Chemistry Home

FAQ

Do I need to take the chemistry placement test?

If you would like to enroll in Accelerated General Chemistry (115) or skip General Chemistry I (111) and enroll directly into General Chemistry II (112) at any point in your college career and you did NOT recieve a 4 or 5 on the chemistry AP test or a 5 on the IB chemistry exam, then the chemistry placement test is for you. Ideally, you will take it when you first arrive at Macalester, as part of orientation. If you did not take it then, you can schedule to take it at another time, but do so well in advance of registration: if the results come back after your registration time, you reduce your chances of enrolling in the course you want. Current students wishing to take the Chemistry Placement Test should contact Rob Rossi, the Chemistry Department Lab Manager.

Can I install ChemDraw on my personal computer?

Yes! Macalester's site license allows all current members of the Macalester community to deploy ChemDraw on any machine they use, be it on campus or not. Just follow these instructions.

ChemDraw demands a serial number that I don't have; what do I do?

Go to the Cambridgesoft website and login using your @macalester.edu e-mail address (if you forgot your password, they will e-mail it to you). Once you are logged in, go to My Downloads (listed under Services). The serial number you need should be listed there.

Where can I download Spartan'06 to my personal computer?

Macaleser's site is now hosting the Spartan 06's installer, and the license allows everyone on campus install Spartan'06 on their PCs and Macintoshes. Here are the instructions for PC and Mac.

Why is Spartan asking me to activate or license my copy of it?

There are three possible reasons for this:

1. You are off-campus. Unfortunately, we use a networked keyserver with a campus-only firewall. In English, that means you will only be able to run Spartan if you are getting your internet service from on-campus, or are running VPN.
2. All 17 of our licenses are in use. This is only plausible (we think, unless people turn out to really dig Spartan) when a chemistry class is using Spartan for a lab, thus during the day on Tuesday or Thursday, or at night on Monday or Wednesday. If it is one of those times, please just wait until later; you will be cut off from the license server if the class doesn't have enough license seats to do its work!
3. Your internet connection, or Macalester's, is not working, or your own firewall program is blocking the port that the license manager uses (unlikely, but confirm you can reach the Macalester website, and you can try turning your firewall off temporarily to check to see if it is blocking the license host program on your machine from contacting the keyserver).

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