<p>I am taking Chem 3B this fall and I've never heard of the professor: Viernes. He isn't on ratemyprofessor.com and I don't know anything about him. Does anyone know how he teaches and how he grades?</p>
<p>Also, I have Power for Bio 1B and Ibser for Stats 2, can anyone give comments on them too? THanks</p>
<p>double-humped curve for viernes</p>
<p>I also have Viernes for Chem 3B, and Bio 1B. There are three professors for Bio 1B though, if Im not mistaken the order will be Mishler, Carlson, then Power last.</p>
<p>Hey phroz3n, do you know if viernes curves as much as Frechet does? That would be really awesome.</p>
<p>Viernes...</p>
<p>It sucks. </p>
<p>His tests are easier than Frechet's (means were 55 and 58 percent for 1st two midterms), but he does not curve like Frechet at all. 15% A's is all he will tell us. His syllabus does say:
15-20% A's, 35% B's, 40% C's, 5-10% D,F. </p>
<p>But, in class he says that is an approximation and he will base his grades on how the curve is shaped. So after the 1st MT, when we had a bimodal curve he said that most of the bottom curve (bottom 30 percent) is failing the class. When someone called him out on that and says his syllabus says differently, Viernes said that that is just an approximation and he will only follow those guidelines if there is a literal bell-shaped curve.</p>
<p>The other day he said that A's are 85th percentile and up (going into the final), and then he gave us the 50th percentile and said that will be a B or a C depending on if the curve "curves out." It really sucks because my score is about 75th percentile which would be an A in Frechet's class.</p>
<p>This summer is his first time teaching though, so maybe he is just trying to be tough. He is real young, probably 30 or so. His lectures are alright, kind of boring, but he uses the tablet PC like Frechet. He can be kind of a jerk (like telling the people in the bottom of the class: "You get what you deserve"), but is also nice at times. We'll see how he grades after the final.</p>
<p>Hope this helps.</p>
<p>And Power and Ibser are both pretty bad teachers who give bad exams and grade pretty hard. But I'm sure you've already read the reviews on ratemyprofessor.</p>
<p>Does anyone know where I can get the books for Bio 1B and Stat 2 for a cheaper price than the Cal store? I know some websites like halfpricebooks and amazon, but i don't know which books to be looking for because the student store website doesn't give the ISBN numbers, just the titles, which don't help because they are called "Biology" and "Statistics".</p>
<p>Students usually use half.com and amazon.com. Go to the Cal bookstore, write down the info such as author and edition, and then find them online. You can also try the online Cal bookstore and see if you can get info there.</p>