Ronald Breslow

Since Prof Breslow has passed away, and as someone who was once taught by him, I just wanna say RIP and thanks for everything he has done to Columbia, not just chemistry but other great things like making Columbia co-ed. Maybe no one would ever search for his name here bc it's just not on the bulletin anymore, but as one of his former student i just wanna tell people how great he is as a person

Beware---many of you might have done well on the placement exam and placed into this class, but the truth is that if you have never seen organic chemistry before and have never gone beyond AP Chemistry, you will have to dedicate an immense amount of time every week into preforming well on the exams. Unfortunately for me, I took this course in unison with other difficult courses, taking too many classes, and it ended up screwing me with a B grade (a premed and biochem major) Okay- so about the instructor. Ronald Breslow is an extremely famous person and has won every award short of the Nobel and has had students who have gone on to win the Nobel-true, but that does not excuse the fact that he cannot teach. Most mediocre lecturer I have ever met defines him. His lectures are hard to follow and dull, with a focus on a bunch of complicated and almost illegible mechanisms that never end up on the exam (also, he skips chapters and sections that usually have the questions on his exams and focuses on stupid things that do not show up on exams). Taking this class and arriving to class early made me want to gouge my eyes out as everything was taught in a boring and confusing way and I knew would not help me do well on the exams. Halfway through the semester, you will notice that about half the class has stopped bothering coming to lectures. The recitation section was somewhat helpful at…

I concur with most of the sentiments expressed in the previous reviews. Looking back, organic chemistry (or orgo for short) was the most rewarding class I took freshman year. I do not regret my decision. However, having said that, this class is definitely not for everyone. I'll try my best to help you make an informed decision. Now, first, a little background about myself. I did take AP Chemistry back in high school. My school offered two years of AP Chemistry, so I had a good background in chemistry. I did get a five on the AP test. However, coming in, I still felt unprepared. Professor Breslow constantly introduced concepts without proper explanation. A lot of the concepts were also very obscure. For example, he taught us, on the first day of class, about orthogonality. I later emailed my high school chemistry teachers (both PhD.s), and neither of them had ever heard of the concept. His lectures do not overlap significantly with the book, and we were frequently tested on material that were only mentioned in passing. The class was very frustrating. Now, more about Professor Breslow. He's clearly a very talented and approachable professor. Some of the girls in our class call him "adorable". He also has a good sense of humor, which did make the class a lot more bearable. However, Breslow is not a good lecturer. He never fully introduces concepts, and he rarely ever explains the…

Warning: under any circumstances, do not take the class if: -you don't remember junior year AP chem -have no orgo experience beyond AP chem (knowing how to name weird-looking molecules and functional groups and their properties, while interesting, does NOT constitute knowing orgo.) -you do not love chemistry with all your being Just because you think the placement exam was a joke and were placed into this class doesn't mean you should necessarily be in it (unless you don't mind spending 15 or more hours per week on the class alone) That being said those who are prepared should definitely take this class. You are being taught by a university professor who is one of the best organic chemists in the world. For those who aren't enamoured by Dr. Breslow, Myles, the TA, is excellent. For premeds who are scared of a chem class with 'intensive' in its name, be consoled by the fact that Dr. Breslow is merciful and curves the class to a B+ (or maybe even A-). As long as you're both very-well prepared and have a great deal of time to put into the class, you should do fine.

I took this class because I got a 5 on the AP, and I thought I wanted to major in chem (I thought I enjoyed it -- I was obsessed with chemistry in high school). I'm also premed. WOW -- I didn't realize how awful this class would be. Breslow can't teach and the book is awful. If you're premed, take gen chem, get an A+, and take orgo as a junior when you're not competing against the brightest chem kids (mostly engineers) in the university. I changed my major just a few weeks into the course. It's really not that easy to get an A in this class, either. While there is a curve, the averages on tests are usually in the low 70s, and it's because Breslow didn't teach anything. Just memorize the homework questions and answers.

