<p>Incoming freshman here!! Trying to choose my classes and I want to know whether theres a website or something that tells people how students rate classes based on how hard it is/ how much work must be put in/ how interesting the class is? I looked at the evaluations on the preplanner and I was wondering if there are other sources?
Or, if you have taken some of my classes, can you tell me how hard the class is? Or if it is a good balance of hard/easy classes?
I'm planning to take Chem6A, Math10A, Cogs1 and Mus15 this fall.
If you've taken any one of these classes, can you tell me how hard it is to get a good grade in these classes and how much work do you have to do to get a good grade?
Thanks a lot!!</p>
<p>Difficulty really depends on the professor teaching those classes. I took Czworkowski for chem6a and while he wasn’t the best teacher, his tests and final were easy and pretty straightforward. He’s knowledgeable, but boring. Quizzes are TA dependent, but the scores are normalized across sections. The only problem I had in his class was adjusting to his 15 MC question tests, which give you very little room for error. Compared to other chem classes I’ve taken: work was average (problem sets, we also had to pay $25 for this extra hw program which was annoying), getting an A was easier than my other classes. </p>
<p>I would be more worried about how well the professor taught, because you have chem6b and 6c after, and 6c in particular requires a good foundation of the topics introduced in 6a and 6b. </p>
<p>ratemyprofessors.com is another site, and as with all review sites I would take the reviews with a grain of salt. What I tend to do is look for objective facts (grade percentage breakdown, structure of midterms/finals, # problem sets, whether textbook is heavily used or not) and read between the lines for teaching style (is s/he difficult to understand? reads from the slides? not engaging? doesn’t help students out?) and difficulty (how is the curve? are tests tricky?).</p>
<p>Hi momosky!
Thanks for your comments! They were really helpful since I was planning to take Chem6a with Czworkowski. You said that he was knowledgable but boring…does that mean he provides a good foundation for Chem6b and 6c? Oh and did you take AP Chemistry?
And thanks for the other tips! The stuff about textbook usefulness and grade percentage breakdown is definitely something I worry about!</p>
<p>He teaches by slideshow and I found it rather dry. You could say he doesn’t engage the class: he’s not humorous, he just stands there and gives you the facts, tells you what is important (aka on the exam) and teaches straight from the book. Unlike profs like Hoeger, whose exams are lecture-based and the text acts more as a supplement to the lecture, Dr. C’s tests are all based on the hw and the textbook. I thought he was alright…I had to relearn a fair bit of concepts that I kind of bsed through in 6a (like oxidation/reduction) and another prof probably could’ve set the foundation better :</p>
<p>I never took AP chem and the chem class at my high school was a joke, so a lot of my first quarter as a freshman was spending 3 hours in the library per week on chem, hardcore teaching myself from the textbook and getting help on the problem sets from my roommate xD it wasn’t an easy ride, but I feel that chem as a subject requires hard work and I worked a lot harder in 6b/6c >__<</p>
<p>I didn’t have Czworkowski for chemistry but I have had him for 4 science education classes and he is seriously the nicest person ever. I’ve spent a long deal of time talking to him and he is easily my favorite professor. I can’t speak for his teaching of chemistry, but he has my seal of approval as a person.</p>
<p>MUS 15 will be extremely fun. The work hardly seems like work because it’s so enjoyable. I haven’t taken COGS 1 but my roommate did last year and he said it was beyond easy.</p>
<p>momosky,
can you share your experiences with chem 6b and 6c? thanks :)</p>
<p>@KingsElite: Yeah, he’s seriously the sweetest professor I’ve had all year 
I’ve never been to his office hours, but I asked him a question after lecture and he was so nice in clarifying something he said and made sure I understood him correctly.</p>
<p>@92faim: I had a very positive experience with the chem6 series (and my friends joke that I’m going to die in ochem because I loved genchem so much, and it’s rumored that genchem and ochem don’t mix >___<). I’m not really sure what you want me to share - I had good profs that knew when to follow the text and when it benefited to deviate and/or re-organize the curriculum. chem6 instilled in me a great love for chem and makes me seriously question my choice of major (biology). I’m decent at math and bio, terrible at physics, so it was surprising to me that genchem was something I actually did well in.</p>
