Participation in tutorials, quizzes, mid-term exam, practicals: 

• If you are unable to attend a practical class, exam, or hand in a form of assessment due to illness or misadventure, you must submit a request for special consideration no later than five (5) working days after the assessment task date or due date.  Information for Special consideration can be found here: https://students.mq.edu.au/study/my-study-program/special-consideration
• You should also immediately contact the Unit Convenor, Professor Robert Willows (robert.willows@mq.edu.au).
• You may only attend the practical classes for which you are enrolled, as shown in your eStudent timetable.

Final grade: 

• Your final grade will be based on the mark from the aggregation of the individual assessments (in-class and online quizzes, mid-semester test, practical), but you must obtain a Pass grade or better (40% or greater) in the final examination to be awarded an overall Pass grade or better. That is, you must meet this hurdle to be able to pass overall. If you get between 30-40% you will get a second attempt at the exam but ONLY if you can pass the unit with a grade of 40% in the final exam. The SECOND attempt is to demonstrate that you have obtained a minimum level of understanding to pass the unit.

​Online Quizzes

Due: Weekly online quizzes from Weeks 2-12 excluding week 7. Weighting: 15% 

There will be 10 on-line quizzes.  You will find that these quizzes assist you in revising the course material as the course progresses.  Further specific details on the quizzes will be provided at the CBMS108 iLearn site.

PRACTICALS

​Due: every practical Weighting: 20% 

The pre-practical exercises, performance in the practical, the practical report, and the post-practical exercises will be used to calculate the final practical mark.  The assessment tasks start off simple and build on skills and knowledge developed throughout the course.  

Attendance: If you are unable to attend a practical class, exam, or hand in a form of assessment due to illness or misadventure, you must submit a Disruption to Studies notification at ask.mq.edu.au no later than five (5) working days after the assessment task date or due date.  You should also immediately contact the Unit Convenor, Professor Robert Willows (robert.willows@mq.edu.au).  

Mid-term Exam

Due: Week 7 Weighting: 15% 

There will be a 50 minute test in Week 7 in the lecture room (unless approved special conditions are obtained via Wellbeing) and will cover lectures up to the end of buffers. This is designed to give you specific feedback on your understanding of the topics up to this stage to assist you in your further study of the unit.

Final Examination

Due: University Examination Period Weighting: 50% 

The final exam will be 3 hours in length with 10 minutes reading time. It is designed to address specific understanding of all the topics presented within the course and to show that the knowledge obtained can be applied to new problems. 

The final exam is a hurdle assessment and you will need to get >= 40% in the final exam to meet the hurdle.  In the event that you make a serious first attempt at the final exam, you will be provided with an opportunity to sit a new final exam to meet the hurdle. The faculty define a serious attempt as a mark of 10% below the hurdle which in this instance is a mark between 30-40%. You will NOT be given a second attempt to pass the exam if you get below 30% in your first attempt.

Final Examination Details:  The examination timetable will be available in Draft form approximately eight weeks before the commencement of the examinations and in final form approximately four weeks before the commencement of the examinations.  You are expected to present yourself for examination at the time and place designated by the University in the Examination Timetable.  This could be any day after the final week of semester and up until the final day of the official examination period.  It is Macquarie University policy to not set early examinations for individuals or groups of students.  All students are expected to ensure that they are available until the end of the teaching semester, that is, the final day of the official examination period.  NOTE:  If you apply for a supplementary examination, you must make yourself available in the week following the regular exam period.  If you are not available at that time, there is no guarantee an additional examination time will be offered. Specific examination dates and times will be determined at a later date.  

The only exception to sitting an examination at the designated time is because of documented illness or unavoidable disruption.  Absence from the final exam will result in a grade of F except in the case of a genuine medical emergency or misadventure as defined by the University (see below).  In these circumstances you should apply for a Supplementary Exam at ask.mq.edu.au.

Required Textbook:

Top Hat General Chemistry AUS Edition: Franklin Ow et al: ISBN: 978-1-77330-520-2

Register at https://app.tophat.com/register/student/ for the text book and access to the Tutorial Questions, Quizzes and Homework problems. 

Join code: See iLearn for details

Note that the textbook includes Tutorial questions, Quizzes and Homework problems.

Access is free when you are within the University Library Zone. Access outside this zone requires a paid subscription. It is highly advisable to purchase a subscription unless you plan to attend university each week to access the text in the free zone. The online quizzes and homework/tutorial questions are conducted through this resource.

Lectures

Lectures and powerpoint slides will be available through iLEARN ECHO recordings of the 2019 S2 offering. Lectures will also include working through examples of problems, to strengthen and increase understanding of the concepts. Learning is an active process, and as such, you must engage with the material. This means downloading and reading the lecture notes and relevant sections of the textbook (and beyond) before and after listening to the lectures is strongly recommended. Weekly on-line quizzes will also be provided so it is strongly recommended that you listen and work through lecture examples prior to completing these quizzes. The quizzes are timed. The quizzes and mid session test are designed to allow you to continuously learn and to identify what you understand and the areas that you need to spend more time on, with minimal assessment penalty.

Tutorials

Tutorials will be run to assist your understanding of the course material. Attempting the questions before the tutorial class to identify what you need assistance on is highly recommended. The tutor will often ask for students to assist in answering the questions throughout the class. Participation records will be kept and logged. Anonymous teaching evaluations from past students have identified tutorials as a valuable learning tool and participation is thus a hurdle requirement for passing the unit.

Laboratory classes

Practical classes are designed to develop basic laboratory skills, general safety practices and critical and analytical thought. Pre-practical questions are designed to make sure you are ready for the practical work and have grasped the relevant theory and safety practices necessary. In-lab and post-lab work are designed to allow you to appropriately record your experimental observations and your calculations in a detailed and accurate manner and assess your understanding of the theory behind the experiments conducted and to use this understanding to solve related problems. The practicals are scaffolded such that the expectations of pre-practical, in-practical and post-practical reports increase throughout the course as understanding of the concepts and skill in how to record the data and interpret results develops.

FIVE COMPULSORY ON CAMPUS SESSIONS. ALL 9am to 5pm

1. SUNDAY 22nd of MARCH. 

2. TUESDAY 14th APRIL.

3. WEDNESDAY 15th APRIL.

4. THURSDAY 16th APRIL. (MIDSEMESTER TEST WILL BE HELD ON THIS DATE).

5. SUNDAY 24th MAY.