Easy Chem 1A tests. Okay at lecturing, but just make sure to PRACTICE. Not very accessible via email.
He's a nice person, but I don't recommend him as a professor. Book problems rarely help on the exams and he only gives one practice exam before each midterm, which doesn't cover the actual test material. He does a very poor job at explaining basic concepts and doesn't respond to emails. Focus on lectures for test review and review EARLY.
He is a nice guy but never responds to emails, does not care to give any feedback on tests. Exams were half material we went over in class, difficulty x 10 and half things we never learned. I had a really hard time with him and felt like I was wasting my time in his lectures. The HW/ALEKS never had anything to do with what we were tested on.
My advice is to start studying now because your going to be teaching yourself most of it. Comes off as a nice guy, but not a good teacher. Lectures and textbook problems don't reflect exam material. Does not prepare you whatsoever for how difficult his tests are. Had 3 midterms & final??? Said a 65.99 would curve to a B, etc, did not happen.
Weekly ALEKs is definitely a time sink, but the course material is really interesting. I found every class added something valuable. His demonstrations are EPIC. His tests are definitely pretty grueling, and the grading is ranked which is weird because you don't know your solid grade till the end, but he does make success possible and reasonable.
He cares about the subject, but doesn't care about students. He made jokes about how he purposefully gave us a midterm the MONDAY AFTER THANKSGIVING and told us to make sure we don't enjoy our break bc of the test. He never responds to emails, and I had a family emergency so I was unable to get any help for a midterm bc of this. Don't take him.
It's evident that he is passionate about what he teaches and that he cares for his students. But I found his lectures to be fast paced and the test content were topics you had to learn on your own. His exams were harder than the practice exams he provided,
Lectures were clear and chronological. Would go over practice problems after explaining a concept which was very helpful. The ALEKS was a lot, and not always helpful, but every chem had it so it wasn't unique to this prof. Prof posted lecture videos and slides at the beginning so if you missed or were confused you had excellent resources.
lectures are very fast paced so be ready to learn content on your own. aleks isn't very helpful so don't spend too much time on that, the book problems he suggests are much more beneficial to practice.
Professor Bernt was not as bad as others made him seem. However, unless you're naturally gifted at chem you will not pass without self-studying. Trust you'll be fine, just go to the lib, do your Aleks, join CLAS (emphasis on this), and attend lectures! It's hard but manageable!!
As someone who didn't take AP chem and only took chem sophomore year of high school this class was VERY challenging. The lectures were extremely fast and without having good prior chem knowledge they were very confusing. I spent 10+ hours a week studying for this class and still only got a C. The ALEKS was a lot and truly wasn't helpful exam prep.
Class is difficult especially without AP experience. Lecture moves fast and there is a lot to keep up with. You will have to teach yourself some of the topics outside of class. WATCH THE VIDEOS HE POSTS to recap lecture. Other than difficulty, Bernt is a nice and personable guy and his dogs are cute.
Prof Bernt is an awesome lecturer, but his way of prepping you for exams is providing one practice test which is not comparable to the midterms. This class has more midterms than other chem classes and we get less prep. He also is not providing us with a practice final so studying is basically a free for all most of the time. ALEKS was no help.
Lectures are clear and concise, but I found that the weekly ALEKS hw was more helpful to me. You get 3 midterms, all of which are harder than the practice exams he provides. Be prepared to study a lot even if you think you're ready.
Super friendly and funny, explains things well in lectures, gives practice tests that help prepare well for exams. ALEKS homework kind of sucks but that's for any chem
Do not take if you have no prior college level or equivalent knowledge of chem. No, high school chem doesn't help you. Be ready to spend hours on Aleks every week and a few more on book problems that are way harder than he teaches. He doesn't explain much in his lectures EVER and grades based off ranking. This class made me question my major...
he gave us a midterm on the day we got back from break. monday. 8am
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.