Didn't like him for Chem 1A but I blame myself for expecting it to be easy. For 109A, he understands the course is hard so he makes it less difficult to pass. There are 3 midterms (30% each) but only your 2 highest count towards your grade. The other 10% is iClicker which you get credit for whether you answer right or wrong. He curves class.

Justin Russak is a failure as an educator. Do not take his class and do not hire him as an instructor. During his 2013 summer 109B course he only covered 1/3 of the assigned material and did not give a final exam, leaving his students at a distinct disadvantage in the subsequent classes. If you care about your education avoid at all costs.

His 6BL class is multiple times harder than 6AL. You are also graded on your product, which sucks if you're on an off day. It's okay, because the TA's are there to ameliorate the downfall of poorly designed labs. It doesn't matter because everything is on the final, which actually requires thinking and not rote memory most bio majors are used to.

Not a great professor... What can you infer when the average for an exam is 43%. Enough said.

He LOVES to relate concepts back to lab which can be interesting however is never tested on so its a waste of lecture time. He doesnt teach well so read Bruice's text book, study his lecture slides, know obscure structure names. One saving grace is that his exams are the same format so you know what to study.

The WORST professor I've ever had! His lectures were slideshows of the book. The tests were incredibly hard, even after I always studied for this class. You know he's doing something wrong if the average for the final was a 35. Avoid him!

Russak's a self obsessed tool. That being said, he reuses questions (from midterm to midterm and midterm to final) and you can google most quiz questions. The class isn't curved but there is iclicker to replace your lowest midterm. Russak does seem to think he's hot stuff though, which is rather annoying

Quizzes are tough. He covers a lot in lecture but doesnt go into a lot of explanation. His tests will cover stuff from the actual labs. Jonathan is the best TA for lab, he will help you if you have any questions and is a fair grader. As long as you do good lab reports you can do pretty well in the class, even with not so great exam scores.

He has a friendly & funny personality, but his lectures don't go too far in depth & he lectures too quickly sometimes, so he's not clear. The experiments aren't bad, but the exams are a bit hard. Attendance isn't mandatory, but you get full credit for every iClicker response, & he uses your iClicker score to replace your lowest midterm grade!

This guy is absolutely useless. There are no point to his lectures. If you want a powerpoint version of the book with no new information, you will enjoy this class. He engages nobody in the class. Could be my least favorite teacher of all time

The biggest key to success in this class is reading before lecture. Russak is very good at reenforcing book concepts with examples in class and iClicker questions. His tangents can be pretty hilarious.

loved him, tests werent too bad compared to other chemistry classes. go to class and take good notes! his tests were all multiple choice which makes life a lot easier!!

Russak is an ok professor. He only goes over the easy problems in class. The tests were not particularly hard, but there are some tricky questions. Do the book problems, ALEKS, and the past exams provided. Funny sometimes too.

Justin is a pretty good professor. Class involves two quizzes, two midterms worth 20% and a final worth 40%. If you study it is definitely manageable though the 1B final was 62 questions and a bit ridiculous. Also makes the final 90% of your grade of you do well. Overall not a bad professor and somewhat of a funny guy

Russak's not the most warmhearted person and might even come off as a jerk, but he gets the job done. Brings a lot of ochem into genchem, which is fine if you're planning on taking genchem anyways. Average on tests are about 70% which is standard. Attend CLAS, do ALEKs, and self-study a bit and there's no reason you shouldn't get at least a B+.

Very passionate. Very funny. I love his grading system. Teaches everything well. If you attend all the lectures and go to CLAS you will have a guaranteed A in the class.

I feel very bad for Russak. He is very passionate about organic chemistry which is wonderful. However everyone hates on him so often because they fail his class or he refuses to help him during office hours. Rumors around the chem departments that his having a lot of personal issues may attribute to his rudeness. But hes a good ORGANIC professor.

Chemistry is not for everybody and Justin performs well at introducing students to a very rigorous subject. The test averages were about a 70 -- which is indicative of a fair test, in my opinion. Want an A? Go to office hours and have him put you on the spot and do syntheses and mechs! Overall, a great class and prepared me to kick ass in 109 B&C

He really liked to talk about Organic Chem during lecture which put me off a lot. If you want an easier time in the general chem series, I would recommend him over others.

If you want the textbook read to you word by word in an organized manner, then Russak isn't going to be your favorite professor. He has a casual but enthusiastic outlook on Chemistry, and relates the topics to real world situations that range from the distillation of vodka to the creation of dynamite.

Russak is overall not a good professor. Although his tests and quizzes are fair, he fails to teach in a clear manner & teaches ochem structures that you obviously don't need to know in chem 1a.

- HORRIBLE tecaher; 1/4 of the class is him going on useless tangents that confuse everyone. AWFUL grader: median score was 70.08% on the first midterm. Russak said to this, "it looks like the questions were neither too easy nor too hard." He is a funny guy but a poor teacher and doesn't care about the students.

He's really caring and does everything to try to get you the best grade possible. His tests are books problems so DO them! He cares about what he's teaching and has a sense of humor. He welcomes you to his office hours so use them. Very out of the book so READ!!

Not too hard compared to the other chem professors. You can miss class, although you have to attend enough to get clicker points if you are not going to do well on quizzes.