<p>I had Muller for 6b and he was my absolute favorite because he didn’t use powerpoint and wrote everything on the board. Tests were also written (no MC! <em>celebrates</em>) and I’ve never seen any teacher grade written exams so quickly. Results were up no later than a day. The concepts in 6b was easiest for me to understand: gas laws, thermochem, etc. I took the class with friends that didn’t like him as much 
I think people preferred the slides to review, and the MC > written. As a lecturer, he had a lovely German accent and drew pictures of elephants and women in high heels to illustrate pressure and sent out congratulatory emails to people who did well on midterms xD He had a policy where exam scores are out of the highest grade, and 80% was an A I believe.</p>
<p>For 6c I had Hoeger, who had the rep of being an old-timer and “like Johnson.” For me his class was crazy fast info-dump, but he podcasted and posted all his slides online. He was entertaining enough to keep me awake at 8am. I studied a lot harder for his midterms since he really expected you to know things above and beyond >__< curve is super generous though. I thought the half-MC/half-written structure was a nice balance. My TA hated my section and was obvious about it :\ Hoeger seemed really awesome but I was afraid to drop by the office hours…I didn’t think I’d keep up with his wit haha. I disliked most of the material in 6c (bar kinetics) and was so relieved when we hit crystal field theory. Like I mentioned above, I didn’t learn have a good grasp on oxidation/reduction and electrochem was all half reactions. It pretty much meant I had to flip back to 6a and relearn OIL RIG.</p>
<p>As a whole, I felt that Hoeger really taught me (outside of gchem) how to think on my feet. He really expected you to understand the material and not just memorize how to do problems from the aris hw, and after failing all his sort-of pop quiz questions all quarter I was finally in good enough shape to pass any quiz by clicker xD I’d def recommend him for any course in the future and I’m taking his ochem class in the fall.</p>
<p>Momosky, don’t listen to your friends. You will do just fine if you did well in gen chem. They are most likely a bit jealous at your chem abilities. </p>
<p>I did well in both gen chem and ochem. Honestly, gen chem was harder only because Organic chem has such a scare on people when, in fact it isn’t really that hard if you do the homework and listen. People sorta resort to the old tales of “ochm being SOOO hard” so they dont try as hard. Also, the ochem professors give more A’s (around 20% or more) than the gen chem professors (usually around 15% A’s). </p>
<p>The harder classes, in my opinion were some upper division biology ones solemnly because of the immense amounts of memorization some of those “legendary” ones make you do.</p>
<p>I thought CHEM 140A was easier than CHEM 6B. Definitely more enjoyable if anything.</p>
<p>@Kingselite: I’m guessing you had Albizati? haha. That man is like the epitome of straightforward.</p>
<p>^No I didn’t. I had Gianneschi and I really liked him. He has all the concepts in powerpoints and did tons of examples step by step on the board so we could see exactly how everything was done. It was really easy to follow. </p>
<p>And I had Crowell for CHEM 6B. I had a lot of trouble following his lectures and felt lost. I’m not saying me being lost was completely his fault, but he wasn’t my favorite lecturer. He was a really nice person though and really did care about us and certainly knows a great deal about chemistry. I really don’t hate him, I just didn’t have the best experience in his class (please don’t hurt me astrina, I’m not being a hater I’m just saying what my experience was :()</p>
<p>Oh nice! I don’t know much about the offtrack profs but I knew two ppl that got C’s in Gianneschi haha. They tried cramming it in the night before (which some people never really change even when it doesn’t work time and time again). </p>
<p>I always heard bad things about Crowell to be honest. Maybe in Astrina’s time he was alot better but compared to the profs now, he is known to be boring but easier than the other ones. </p>
<p>Whats your major kingselite?</p>
<p>^I’m General Biology. </p>
