course
General Chemistry C1401-1402

I'm going to copy paste my review from the course evaluation. I have several points of contention regarding Andrew Pinkard 1) Direct quotation from an Andrew Pinkard email that I hope is read by someone in the chemistry department and that you determine whether this aligns with your values: "If you have questions you are unable to answer, please ask your classmate email partner, and feel free to ask me via email or office hour if you are still unable to find an answer." This statement may appear to be neutral, but every week we are continually urged by Andrew Pinkard that we should NEVER email him with a question, as this is not allowed. The purpose of the TA is to answer questions, but Andrew Pinkard continually deflects this duty towards "our classmates." Andrew Pinkard should encourage us to ask questions rather than reprimanding us for asking him questions. Another passage from Andrew's email "A note about quizzes" sent on April 2, 2014. "I've been getting many emails from students asking "what's the quiz going to be on?" While I understand your curiosity about this, please know that you already know the answer: the quiz will be on any material covered since the last quiz, up through Monday's lecture of the quiz week. This has always been the case for the last 5 quizzes and will continue to be the case for the rest of the semester. There is no need to ask me via email about this because this has not changed and will not change for the duration of our recitations. The quiz will cover where you left off from the last exam (free energy), up until Monday's lecture about free energy and it's connection to equilibrium. The quiz will have content from Chapter 10 and your Chapter 10 homework assignment." I'll close read this passage. "While I understand your curiosity" is a demeaning statement used to tell students that Andrew Pinkard does not like receiving emails from them. "please know that you already know the answer" is a false statement made by Andrew Pinkard in order to camouflage his own ineptitude in following the syllabus that he created to describe what material we would be quizzed on. If this isn't passive aggressive, then I don't know what is. This is unacceptable that Andrew Pinkard reprimands the class for posing questions that he refuses to answer. Every week he changes what was on the quiz, for our thursday recitation, there was often significant material from the wednesday class even though Andrew Pinkard clearly stated that this material would not be included on recitation quizzes. Since Andrew refuses to clarify the material that we would be quizzed on, he cannot fault the class for asking questions. I would not fault Professor Brus, a noted chemical researcher, for sending me a demeaning email (he's never done this) but this is unacceptable from Andrew Pinkard. 2) Andrew Pinkard spent an entire recitation explaining the unknown parable of oxidation states to the class. I KNOW ALL ABOUT OXIDATION STATES! He refuses to actually go over difficult material, instead choosing to teach us how to determine oxidation states, one of the few things in this course that I actually learned about in high school.

Friesner is unfriendly towards students and clearly dislikes teaching and showing up to class everyday. If you end up taking this class I would recommend viewing his slides online, reading the book, and skipping the lectures.

First Semester: Leonard Fine: His lectures are not focused towards material on exam. He lectures on the history of chemistry and what are the latest developments in the field (which sometimes can be interesting, but more often are not). For exam, know the demonstrations he performs in class. Everything else can be learned out of the textbook. Richard Friesner: straight out of the textbook. No worries. David Adams: Don't know what to tell you. Exam stuff is definitely not in the textbook. His lectures are very difficult to understand. Advice: Read textbook carefully before class, go to class and listen really carefully, try to take really good notes. study your butt off for the exam. If you get 15 out of 25, you will get an A (the mean this year was a 12). This is a crapshoot. Try not to take his part of the course so seriously. ESSENTIAL KEY: the questions on the final from his part of the course are taken directly from his exam. REMEMBER THIS! Study his exam for the final! Second Semester: Leonard Fine: See above Jim Valentini: The best of the bunch. He makes chemistry look easy. Very friendly, open to all questions. He puts all of his lectues online. for the exam, study his slides and memorize everything in gold (it is part of Jim Valentini's "toolbox" for chemistry). If you read the textbook, and understand the slides, you are golden. (Class is optional) I didn't think either semester was too difficult, with the exception of the dreaded Adams portion. Look for old exams online. Should be exams from 98 through 2002 on the old chemistry coursepages. These can be extremely helpful as some questions are repeated from year to year.