This guy is just awful. The class averages are frequently in the 30% range and not only because of the natural difficulty of Quantum Chemistry. He just doesn't know how to teach. He'll spend half an hour covering the math behind an equation he only spent 5 minutes explaining the purpose of. The fact that he still has a teaching job is a joke.

Professor Bowers was extremely old-fashioned. It was incredibly frustrating that every question asked had to be repeated several times before he could hear what the student was asking and he verbally berated the TAs in front of the class. The only saving grace is the curve, but even so, it's not worth the stress.

This quarter he and Steven Buratto teach the course together. The comparison between him and Buratto can show how bad he is. In Buratto's part, the homework solutions are typed and very easy to read, while in his part, the homework solutions are a total mess. Buratto posted slides (although not in great quality) on canvas but he did nothing.

I have no idea why people hate Bowers so much, I really enjoyed taking a course with him. He is very old school and keep all his lecture material in the notebook rather than slides. So, if you miss the lecture, you miss 1.5 hour of material with no recovery because book is absolute bs. Prob thats why people don't like him. Average is ~60%, curved.

Don't let your gf take this class. Professor Bowers will f her hard that you ever will.

Nothing I studied was on the final...

PChem is difficult in general, but Bowers take it to another level where he managed to make even the most mundane concepts difficult. No notes or formulas are allowed on the exams. I don't know when in the real word, Chemists must memorize all the formulas. And talking about the exam... well, let's just say he makes them difficult just to spite you

Blatantly rude to undergrads, insinuating that we are dumb etc. Physical chemistry is hard enough, but I feel like I could grasp it if it was taught by a good teacher (ie Buratto). But alas if you are stuck with Bowers, just suck it up, try to understand as much as you can, do the HW, ask a good TA for help, and just try to get average on exams.