UCLA DEPARTMENT OF
CHEMISTRY AND BIOCHEMISTRY
ORIENTATION EXAMINATIONS
Each student admitted to the Chemistry Ph.D. program is
given orientation examinations before the beginning of the
first quarter. No examinations are
required of Biochemistry students. The main purpose of the orientation
requirement is to help the student and advisor develop an
appropriate course program.
An Area Advisor
from the Graduate Study Committee will interpret the
results of the examinations and assist the student in
planning a course program. All courses suggested because of
deficiencies in undergraduate preparation are normally
completed by the end of the first year.
The ACS standard examinations include material covered in
upper division courses in physical, organic, and inorganic
chemistry:
The Organic Chemistry
division only takes the Organic Chemistry exam.
The Inorganic Chemistry
division only takes the Inorganic Chemistry exam.
The Physical Chemistry division takes the Physical
Chemistry exam.
The Biochemistry divisIon does not take the
exam.
A. Organic Chemistry
The principal part of
this examination is based upon a one-year
lecture-laboratory course. In addition to questions on
organic reactions, synthesis and reaction mechanisms, there
will be material on the characterization of organic
compounds by chemical methods, and questions dealing with
the use of spectroscopic methods, including ultraviolet,
infrared and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy.
To prepare for the organic orientation exam, review any
comprehensive text (such as Brown and Foote; Solomons;
Loudon; etc.), and for a refresher, try Organic Chemistry, An Intermediate
Text, Hoffman,
Oxford, 1997. For more advanced material and preparation
for our 243A (Mechanistic and Physical Organic) and 244A
(Organic Synthesis) courses, required of all first-year
Organic students, we recommend the following:
Synthesis:
1. Organic
Synthesis, M. B.
Smith, McGraw Hill
2. Advanced
Organic Chemistry Part B: Reactions and
Synthesis, F. A.
Carey, R. J. Sundberg, Plenum Press
3. The Logic of
Chemical Synthesis, Corey and Cheng, Wiley,
1989
4. Principles of
Asymmetric Synthesis, R. E. Gawley and J. Aube,
Pergamon, 1996
Mechanisms:
1: Advanced
Organic Chemistry Part A: Structure and
Mechanisms, F. A.
Carey, R. J. Sundberg, Plenum Press
2. Perspectives on
Structure and Mechanism in Organic
Chemistry, F. A.
Carroll, Brooks/Cole, 1998
3. Advanced
Organic Chemistry: Reactions and
Mechanisms, R.
Miller, Prentice-Hall, 1998
4. Theoretical and
Physical Principles of Organic
Reactivity, A.
Pross, Wiley, 1995
Spectroscopy:
1. Spectrometric
Identification of Organic Compounds, 6th
ed., Silverstein
and Webster, 1997, or another common organic spectroscopy
text.
2. Organic
Structural Spectroscopy, J. B. Lambert, H. F. Shurvel, D. A.
Lightner, R. G. Cooks, Prentice-Hall, 1998
B. Physical Chemistry
The exam is based on a one-year course in physical chemistry. The following topics are included on the exam:
Thermodynamics
- Equations of state
- Laws of thermodynamics and state functions
- Mathematical relationships in thermodynamics
- Chemical and phase equilibria
- Statistical mechanics
Dynamics/Kinetics
- kinetic molecular theory
- transport properties
- rate laws
- kinetic mechanisms
- reaction dynamics
Quantum mechanics
- fundamental concepts
- wave functions, eigenvalues and operators
- particle in a box
- harmonic oscillator
- molecular orbital theory
- symmetry
- spectroscopy
Principal Texts:
1. Physical
Chemistry, P. Atkins and J. de Paula
, W. H. Freeman and Company
2. Physical
Chemistry, W.
Moore, Prentice Hall
3. Physical
Chemistry, G.
Castellan, Addison & Wesley
4. Quantum
Chemistry, D.A.
McQuarrie
Supplementary Texts:
1. Physical
Chemistry,
Barrow, McGraw-Hill
2. Thermodynamics,
Lewis & Randall, McGraw-Hill
3. Introduction to
Quantum Mechanics, Pauling and Wilson, McGraw-Hill
4. Quantum
Mechanics in Chemistry, M. Hanna, Benjamin
C. Inorganic Chemistry
The exam is based on one year of General Chemistry and a course in Inorganic Chemistry. The topics include atomic structure
symmetry, molecular orbitals and bonding, the solid state, acid/base chemistry, main group chemistry, oxidation/reduction chemistry, coordination chemistry including crystal field theory, inorganic reactions, and bio-inorganic chemistry.
Principal Texts:
1. Inorganic
Chemistry: Principles of Structure and Reactivity, 4th
ed., James E.
Huheey, Ellen A. Keiter, Richard L. Keiter, Harper and
Row, 1993
2. Inorganic
Chemistry, D.F.
Shriver, P. W. Atkins, and C. H. Langford, W. H. Freeman
and Company, 1994
3. Concepts and
Models 0f Inorganic Chemistry, B. Douglas, D. H. McDaniel, and J. J.
Alexander, 2nd ed., John Wiley & Sons, Inc.,
1983
Supplementary Texts:
1. Advanced
Inorganic Chemistry, Cotton and Wilkinson, 5th ed.,
Interscience, 1988
2. Inorganic
Chemistry,
Purcell and Kotz, Saunders, 1977
3. Ligand
Substitution Processes, Langford and Gray, Benjamin,
1965
4. Mechanisms of
Inorganic Reactions, Basolo and Pearson, 2nd ed., J.
Wiley, 1967