<p>Chemistry and I have had a somewhat unpleasant relationship to say the least (most of which is my fault), but CHEM 6B and CHEM 140B have been my academic low points in college. Especially CHEM 6B though. I dreaded going to that class like no other, but I always went. It’s really nothing against Crowell’s personality, I just found the material dry and it was nearly impossible for me to follow the lectures. He just seemed to jump from topic to topic like there was some universal understanding of what was going on. But ultimately there’s no excuse for my performance in that class and he was VERY generous with his curve of the class. I totally know the guy cared about us and wanted us to learn and I have no ill feelings for him (unlike some of my friends in the class who despise him) and I do think he has the potential to be a more well liked professor if he revises his lectures a bit. </p>
<p>I had the opportunity to take Albizati for 140A. I attended both his and Gianneschi’s class for the first day to see who I liked better and decided to take Gianneschi’s class because it wasn’t at 8am and I knew some people in the class who I ended up becoming better friends with, and because they seemed similar enough. Albizati had a really great story though on the first day about when he went to UC Irvine to play basketball and how he wasn’t really interested in school much. He was dreading taking ochem but once he took the class, well, look where he is now. His main point was to never let other people make up your mind on how you feel about a class you haven’t taken. I thought it was a great story and it really made me think as a prospective educator when I hear things about teachers who give up on students who don’t care to learn. You never know when I student might start finding interest in something and they don’t deserve to be given up on. That story is something I’ll definitely remember from him from our 1 hour and 20 minutes together.</p>
<p>All and all, if I could go back and time and retake all my chemistry classes I would in a heartbeat. I feel like there is a lot I missed out on in those classes due to my own academic imperfections.</p>
<p>I know you’re a veteran of this forum but I can’t seem to recall what you’re studying either. I honestly forget who a lot of people are because I usually only glance over names when I read posts and forget what people posted about themselves in the past. I always thought we should have an introductions thread to keep tract of everybody but I wish there was some way to stick it to the top so we wouldn’t have to bump it every time it left the page.</p>
<p>Well, I don’t visit this site too often anymore, usually only when I’m at my computer with MCATs to study and I don’t feel like going on to the next passage haha. I’m majoring in human biology, not so unique i know. </p>
<p>Albizati is an interesting guy. He was good, but I don’t think he was as AMAZING as everyone else seemed to think he was. He was just extremely nice and straightforward. I think Ternansky is a little more of the “out-of-the-box” exciting professor. But did Albizati tell you guys how he got like C-, C, and C+ in his three gen chem classes at UCI?? He then got straight A+'s in ochem and like straight A’s from then on out BECAUSE of his change in mind after ochem. It’s pretty inspiring. </p>
<p>Don’t worry too much about chem6B/140B though. Everyone has their slip up classes. General Biology has ALOT of options when choosing classes, so if you can, try to jump on the best professors for the classes and when they are offered each quarter. If I’m not mistaken, you MUST take Metabolic biochem (BIBC102) and Molecular Bio (BIMM 100) right? I’d recommend Randolph Hampton or Paul Price for BIBC102 and Jens Lykke-Andersen or Amy Pasquinelli for BIMM 100. The other profs are usually crapshoots (like Niwa or Pillus).</p>
<p>^Honestly, I’m probably not going to be using much of my knowledge from CHEM 6B and 140B much in my life (which is no excuse to not learn the material) and it’s not like either of the classes DESTROYED my GPA or anything like that (I got a C and C+ in them respectively). But really it was just the fact that I really underachieved in them and it’s not something I’m proud of for myself. That’s all. I’m not devastated or anything, I know that life goes on and I can redeem myself by doing better in my other classes. :)</p>
<p>BIBC 102 is required but BIMM 100 isn’t, although I was planning on taking it anyway. Since I’m doubling minoring, my future schedules will be a little less flexible than they could be but I’ll keep an eye out for those professors.</p>
<p>Also just for the record and the purpose of 92faim’s question, I had Rheingold for CHEM 6C. He is totally old school and does literally everything on the board (and also learned what a document camera was that quarter to his shock and amazement). I could tell a lot of people in the class really didn’t like him but I thought he was great. Sometimes he came over as a little bit pompous but I knew he was just really trying to get us to learn chemistry. Overall a very nice and fair professor.</p>
