Chemistry BC2001x: Exams 2008

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Final Exam (December 18, 2008)

Study Guide for Final Exam.
Data sheets that will be available at the final, in addition to a periodic table.
There is no sample final exam.
Exam results, in order by grade.  Histogram of exam results. (posted 12/23/08)
I do not post the answers to the final exam or the overall course grades.  You are welcome to come to my office to see the answers and look over your exam.

Exam 3 (November 25, 2008)

RESULTS  (posted 12/01/08)
Letter grades are listed in addition to the number grades; these are not written on the exams. Remember that the letter grade is approximate: I use the numbers, so being just below a cutoff has no long-term consequences.
The mean was 78/125 = 62%. Histogram of class results
Results, in order by BC ID;  Results, in order by grade
Answers to the exam. Please read carefully all my comments (in italics). If you have questions about the grading or believe I had made an error, please come speak to me after you have read the posted answers.
Please read again the handout what to do after getting an exam back. Keep in mind that this exam is just 11% of the overall grade; if you did badly, commit yourself to doing better on the final exam.
For many students, the biggest problem came from not writing proper net ionic equations: this is important in itself (questions 1 and 2), but is also essential for solving equilibrium problems (questions 3, 4 and 5).  Be sure you understand this!
People had a lot of difficulty with question 1B, determining which solutions were more acidic. Here is a new summary sheet about predicting when things are acidic basic, or neutral.

Sample exam.  I have given only two term-time exams in recent years, so I do not have a complete sample exam.  Here are the two questions (with answers) from Exam 2 in 2006 that relate to material included in this year's exam 3.  Please note: question 3A should read "in order of increasing pH" (not increasing acidity).

Data sheet: a table of K_eq's will be provided with the exam.  Here it is.

Study Guide for Exam 3.  Near the bottom of the page: delete "elementary basic features of ligands binding to metals or metal ions."  Also, delete item 1.f.iii: effect of temperature on equilibria.  This is an application of LeChatelier's principle that I have not yet discussed at any length.

Exam 2 (October 23, 2008)

RESULTS  (posted 10/27/08)
Letter grades are listed with the number grades in the files below; these are not written on the exams themselves. Keep in mind that the letter grade is approximate: I work with the numbers, so if you are just below a cutoff, it has no long-term consequences. The mean was 85/125 = 68%.
Please read again the handout what to do after getting an exam back.
Results, in order by BC ID
Results, in order by grade
Histogram of class results
Answers to the exam. Please read carefully all my comments (in italics) including the last page with summary comments. If you have questions about the grading or believe I had made an error, please come speak to me after you have read the posted answers.

Sample exam from 2006 (when I last taught the course) and solutions below.  Since I gave just two exams that year, the timing was different.  Linked below are the three questions from that exam that cover material included in exam 2 this year.  There were two other questions.  You should be able to complete these three questions in about 40 minutes. 
    Sample exam 2;  Answers to sample exam 2
Study Guide for Exam 2 (distributed in class 10/16/08)
Correction: omit any reference to Henry's Law; I skipped that topic this year.

Exam 1

RESULTS.  I worked fast to get these to you this week, so I could have made errors.  Please come to me ASAP if you think I have graded something wrong or made an error in adding points.  Please keep in mind that the letter grade I have assigned is approximate.  I work with the numbers, so if you are just below  a cutoff, it has no long-term consequences.
Results, in order of grade  Results, by BC ID number
Results: histogram plot of grade distribution
Answers: please read the last page carefully to interpret grading.
Suggestions about what to do after getting an exam back (distributed in class)
Suggested procedure to balance combustion reactions more efficiently.

Sample exam from 2006 (when I last taught the course) and solutions below.  This should give you a sense of the kind of questions I generally ask.  Please note that that year I gave only two hour exams, so the first exam was a bit later.  Thus we had covered propagating uncertainties, as in question 4.  In addition, the second experiment that year was different: survey of metal reactions rather than copper carousel.  Question 5A is directly related to the old experiment; I would not ask this question this year, since we haven't discussed activity series.
    Sample exam I from 2006  Answers to sample exam I

Study Guide for Exam I (as distributed in class)