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.
Lectures are really great and straightforward. Exams are easy if you do the practice exams.
Took Joseph Anyika n Sylvester for genchem. Retook chem1C w/sylvester. I feel like ppl r gatekeeping her because her tests compared to joseph's and anyika's are SO much easier. U still have to study but not anywhere near as brutal as the other 2 profs (her book probs r easier tbh). she only puts EXACTLY what she goes over in class on tests!!
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.
Had Sylvester for first 2/3 of 1B then got switched with Anyika. Sylvester was straightforward and posted lecture videos that covered exactly what was on exams. Had very fair exams with Sylvester but after switching with Anyika, the final was much more difficult. Not as good as Price, but much more straightforward than Joseph.
i took this class online. do all the book problems and then redo them, but even that might not prepare you for the final exam :(
Sylvester is terrible at explaining key concepts. If you ask questions, she's really no help at all. I often felt more confused after she explained things than if I learned things just out of the book and ALEKS. I strongly recommend taking a different professor for the gen chem series.
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.
really be prepared to focus in her class. do the aleks and dedicate your time to self-learning and reviewing the content because it's hard to follow along through the way she teaches
That final was so out of pocket nothing could have prepared me for it. Previous exams were nothing like it. The examples in lecture are so different from what you are tested on. The final though was just unbelievable.
You may think you know what you are getting yourself into by taking Chem 1B with Bryanna Sylvester. You do not. The class average on the final was a 50 percent. 50% !!! All the practice and teaching she gives you could never reflect the difficulty of her exams. Would not recommend to a friend.
Fine up until the final. It did not relate whatsoever to any lecture, book problem, midterm or practice test. I honestly think she pulled the problems out of thin air. She also did not teach a single in person lecture, but still wrote the final.
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 really am a nice person. But Im here crying because she cant be bothered to explain things thoroughly. This is the first review Ive literally ever done. She wasnt even in class all semester because she had COVID and never explains her examples well so the exams are impossible. This is my 2nd quarter with her so Ik Im not being harsh.
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