The class was very straight forward. ALEKS was a pain, but not impossible. First midterm I got a 46%, and I got an 80% on the final, I studied the night before. She doesn't teach in depth, and her office hours were not helpful because she doesn't know how to answer questions. However, if I would have tried I could've have passed with an A.

Prof Sylvester is very passionate about her classes. She gives us relatively easy midterms and final. There is often a review class before each exam. ALEKS is the only graded homework. Practice exams are available and best for preparing for midterms. Just attend her class and get your notes down and you should be fine.

Her lectures are clear, concise, and easy to understand if you are a beginner in chemistry. She walks through the material step by step. Her midterms and finals are also extremely similar to her practice tests! If you score higher on your final than one of your midterms, that midterm score will be replaced by your final score :)

Her lectures are very good and thorough. She has her lectures pre recorded but I would recommend going to class as well. Definitely recommend doing the book problems throughout the course and when preparing for the exams do each practice test multiple times. The tests are very hard and often tricky.

Overall chem was very difficult but if you put in the time to do the book problems multiple times through, go to office hours, and take advantage of CLAS and her practice exams you will be fine. For me this class was stressful, but know it works out in the end even if you fail the first midterm!

The in-person lectures were not that great, she has online lectures (which are optional) that I found far more useful than her in-person lectures. Technically, her class is one of the easier options but she doesn't grade tests or the class on a curve so be prepared to put in a ton of extra work outside of class. Overall, a very meh performance

Sylvester is a great lecturer and is very clear on basic concepts. Always try to do the practice problems she gives in class before she tells you how; it's great practice! Exams are hard but do all practice exams. Some of the same problems from the practice exams appear on the exams. Difficulty comes from fact that its chem, not Sylvester.

The lecture isn't mandatory but I suggest attending it because you will fall behind. Every lecture missed is about 2-4 topics that will not be reviewed again. She moves extremely fast. Tests are uncurved and she is the one teacher that has no curve for grades at the end of the quarter. This class is a lot of independent work so beware of that.

The lecture is clear. The test is a bit more difficult than the class content but it is acceptable. The exam in general is not too hard.

I took Sylvester, Sepunaru, and Anyika for the general chemistry series. I enjoyed Sylvester the most as she is clear on the topics we need to learn and seemed to be the most streamlined out of the three. One of the exams was dropped and each was multiple choice.

Chem is just hard, and while Sylvester’s lecturers aren’t amazing (they don’t really explain concepts so much as just list off facts) her practice exams are the tests, plus some book problems. If you know how to do the practice tests, you should be good to pass.

She's really good at lecturing and basically an easy formula to do good in the class. JUST DO THE BOOK PROBLEMS and you'll be fine!

DO HER PRACTICE EXAMS! Don't waste time on textbook q's. ALEKS also helps. lowest exam & ALEKS is dropped- but exams are tough. 17 q's in 45 mins so practice managing time on exams. CLAS for extra worksheets (great for practice) or in-person groups if you want to attend groups. Watch the lecture vids for review or if missing class (same content)

Sylvester isnt very deliberate in explaining concepts and why she does certain calculations, but otherwise shes pretty straightforward about everything. If you are good at thinking systematically about problems, Sylvester is for you, but if you need the steps laid out, probably not.

I got lost a couple weeks in bc she seems to underexplain things. Final was nothing like the practice final. ALEKS was okay difficulty wise, but it took soooo long to do hw. Reading the textbook can help supplement the lectures and she did put textbook problems in the tests. Overall gave a very unrealistic study plan imo

Lectures are straightforward. There are a few times it would be nicer if she could go in depth but doesn't. Tests are fine if you study reasonably. There will be 2 tough questions that aren't really something that can be studied, you just really need to get the concepts and apply them. Otherwise just attend 3 50 min lectures, do the work, pass.

She was a decent lecturer; concise, good explanations, readily answered questions. However, the course material overall is very tough & fast-paced if you don't set up a good study sched, but luckily there's usually a generous class curve. DO BOOK PROBS/PRAC EXAMS, so important. Lectures are online if you have to miss but I'd recommend attending.

I thought Sylvester's class was alright, but I took AP Chem in high school so it felt like a review. The people I know who didn't really struggled in this class. She is direct and concise in her lectures, which I liked, but if you are learning the material for the first time this will not benefit you. Her grading curve is pretty generous.

Good lecturer but homework was arduous and useless in preparing for the test. Many test question were not taught in class.

Sylvester wasn't that bad, but chemistry is very hard and you have to study if you want to even think of passing. The only thing really bad about her is that she only reviews the easy versions of problems in class, but gives really hard versions on the exams. Definitely do practice exams that she provides AND PRACTICE DOING EXAMS AT A FAST PACE.

The only reason why I didn't fail her class is that her practice exams are basically like her real exam, except with dif numbers and maybe a few ALEKS problems thrown in here and there. Grind ALEKS + practice exams a few times and you be chillin'

By far the worst professor I have ever had. In some ways her practice exams are like the actual exams except the actual exam will be one hundred times harder. Her final was super hard and was nothing like the practice one. ALEKS is honestly busy work it doesn't help much and she just throws information at you in lectures instead of teaching.

Her lectures are not the best but also not the worst. The test averages were around 65% but she didn't seem to change her teaching style to help us do better. I spent 95+ hours doing ALEKS assignments as well as practice tests on top of that but still managed to fail every test. Find a study buddy who is also in her class if you can. Good luck.

Even after doing her recommended studying schedule with a friend and understanding her practice tests, I still failed every test. The average for the tests were 65% and she did nothing to try to improve that average. Her final exam was nothing like her final practice exam or anything she's taught in class. Do ALEKS, it has good explanations!