This is the hardest class I have ever taken, but it was one of the only courses I actually enjoyed this past semester. Professor Breslow is the coolest professor ever. I did not really understand the way he taught until the end of the semester, but that is what the book is for. I DID learn A TON from him about science in general, and the applications of organic chemistry in medicine. I thought some of his lectures were really fascinating and felt really privileged to attend such a class. Thank goodness for the TA, who was a HUGE help!

what a chem god. brilliant man who has done a lot of amazing work. but what about his teaching abilities, you ask? he's at such a high level that he isn't able to teach college students. after busting through 8 chapters for one exam (that's half the course material and the hardest material), bres-money finally taught like a good professor for the last 2 weeks of class. so maybe he has the potential, but doesn't use it. nonetheless, this orgo class is worth it - other orgo classes have it much harder w/ crazy exams and graded problem sets. breslow's exams are pretty simple as long as you look over notes, do his problems (and look at some other challenging/tricky problems in the book - they're often test questions!), and get syntheses, you'll be good.

If you want to get organic chemistry out of the way as quickly as possible, take this class. If you want to learn organic chemistry, don't take this class. The first few weeks of class are almost mind-numbingly simple - just a review of some concepts from AP Chemistry and an introduction to basic organic chemistry (stereochemistry, chair cyclohexane, etc.). As a result, the first midterm has a deceptively high average - around an 80. Then things get irritating. There's a ton of material on synthesis that isn't explained very well in lecture -- lectures mostly deal with mechanisms, which don't appear on the next two midterms. If you want to do well on these two midterms, you should probably do every problem in the book for practice. Even if you think you know the reactions, it's an entirely different story when you're looking at a compound and you have to figure out what formed it. Of course, if you don't know anything you can just invent reactions, and you'll get minimal credit (he awards roughly 4/10 points for "creative" (read: flagrantly wrong) answers as long as there's even a hint of effort). With the final, you're on your own. There are 10 questions, 3 of which are straightforward. The rest are about as random as you can imagine. Professor Breslow is practically legendary for his work, but if you want to learn organic chemistry, you're better off somewhere else.

Professor Breslow is a very intelligent researcher; practically every American Noble Award Winner has been his student - I am really not kidding about this one... He has a great command over his material. However, as a professor, he has no idea how to teach. He does not review the lecture notes he planned 20 years ago before class (a bit exaggeration here), but really, ask anyone in the class, including the TA, and you'll know that he doesn't know how to teach. For our batch, he rushed through 6 chapters for the first test, 7 for the second, and then had to crawl through 2 for the last midterm, because he didn't plan the course well, and b/c he didn't teach us anything from the 7 chapters. He is also not approachable - while he stays after class to talk for a couple minutes, you soon realize that the whole class wants to talk to him, and so you really can't clear up major problems with the material after class. He also doesn't have office hours, so you have to fix an appointment if you have questions, which is intimidating. Also, he is very boring during lectures, and it's very difficult to follow his material on board. It's very easy to prepare for tests, however. His tests are super-easy; as long as you do the homework and summarize reactions, you should be able to get an A in the class. The TA is also awesome. But don't plan on learning anything from the teacher; you'll hav…

This class is hard. If you are taking it, it's because you are among the 40 best chemistry students in the whole school. Our second exam, the average was 58/100, curved to a B+. Breslow sometimes covers 3 chapters of the book in one day (those he doesn't care about) and stresses the ones he will test you on. Usually, he doesn't mention everything in the homework in class, but everything on the exams is in class, so take good notes, it saved me compared to the rest of ppl. Sit on the left side of the room. He's a leftie and stands infront of his diagrams , so you need to be sitting on the left to actually see any of what he's talking about. Most people say orgo is all about memorizing stuff, but really it is a few general rules to apply over and over again in many situations. Tests are always one page, ~3-4 problems. One mechanism, one synthesis, one wildcard on a pet topic. Every exam has a problem taken from the homework, and one "easy" problem. Also, he'll drop your worst hour from 3 one-hour exams and the 3 hour final. Make friends with the TA and go to recitation, do the hwk, and take good notes. Everyone thinks it's the hardest class ever, but in the end, the curve is to B+.