James Valentini

GREAT CLASS TAKE IT This will change how you see the world It opened my eyes to working in the energy sector Manageable and most people do well

Valentini is definitely a nice guy who is passionate about this subject. He tries really hard to make the material and lectures interesting. The slow pace of the first half of the semester left the second half rushed and there were topics left uncovered. We spent an insane amount of time on aspects of particle-in-a-box (a section of a chapter) that I'm not sure were even looked at in other sections of Gen Chem 1 just to end up spending very little time on the entirety of chapter 14 (which was probably 50% of the second part of the final exam). "Element of the Day" is kind of a pain and just a way to get people to attend lecture because he doesn't post the element information anywhere. Like a previous reviewer mentioned, a diligent friend is good to have. A good TA is a must. My TA, Colin, was a nice guy but his inexperience managing a classroom showed and every 50-minute recitation was unstructured and inefficient - serving only to make me feel resentful of the fact that I had to pay for that half-credit. Exams - 20 questions, multiple choice, sometimes ambiguously worded. If you think combined answer choices (i.e. all of the above, none of the above, D) A and C, E) A, B, and C) are frustrating or annoying, then don't take this class. Every exam average (including the finals) was around 15 out of 20 -- with 1-5 ppl out of 180 scoring a 20/20. Although there was definitely a GP…

Valentini is a wonderful lecturer and knows his stuff. That being said, I did not do well in his class. His exams are very tough and the material he assigns as homework is hard to decipher because he assigns work which he doesn't touch upon in class and then mentions that we don't have to know it for the exam.. so why assign it in the first place?? Regardless, due to the fact that I wasn't doing well I seeked his help and although he didn't help me DO better, he certainly showed concern and tried to strategize with me. He is very available to talk and it ended up being that we met weekly to debrief about the studying I was doing. He continuously tried to help me develop better studying habits in order to improve on the exams. He is very kind and entertaining. He wants to get to know his students and I truly appreciate this because that's rare in Columbia.

He goes off on tangents ALL THE TIME. You really don't need to go to class... just read the book, so you'll do well on the weekly quizzes. The tests are hard whether you go to class because he loves to make the questions tricky.

Definately the best g-chem professor out there! He is prompt at answering questions, knows his stuff, and is VERY approachable. As mentioned by others, just plain awesome.

Awesome. Awesome, awesome, awesome. At the risk of sounding repetitive, I will say it again: awesome. Professor Valentini (Jim) is great. He's enthusiastic about the material he teaches, interested in hearing what you have to say, encourages us to critically evaluate the articles we read, and in general, leads a great discussion. The class is Friday afternoons, which I thought would be quite a pain, but the time really flew. All in all, a great class.

AMAZING, LIFE-CHANGING CLASS. Deantini is the single greatest teacher I have ever had. Not only is he good at traditional teaching skills like explaining complex topics, creating engaging assignments, and patiently answering questions, he is also deeply invested in the success of his students. Deantini puts an INSANE amount of energy (pun intended) into this course and it shows. He REALLY wants everyone to grasp what he's talking about and connect to the material. He also asks every student to send him a brief biography of themselves, and he references these details throughout the course. So if we're talking about wind farming, he'll be like "Oh, [insert name], you grew up in New Mexico, right? Did you drive by [insert name] wind farm ever?" This made the class feel very very special. Ignore the Gen Chem reviews for Deantini: that's a different situation. The material is fascinating, even if you don't like science or even if you don't like the environment. It's though-provoking and designed to connect to everyday life. Also, you absolutely do not need a prior background in chem, physics, or advanced math. The course is designed as a non-STEM science requirement and really lives up to that reputation. There's some basic algebra, but that's about it in terms of technical stuff.

I took Gen Chem because of my SEAS requirement, and have zero interest in chemistry. This class did not help. Although Valentini tried to make the class interesting and relevant for all, most of the lectures assumed a knowledge far beyond "general", and the class wound up degenerating into a free-for-all between the more motivated students and the GS kids. I didn't take AP chemistry in high school, but I had friends in the class who did, and even they struggled to keep up. Valentini, however, really has perfected his lecture-style teaching style, and is very willing to meet with students whenever. Had it not been for my TA during the required recitation period, I would not have passed this course. During recitation there's a 4-point quiz, and then the TA is supposed to review questions. My TA, Emma, went above and beyond, distilling all the knowledge presented in class into exactly what we needed to know to get through the course. The class covers a brief history of atomic theory, quantum mechanics, and atomic structure. I learned a lot, but really taught it to myself between doing extra textbook work and using the workbook (which you should absolutely get and use, the summaries are very helpful!). It's not really necessary to go to class; Valentini posts lectures & assignments online, and the mandatory recitations will cover anything else you need to know. There is this weird…

Although Valentini was a friendly guy, he was an awful lecturer and a terrible professor. The ten or so positive reviews of him must have been from the ten people who bothered to show up for his class each week. Out of an enrollment of 120 to 130 people, only 30 or 40 people would regularly show up to his lecutures. Counting the number of people in class, in fact, was the only way I could stay awake. In the last couple of weeks I also stopped going, since all of his lectures were posted online. Although I received an A in the course, it was unnecessarily difficult and Valentini delivered painfully boring lectures. Unless you're entertained by stories of someone's pool and plumbing problems, you'll never need to or want to go to his class.

Fair, although a bit much for a pass/fail class. Have to read two science articles for every class and write an evaluation. Final project of a 20 minute talk and 5 page paper. You'll pass as long as you do something; if you do a good job, you'll really laern a HELL of alot about chemistry and research in general.