COURSE INFORMATION

PLEASE READ
We will assume that you know and understand everything in this document
There is a clue to a question on the first exam buried in this document
ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 308
SPRING 2014

Instructors: Dr. Robert Boikess (Course Coordinator), Dr. Heinz D. Roth, Dr. Kathryn
Uhrich, Dr. Shmuel Zbaida

Laboratory: You may be registered for Organic Chemistry lab this semester. If
not you should register for it next semester.
General Chemistry Background:
In many ways Organic Chemistry uses and builds on a number of the chemical
principles you learned in General Chemistry. But often the emphasis and approach
are different. You need to understand and be able to use these principles. In
addition to the relevant material in your General Chemistry textbook, you should
again carefully review the material in Chemical Principles for Organic
Chemistry.
Textbooks: The materials you bought for 307 last semester are also required for
308. You do not need to purchase anything else if you have them all. If you did not
take 307 last semester you must still buy the entire package. Given the pricing, this
purchase should not be a major financial burden. If you already own an Organic
textbook by another author it will be of very limited use to you. We will be using
the 7th Edition of Organic Chemistry by Brown, Iverson, Anslyn, and Foote,
ALERT: All scheduled classes will meet for their full time period in the first week
of the semester.
Syllabus: Each of the three lecture sections has a slightly different schedule.
Therefore each lecture section has a different syllabus. These syllabi are posted in
the resources section of the 308 Sakai site. We suggest that you print the one for
your section and follow it assiduously. We will begin with Chapters 20 to 22 and
then cover most of the remaining chapters of your textbook this semester.
Sakai: ALERT; All essential course announcements such as exam locations and
other details will be made on the course Sakai site. In addition, lecture notes,
occasional clarifications of difficult topics, additional problems, and exams from
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previous years will be posted on the Sakai site in the Resources folder. We will
assume that you are up to date on all posted material. A number of important
announcements will be posted on Sakai during the first week of the semester and
thereafter.
Social Media: Last semester the Facebook Group called Organic Chemistry 201415 attracted over 1400 members. Many students found it very helpful. The group
will continue this semester. The student administrators will try to restrict
membership to those on the 308 roster and others known to us. So if you are using
a name other than the one on the roster, you should alert one of the administrators.
Attendance: i-Clickers will be used to take attendance. ALERT: They must be
brought to every lecture starting with the first lecture. Make sure you register
your i-Clicker at www.iclicker.com/registration/ if you didnt register it last
semester. Clicker web registrations are good for the entire school year. There is no
need to register for the spring semester if you were registered and synchronized for
the fall semester. If you do not bring your i-Clicker to lecture, you will not be able
to have your attendance recorded at a later time. You will not receive credit for
attendance at that lecture. No excuses of any kind will be considered, not even late
registration or defective i-Clickers. But, there are 24 lectures during the semester,
and only 22 attendance points are available. Acidity. So you can miss two lectures
without penalty. Students may attend any lecture section they wish and their
attendance will be recorded, but only once for a given lecture.
Problem Solving Sessions: Each lecture section also has a problem solving
session scheduled. You may attend any problem solving session you wish. iClickers will be used in the problem solving sessions. Please bring your i-Clicker
to every problem solving session including the first one. Two or more questions
will be asked during the problem solving sessions that you will answer using your
i-Clicker. Depending on the number of questions you answer correctly, you will
receive 1 or 2 points for that session. You can get points in any session, but in only
one session per week. The maximum number of points you can earn in this way
during the semester is 24 points. These points will be added to your total in
determining your grade for the course.
Email: Questions about any administrative aspect of the course, not answered on
the Sakai site, should be directed to the course coordinator, Dr. Boikess,
(rsb937@gmail.com) Such matters include absences from exams, extended
absences from class, and other personal hardships that interfere with your ability to
meet your obligations in the course. Do not send emails asking specific questions
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about coverage on upcoming exams. p-nitro. Such questions should be asked in

class so that everyone can hear the answer. Also the answer to a question that starts
with Do we have to know? is almost always yes.
This document and others that will be posted on the Sakai site, have the
answers to many questions that you will want answered during the semester.
Please read the documents carefully, print them, and refer to them
as needed, before you send an email. If you send an email in which you ask a
question that is answered in these documents; the reply will be to tell you to
find and read the relevant documents. If you do it a second time, 5 points will
be subtracted from your point total. Sorry to be difficult, but we want to
answer every email. It can become almost impossible to do so because the
volume of emails may be extremely large, especially if people send emails
asking questions that were already answered in documents such as this one.
Before you send that email remember that there are more than 1000 students
in the class. This penalty was not enforced very seriously last semester with
unfortunate results. It will be strictly enforced this semester. Thank you for
your cooperation. If you ask a question on Facebook that is already answered
on Sakai, the penalty will be that people will think you are out of it.
Examinations: Three common hour examinations will be given during the
semester. Each exam is worth 100 points. The dates and times are indicated in the
posted course syllabus. ALERT: The exams are scheduled for Sundays (2/22,
3/29, and 4/26) at 6:10 PM. Phenol. The three-hour final exam is worth 250 points,
and will cover all the material of the entire semester. It is scheduled for 12 noon on
Monday, May 11. The exam site locations and the topics covered for each exam
will be announced in advance on the Sakai site. Exams must be taken at the
scheduled times at the designated locations. Students who are entitled to special
accommodation should present their documentation to Ms. Nelson
(s.nelson@rutgers.edu) the undergraduate administrator in Room 143 of the
Chemistry Building on Busch.
We will permit limited use of molecular models during the exams and announce
the limits before each exam. Calculators will not be permitted. The format of the
exams this year will be similar to what it was last semester and in previous years.
Copies of the old exams back to 2008 with answers are available on the course
Sakai site in the Resources folder. Because of the change in the textbook in 2012,
there may be significant differences in coverage or emphasis on any of these
exams. Older exams than these will be of limited usefulness because of the change