<p>@OoPurestOo, thank you for your kind words and your vote of confidence could I ask which legendary biology classes are you referring to? I definitely don’t want to make the mistake of taking many hardcore memorization bio classes at the same time haha!</p>
<p>and @KingsElite I really admire your attitude in not letting those chem classes bring you down 
I’ve been pretty devastated by my poor performance in phys1a/l and am still recovering from my continuing traumatizing relationship with physics. I can only reassure myself that it’ll all be like a bad dream once I finish the series…or if/when I take any graduate exams or MCATs or whatever…</p>
<p>to stay on topic, if you’ve been decent at math in high school math10a should be pretty easy-breezy. I ended up finishing the math20 series, but my friends in the 10 series describe a/b/c as classes that have ridiculously great curves. This is a general secondhand account though, so don’t take my word on it :(</p>
<p>@Kings, you should definitely review those subjects if you plan on taking the MCAT, PCAT, or DAT (Not sure about the latter but definitely for the MCAT), since the concepts from those two particular classes are extremely emphasized on them. I say the prof recommendations only because, alot of times it all depends on the professor to make the huge difference, especially when alot of the concepts in the upper div bio classes are the same.</p>
<p>@Momosky, Yeah again, just take ochem as if it were any other class you are trying to do well in. The 140 courses aren’t going to be your classes where you look back and think “wow ochem was the hardest subject in my undergrad”, not to mention it is in fact not as emphasized as much on the MCAT as the biology. About the physics though, if you plan on taking the MCAT, DEFINITELY study and master your physics because you WILL need it. You’re going to have to know physics1a/b/c stuff + more concepts that UCSD phys1 series didnt cover (fluid dynamics for one). Trust me on this because of all the subjects on the MCAT, the physics seems pretty daunting solemnly because we need to know all the equations from the 3 courses, except for a few crazy ones. So as much as you may not enjoy the classes, break a sweat and master it as much as you can. </p>
<p>Oh and as for the biology classes I’m referring to, I’m referring to the ones most people take, which I don’t necessarily recommend taking together but dedicate one quarter per class of these: BIBC 102 (metabolic biochemistry) a course specifically focused on all the organic reactions and pathways that take place in maintaining metabolism in the cell, so its a **** load of pathway/structure/reaction memorizing. BIMM 100 (molecular biology), which some people either find it alright or extremely hard and boring, basically focused on all the molecular concepts behind transcription/translation in “excruciating detail” as my professor put it. BIPN 100 (mammalian physiology 1), which is extremely popular at first to those interested in medicine, but totally weeds out those who honestly don’t have what it takes to be good at studying physiology. Basically a course on a chunk of the organ systems in extreme detail, which is probably the most memorizing you will have to do for a class in this school, yet not on a complicated level like that of BIBC 102.</p>
<p>There are several other upper division biology classes, some of which I personally think are harder than the ones I mentioned, but those are the classes most bio majors end up taking in their undergrad. Just make sure you take them with the best professors if you can, or you will be hating your experience in that class. I didn’t include BICD 100 (genetics) because even though it is popular and required, it’s not really on the same level of difficulty as the other ones in my opinion, but it could depend on the professor.</p>
<p>momosky: thanks a ton, your post was really helpful and detailed. best of everything with o-chem and physics, hope you’ll like it better!
KingsElite, i LOL’ed at the visual of some curmudgeonly old chemistry professor being dazzled by his discovery of the document camera, hahaha. thanks for your input too.</p>
<p>^Ha ha. Yeah. Seriously though, when I first saw the guy I thought “There is no way that this man can be anything other than a chemist.”</p>
<p>@OoPurestOo</p>
<p>I won’t be taking those tests because I’m going to graduate school for education (I want to be a high school teacher). And BIPN 100 has the most memorization for a class? I didn’t think there was that much to memorize at all. I didn’t study too much for that class (which I of course am not proud of) and got a B. If anything I thought BILD 2 was equally as hard and there was definitely more to memorize. Maybe my professor was just easy. I don’t know.</p>
<p>^ WOAH, you serious??? Who did you have!?</p>