Dalibor Sames

best neurochem class ever you will get an A if you put in the work. work is A LOT though and covers so many cool but difficult concepts. this class is on the functional neuro side. you need chris. he will be your saving grace.

Horrible professor, don't know why he is even allowed to teach organic chemistry. Goes on random tangents and expects us to learn concepts in the textbook he never taught in class. Not that he does a great job of teaching organic chemistry anyway. Also, some of the concepts/mechanisms on his exams were concepts mentioned BRIEFLY in class; there's no way to predict what will be on the exams. He also gets upset when the class average is ridiculously low. TA's are arrogant and don't help much either. To further attest to how bad this class was: people submitted signed petitions to administration about his grading system, exams and teaching ability. Avoid at all costs.

Where do I begin. Well one thing for sure....DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS. ever. Don't make scheduling an excuse. Do everything in your power to take Organic Chemistry with another professor. First of all, this class is NOT CURVED. You might think, ok, so what. But listen. There is a predetermined grading point cut-off that is pretty generous, but nothing that gets graded (exams, problem sets, or quizzes) are graded on a curve. So you're on your own. With no curve, you would assume that exams and problem sets are fair. Nope. Not at all. Asides from being tough material, barely any partial credit is given problems (that are between 5-20 points each). My friend went over her exam with Sames and he said that she grasped the concepts, but since her answer was wrong, no credit. Boom there goes 20 pts. And another 20 here. Missed a hydrogen on predict-the-product-question? Minus 5pts...out of 5. What is probably worse is the fact that the TAs grade differently. You and your friend may have similar answers, but would get completely different grades. This is 1) organic chemistry, which is full of mechanisms full of steps, not one quick short answers and 2) the grading system is completely unfair. The class averages for all three exams have been low/middle B-s,and Sames has a great tendency to put the highest and lowest scores on the board, and while the highest score is not surprising, the…

The word "intensive" is in the course title, and so a lot of effort is required to do well. This should not be too surprising. It is not impossible to do well, but it's not easy.

well.. lets start by saying this class is too hardcore and no one should take it except overachievers with genuine love for chemistry or dumbasses with unfailed ability to accept failures. his class is fast-paced with loaded information that cannot be found on the textbook(e.g. advanced biochem reactions). so take REALLY good notes and review them make sure you understand everything. make sure you go to the recitations. two secrets they dont tell you. the answers to the problem sets can be found if you google "C3046". also, do the exercises after each chapter, especially the ones where you have to predict the products or draw mechanism. on a final note. i think he curved around a B or B- this year (although he tells you that he doesnt curve so everyone CAN get an A... well... we all know thats BS) so you need to work *really* hard to earn a good grade, or DALI WILL OWN YOU LIKE IT'S HIS JOB

I would recommend the course based on the first half but not the second half. 1 Columbia University: Arts & Sciences Spring 2025 Course: CHEMGU4149_001_2025_1-TotalSynthesisofNaturalProducts : CHEMGU4149_001_2025_1 - Total Synthesis of Natural Products Instructor: Makeda Tekle Smith

I learnt myriads of reaction mechanisms, how to rationalize reaction mechanisms and predict reaction outcomes

The course was great, and the TA was amazing. The professor and TA (who also gives some lectures) are very knowledgeable about the material. If you are passionate about neuroscience this is the course for you. Honestly, there were some really boring parts of the class for me personally, like microscopy techniques but it is really nice overall. There are a few very long problem sets 15+ pages, but overall they are graded fairly. There is also a paper presentation, which is a good chunk of your grade. Extra credit is often offered on the problem sets and in class. An A+ is very possible for the course but you have to put in the effort. My rating for this class is largely based on the TA who is extraordinary. Professor Sames is fine.

I've done a lot of stupid things at Columbia, but the worst of them was taking this class. Sames taught deceptively slow the first couple of months, and then towards the end of the semester he still kept his pace, but made us learn everything he didn't teach by ourselves in like 2 weeks. People were petitioning and emailing administrators to get him to change the grading system or material, but obviously nothing worked. His classes aren't informative at all, and you never know what to expect on tests because he doesn't give practice exams, and the problem sets were nothing like the actual exams. I can honestly say the best part of this class was it wasn't at 8.40am. Due to my schedule, I wasn't able to take Snyder's class, so I thought Sames couldn't be that bad - my my was I severely mistaken. The TAs were crap. They didn't care about the course or the students, and most of the time they weren't even familiar with the material. He likes to use a laser pointer, and every time he wasted time prancing around asking us what the eff his chicken scratch meant, I wanted to blow my head off. He was superbly unhelpful about questions and grading and the material that was going to be on any test. This is the quote that defines his class, "We're going to cover selected subjects on X and Y chapter in the next class, but you will be responsible for the entire chapter." Well turns out we w…

One thing to look out for with this guy is that he goes on massive tangents so it can get a little confusing what he'll ask for on exams. Basically, any reactions not mentioned in the book is far game (actually he probably will ask about them) but any complicated molecule/reaction will probably not be asked. take good notes in class- these will be very helpful, but his exams are also quite straightforward so anything that seems like a pretty big tangent, probably is, and therefore you will not be tested on it. Study his PS and practice problems A LOT the book problems are not at all what the exam questions are like. use the book for major rules but use class notes for detail. He also always puts extra credit problems on the exams which are usually easier than actual exam problems so take advantage of those!