Leonard Fine

The thing about sciences at Columbia is that you just can't depend on the professor to teach you. These guys are brilliant research scientists, not lecturers. In this course you have to hit the book hard. But the more you practice and study, the better you will do on his tests. People who say that the questions are completely random have obviously not put in the time to deserve a good grade. I am by no means a science genius but I studied the book and the lecture notes and did fine.

I feel like the people who wrote unhappy bitter reviews about Fine and about the irrelevancy of his teaching just don't care about learning, or don't care about chemisty. They only cared abou getting a quick and painless A. If you aren't a fan of science, you won't like this class. However, if you are a chem major or you have a genuine interest in the sciences and how things work, I really think you'll like it, aprticularly if you like learning for learning's sake. Fine does talk about some random stuff during his lectures that doesn't show up on tests, and he does throw in random questions that don't seem relevant to what you are studying. But I found that when he started going on about effects of radiation on the body or history of nuclear warfare or einstein's life, thats when I perked up and paid attention. He's the first professor I have found who spends his time teaching students what all this stuff is actually used for, and why its important. Don't think I got some wonderful grade in this class either... I was fine throughout the whole class and somehow bombed the exam and wound up extremely disappointed, but I'm telling you, if you are genuinely interested in chemistry and science, you'll like this class.

Not a good teacher, although is a very nice guy. Very hard tests. No real need to go to the class, but must study hard for test.

Fine = Boring. He will make you fall asleep in chemistry no matter how much you thought you liked it. Personally, I'm a Biochem major and he makes me want to major in philosophy. The problem is you have to go to the lectures because a lot of the material on his test is straight from the lecture. This class you could get by with just recitation, but you really need to do the assigned bookwork and extra problems as well as the practice tests. So this class is a lot of work, not a lot of learning. Plusses? You always get a practice test and bonus questions. Other than that I don't like his approach very much.

He's very knowledgeable, but also quite condescending. I met with him a few times over the semester and did not find him to be very genuine in manner. I did well, but his 3 professor system of teaching the course is the biggest cop-out by a professor I've ever seen in my academic career. Also, his TAs basically run the class. Being a post-bacc with a B.S. from the University of Miami and an M.A. from Tulane University and the University of Pittsburgh, I had the opportunity to learn from some highly respected professors at highly respected research instituitons. So I figured Columbia would be above and beyond these schools in terms of academics and professor ability. I am very disappointed to say that I was wrong in that assumption. And that the assumption caused me to waste thousands of Manhattan rent dollars that could have been put to much better use at many other schools. Columbia has the name, but not much substance to back it up, at least not in Professor Fine's Gen. Chem II.

Professor Fine is a harmless old man. He makes jokes and likes to praise anything and everything associated with Columbia. He knows chemistry, but his teaching is not as stellar. For the majority of the time, he rambles on and on about submarines, dye, space ships, and anything else that seems to have nothing to do with learning chemistry. He goes thru his slides so fast that trying to takes notes is really hard. and if you do go to lecture (which not many do) make sure you take notes on his demonstrations and the way that they work.... He loves to test on them. in general, not bad but can be very boring at times.

Professor Leonard likes to talk about history a lot. Being an old research professor can you really blame him for relating the history he lived through with chemistry that much? That being said, Fine does a great job at creating informative and concise powerpoint presentations. What Fine does not do a good job at is keeping his lectures engaging. He drowns you to sleep with his monotonous voice and you are ultimately unable to absorb much chemistry. The average student then does not learn much because they are asleep whenever he says anything important. Several questions on his tests (1-3/20) are directly from lectures and demonstrations. The others questions are derived almost exactly from the homework questions he gives out. Average test grades are like 13/20, and he curves a 13/20 to a B or B+! If you learn how to do the homework questions and get a gist of the in class demonstrations you would be satisfied with your grade. The curve is phenomenal.

I am laughing hysterically reading these reviews. I had Prof. Fine in 1981 and he was not yet "an old man." Also he stuck to chemistry back then. He wrote fantastic letters of recommendation. But the class was a nightmare with his condescending attitude, a certain arrogance and a lack of regard for the students' learning. I guess some things are timeless.

Dr. Fine will never win an award for most invigorating lecturer. He does like talking about history and applications of chemistry to current events. He will put one or two lecture demo questions on the exams to reward those who go to lecture. You just need to suck it up, bite the bullet, and do the work. I did and I came out just fine.

A nice little old man. Understands chemistry very well. The only problem is teaching it. His lectures are boring (if you go to them) and he tries to praise Columbia every chance he gets. His textbook probably ranks in the top 10 worst texts in America. If you have to take this class then good luck.