She wrote the book, she is the book. Nothing bad about that but just make sure you are able to study well on your own. CLAS for this class is a grade-saver.
GO TO LECTURE!! Take Bruice over Gainer! Her tests are clear and specific. If you do book problems, you will pass! Lecture helps because she reiterates what's in the book so when you read it, it is not as confusing. Ochem is more understandable because I had her as a prof! TAKE HER!
Take Bruice over Gainer. Despite what people say, she is a very nice person who is always willing to help & her tests are amazingly fair. She tells you what book problems to do and chooses exam questions from those problems. Read & practice book problems until the material becomes instinctive & o-chem may actually be your least stressful class
Lectures never helped me because she always go so fast. The book is the bible. Clas tutors are the priests.
Here's the thing. Yes she is straightforward like everyone says, which makes the class "easy," but she is awful when it comes to FAIRNESS. For example, she will give multiple choice questions on homework AND EXAMS that have multiple answers WITHOUT TELLING YOU its okay to choose more than one answer. Straightforward teaching, awful person.
Anyone saying Bruice's class is hard simply didn't put in effort to learn the material. This is the easiest teacher to do o-chem with, and EVERYTHING in lecture is identical to the book. Tests are close to book problems (esp. back of the book) and the only tricky thing is the mechs. If you put in a couple hours EVERY day, you will get an A.
Lecture is more or less useless going to because she goes too quickly. But the book is really good and almost verbatim what she says in lecture so read it and learn at your own pace. Tests are pretty straight forward. I went to class 3 times and ended up with an A- and really feel like I know the material.
Great professor, go to lecture and pay attention, then go back and read the book and you should be good. Just take good notes and make sure to ask questions if there is something you don't understand. Test are easy, A's on all of them, final was a littler harder. definitely recommend
Horrible professor! couldn't be any worse. Tough tests, boring classes, heavy homework. Would never take again!!!
I straight up failed her class. I retook it with Aue and got an A-. I felt like I was not learning in her class. Her lectures were too fast for my pace. I couldn't keep up with the readings. Most of it is just memorizing instead of actually understanding. I recommend taking CLAS! If you take her read the book and do book problems!!!!
I commend anyone who has successfully sat through a single Bruice lecture. I certainly did not. Prepare to dedicate hours and hours study well before major tests approach. Davis students use her textbook too. It's good. It's there for a reason, use it. Promise me you'll skip lecture tho, you'll thank yourself for listening to me. Trust me!
Literally easiest OChem classes. Shes super straightforward. You just have to put in the time. Shes stone cold but the best
Avoid her if you want to learn Ochem, or are taking the MCAT. Bruice offers rigor of the worst sort, rote regurgitation of facts straight from her book. 3 midterms were doable, final was brutal and full of "copy-paste the mechanism you briefly read over on pg 723". If you want to memorize her book and repeat it verbatim on exams, take this class.
She was my advisor and told me I'd never get into med school. I'm now a senior medical officer at a major health plan and have been voted top doc twice. Those who can't do teach... those who are bitter about it try and dissuade students from their dreams.
Bruice's lectures are boring and you don't have to go to them, but sometimes she goes over things that will be on the tests. You HAVE to read the book and do the book problems! CLAS really helps so take it! Her tests are pretty straight forward and as long as you do the book problems you will be fine. She's really not that bad.
Bruice's lectures are ridiculous. She flips through slides from her book faster than you can even read what's going on, and sidetracks on personal stories all the time. She does nothing on the board, which is really helpful in O. Chem, especially since the point is to understand mechanisms. To do well, skip her painful lectures and read the book.
Easy tests, just read
Her lectures are confusing and her pace is extremely fast. Her midterms are extremely difficult even though the problems are similar to the ones in her book. Her final is even more difficult than her midterms; it has more mechanisms and conceptual questions than the midterms. Read the book and do book problems. 3 midterms; lowest is dropped.
Her class is rough. Her lectures are honestly so miserable and useless, you are better off not going and instead memorizing every mechanism, synthesis, and the tiniest reaction from her textbook. Oh, and definitely do book problems too and make sure to study the unusual reactions on Mastering Chemistry. Good luck in this class, get ready to work.
Oh Bruice, what a rough class this was. You won't learn anything from her lectures. Her midterms are reasonable but her final, in my opinion, was awful (given that I had 4 other finals to worry about) You have to memorize all the mechs in order to perform well in her class. Make the book your bible and thou shall pass.
Worst teacher at UCSB. Her lectures are useless because she basically reads her book to you. She does no board work, which is very unusual since this is ochem and they way you learn this subject is practicing writing all the reactions. Midterms are fair, but the final is brutal. Be prepared to memorize the whole textbook in order to do decently.
You can work your a** off in this class, attend every CLAS section, go to every review session & still do poorly. Each test tests every single concept in the chapter, read carefully every sentence in her book. CLAS will be your lifesaver, her lectures are useless, don't go. If she asks for tests back because there was an error in grading, DON'T.
Doing book problems make this series completely manageable. Bruice is a very fair test writer. Tests were easier than gen chem tests in my opinion. DO BOOK PROBS.
If you read the book before the lecture and do all of the end of chapter problems you will easily get an A in this class. If you don't to lecture and just go hard on the book you can still get an A in this class.