Colin Nuckolls

I'll make this concise. Knuckolls is thee best Organic Chem professor in this building. I wish that he taught Orgo I because Cornish and Doubleday's methods were way too convoluted. He said on day one that his exams were a direct reflection of his lectures and that was the truth. I appreciated his honesty, there were no surprises. One of the TA's posted his notes verbatim, and she made a valiant attempt to clear up dense material, and she wrote detailed mechanisms. In addition these TA's were approachable and available. No God complexes whatsoever. You need to hit the ground running because he covers the material quickly so don't miss class (even though the notes might be posted). I believe that the behavior of posting notes was a test run during my semester, and I had an awesome TA that was diligent but you should invest the time...you're paying for it! You're all but spoon fed the material. There was HW which wasn't collected but very useful. Make index cards...that will save your life as far as terminology, and mechanisms go. Do the practice exams. Do the practice exams. Do the practice exams. Got it?

I learned so much from this course, but I also spent SO much time and energy every week going over class notes, doing problem sets, and preparing for the exams. 1 Columbia University: Arts & Sciences Fall 2023 Course: CHEMUN2046_001_2023_3-INTENSVEORGCHEM-FOR1STYEAR : CHEMUN2046_001_2023_3 - INTENSVE ORG CHEM-FOR 1ST YEAR Instructor: James Leighton

After taking Doubleday's orgo class first semester, I found Nuckolls's class to be refreshing (and much easier). The hardest part was actually attending the lectures at 8:40AM. It was a bit hard for me to follow along in his lectures, since he goes fast and covers a lot of material in each session. This year, he posted all his lecture notes online, so it was super convenient to just browse through his notes and fill in any gaps I may have missed during the lectures. Pros: Good lecturer, online notes available, fair grading/curve (exam averages this year hovered around mid-40s to 70's so if you think you bombed an exam, it's very likely everyone else did as well - which helps the curve!), no homework but optional problem sets that definitely help for the exams, tons of practice exams and office hours available, less post-baccs = less competition Cons: Fast lecture pace, notes can be a bit sloppy and unclear, keys to the practice exams were incomplete (went to office hours, but sometimes even the TAs didn't know the answer, so it's best to ask the prof directly), 8:40AM lectures Some advice: I originally studied for the exams by reading and rereading the textbook (and taking copious notes), which left me little time to do the practice exams when it came to exam time. I HIGHLY suggest going through a single practice exam FIRST (just browse through it to get a sense of what'll sho…

Leighton is a great lecture and will always take the time to reteach you a concept if necessary. 1 Columbia University: Arts & Sciences Spring 2022 Course: CHEMUN2046_001_2022_1-INTENSVEORGCHEM-FOR1STYEAR : CHEMUN2046_001_2022_1 - INTENSVE ORG CHEM-FOR 1ST YEAR Instructor: James Leighton

I got a C+ -- read it, C+ -- in Colin's class, and I still think he is an AWESOME instructor. and I learned a ton. Oh, but how could such a contradiction be? It's not that I didn't have an understanding of the material. I was teaching it to other students, went to tutoring multiple times per week, and worked thoroughly through all the problem sets until I had the logic cold. And above all it was Colin -- both the clarity of his lectures, and his dedication to answering problems over email and his long office hours -- that permitted this understanding to happen. He is in complete command of the material, is able to break it down simply for people, cracks actually funny jokes, and always seems to have time to meet with undergrads, even though he runs a huge lab. But I bombed one midterm and the final because of other stuff going on in my life. As in, taking the final, I was in such bad mental condition that I mixed up left and right, and didn't even realize it when I double-checked it. I did well on the other exams. Far be it from me, Mr. C+, to give you advice on how to succeed in his class. But I am passing on wisdom that I learned from other students: 1) With Colin, it's not a matter of doing hundreds and hundreds of problems, which is the advice often given to orgo students. It's a matter of thoroughly understanding the specific material that HE presents. You can almost thro…

