I honestly will 100% put him up there with Scott Price because they are that good. Chem 6AL by far, most work I ever had to do for one class but not impossible. He is such a clear lecturer, FUNNY and is SO nice during office hours (very understanding). He explains the concepts so clearly and I looked forward to his class sm! I also had a goated TA.
He is one of the professors that does not care about his students (which was hard coming from Lewis who goes above and beyond). Slides are mostly blank. Recorded lectures missing chucks of material. He lectures in the barest bones of chemistry and expects you to teach yourself. Highly elitist.
This class wasn't as hard as people say. I'm glad I took it as a 4th year so that I could focus on it more. Barely anyone ever went to his office hours which is weird bc I found them to be helpful. He is nice and will help you if you ask for it. He's not condescending like other chem profs can be. Gainer makes tests very difficult though so study!
Highly disagree with the bad reviews. Amazing chemistry professor. Super approachable and gives plenty of resources. JUST DO THE RECOMMENDED TEXTBOOK PROBLEMS, they are recommended for a reason. Slower paced than other chem courses. Take ASAP after finishing prereqs even if you don't like the lab time. The final was the only rough part. Lab is fun.
Lectures are pretty much useless since he pretty much only reads off the slides. The final was extremely theory heavy for a lab class but was fair in terms of difficulty. Probably the most mid professor I've had so far, but he has personality.
Not bad. He wants students to succeed and is kind. However, the most concerning thing about the class is definitely the "class environment" since the class grade is curved and on average only 3 people can get A in the class. Every student in the class is a potential competitor of you.
Dr. Gainer is a good lecturer and presents the material well. However, he does not provide many resources to practice for exams. In the material he does provide there's often little explanation or errors which makes it difficult to prepare for quizzes.Your grade will ultimately be based on the exams instead of lab... for chem lab.
He is a good lecturer but his quizzes are too long for how much time he gives us. The final is heavy on theory for a class that is a "Lab".
I had Professor Gainer for 109A and did alright. I felt like he was way behind in grading in 6AL and that he wasn't super accessible outside of class. I also had a very strict TA who was tough on grading but not super helpful in the actual experiments.
This is my 2nd time taking Gainer. I lost my A+ this time because there's a super knowledgeable student in my section. He gave fair quizzes and lab final, and made them as college-level as possible. TA was super helpful that she proofread my lab reports every week in the office hour and offered helpful comments on how to improve. I liked Labflow.
To be honest, this professor is pretty mid. I thought he would be better, as he only teaches and doesn't do any research. Honestly, I thought the quizzes/examinations were pretty fair if you did your readings/watched the lecture videos, but I didn't really feel engaged in this class. Gainer isn't bad by all means, but he's not the best either.
Tough class obviously, Gainer's lectures are pretty good though and the quizzes reflect the material. Class is still a pain but could be very much worse.
Very disorganized. Very charismatic person who is very fun and love to help his students.
mid. but if you have to take ochem lab you dont have much choice lol just hope you get a TA that grades generously.
Super disorganized, errors on every quiz, and labs are ran by TAs (given too much power and grade horribly) The curve was definitely nice but if class was more organized and wasn’t set up to fail people, it wouldn’t be needed. The professor also only gives 25 min for quizzes so make sure you make no mistakes on them. Harder than necessary…
This class was way more difficult than it needed to be.The expectations for each experiment changed on a dime with no announcements. The prof ran out of time and could only spend one day teaching us mass spec, and said "because I didn't get to quiz you on this, it's going to be featured heavily on the final".
Professor Gainer does not care about his students. Your entire grade and experience will depend on which TA you get which is really sad. The TAs will take off points even if you're right to maintain a curve. Professor Gainer looked over my reports and promised me points back for things I got right the first time. He never fixed my grades or replied
If it wasn't for the curve, I'd have failed. This class made me rethink my chemistry degree. It was like he wanted to make things difficult on purpose, shortening testing windows, never giving rubrics for assignments, and overall adding rules that only make online learning as awful as people imagine.
man is on a power trip
6AL is a hard class but Gainer does try to make it easier for everyone. There are tons of prerecorded videos to explain challenging concepts more in depth and there are weekly lecture meetings for even more practice. Your grade mostly depends on your section; as long as you get 10% above the average you'e going to get an A.
Dr. Gainer seems friendly, but truly does not care deep down. Wifi was down and he wouldn't give me an extension for a quiz. The course has many weird "rules" and the instructions for labs are unclear. Way too harsh grading on labs. Reverse curve; grades down (idk why). As whole, he makes the course unreasonably hard just because it is online.
He makes a LAB hell. I don't know how its possible that he's made the lab quizzes so difficult that they are more difficult than the chem series itself. My section's averages range in the 60s for quizzes and lab reports and that just goes to show how the class is. I have never felt like such an idiot elsewhere, like I do when I take his quizzes.
Definitely worthless person in the Chem department here. Quizzes are unreasonably difficult, maintained a 4.0 throughout first 2 years, yes A in ochem, and 6AL is just a whole beast. Impossible to understand the criteria, does not respond to emails, least caring professor I've met. Wish they could change the instructor. Good luck all you pre-meds
I have dysgraphia and he would not let me type up my lab reports. I ended up changing majors because I could not get past the 6XL series due to this. I really wish the administration would do something about this.