Personally I found a couple of the quantum mechanics chapters to be interesting.

There was way more physics related concepts than I anticipated, and the only concept that is sort of related to the material taught in high school is VSEPR and Lewis Structures. The rest are relatively new to a lot of people.

His office hours were really useful! He also opened up a lot of office hours close to the exams, and I can feel that he is very passionate about the course.

I feel like pre-reading chapters before they are taught in class is a great way to review. Sometimes it can be hard to do this though, as the chapters go by relatively quick. Also read the ChiRP and re-do all of the questions you got wrong before a midterm/final, as I feel like the questions from the midterms were similar to the ChiRP. Ask any questions that you may have as you go through the ChiRP during office hour. Don't go to too much office hour if you don't have any questions. Eventually it will just feel like burn-out and you'll hear repetitive questions. I would say every other week is a good amount of time. The labs were so stressful. There was no time to do the titration lab but the labs after that were a breeze. It's okay to give yourself a break! I was so stressed out ...read more

The course was thought out really well, with many aspects taught at the beginning of the term coming back later to support one's understanding in the later portions of the course.

The content involves VSEPR Theory, a bit of quantum mechanics (one-particle-in-a-box model only), electron orbitals, Molecular Orbital Theory, and Valence Bond Theory (with hybridization). Unfortunately, as I am planning on specializing in CS, I don't really need this course unless I decide I want to work closely with chemwhile in CS (probably not). I also did not enjoy the lab portion (completely unrelated to the lecture content), but that is a personal thing.

The professor was amazing! His voice carried throughout the lecture hall, and he always answered any questions (+ many office hours - good explanations). Additionally, he incorporated many visuals on Desmos and other websites to demonstrate what is happening when pi or sigma orbitals form.

Personally, I found the course relatively easy; however, the midterm averages were 54% and 60%, respectively. I believe this is likely due to people underestimating the use of pre-reading and actually doing the additional problems given in the CHIRP. Furthermore, many people were overcomplicating concepts (e.g. counting the electrons in a conjugated pi system) that had to be completed in ~10 secs max.

The course was somewhat interesting to me, even though I don't plan on majoring in chemistry. However, enjoyment of the course and ease of understanding heavily depends on how good your professor is and how much effort you put in to reading and doing the ChIRP problems. Midterm 1 is a canon event for all first-year science students taking this course but midterm 2 is better. The labs are kind of fun but tedious to prepare for. They started doing in-class tests before each of the midterms as a low-stakes assessment for students to gauge how well they knew the material. Just put in effort to studying the ChIRP, don't skip lectures, and go to office hours.

Lots of bonding theories - VSEPR, molecular orbital theory, hybridization, etc.

Dr. Kil was one of the reasons I was able to do well in this course. He is always open to questions after class and during office hours and tries his best to support his students. His lectures are never boring and he incorporates great analogies to help his students understand the material. He also has a humorous personality and throws in jokes mid-lecture, and a loud voice that can project to the back of the lecture hall. He often uses models and visual simulators to explain concepts, which I found particularly helpful as a visual learner.

The labs are not as hard as you think, but prepare well for them so you know what to do during it. If you are unlucky and end up with a bad professor, see if you can crash another professor's lectures. Although, each professor does have their own participation portion (iClickers, surveys, etc.). Go to office hours if you don't understand something!! If you don't like your professor's explanations, try another professor's office hours, but you might have to ask around for their office hour times. Do ALL of the ChIRP exercises and additional problems and take advantage of ALL RESOURCES available to you. If you are in the Faculty of Science, SUS hosts CHEM midterm and final review sessions, and so does AMS. So go to those! AMS tends to use more exam-like questions and SUS reviews more basic a...read more