Revision makes me bored. Being silly makes me happy. So...
The Chemical Commandments
ONE
THOU SHALT NOT utter the words ‘stable half-filled shell’... you will be castrated (metaphorically or actually, depending on your tutor).
TWO
THOU SHALT NOT try and apply quantum mechanics to organic chemistry - it's not big and it's not clever.
THREE
THOU SHALT NOT invent new versions of Baldwin’s Rules – 89-endo-trig is almost certainly not favoured
1.
FOUR
THOU SHALT NOT try and get away with forgetting stat mech/thermo/anything by writing ‘trivial’ and then quoting the result from Atkins.
FIVE
THOU SHALT stand on Shriver & Atkins to reach the top shelves in the library where the real inorganic books hide.
SIX
THOU SHALT NOT fall asleep in Timmel’s lectures, or turn up late to Logan’s. The former will wake you, the latter will mock every part of your feeble existence, and then work out the Hamiltonian for your haircut
2.
SEVEN
THOU SHALT NOT even pretend to care about electrochemistry – better chemists than you have died trying to feign an interest. Nobody cares
3.
EIGHT
THOU SHALT NOT invent named reactions in an exam – stringing three German-sounding names together does not constitute an acceptable answer.
NINE
THOU SHALT NOT giggle at the word penetration… much.
TEN
THOU SHALT remember the periodic table, for he who does not is liable to suffer a miserable fate.
1 Inventing these makes
Sir Jack unhappy… and when Sir Jack is unhappy, bad things happen.
2 Clearly this is rather Oxford-specific. Feel free to replace the names and punishments with those more relevant to your department.
3 Except Compton (or your department's equivalent).
Chemistry discussion, revision and homework help.
Useful Resources:
The Chemical Commandments
