
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Posted By : Anonymous
Posted On : January 4, 2011

Comment :
Caution: course will make you want to drop out of life.
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