Structure of Organic Molecules
Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Enforced requisite: course 14B with grade of C- or better. Not open to students with credit for course 30A. Continuing studies in structure of organic molecules, with emphasis on biological applications. Resonance, stereochemistry, conjugation, and aromaticity; spectroscopy (NMR, IR, and mass spectrometry); introduction to effects of structure on physical and chemical properties; survey of biomolecular structure. P/NP or letter grading.
Review Summary
- Clarity
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5.0 / 10
- Organization
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5.0 / 10
- Time
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10-15 hrs/week
- Overall
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5.0 / 10
Reviews
Overall this class with Anderson is fine and definitely doable even if the prof is fairly middling (tho still genuinely wants to teach). There will be times where you'll have to self-study content because the lecture didn't make sense, but there are a lot of resources given to do that. I personally thought o-chem was more fun than gen-chem.
Grading - she drops two problem sets, one quiz, and one midterm, plus a small extra credit for filling the evaluation. Scale's also adjusted at the end of the quarter if average is low (I think A was at least 92 for our quarter). It's honestly super generous and def saved by grade
Lectures - she uploads slides before lecture and they're specifically made to take notes on, and I think that was a good design decision to follow along during lecture. Her live explanations aren't the best though, and there were points where I simply stopped following along because none of her explanations seemed to be connecting. She uploads her own completed/filled slides, and in general her illustrations and written stuff are clearer than her verbal stuff.
Homework - weekly problem sets are fair in length and content, wouldn't say they're too easy or hard.
Quiz - 2-5 questions for 20-40 minutes; also fair, though the small amount of questions means if u get something wrong it has a big effect on the grade for that particular quiz.
Exams - 2 midterms and final; Pretty much just a bunch of questions in a similar format to the problem sets. Again I would say fair in length and content.
Resources - She does give a lot of other supplementary material for us to practice. DO THE KLEIN PROBLEMS. She also lists a bunch of other textbook problems and online resources.
I think the other reviews have a bit too much hate. Again, she's not the best, but you honestly don't really need to actively avoid her
Lectures were disorganized and a bit unclear. Lots of typos in slides posted. Studied from workbook mostly. Material isn't so hard that you need her resources to do well. Biweekly quizzes online. Midterm 1 quite easy, Midterm 2 hard but not unexpected, final had huge jump in difficulty. Last two weeks of material (NMR) were hellish. Sugars were quite difficult too. She's very nice and accommodating, just not the best lecturer. Extra credit offered which was very nice of her. Will likely be better in coming quarters, this was her first quarter of teaching.
Lectures and lecture material were confusing, but the Klein OChem as a 2nd Language book is a lifesaver, literally only thing that carried me
I really think she will be great over time.
Not sure why this class was given such bad reviews, it ended up being a fairly easy A for being an oChem class. She was not the most organized or understandable lecturer, but was able to get her points across and her tests were very fair.
It was her second quarter teaching, but she listened to students and made changes when needed.
Klein is your best partner when it comes to honing in on the concepts learned in class. Do the Klein problems, homework, and discussion worksheets.
Preparing for lecture more thoroughly because sometimes she confuses herself and rushes too much which loses the students. I did well because I practiced extensively online and from the textbook
The class requires a lot of practice problems and time outside of just lectures. The TAs are a great resource for help.
David Klein textbook was extremely helpful. I watched the lecture recordings and read the corresponding Klein readings and did well. Andersen is also great!
Course
Grading Information
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No group projects
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Attendance not required
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2 midterms
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Finals week final
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83% recommend the textbook
Previous Grades
Grade distributions not available.