General Chemistry I · Chemistry
weekly sapling- 8% 4 exams- 42% final- 20% lab (different prof)-30%
She is a fair, reasonable professor. As the previous reviews say, she is not nice if you don't keep the rules and not do the work. But she has the most office hours for help in all the professors I saw, And if you try on your own and come find her during office hours, she will help you. Weekly PS: Try over the weekend and go to weekly help session held by the professor. You will see how much you can learn by doing this! Handouts given; Most information is on the handouts that she gives out. They are very crucial for the tests! (tables, rules) Plus, I wanna say, NEVER procrastinate! The final test will not be manageable if you procrastinate.
I'm sitting here for the final and I have no idea what she wants. At this point it's probably not even my fault. Her enthusiastic demeanor, while adorable, is a huge slap to the face.
Weekly CourseWorks Quizzes (9 out of 10 counted): 20 % In-Class Quizzes (4 out of 5 counted): 10 % Exams (1 midterm dropped): 70 % I spent like 7 hours a week on this class including lectures (3hrs), Office Hours, self-studying + online quiz (2 hours) but this is probably on the higher end.
Very reasonable. Again, making sure you know the lecture slide material really well will allow you to avoid dealing with the confusing textbook.
alot (but it is only a month)... almost 2 problem sets and 2 quizzes a week... a test every other week.
hw 5%, weekly quizzes 10%, 5 exams and a final (two hour units dropped) not too bad..
I had a pretty good experience with Gen Chem. I personally loved the way Magyar lectured.He's very good at walking through the points in a logical way and he's not as boring as most lecturers. I do concede that he focused heavily on the big picture and occasionally moved quickly, but what do you expect? He has to teach an entire textbook in one semester and he's not going to be an expert at every single topic. He definitely tried his best to help and he's the least intimidating person I can imagine. The optional weekly problem solving workshops were incredibly helpful especially for exams or even just to clear up general confusion. For everything Magyar didn't go over Sapling totally covered. As long as you don't wait until the last minute to do the problem sets, Sapling was completely manageable and was like a second instructor. The only actual negative comment I have to say is that the exams were sometimes worded strangely in which case you would waste time trying to figure out what the crap you were supposed to do which was totally possible. The curve at the end of the year was very generous in my point of view.
very heavy- lab is also included in the course
Coming from a person this finals season, do not (I repeat: do not) if you value your nerves and sanity, take this class. The workload is not reasonable for an "intro" class of its worth. It eats up your time so 1) you can't spend time on classes you actually enjoy and 2) you don't even understand it despite all the time you spend on it I tried learning this whole semester and my mind is honestly drawing a blank right now. If anything, my knowledge is negative. This is actually a weed-out class disguised in the form of "we want to help you all learn regardless of your level! !!! *smiley face*") Bare minimum on topic is taught in lecture. Oftentimes precious time is wasted. (Basically I agree with the previous reviewer that the course organization could use some improvement)