I thoroughly enjoyed Orgo II with Nuckolls. I agree with the previous reviewer in that it was definitely one of the more straightforward (and less stressful) of the pre-med classes I've taken. Lecture/Lecture Notes - At first I was annoyed that Nuckolls doesn't post his lecture notes on Courseworks, as I had been used to consistently skipping Campos' lectures, but I got over it pretty fast. Plus attendance was pretty impressive for an 8:40 AM class. It's true that Nuckolls moves pretty fast and skips steps here and there, but you'll be fine as long as you get down all the notes and review them later. The notes are very important - on the first exam, I think 2-3/6 problems were literally straight out of the notes. (After that first exam I knew I'd have a pleasant experience with Nuckolls - it's so very refreshing when a professor actually tests on what they taught.) In terms of his lecture style, Nuckolls was one of the more engaging lecturers I've had at Columbia, and I found his catchphrases and sarcasm to be endearing, even at 8:40 AM. Thanks to him, I've now adopted "and Bob's your uncle." Exams - Fair. A lot of questions were either straight out of the notes/practice exams or variations of these problems. What's important is that the concepts were the same. (He gave a TON of practice exams, which was great.) I was really stressed about the final because it was worth 40% of…

I found this class to be one of the most straightforward of my premed classes. As long as you went to every lecture (probably the most difficult part of this 8:40 AM ordeal), you should expect to do reasonably well. Nuckolls chooses not to engage with the class during lecture and speeds through his material but his office hours are definitely more reflective of his teaching abilities; he's personable and doesn't want people to fail, unlike some premed req teachers who commandeer certain weed out classes. Basically, if you have the option to take Orgo w/ Nuckolls, take it. You'll save yourself a lot of BS.

Professor Nuckolls' class is challenging, but if you put in the work and don't give up, you will see results. He doesn't post his lecture notes, so going to each lecture and taking good notes is a must--this may seem inconvenient at first, but it actually helps you focus and pushes you to learn in class. If you have to miss lecture, get the notes from a reliable friend. I would study his lecture notes thoroughly, and go to the professor's office hours to get clarification on any weak points. He is very kind, approachable, and available! Take advantage of this, because I had quite the opposite case in my first semester of orgo, and having this support makes a huge difference. Whenever I emailed him about issues on a practice problem, he always responded very quickly and thoroughly. I found the textbook helpful in grasping concepts and checking some of the mechanisms, but the exam level is beyond McMurry. For exam prep, after I'd grasped the mechanisms (flash card them and know them cold) and studied my notes, I'd go through all of his practice exams…he gives several, so there is a lot of ground to cover, but I found he sometimes repeats questions, or puts very similar ones on the tests, so mastering the practice tests is key. One part of the class I didn't appreciate as much is that a lot of the mechanisms are not covered in minute detail in class--so make sure to compare with…

While I expect a good grade in this class, I have absolutely nothing good to say about it. Colin is rather sarcastic and dismissive towards his students, at least during lecture. He assumes that everyone in the class is Pre-med and will often drop comments like, "C'mon you pre-meds, shouldn't you know this?" It's rather annoying, especially when there are people who are actually interested in learning actual concepts in chemistry and want to do research in the future. Instead, this whole class is one giant memorization-fest. I literally binge orgo for 2 days before each exam and then forget about everything within two days of taking each exams. He offers you plenty of practice problems and exams, except the "keys" he gives you are largely either "See nearly identical homework problem" or just a list of reagents. It's extremely unhelpful, because most of the time these "identical" homework problems don't even exist in the first place and you end up wasting a bunch of time looking in your notes and whatnot for something that isn't there anyways. What's most infuriating about his practice exams is the fact that he NEVER fully writes out the details to the mechanism questions. Looking in your notes isn't going to do you any good either, because he loves to skip mechanistic steps during lecture as well. I'd say that about 30% of the mechanisms he expects you to know were actually n…

I thought Professor Nuckolls was a great teacher, but I know many people who didn't agree. I think the things that students should know going into his class are as follows: 1. his lectures are pretty fast-paced but very, very clear and logical; yes, it does help to have glanced over the chapter beforehand, but I never did and still was able to follow along. I think most people miss important points because they stop listening briefly and because it's hard to emphasize them when there are so many. The key is to not let yourself zone out, and if you actually listen to what he says, it's easy to get interested in the material because he presents it very well 2. his midterm exams are fair but quite long; i think that just like most people would be able to follow along if he went just a BIT slower in lecture, most people would do very well if he cut out about one and half questions from the exam. i would say that what makes the exams difficult is how quickly you have to think to get through the entire test without making mistakes, not how difficult each question is; i often found that if i needed to sit and work through one problem slowly, another problem would be sacrificed that being said, the TAs are pretty generous when it comes to grading 3. GO TO OFFICE HOURS! It can't be said too many times. Whatever some students may find hard to deal with in lecture, Prof Nuckolls MORE tha…