Exam Preparation Guide for Chemistry Teaching Academic Staff

The aim of this web page is to provide all the instructions required for preparation of exam papers, with files that can be downloaded to make the process easier. The preparation of examinations is always difficult as a large number of exams have to be produced in a short time, placing a huge burden on the Secretarial staff. It is hoped that this web page will enable staff to get the exams prepared more easily and in the correct format.

Timing

Each year examinations are prepared in two batches. The December Exams (and their August re-sits) have to be prepared by early/mid-October to allow time for the papers to be sent to, and commented upon, by the External Examiners. The papers are then corrected and sent to the University for printing, by the deadline imposed by University administration. The May exams (and their August re-sits) must be prepared by early-March.

Organisation

1. Exam questions (PLUS model answers) prepared by individual staff
2. Papers compiled by Module Convenors and thoroughly checked for errors.
3. Completed papers given to ILH in room 214 for processing.
4. Sectional and Examinations Committees examine all exam papers.
5. Final Corrections made following Committee meetings.
6. Papers sent to External Examiners.
7. Heads of Section to be made aware of Externals' comments when they arrive and asked to look them over.
8. Corrections/comments from External Examiners then communicated to relevant staff and changes made as required.
9. External Examiners to be notified of any major changes to exam papers in response to their comments.
10. Final papers handed into the University Exams Office, OBS for printing.

Text and Formatting

• All examination papers are prepared using Microsoft Word for Macintosh. Wherever possible staff should prepare and submit material using this format to the relevant Convener. Those using a PC should likewise submit material to the relevant Convener.
• For all text use 12 pt Times New Roman font (NB NOT Times) or where necessary Symbol (or Insert...Symbol)or Equation Editor. Do NOT use coloured text at all. Make all text fully justified and single spaced. Do NOT attempt to format with indentations etc. This will be done by the Convener and/or Secretarial Staff.
• In all material (as indeed in all teaching) the 1990 IUPAC agreement on spelling must be followed, i.e. 'sulf... not 'sulph...'; 'caesium' not 'cesium' and 'aluminium' not 'aluminum'. Further advice can be found on the RSC website.
• Number all questions and parts according to the following hierarchy: 1. 2. 3. then (a) (b) (c) then (i) (ii) (iii) (iv) etc.
• Please try at all costs to avoid inclusion of material from a scanner (or other exotic file type). Apart from potential copyright problems this increases the size of files enormously and causes great difficulties. It may be unavoidable, for example where a spectrum has to be shown, but in many cases simple diagrams can be reproduced more satisfactorily and economically using Chemdraw.

A downloadable Word file with the correct format is available below. You can save and overwrite this file to produce your examination paper. A pdf version is also provided.

*** Model Exam Paper (Word file) ***

*** Model Exam Paper (pdf version) ***

Marks

• Indicate the marks associated with each question or part thereof by a bold number within square brackets, e.g. [5 marks]. This should appear at the right side of the page as a result of either making the line right justified or inserting a single tab and placing 'right tab' on the ruler. DO NOT insert multiple tabs FOR THIS OR ANY OTHER PURPOSE (since they then have to be removed one by one). Where there are a number of equal marks put e.g. [3 × 5 marks] with a proper 'multiplied by' sign (×) not a small letter x. This may be found in Symbol font (or Insert...Symbol, Character code 00D7 from Unicode or Character code 215 from ASCII decimal or shortcut Alt+0215).
• On all papers the marks obtainable by a student must add up to 100%, or as near as possible. For example, if 3 equal questions out of 4 are to be answered make them each out of 33; if 6 out of 8 are to be answered make them out of 17, etc. The final marks out of 99, 102 etc must then be exactly scaled by whoever is processing the marks to give a true % mark. Where for this sort of reason a question is out of 17 then on no account construct further sub-division such as 'answer any 3 parts out of 4' which makes for impossible mark division.

