CHEM 2811

Not much different from the previous semester except the experiments are a bit more challenging. With that said, be prepared to not produce product some of the time and get points deducted because of it.

TL;DR A relatively time consuming (at least 4 hrs writing lab reports, 2 hours for other work, 4 hrs for in-lab time, and 1 hr for lab lecture) but otherwise extremely practical lab course that is for the most part enjoyable, and even fun at some parts (we made nylon and plexiglass in one lab, chemiluminescent reactions, etc). Professor Serbulea is great -- super smart, very challenging, but also approachable and cares about students.

Here's the long version: This is probably my favorite lab course I have taken at UVA so far. You learn so many important techniques and start to get better at synthesis. You also will know how to analyze IR and NMR spectra like the back of your hand by the time you're done with this class, which is a very important skill. I surprised myself with how much I learned in one semester.

I took this class during COVID, but it was still in-person (minus the lecture portion), so I think this review will hold for other semesters as well. I love Professor Serbulea, and she certainly lives up to her reviews on CHEM 2810 or 1820 (go check those out for more info on her lecture styles). She is very challenging, and ridiculously, insanely smart to the point where it's nearly scary, but she is also extremely fair and cares about each of her students. Lectures for this course are mandatory, and as the textbook doesn't cover the material (it covers techniques, I didn't buy it, just had an online free PDF on hand in case I needed it for citations), it's imperative that you take solid notes on the powerpoints. The PowerPoints are posted online, though, so if you do miss one lecture and get the notes from someone, you generally should be okay. Not many professors drop into their labs when there are TAs running the ship, but Serbulea would always drop by during our lab period a couple of times to check in on our work and offer us great advice on our techniques and results. She also encouraged us to check in with her immediately after lab to show her our results so she could set us on the path to success in the report. If you have any questions, go to her office hours, as they are useful. I personally never attended TA office hours and ended up doing totally fine on the reports, but if you are less confident in your lab-report-writing skills, definitely attend office hours and you'll get some great pointers on the information you need to include in your reports (according to my friends who went). The TAs themselves in-lab are usually super nice/chill (they let us play music over the speakers in the lab while we worked, were usually fun/easy to talk to) but also very smart, so pick their brains during lab session and ask a lot of questions about the experiment. You will be writing an up-to-5-page single-spaced lab report every week in this class, so just be prepared to carve out a large block of time in your week to sit down and analyze data/write the report. I had lab on Tuesdays, so I'd usually spend 4 hours on Monday writing the report and then edit it briefly Tuesday morning before turning it in. There is a final exam in this class, but in my experience, it wasn't terrible. I just had to know the procedures really well and the mechanisms for each synthesis. The majority of your grade is the lab reports, and then other things fill in the cracks. She does give a pre-lab quiz every week, and honestly, I kind of bombed them and still received an A in the class, so don't worry too much about them (unless you're not doing well in other aspects of the class).

If I'm being really real here, this lab was an absolute treat and I kinda loved every minute of it, even when I hated it. I think this lab was much more fun than the 1811 or 1821 labs because it really felt like real chemistry for the first time. The first half of 1821 was just learning different lab methods and the second half was COVIDed so we were online. But 2811 was awesome because each weak we got to use the reactions we learned in 2810 lecture to synthesize a new compound in the lab. The labs themselves were generally not that difficult, just follow the procedure and hope for the best (sometimes you just don't get product and that's okay, or your product isn't the white solid it was supposed to be, just talk to the TAs about what might have gone wrong and what to write in your report). The reports were generally pretty simple because each lab was essentially the same; talk about the type of reaction, the reactants, products, and catalysts, talk about the product you got like color and yield, analyze the spectra you collected in the lab (usually IR and NMR). A word about getting spectra, in the 4 hour lab (2-6pm) you really need to set aside a good chunk of time to get spectra (at least 30 minutes or it's not happening). There's only a few machines, 10 times out of 10 one of them will stop working, 7 times out of 10 your spectra (usually the NMR) will range from semi-decent to completely incomprehensible and you will want to redo it, and 3 times out of 10 the TAs will say don't bother and give you a standard to use in the reports. [That's the "even when I hated it" part I mentioned]. Each lab has a quiz before you start and basically just know the procedure and study the lecture powerpoint and you should be fine.

Awesome lab with a great professor and great TAs, fun experiments and altogether the reports aren't that difficult.

Honestly so much better than 1821; I enjoyed labs more and found it easier to write the reports. Just make sure you get the rubric from someone or go to TA office hours yourself, since that helps immensely. Being good at spectroscopy helps, but if you aren't, you will be by the end.

#tCFfall22

Follows the same structure as 1821, but the experiments are more synthetic in nature. The biggest qualm I have about both labs are that the TAs are never on the same page on what their expectations are with regards to grading, which is especially difficult when you're cranking out full-blown lab reports every single week. Serb is a good teacher, but she did not administer this class well and it showed.

