Gainer seems like he genuinely cares, and I will say that the actual labs didn't waste my time like the gen chem labs do; we learned relevant skills we could take into industry. He also curves to a B, which is very fair, and the tests weren't that hard. However, I don't understand his rationale for the impossible final.

Gainer was a nice guy who cared about his students. HOWEVER, that man has an evil final exam. I got As on all of the midterms and the final, not only felt out of the blue, but also brought me down almost 10%. There's no way to properly study for it, try to get the small points on everything else.

As long as you try to understand the fundamentals of the lab techniques and put effort into learning IR/NMR/Mass Spec, an A/B is pretty much guaranteed. Gainer gives you enough resources to succeed in the class. I'd recommend doing all the book problems, and showing up to lecture/labs so that you can drop the lab practical for your lowest lab.

why the hell are these 2-3 unit chem labs obsessed with giving impossible finals. my grade dropped 10%...

I maintained a high A (> 95%) all quarter in this class. Gainer administers THREE midterms, a lab practical, and a notoriously hard final exam, all in the span of 10 weeks (3rd midterm was literally week 9). As if the class is not difficult enough, Gainer creates an incredibly difficult final exam, which brought me down an entire letter grade.

Gainer is approachable and nice, but I find the lectures to lack context/structure and I got lost in what we were learning. I have nothing against him but god does this class suck. I have a deep hate for this subject so I might be biased, but it really was the worst. 4 hour lab every week, plus lecture 2x a week (lab practical AND lecture final).

Gainer is very passionate about his work and shows that he actually cares about his students. I took this class over summer and Gainer once spawned behind me and asked me a question, he's funny.

Gainer was a good lecturer, but the tricky thing was the fact that there was lab + lecture. TA makes or breaks your lab portion. Try to do well on lab reports, because they can help cushion your exam grades. Do all the textbook problems before exams, they helped me do really well on the exams compared to the average. Curve can help by section.

Gainer is a very approachable professor, very nice and willing to answer questions. However, his lectures are not the most organized and are quite disconnected from the textbook. Ask for a classmate's notes if you missed a class, do not waste time reading the textbook. The final is pretty tricky, but doable.

Professor Gainer is amazing! Everything he says clicks and it really stays with you till test days. This class is heavily dependent on TAs and how they grade. My TA was Ms. Bashir, and she was ridiculously impossible to work with and just a mean grader. Do not sign up for Friday 8AM with Bashir!!!!!!

This professor has ridiculous standards. No direction is given for the first lab report. You will not get feedback for your report until you've submitted two more, setting up students for failure. The quizzes were tough, asking students to memorize up to three complicated mechanisms and to be able to recreate any one of them on paper from memory.

Dr. Gainer is a super nice guy who has pretty useful lectures and is available for help if you need it. This class was not easy, but I think the difficulty of all exams was very reasonable. I HIGHLY recommend the book problems for practice! Labs themselves are TA dependent, but most of the TAs want you to succeed. I really enjoyed this class.