ChemDraw

On all papers chemical structures must be produced using Chemdraw version 3 or later and the following specifications:

• New Captions 10 pt Helvetica, Atom labels 10 pt Helvetica (formula) (NB 10 pt Arial may be used for PC if Helvetica is not available but not any other font or size) Chain angle 120º, Bond spacing 20%
• Fixed length 0.494 cm, Bold width 0.071 cm, Line width 0.028 cm, Margin width 0.056 cm, Hash spacing 0.071 cm.

• In other units these are:

  inches: Fixed length 0.1944 in, Bold width 0.0278 in, Line width 0.0111 in, Margin width 0.0222 in, Hash spacing 0.0278 in.

  points: Fixed length 14 pt, Bold width 2 pt, Line width 0.8 pt, Margin width 1.6 pt, Hash spacing 2 pt.

Downloadable Mac and PC Chemdraw files with the correct settings:

• *** Mac Chemdraw file ***
• *** PC Chemdraw file ***

NOTE: If the above links do not open correctly, please try right-clicking (PC) or control-clicking (Mac) on the link to save the file to your computer. Or download a zipped folder containing these files.

Stereochemistry In Chemdraw stereochemistry can be shown in one of two ways. Wedge bonds can be used to indicate substituents coming out of (a solid wedge) or going into (a 'dashed' wedge) the plane of the paper. This is the convention preferred by IUPAC. 'The alternative is to use the thick bonds that are available on Chemdraw. Again a solid bond indicates substituents coming out of the plane of the paper while a 'dashed' bond indicates substituents going into the plane of the paper. (Note that our previous required format of using a dashed bond (- - - -) is no longer acceptable.)

Important: staff preparing Chemdraw structures by PC must send separate files in Chemdraw (.cdx) format containing all the structures to the Convener at the same time as the text files with structures pasted in their correct place. The Convener should then forward these with the completed papers to the Secretarial Staff. This is because PC created Chemdraw which has been pasted into MS Word cannot be altered on a Mac. This request has been regularly ignored in the past causing a great deal of extra work.

Model Answers

Model answers are to be provided primarily for the use of the External Examiners and also for checking by the relevant Examinations Committee member. They must be self-contained and must NOT be references to textbooks or literature papers. Likewise the use of phrases such as 'bookwork' or 'course work' in place of a summary of what answers should contain is useless. Certain colleagues have in the past provided model answers that are inappropriate, overly long or untidily hand-written so as to be almost illegible. This is an aspect which must be improved. Make the model answers concise and informative, preferably typed and therefore minimising the use of Chemdraw. Do not simply paste in page after page of ‘web notes’ !! It is almost always possible to briefly explain a mechanism or other concept in words so the External can see what is meant without structures. An example:

Question:

1. (a) Given the pKa values for the three compounds shown below, explain carefully why treatment of ethyl acetate with sodium ethoxide results in the formation of ethyl acetoacetate by a mechanism involving the apparently unfavourable initial deprotonation of ethyl acetate by EtO^–.

[4 marks]

Answer: The initial steps of the Claisen ester condensation are in equilibrium, with the position of equilibrium well towards the starting materials. However, as soon as ethyl acetoacetate is formed, it is immediately deprotonated by EtO^–, so driving the whole process forward. Students will be expected to show the mechanism of the reaction.

Physical Constants

All examination candidates are issued with a standard Data Card (new version 25/2/09) giving values of common physical constants etc. It is therefore not necessary to give these in questions unless there is a special reason to do so. In particular, please be sure never to give a value of a constant in a question which is different from that appearing on the Data Card. Hard copies of the Data Card may be obtained from the General Office.

RAA, NPB, December 2006. Revised: 15/12/06; 20/2/07 (new model paper added); 25/2/09 New Data Card added, old deadlines and old list of module convenors removed, "Insert...Symbol" added, location of "times" character; 27/9/11: section about equal weighted questions for sub-hons removed.