in the exam format. Exams from Fall 2005 or earlier will not be useful at all and
may be misleading.
ALERT: We expect you to adhere to the highest standards of academic
honesty. All violations will be reported and dealt with through the Student
Judicial System. As part of this effort, each exam will have an honor pledge on
the cover sheet that you must sign if you want your grade to count. We will
enforce this rule much more seriously this semester than we did last semester.
Missed Exam: If you miss an examination for any reason, you will receive a score
of 0 unless Dr. Boikess receives an email from the dean of students on your
campus or from a dean of students at Bishop House on the College Avenue
Campus, no later than one week after the exam, verifying your excuse. The
instructional staff will then determine whether the excuse is acceptable.
Unforeseen events such as your illness or the death of a close relative or friend will
generally be acceptable excuses. Mandatory religious obligations will also be
acceptable excuses and will require a letter from an appropriate religious official.
Outside employment obligations will not be acceptable excuses, nor will
attendance at family functions such as weddings (unless its your own), nor will
travel abroad.
Students with excuses deemed acceptable will be excused and appropriate and fair
grading adjustments will be made. There will be no make-up exams for the three
exams given during the semester, except as indicated in the next paragraph. If a
student misses the final exam for an acceptable reason, a make-up final exam will
be given about a week after the regular exam.
Please note that it is university policy that certain scheduled Rutgers activities
will take precedence over common hour examinations for students who are
formally registered to participate in those activities. Activities that take precedence
over common hour examinations will include regularly scheduled Rutgers classes,
scheduled Rutgers intercollegiate athletic practices, and scheduled Rutgers athletic
events. Students who have conflicts between such activities and common hour
examinations will be given a make-up exam or may choose to be excused.
Homework: Working (and solving) problems is essential to mastering the course
material. All problems assigned in the syllabus should be done. Some of the exam
questions may be taken from the homework problems in the text. When doing
homework problems, use the Study Guide/Solution Manual only as a last resort.

Additional problems from the end of each chapter (EOC) will be assigned in OWL
and will be graded. There will be some problems assigned mostly at the beginning
of the course from CP. In addition to the EOC OWL problems, a group of Mastery
Problems (which are short) will be assigned from each chapter. You must be able
to do these problems. They will be graded pass (all correct) or fail (not all correct).
Note that all assignments on OWL will have due dates. The OWL access that you
purchased with the textbook package is valid for Chemistry 308. We will provide
you information separately on how to log in. You won't need to register a second
time.
If you did not take Chemistry 307 last semester the information you need
about OWL will also be provided. You will have to register.
Chem 308: As you know, Organic Chemistry is a two semester course. Chemistry
308 is substantially more difficult than 307 and success in 308 is unlikely without a
solid foundation from 307. So if you just squeaked by in 307 (with a D or a C with
a score under 100 on the final exam), you should realize that you have your work
cut out for you. You should work extra hard right now to enhance your skills in
pushing arrows, writing mechanisms, and formulating syntheses. Many of you
who did well in 307 did so because of the fear generated by what you heard before
you enrolled in the course. Do not get smug and make the mistake of thinking that
your fear was misplaced and that Orgo isnt really that hard after all. Dont think
that you wont have to work at least as hard this semester. You will, and if you do,
now that you know what is expected and how to provide it, even greater success in
308 is likely.
Your Grade: Your final grade in the course will be determined primarily from the
total number of points you earned for the four exams, and in many cases from
OWL homework, attendance at lectures, and problem solving sessions points, as
well. Students who score very low on the final exam will normally receive a grade
of F. Students who have strong rising or falling trends during the semester will
have their later work weighted more heavily.
Point Totals: (may change due to unforeseen events) Ninety minute exams: 300;
final exam: 250; homework: 70 (OWL total divided by 2); attendance: 22(1
point for each lecture attended to a maximum of 22); problem solving sessions
24 (2 point quiz in each problem solving session to a maximum of 24)
maximum point total: 666.

Adjustments: Grades in the course are assigned based on borderline ranges,

trends, and other performance considerations. All students anywhere near a
borderline are looked at individually. As a result, not every point counts. We
wish to discourage obsessive concern with every point. As a result no score

adjustments of any kind that are fewer than 3 points will be made.
That includes OWL (divide by 2) and i-Clickers. Please save time and energy by
not asking.
Prognosis: Anyone who got this far and honestly tries should at least be able to
pass 308. It is our goal that everyone passes. We will do as much as we can to
provide help and support. Please do your part.