Xiaoyang Zhu

Great class 1 Columbia University: Arts & Sciences Fall 2024 Course: CHEMUN3079_001_2024_3-PHYSICALCHEMISTRYI-LECTURES : CHEMUN3079_001_2024_3 - PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY I-LECTURES Instructor: Xiaoyang Zhu

20% quizzes, 20% each midterm (3 total), 40% final= 120%, but he drops the lowest 20% of your grade. Weekly homework assigned, but not graded.

The content is difficult but exams and homework are fairly straightforward 1 Columbia University: Arts & Sciences Fall 2023 Course: CHEMUN3079_001_2023_3-PHYSICALCHEMISTRYI-LECTURES : CHEMUN3079_001_2023_3 - PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY I-LECTURES Instructor: Xiaoyang Zhu

Professor Zhu was great in the beginning of the semester, when he took the time to actually make his powerpoints and explain concepts clearly. As the semester moved forward, however, it was obvious that his enthusiasm for the course paralleled that of his students: very minimal (in a class of 100+ students, less than 50 students showed up to lectures after the first midterm). His exams are slightly harder than the practice problems he provides before each midterm; final was a copy/paste of midterms. Class is curved to a 3.20 (B average). Not a great time overall, but maybe better than the other professors.

If it is a required class, I would recommend it. I would not recommend taking the class for fun because it is very difficult. 1 Columbia University: Arts & Sciences Fall 2021 Course: CHEMUN3079_001_2021_3-PHYSICALCHEMISTRYI-LECTURES : CHEMUN3079_001_2021_3 - PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY I-LECTURES Instructor: Xiaoyang Zhu

Three midterms, and eight quizzes in recitation, worth a total of 60% of the grade. You can drop either [one midterm and two quizzes] or [all eight quizzes] to make up this 60%. A final makes up the remaining 40%. Ungraded homework assignments after each lecture.

Professor Zhu was a good lecturer, and tied concepts together in a relatively clear fashion. However, his powerpoints were rarely mistake-free, which was frustrating during class and when trying to study from notes. Moreover, he was somewhat aloof on which topics were relevant to the midterms, which made studying unnecessarily difficult at times. Another drawback was the pacing in the course; we devoted three weeks and the entire first midterm to just one chapter, only to then rush through eight chapters in the remaining two-thirds of the course. Similarly, midterms varied wildly in difficulty, going from "too easy" to "too hard" as Professor Zhu tried to find the right median for Columbia students (his words). Having said that, he does provide a lot of practice material, assigned from the textbook, as well as 10-15 of his own sample problems before each midterm and the final. The class is doable, but not without its frustrations along the way.

His tests are fair, non-mandatory (but very, very important for understanding) homework

Professor Zhu (affectionately known as XYZ) was a pretty basic professor. He speaks English far better than his name had me fearing, and he ran a solid class which covered everything that it needed to cover. He wasn't the best at covering the math-y parts of Chem II, and I found myself teaching myself most of them, but he was solid conceptually (though he just read off the slides some percentage of the time). He's very obviously a great scientist, and he spent the last day of class describing his research with solar cells (which he was quite passionate about). All in all, a decent class which left me without too many complaints.