938
edits
| Willipedia is now back online as of 5/5/2019 |
| It has been several years since Willipedia closed. Please help get it updated! |
| Go to the Willipedia 2.0 Project to learn more. |
Changes
m
:Estimated weekly workload: 5 hours
:Workload: Bi-monthly problem sets: three hours (usually done over two-four days) :Tests (four over the course of the semester)- : usually between 10-24 hours of studying :Regular reading-: 1-2 hours (usually two-three reading assignments during the week) :Lab prep-: 1 hour :Melt-temp: 30- 30minutes to i hour 3090 minutes :Lab- : 4 hours :Lab report*- : 8 hours or so per report except the third, which is a short work sheet.
* :Weekly Problems sets averaging 6-8 hours as a minimum (more like 12-14);* :Two "6 hour" take-home midterms that would frighten the bravest chemist;* :Weekly labs that range from 4 to 8 hours of actual in lab time;* :Running Spectral Instruments (outside of lab) 1 hour;* :Spectral Analysis and lab prep that take about an hour;* :Lab Reports that take approx 40-50 hours to write up;* :Final Project on a complete synthesis of an extremely complex molecule, including:*:# Oral Presentation: 30 hours of prep, power point and chem draw.*:# Final Paper a 25-30 page beast of chem jibberish that will take weeks to research, days of prep (more chem draw and figures) and approx 40-50 hours of just straight writing....
:Estimated weekly workload: 12-15 hours
:Estimated weekly workload: 10-15 hours
category: academics and fixed some formatting
[[Category:Guides]][[Category:Academics]]
Because some people just like a challenge.
Although, the class is one of the most interesting at Williams (102 lecture was the highlight of my day, every day) and the quizzes really are not that hard. It only took me a couple hours of studying the images for the quizzes a night or two before the quiz, and I didn't miss any points on any of the quizzes. Also, I am not one of those people who can get A's in classes without studying, so don't think that. The exams do require a lot of preparation, though.
===Biology 202: Genetics===
It seems hard for me to imagine this page to be complete without listing one of William's most painful classes. Organic Chemistry takes two semesters to complete, and is taken the spring of one year, followed by the fall of the next. So, even stucturally the class is difficult, but I'll get to that in a bit.
The first semester of Organic (Shortend to orgo here, and o-chem at most other schools)is basically learning the bare-bones basics of organic chemistry, analogous to learning the alphabet of a new language, and logically the second semester builds on the knowledge creating paragraphs and papers of this alphabet (to continue the analogy). Now notice how I made the jump from alpha-bet alphabet to papers over a summer; this is basically how it feels. And, of course, this is not to say at all that learning the basics of organic chemistry is easy. Quite the contrary, the basics are very memorization based, there is no way around it. This memorization becomes even more of a hinderance when you arive the fall of the next semester and realize that you have forgotten everything. Of course, there is hardly a day of review, it would be impossible though to review more, there is far too much material to get into the semester. Thus the first month of that second semester of orgo is really a blind, frantic scramble to remember what the previous semester entailed, while trying to to understand complex reaction mechanisms which apear to happen almost by magic.
However, if you can get though that, the rest of the semester should be only regular hard. Of course, this is all in addition to the lab section in which you are given three unknown samples (two of which are mixed together) which you are supposed to purify, analyze, and identify using the methods learned the semester before, and some new techniques as well.
*Or for the chem masochist, there is the extra lab-hard lab section (255). Be prepared for about two hellish consecutive all-nighters for both the (ungraded) rough draft and final 60+ page book that is your lab report. But not having to do pre and post labs is so deliciously tempting...
For those with enough testicular fortitude, this class is interesting but the workload is constant and makes intro orgo look rather pale by comparison. Getting through this class with a decent grade is a blessing bestowed upon few. With Smith its a whole new world of pain, he's a great prof and helps out a lot but with:
This class is no joke. But if you're willing to get your ass kicked for a semester the knowledge imparted upon you is vast and powerful...for you shall become an Organic Chem Lord...
Topology (with Professor Morgan) is hard. And the final exam is really hard, definitely nothing like what is in class. Since the textbook (Munkres -- pretty much the only topology textbook in existence) is created for a two-semester course, and this class covers it in one semester as a 300-level course, you have to skip a lot, so it's hard to know what to review in the textbook. Also, there are very few examples, and a lot of long proofs, and almost no illustrations. There are also no solutions for any of the problems in the book.
Estimated weekly workload: 10-20 hours(if you need less then 10 hours, you should go see a doctor. If it takes you more than 20 hours for three weeks in a row, consider dropping it.)
===Math 401===
On the plus side, Functional Analysis has been known, in the Budapest math program, to be called Fun Anal. It is rumored that this abbreviation alone is reason enough to take the course.
:Estimated weekly workload: 12+ hours
===Any Physics Tutorial (402T, 405T, 411T)===
Goodbye weekend, hello problem set. For the masochistic physics major in all of us. Other highlights include getting to make a fool of yourself in front of one of your favorite physics profs once a week!
===Japanese 101-102===
Many will enter, few will get through 102. Japanese 101-102 would easily be the biggest weeder on campus, except that the upper-level classes don't exactly get easier. For the first two years, the class is two classes' worth of scheduled meetings, and even thereafter it holds two classes' worth of homework time. Skills required include rote memorization, ability to quickly adapt to deeply bizarre material, the ability to not snicker at conversation videos, and the ability to assimilate grammar without ever having it explained. (Part of this class is called the "lecture" section. Despite this, there will never be a lecture.) On the plus side, if you can survive it, the Japanese language courses will teach you a lot, and every other department will seem easy in comparison. <---------- (Thats That's just ridiculous and you should be hit in the face for saying it.)