A lot of work, but not difficult to get an A.

Grading distribution:
-Prelab quizzes
At the start of lab, you have 10 minutes to complete a quiz. They’re not bad, just study the slides and procedure, and you’ll be fine. In fact, because grading is so spread out, you can bomb these and easily still get an A. I believe you get a one drop as well.

-Lab Reports
I won’t lie, these take forever to write (4-6 hours). And on top of that, you have to go to a TA’s office hours to get the rubric, because Serbs is really picky about what she wants. But in the end, a lot of people had a 97-99% average for their lab reports. As long as you have the rubric, most lab reports you’ll get a 5/5 and TAs will take off points every now and then for whatever reason.

-Modules
These are a guaranteed 100%. Kinda silly and not helpful but for some labs there are online modules you have to complete before your lab.

-Clicker questions
If you pay attention in lecture, again, really easy straight forward questions - will probably be a 100% for you. Two of your lowest days are dropped as well.

-Lab citizenship
Should also be a 100%.

-Final Exam
The final exam was quite easy. It is pretty much a long prelab quiz, with a spectroscopy, Jablonski, and flow chart question.

Overall, I have learned so much in this lab. After learning the skills in CHEM 1821, we actually got to synthesize things. This course was way better than 1821 cause we knew what we were doing and most labs only took 2-3 hours. However, most of the times things will go wrong or you’ll get bad spectra and that’s unavoidable. The procedures can also be quiet bad as they’re know to give a bad yield. BUT, when you look back at all your hard work, you’ll truly be grateful you took this class and proud of yourself. Also, try to experiment which TAs office hours you go to. Some are super helpful and will help you answer lab report questions, others gatekeep.

#tCFF23

TLDR: I did not learn much of anything from this course and it is unnecessarily confusing, time-consuming, and difficult. I would stop the 1800 lab series after 1811.

I would personally avoid taking this course, even if you are a prospective chemistry major or did well in 1821. To start with the positives: the TAs are wonderful and genuinely want you to succeed, it is not too difficult to earn an A/A− if you complete all the work, and the course does help familiarize you with spectroscopy analysis, which can be useful for the lecture course. That is about it.

This class will easily take over your semester. Each lab section is four hours long (even when the procedure could reasonably be shortened) and is paired with a tiresome one-hour lecture. Professor Serbulea often spends most of the lecture on irrelevant information while skipping over slides that are directly related to the experiment or report, yet attendance is effectively mandatory due to iClicker questions. Before each lab, there is also a quiz based on the lecture content, but it largely consists of random structures and procedures that were never discussed and must simply be memorized. The final exam is essentially an extended pre-lab quiz, with pages upon pages of random structures and procedures to memorize, contributing little to actual learning.

The lab reports are where the course becomes truly miserable. They are graded using a rubric students never see and require the inclusion of information that was never covered, forcing students to attend TA office hours weekly. No clear guidance or examples are provided for what a lab report should look or sound like, so expectations are learned only through losing points. These weekly reports can take up to ten hours when accounting for analysis, writing, mechanisms, office hours, and figuring out what is even being asked. To make matters worse, reports are due Sunday morning for no clear reason, often eliminating any chance to have a free Saturday during a busy week. Professor Serbulea remains stubborn and largely unhelpful, while the TAs do their best to make the course manageable. However, grading can vary significantly between weeks and is often difficult to learn from, with points taken off for unannounced formatting issues rather than actual analytical mistakes. Overall, I learned essentially nothing from this course and it completely took over my semester, so I would highly recommend reconsidering taking it over the much simpler and straightforward 2400 labs.

This class is horrible, somehow even worse than the 1821 class. The experiments themselves are enjoyable though time-consuming and it is easy to mess up and not get any product. The worst part is writing the lab reports once a week, worth 40% of the total grade. They are 4-5 pages, single spaced. While demanding, it is possible to do this in 3-4 hours. However, the grading rubric is hyper specific and requires you to mention ~20 different points of information and every one that you do not mention is points off. The worst part is that the rubrics are not shared, so you have no clue what you have to write about and there is very little instruction. The only way to know is to go to office hours and get vague hints from the TAs on what to write. If for whatever reason you can not attend office hours one week, then it is impossible to get a good grade on them because you have absolutely no clue what to write. I am not expert in pedagogy but this teaching method is absolutely horrible. Forcing you to go to office hours or getting horrible grades is not sustainable or enjoyable in the slightest.
Please do not take this class. You will not enjoy it. Professor Serbulea takes the entire lecture period to say very little, the labs are hard, and the lab reports are horrible. Take the regular 1 credit lab, you will get the same chemistry degree and not lose your sanity over it.