I love Professor Anyika so so much! She is extremely caring and puts in a lot of effort into her class and into helping her students understand. Office hours is a very helpful tool where you can solve problems with students and Mercy will guide you along the way. This way you really learn the material instead of her just giving you the answer!
Professor Anyika has been my favorite professor. She is extremely caring and will help her students understand the material. She will sit with you one on one until you understand if you ask her. Ochem is a hard class but if you go to office hours, understand the practice problems, and go to office hours you should be fine. Definitely recommend!!
She is a good professor overall for CHEM109A. I do think she could improve on spacing out the content better (ex. some lectures were too dense and fast and others were repetitive), and those random grade emails before quiz scores came out were unpleasant. My favorite part of taking her class was her humor. She is such a mooooooooooooooood.
Anyika is fairly new and seemed to had a rough start the previous times she taught, but I found her lectures to be very clear and fairly easy to understand. There was plenty of resources for practice outside class and the exams were fair, although she does like to sprinkle some trick questions here and there.
I honestly don't understand all of the hate towards Anyika. She is a decent lecturer and does the best she can considering how difficult of a topic organic chemistry is to grasp. You need to put in work outside of the class if you want a good grade. Her tests are very reasonable, most of the questions are taken from the book or lecture.
I was worried going into Anyika's class because I heard negative reviews from my peers about her teaching and difficulty, but I learned so much from her and really appreciated how she made herself available outside of lecture. I went to her office hours frequently and she gave clear explanations. Her exams are fair if you go to lectures.
She thinks she's a really smart, awesome professor but she's just ok. Her ego does not match her skill, and is critical on students unprompted due to her ego trips. Just not a fun person to be taught by, go for your other options if you have a chance.
I really liked her style of teaching. For 109A and 109B her tests were a little unfair especially compared to the other professors. They were full of little exceptions and trick questions. Ochem is a hard topic overall but Anyika is super nice and wants you to learn. She is supper accessible if you need extra help or have questions.
She's lovely. Had her for B and C, very caring and human which is important in these brutal classes to not feel so insignificant. The classes are hard, and the time is limited so it's equally hard to teach this course. Her exams were challenging but fair, whatever practice sources she says test questions will come from are true, it will happen.
Had her for the full series and she is my favorite professor ever. The series is very hard if seeking an A, but this is not her fault. She is funny, transparent with material that can appear on tests, and will give credit if you defend your answers well. She goes the extra mile to help students pursue outside opportunities. I highly recommend her.
109B made me hate Ochem, loved 109A/C. 109B is the worst one out of the series (got an A in 109A) will be hard no matter who you take. Her lectures are great, clear, concise. Tests are difficult + based on book probs/reading/lecture/wksts. The synthesis questions killed me. Super stingy with partial credit. Funny and sweet, but MERCY has NO MERCY.
Ochem is actually just a hard subject and Mercy is very passionate about what she teaches. She has clear lectures and is very open to questions. Even though I got a C-, it was 100% on me, SO DO THE BOOK PROBLEMS. Professor Mercy is a great choice for chemistry, so dont skip out on her.
read the textbook, do book problems, and go to office hours
Incredibly tough, leaving the exams and feeling like an idiot is normal. That being said, she is very clear on the material, and is incredibly helpful in off time. Not an easy professor by any means, but if you are willing to put in the work you can get a good grade. Tests were hard, but not impossible. Get friends to study with and do CLAS.
Love her. Ochem is hard, there's no way around that, but Dr. Anyika clearly cares a lot and tries her best to deliver the material smoothly. Do the book problems, go to class, and get help if you need it. Dr. Anyika is bubbly, passionate, and helpful.
Anyika makes her expectations very clear for the tests and gives you the materials you need to succeed. I don't really understand the poor reviews. It's a tough class that requires effort outside of lecture. Not much she can cover in 50 minute class periods. Stay on top of practice problems and attend CLAS. Her tests are VERY fair imo.
O-chem is hard so there is not much a professor can do. I think she is getting better with every quarter at UCSB. Just do the book problems, worksheets, mastering chemistry, and go to her office hours for questions. Yes the class is hard but it's also doable if you try.
This was a very tough class and I probably spent 4 hours a day studying the material. But if you put in the work (read before class/do all practice problems) the class is very doable. I think Prof Anyika gets a bad rep sometimes just because the material is hard, but i actually found her lectures very helpful after doing the reading.
Very bad. She gives you 100+ problems that you should know that could appear on the test. She makes the content so much more confusing. Quizzes are very unclear. Do not take her whatever you do.
One of the most traumatizing experiences of my life. Her tests are ridiculously difficult and unpredicatable. Students were in tears after every midterm. When students tried to ask for explanations to test questions she got incredibly defensive and refused to give out any partial credit. I considered changing my major after taking her class.
Do not take Anyika. Bad professor, bad tests, bad grading, just bad. I don't learn anything from her lectures and she paces them horribly. I had to read the entire textbook and watch videos on every topic if I wanted a chance at passing her tests. I could not stand this class and I am happy to never have to take Anyika again.
Lectures get confusing and she falls behind in material compared to other professors. Wastes too much time on Iclicker questions that didn't teach you anything and has annoying quizzes on Gauchospace that were unnecessarily hard. Tests are hard in general but she tries to trick you for no reason. Overall not worth taking
The most soul crushing, humbling experience in my life. There are three midterms, all with uneven point distributions, for 60% of your final grade. I reviewed every practice problem and example question we had ever done in class, but no matter what my grade just dropped due to meticulous trick questions on these tests. good luck.
Don't get the hate. She had hard exams, in a sense that the questions were difficult, however she literally us you exactly the book/quiz/practice problems to know how to solve. Only criticism I have is that she was somewhat stingy with her free response.
