Angelo Cacciuto

I was told coming into this class that both professors were both good (It was Cacciuto and Eckdahl) and there is no wrong choice. Clearly I was wrong. Even though Cacciuto is a sweet guy, he does not teach well. His slides are confusing (he derives too much) and he even deletes parts of his slides to trick you on the final (like hello??). The first part of the semester was fine but when the second midterm came, our class average was a 14.9 out of 25. I hated this class so much and it took away my joy in chemistry. Take eckdahl if you can, I've heard better things.

His lectures can be confusing, but if you study his slides attentively, it has all the information you need to succeed and to apply the science to more practice problems (practice practice is a must). He literally puts questions that are going to be on the exams in the slides as well—his class is very straight forward. Don’t be daunted by the 8:40 am class!

Very rushed overview of some topics in chemistry

As someone with little chemistry background in hs I found this class to be extremely challenging. A lot of people will just say to stay about the average and for me this was a lot of work. Angelo is nice and he really cares about his students. He would take the time to explain concepts for me that I struggled to understand. The practice exams were not great and he reuses questions. However if you attend the lectures and do what he suggests you can do well in this class. I appreciated how he was straight forward about expectations and he spends a lot of time on his slides as well which are important for exams.

The first half with professor talks was very interesting and provided great exposure towards us incoming students. The teaching exercises, while informative, felt largely redundant and I wish that there were more opportunities for social engagement and active learning.

I had taken honors chem in high school and took gen chem 1 the prior semester.

I have learned so much math along the way

Chemistry II is a tough class. Unlike chem 1, which was much more general- it relies much more heavily on acids/bases and kinetics. Therefore, no matter who teaches it, the course will always feel challenging. I wouldn't say Cacciuto's class is easy, however he is extremely direct and honest about his expectations and what will be on the exam. However- you need to come to class. For example, he'll literally say "understand this concept, understand you this variable has no influence on this condition, I will try to trick you on an exam" and then he'll put a trick question on the exam regarding that exactly (so it's only really a trick to those who didn't attend class). He grades on a heavy curve, and your grade is determined based on how far away you are from the average. As long as you're at or above 1 SD, you're pretty much guaranteed an A in his class. Personally, if I had to choose between a professor who doesn't tell you what the trick is before the exam and one who does, I'd prefer to stick with the professor who tells you. That's Angelo in a nutshell. There's a bit of an accent that can be hard to understand at first, but at best he's a nice guy who doesn't like failing students, at worst he's a lazy professor who doesn't want to be bothered by failing a student. Either way, you probably will do at least average on his exams if you actually attend class, which will proba…

Review for ACS exams, research opportunities in the Chemistry department, teaching strategies

you learn about chemical equilibrium, acid base reactions, and thermodynamics