Charles Doubleday

It is organic chemistry, perhaps the most standardized curriculum in all of undergrad.

Doubleday is a really nice person, but he is not a good lecturer. This is a class you will have to teach yourself. During his lectures, he will projects his notes on the screen and talks through them without writing anything on the board. I found it really hard to learn without seeing him work through the problems during class. Most people don't come to lecture. He does provide a lot of helpful resources (recorded lectures, detailed notes, and many practice exams with answer keys). If you take orgo with Doubleday, I definitely recommend focusing on the practice exams (usually one of these problems will show up on the exam).

Orgo is a very hard class that requires a lot of work to keep up. I didn't enjoy orgo and didn't enjoy Doubleday as a professor. Pros of taking Doubleday: 1) he teaches almost directly from McMurry. I got by in this class by pretty much memorizing the textbook, which is a lot of work and time consuming! But I found Doubledays lectures to be a complete waste of time, and towards the end of second semester I stopped going to lectures completely--it was a better use of time to read McMurry and do the (millions of) assigned homework problems. 2) Doubleday provides 5 years of previous exams, which are a pretty accurate representation of what your exam will look like. However, in contrast to a review below, I did think that in each exam there was at least one "curveball" questio that always threw me off. I recommend absolutely ACEING the early midterms because they only get tougher. 3) Doubleday is very willing to hold office hours and is helpful as long as you have specific questions. Cons: 1) The poor quality if the lectures. He is very boring and hard to understand and there is no organized format to his lectures. My lecture notes were not helpful at all, and I never used them to study for exams. Unless you have read the chapters before going to the lecture (which I managed to do for about 3 weeks in first semester) then you will not understand what he is talking about at all. 2)…

first exam might've been the easiest exam i've ever taken. afterwards though.... literally is the worst hellish battle downwards from here. it just piles on and on and he cannot teach for the life of him. i don't know how many of you guys have tried to self teach organic chemistry but it is HELL ON EARTH. most anxiety inducing class ever, and i went to lecture. oh i went to lecture alright. each class more demotivated than the last. he's relatively nice during office hours but when i tell you i spent way more time on this class than if i had a good professor who just taught the material... like their job... don't choose doubleday please. for your mental health

I got an A+ first semester and am expecting an A+ for the second semester as well. Professor Doubleday is an awesome guy. He will spend a lot of time with you to make sure you understand the material. I think he's very friendly and easy to approach. His exams are extremely reasonable (no weird tricks) while still challenging (in a good way), and he gives you many old exams to work from. Like any orgo class, it takes a lot of practice and a wide exposure to problems to be able to do well. Overall, here's what you need to do to be successful: 1) You should definitely THOROUGHLY read McMurry, especially if you don't go to lecture. The details in McMurry are necessary to do well. When you read McMurry, take your own notes on the chapter and rewrite the "summary of reactions" sections at the end of the chapter. Hold on to these notes, don't throw them out. There were many times this semester where I referred back to my old textbook (and class) notes from last semester. 2) Try to do the end of chapter question problems. If you struggle doing the end of chapter questions, then get Klein's Organic Chemistry textbook and read up on the sections where you're struggling (or Organic Chemistry as a Second Language). You should be able to do the McMurry end of chapter questions without any issues until you get to mechanisms. McMurry is awful for learning mechanisms. Get Klein's books. 3) On…

if you just want to read the textbook and never go to class doubleday is the professor for you. apparently only 8 ppl still went to lecture by the end of the semester and that's more than i would've guessed. pace moves very slowly and the course requires a lot of time put in on your own but if you learn well that way it's not bad.

Taking Orgo with Doubleday is legitimately the easiest the course could possibly be. I truly believe that the people who are complaining about how difficult his class is would not be complaining if they had ANY basis for comparison with other Orgo classes. Yes, Orgo is a difficult class...not sure what these people expected and why they feel the need to blame it on Doubleday. He legitimately will announce during class things like "I would never test you on that, it's just too complicated" or "If I asked you about that, that would just be mean, wouldn't it?" He legitimately only tests on the most simple and some slightly more difficult iterations of what we learned. He has absolutely no desire to trick or surprise us. I'm not sure what was going on in the previous years referenced, but this for this entire year the averages for exams have been between the high 70s and mid 80s which is really high for an O chem course. I have been meaning to write this review for a while because when I saw Doubleday's reviews last semester all the other professors were full and I was really really upset that I was stuck with this incredibly difficult professor. Being forced to stick with Doubleday turned out to be the best choice ever. Even if Cornish/Campos exams have averages of 50s/60s and end up curving to be "equivalent" to Doubledays uncurved but easier exams, I'd rather not spend a semest…

he's dry but attend lectures because he gives you the information you need just listen to him. but also a good portion is self studying. also, if you have a good understanding on what concepts he covers in the practice exams, you're set for the actual one. and he gives 5 practices which is goated.

If you are taking Orgo with Doubleday, I have two things to say: 1. DO NOT TAKE IT WITH HIM IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO. Period. He was the worst professor I've had, in terms of teaching ability, effectiveness, and in simple, basic ability to inspire students to be interested in (and dare I even say passionate about?) the subject at hand. This material in a brilliant professor's hands could really ignite the intellectual fires of many students. There's none of that here. Just boring, awkward lectures that made me wish I was at the library studying instead. 2. If you have to take it with him, buy David Klein's Orgo textbook (the same guy who wrote Org Chem as a 2nd Language). The only reason I got an A in this class was because I not only fully completed Klein's "Organic Chem as a Second Language", I googled Klein, found out he wrote his own book, and shelled out an additional $250 to get Klein's full textbook and solutions manual. They were absolutely, 100% invaluable. The McMurray is still necessary, so that you can phrase everything in McMurray's specific terms (in terms of reagents used, mostly), but honestly what I would do is this: I would check the syllabus to see what we were supposed to study before the lecture, and then I would find that subject matter in the Klein textbook. I would read the Klein chapter in full, doing every single example problem along the way (without loo…

I'll preface this by saying I got a B in Orgo I with Leighton--who is easily the best lecturer I have ever had in chem. Doubleday is a really close second in terms of the learning experience except he'll tell you what to expect in tests and is much easier to do well in this class vs. Leighton (probably getting an A). The sweetest man. Ask questions, he can be slow since he's getting on a bit but he'll 100% show you the "skills" you need to develop to do great on his tests.