Result- 50 Pass. Not happy. Was expecting higher. CHEM20020 was a step up following completion of both CHEM20018 & CHEM20026 in semester 1 this year. Organic chemistry (Uta Wille) had a greater emphasis on mechanisms, spectroscopy analysis (NMR/EPR/chemical shifts) & stereochemistry (prochirality). Quantum mechanics (Evan Bieske) & symmetry (Brendan Abrahams) were brand new topics. Having not done any physics, QM was decent. In contrast, symmetry & visualisations of molecular shepes in 3D was challenging. Thankfully, Brendan, as usual, explained things well, particularly in relation to character table operations, IR & Raman spectra. Finally, Paul Donnelly introduced us to organometallic chemistry & catalytic cycles & metathesis. No Qs here with Paul- an absolute legend as always! Just sat the exam for this subject yesterday. Was a toughie (no Hückel determinant. Organic started off nice- then the mechanisms hit me like a freight train). Overall, a step up but cannot grumble. Update- Won't do CHEM30016. Will save my energy for the new Chemical Biology subject in 2025 (hopefully).

Personally, I did not enjoy this subject much. A lot more new concepts are taught (Symmetry & Organometallic Chemistry) in this class compared to CHEM20018. The organic module was a bit boring and dry though the lecturer was good. The symmetry module was very confusing at first, but it's alright once you understood it. Then the organometallic module was taught wonderfully though the content wasn't covered too in-depth. Lastly, the quantum section was an absolute trainwreck, I do not even know where to begin with this. The lecturer barely taught the content and often rambled about other things, which made the already difficult content a lot more difficult to understand (Be prepared to basically self-learn quantum chemistry). Even with a lot of preparation (doing loads of previous exam papers), I still found the exam to be quite difficult.

My favourite chemistry subject of the nine I took in undergrad. Even the organic chemistry section has a lot of physics in it, and the physical chemistry section has cool stuff about quantum mechanics and symmetry. I found this subject to be quite useful in my later studies. (P.S. I took this subject in semester 2, 2013, but that doesn't appear in the drop-down menu, so I'll select semester 1, 2017, which is the oldest option available.)

One of the most cohesive chemistry subjects offered at Unimelb, where one topic links intricately with the next (though it may not seem obvious at times). New concepts are taught, and by the end you will be equipped with knowledge on how we use theory and technology to predict chemical structures, and much more.

An interesting amalgam of many concepts of Chemistry. For the most part well taught but be prepared to read over notes for the final topic.