Feldwinn's 1A class is notoriously challenging, but engaging with the textbook, practice problems, and resources like Unstuck study AI can help you navigate it. The lectures move quickly, so staying focused is key. It's a tough class, but doable with hard work.
Really a bad teacher. Believes pedagogy is unimportant. Prefers hard, obscure minutia over understanding. Unfriendly and unwelcoming. Would rather eat you with a side of fava beans than have you learn the course info. Eat me darby.
I would absolutely not recommend taking a class with Professor Feldwinn. Lectures are hard to follow, exams are very difficult, and the work load is completely unnecessary. Other chemistry 1B professors do not do quizzes, iclickers, use ALEKS problems on exams, and put such a big emphasis on book problems. We also got a terrible curve. Take Price.
Feldwinn is notoriously the hardest gen chem prof for a reason. If possible switch professors! If you get stuck with her (like I did) do every single book problem, quiz problem, iclicker, and Aleks when studying, she uses them word for word on exams. Exams are mostly free response with no partial credit.
Do not take the professor if you can at all help it. I promise you're better off waitlisting another professor or taking chem another quarter! Not worth the stress. Tests are open answers, so if you're not exactly correct, you get a zero. Lectures were at 8:00 am with before-class questions at 7:45, which went away at 8:00, & showed up on the exam.
Her lectures are well done but very fast paced, she teaches as though you should already understand new concepts which makes it quite difficult, especially towards the end of the quarter. 8 HW assignments on ALEKS, 4 quizzes, 3 midterms, 1 final. Class ave. is in the high 60%, low 70% range. You need to work HARD to pass this class, so don't slack!
She doesn't explain anything that she does in lecture. she just goes through everything without any reason behind it. If students don't understand, she expects them to figure it out on their own outside of class. All her tests are free response and very rarely multiple choice. She is brutal.
Moves so fast
LLLLL. I suggest either taking another professor or switching to gender studies. You spend hours doing aLeks, and the morbede amount of book probLems she hands out. On top of that, Lectures are 100 mph, so expect to review that materiaL. Oh, also don't forget to read the chapters from the textbook! Absolutely out of control.
Feldwinn is easily the worst chem teacher at this school. She literally doesn't everything different then every other chem teacher, her students do poorly and she never changes anything. He literally uses test questions for Iclicker and expects us to get it right after she just explained it 5 seconds for. Doesn't explain things well at all
She gives extra busy work and quizzes that other teachers don't. She is the only gen chem teacher who gives free response but doesn't give partial credit for it anyway. She has the worst lecture/midterm/final time slots (8 am lectures and midterms/finals are the week's last days so you go home late). But she's a good lecturer just a bit fast.
L teacher. L class. L rizz. I came into this class excited over the prospect of learning a new outlook of chemistry. However, I was thoroughly disappointed over the discouraging learning environment of this class. I lost my passion over chemistry and changed my major and changed schools to SBCC. Don't take this class if you want happiness.
AVOID AT ALL COSTS. I've never felt more defeated as a student than in her class. No matter how many book problems I did, how much I read, how many hours I studies, I continued to do poorly on tests. I attended 1 lecture from a different professor and learned infinitely more than I ever did in Feldwinn. Exams are FRQs but no partial credit.
The test are hard, but when you take other professors you will realize that her teaching methods are honestly the best. She goes through problems step by step and does them in a hierarchal order. Although she seems to expect more from her students than any other professor, the amount of work that you put in pays off in the end. DO THE BOOK PROBLEMS
her test questions were from the homework but the exams were free response and she doesn't look at work just the final answer
You HAVE TO READ the textbook and take notes before every class, and DO EVERY SINGLE BOOK PROBLEM (at least twice) to do well. Exams take questions directly from the textbook, lecture and ALEKS (same numbers, even) so review those, and do CLAS. Not ideal for a psyc major, but good rigor if you have to take a lot of chem/bio in the future.
Feldwinn's Chem 1A is a class where you cannot make any mistakes in. DO the book problems and learn how to do word problems in under 3 minutes and you might have a chance.
DO NOT TAKE HER CLASS. - Expect to spend 4-5 hours on this class everyday - Only professor that doesn't do multiple choice tests - Talks really fast in lectures and moves on even if it's clear students don't understand - Expect to teach yourself a lot of the material If you do take it: - Do the book problems - Go to CLAS
She doesn't give any partial credits for the tests. She only look at the final answer. If you make a little mistake for one free response question, you will lose all the points.
Midterms are almost impossible to pass. Questions are worth up to 10 points each and there is no partial credit. Say you forget a unit or round to the wrong decimal place in your final answer, you will receive a 0 out of 10. She expects students to study chemistry for more than 2 hours every single day of the week. You will never catch a break.
If I could give her a 0, I would. Her class average has been a 50%, and blames the students for their lack of trying. It is clearly a reflection of her teaching. She expects way too much from the students. Save yourself and take anyone else. She is the only teacher who does not do multiple choice exams.
Here's the thing about Darbs; She's really nice, but nothing really prepares you for the THREE midterms and numerous quizzes. Although she tries to help as much as possible, the questions are so unecessarily complicated. Take her if you literally don't have any other classes because you dedicate most to all of your time to studying for her exams.
Her tests are TERRIBLE. The class average was 50% on the first Midterm, and not for lack of studying. The homework is extensive but not difficult, so you expect the same difficulty test as your homework, but you get slammed with a test that is 10x harder than the homework. Her class is a weeder class. Take it at your own risk.
This is by far one of the hardest classes you'll take as a premed student. Professor Feldwinn is an awful lecturer and speaks at around 100 mph. She gives an egregious amount of work as the ALEKS program she uses sucks. Also the tests are all FQE and are nearly impossible, she is very unforgiving with grades. I suggest getting a tutor to help you.