BERNT C M
He NEVER answers his emails. I have emailed him several times this quarter and he never emailed me back. It's so aggravating because sometimes I really needed him to answer and he never did. Also, I had a 79.87% in the class and he did not bump it up to a B-.
This class would be easier with a section to review material in, as no review material is given prior to finals week aside from lists of recommended textbook questions. That being said, recommended textbook questions accurately reflect exams, and lectures are informative, concise, and engaging. Unfortunately, Bernt does not reply to emails.
Bernt is nice and knowledgeable about the material, but he never replies to emails and stopped sending weekly announcements 2 weeks into the quarter. He doesn't have review exams posted, so I recommend doing book problems and doing Sylvester's review exams to get practice with questions in that format.
I'm not using this to review the professor, but more-so the TAs. As of writing this review, it is Week 10 of the quarter, and I have not gotten a single grade back for any of my reports. I find it extremely frustrating that there is little to no feedback within this class, and considering how much LabFlow already automatically grades, its lazy too.
They were unresponsive to emails, took an unreasonably long time to resolve a grading issue, and only addressed the emails after I threatened to escalate it to the chem department. But even then, he still didn't do anything. For Pre-Bio 1st YEAR majors, he genuinely caused unnecessary stress for a 2 credit class.
Your experience is heavily dependent on your TA as they handle all the grading. Labflow (the website you use) is pretty horrendous and often incorrectly marks things wrong so watch out for that. The final is also always unnecessarily difficult so don't underestimate it. Most of this class feels like busy work, but it is pretty easy to succeed.
Chem 1CL overall was really challenging, and the labs have much more confusing processes than A and B. But it's honestly just about which TA you end up with. My TA was chill and explained concepts very well. The final, like the previous two labs, was incredibly hard. My advice is try to go into the final with an A+, so you can tank the bad grade.
the actual class is pretty easy if you put in the work, but he makes the final RIDICULOUSLY hard for no reason, then gives little to no curve.
Your experience completely depends on your lab partner and TA. Some TAs grade harder than others. I got lucky with my TA (Rose Mary) and I had a good lab partner. The lab was easy, but the exam was a curveball. Study every. quiz. question. Don't trust the lab review they give you, it is much easier than the exam. Go over lab reports and pre labs.
The class itself is not too difficult, but there is a LOT of homework, especially for a 2 unit course. I didn't have a lot of trouble submitting assignments like others did, but I will say that sometimes I had more work for CHEM1AL than CHEM1A. TAs don't really give feedback on assignments, which is annoying, but manageable.
I've never ever seen this prof, since the lab is taught by the TAs, so I'm just rating the class. The class honestly isn't super hard, as long as you take time trying to understand the concepts. The submissions are a little tricky. Try to build up the most points during the quarter so you can tank the final, bc it's super difficult for no reason.
Work was just extensive, you have to do it together or you cant complete it. Then, when you do complete it, you spend hours out trying to figure out where to submit it. Then, when you submit it, you realize during break u submitted to only 1/2 programs so none of your discussions are graded. Then, you email the professor and they ghost you! Fun!