CHEM C2407

There is no homework, so all exam based grading. 3 midterms and about 6 quizzes. Midterms and exams are all multiple choice and are challenging but fair. I think the course is definitely challenging but the grading system is forgiving with being able to drop 1 quiz and a midterm. A lot of content so I would recommend studying throughout the course. You'll have to work hard if you want an A.

A bunch, but its mostly reasonable. Don't expect to get out early. We stayed late all but a couple of times. There are four (1 group 3 individual) real lab reports over the course of the semester, which generally ruined my Thursday nights. The individual reports generally came in at about 2500 words, and that was about as short as I could possibly make them. The final case study was fun, educational, and not particularly challenging if you think creatively and have some experience with poster presentation. The students in this class are the best of the best, many of whom (unlike myself) are simultaneously taking orgo. As such, chemistry knowledge will not radically differentiate you in this course. Rather, effort, creativity, and group work skills will make or break you. I have no idea how grading works in this class. It's curved, but who knows by how much. Don't try asking for your grade beyond "you're doing well" or the opposite. That said, I felt like I always put in extra effort for this class, and ultimately my grade reflected that.

I agree with the other reviewers - Flynn is really great guy. The first midterm was tough as hell - I thought I did so bad that I'd be dropping, but so did almost everyone else. Plus I found out that he drops the lowest score at the end. For the second and third midterm, I attended lectures more often but didn't find them too helpful. I will say, though, he is about as entertaining as a chemistry lecturer can be and he's smart as hell. When you're following him, the lectures can be pretty interesting. I feel like I understand the "how" behind the formulation of the equations instead of just the equations. (like in the equation for frequency of collisions between gas molecules at a section of a wall, all of the numbrs and multiples in the equation make sense as opposed to just the concept). For the second and third midterm, I did ALL of the homework problems twice. They help so much. If you know how to solve all the homework problems, you'll do well on the exams. Not only are the ideas in the test questions all taken from the homework directly or indirectly, some problems are always reproduced exactly. There is, however, a frustrating challenge problem on every test. Despite my prep for the 2nd and 3rd exam, the challenge problem got me both times but I did do a little above average. I was ready to get a B+, but then I studied even harder for the final again just by doing homew…

Problem sets every week that don't need to be handed in and that you never get answers to. Test questions are taken directly off of the problem sets. Don't be fooled, some of the questions are very hard.

Three midterms (one is dropped) and a final, all multiple choice which sounds good but since there are only 25 its hard to actually do well. Also a final, all of it was impossible.

I thought that Wei Min was a great professor. He lectures well and has lots of information on the slides. It was a great introduction to quantum, thermo, kinetics, equilibrium and electrochem. It is true that it Professor Min isn't really available to his students and at time in class can come off as condescending. I honestly just thought it was funny though (even at the receiving end at times) but if you're sensitive maybe just don't answer questions. Overall, I thought the quality of Professor Min's lecturing made up for his slightly detached and rude attitude.

Wow. What a challenging and rewarding class. The first day literally scares the crap out of you, but I'm glad I stuck around. Very few freshman classes offer such extensive resources (this lab was 80% in the P-chem lab) with such a unique instructor and such intelligent peers. Avila himself is brilliant. He really will stop at nothing for his students. He comes early and stays late. He'll spend 30 minutes showing you exactly how an FTIR works, taking it apart and putting it back together in front of you. He'll even cannibalize the chemistry museum for educational purposes. The group work portion of this class was much more challenging than I envisioned. My group was made up of very smart, friendly, and reasonable people, but by the third week spending six hours together every Friday, even the best group can see a lot of underlying tension. Resolving this tension is a valuable skill that will absolutely serve you well in whatever workplace you plan on graduating into. The one notably bad part of this course was the pre-lab procedures. They had to be blindly copied into the lab notebook, a process which took a solid and tedious hour every Wednesday night. Actually lab conditions rarely mirrored this procedure, and we always ended up making up what we were doing as we went along. This creative process was very educational, but made the TAs insistence on detailed plans of action s…

Three midterms, a final, a few recitation exercises, and a few homework sets (only one collected)

Pechukas is a brilliant man and and his lectures were interesting and entertaining. The course covers a lot of material and it's easy to get lost, especially since you never need to hand in the problem sets. Despite how hard this course is, and it is very hard, it's a great class and I recommend it for anyone who can handle it. The TA, is always there to help when you get lost so take advantage!

DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS. Do yourself a favor and get the easy A from gen chem and skip this class completely. Why kill yourself for a B when you can get an easy A doing minimal work. This class was one of the worst classes ever. He is incomprehensible, and just a terrible teacher. The tests are unpredictable, the recitations are hard to do well in (still easier to do well in than the tests), and everything about this class was unforgiving and not worth the copies time I put into it. Just do not take it.