She was clear about what to do to be successful. That is, take the practice exams. However, I did find that her lecturing wasn't all that clear. I recommend Joseph if you want to feel like you thoroughly understand the material. Sylvester just gives a very simple explanation without the nuances that sometimes appear on exams.

makes chem pretty easy to understand and gives practice tests that are suuuuper helpful to prepare for exams. i never did book problems and i was fine just do all the practice tests and watch the vids if u miss lecture

I took chem 1a with two different professors (Jospeh and Sylvester) and I found that I loved Sylvesters teaching style a lot more. Jospeh focuses on slides, while Sylvester works it out on the board, and I found that to be really helpful. She is also less strict on tests and relies more on practice tests for problems. Would take again with her!!

In my opinion she is one of the top chem professors at UCSB. If you have the opportunity to take her class, I would.

I was a fan of how she taught! Pretty straightforward.

love her. teaches very well, and will explain things to you if you don't understand. It's obviously hard, because it is chemistry, but she makes it so much more bearable. her tests are pretty easy and straight forward if you do the practice exams.