CHEM 1410

Professor Leung knows the material flawlessly, really cares about students, and wants them to learn chemistry, yet he also thinks that he has unlocked the golden key to successful education and structures the course in a horrible manner. Regardless of whether you take Leung or Metcalf for lecture, it's Leung's course. Both lectures are pretty much useless, and the discussions are all with Leung (His life is literally this course.) The only advantage of Metcalf is using easy Mastering Chem over the awful ALEKS program. You are forced to attend the pointless lectures to answer clickers that could pop up at any time, worth together 10% of your grade. The discussions last for hours and don't actually teach any new material but waste your time on complete nonsense. While the course material, homework, and quizzes are not difficult at all and can be learned through exclusively through the book, Leung makes the test all about random little methods and trick questions so the average is always in the 60s. This course is entirely too time consuming and unnecessarily difficult for an intro chem class. All it is doing is deterring people from majors by being annoying for no reason.

Professor Leung made this the worst possible class it could have been. The discussions were long and pointless and often included busy work which is completely unecessary in an intro to chem class. The quizzes and tests often used trick questions and focused on concepts that weren't the main focus of the material. He was unclear in emails about directions about the somewhat complicated Aleks program and generally spent the first 10 minutes of every class lecturing on how students don't study as much as he did in college.

The material is not difficult at all, Leung is just not a good teacher. He did not inspire me at all. In fact, he would spend ten minutes every week telling the lecture how terrible we all did on the test. He is not helpful or enthusiastic. He is very knowledgeable, but he doesn't care at all about the students.

The course is challenging, but this is expected. The material can be a little difficult without AP/IB Chem from high school, but the hardest part was the quizzes and tests--they're meant to trick you. Leung is a great lecturer on most topics, although he sometimes spends a good part of the class talking about how poorly we did on the tests. Work ahead of the lecture material and keep up with homework to do well.

CHEM 1410 is the worst class ever. It is so poorly designed and structured. I thought ALEKS was an okay way of learning chemistry; it definitely drilled into your brain how to solve problems. However the tests and quizzes tested material much different than what was on ALEKS, which was so frustrating. No matter how hard you try to learn the concepts on ALEKS, the tests and quizzes will trick you up, because they are designed to. Discussion was SO painfully long and useless. So much busy work. The item writing exercise was stupid, and it honestly did not help me learn how to "connect" chemistry concepts together. Professor Leung was not a very good professor in my opinion. I have not listened in on Metcalf's lectures, so I can't compare them. It was hard to understand Professor Leung, and lecture was so boring that I skipped several times. However, you are forced to go to lecture to participate in the learning catalytics questions, which can pop up at any time. I feel like Prof Leung does care about his students and he's always available in his office hours (I'm not sure how helpful they would be though, because I've never went). Be aware though, that he will make many comments on how disappointed he was in quiz results or how no one is doing ALEKS, and this will get old and super discouraging real fast.

Professor Leung tries hard. He's competent. However, he is just not a good professor. For one, his accent is difficult to understand. The lecture slides are vague (you think he would put more in writing to take the pressure off of students trying to understand him speak). The class is disorganized and slapped together, and you are a guinea pig among 1000 other students. I did well in the class, but I don't know how... by the end of it I knew the material but always felt behind or uneasy about the class. ALEKS (the online homework) helps, but as others have noted it doesn't match up completely with tests or quizzes, which can be tricky if Leung writes them. The item-writing exercise in discussion was a fiasco and a waste of time. Leung is very forward about how he wants us to learn conceptually with item-writing, etc., yet he definitely is not good at teaching you concepts. Everything is scattered, and his passive-aggressiveness doesn't help. I think his dead fish handshake he gave me (while he was looking off in the distance) after the final kind of sums him up.

This class is manageable if you stay ahead. Doing the ALEKs problems consistently really helps and reviewing old quizzes and tests on collab is the best way to prepare for the quizzes. The testing format for this course is tough (quizzes are 10 multiple choice, tests 25 multiple choice, final 40 multiple choice) so it's easy to get bad grades from careless mistakes.... the questions are NOT easy. If you try, you can get a good grade, but this class is not for slackers.

sucks, but its a req....dont know quite how they curve but staying above average is good, below is bad..welcome to premed

This is the WORST class I have ever taken in my entire life. Prof. Leung is a horrible representative of the kind of education you will receive at UVA. If you are taking his course first year, do not give up hope. There are better teachers out there at this University and you will receive the education you deserve coming here; just not from Prof. Leung in this class. Prof. Leung's lectures as well are awful. Listening to what he has to say in class is more confusing than teaching yourself. So that is what you will end up doing: teaching yourself. As well, the amount of work required just to complete a never ending homework cycle has been the reason for many of my all nighters. Aleks is the most frustrating software you will ever encounter. Prof. Leung makes negative and rude comments in class that are said solely for the purpose of lowering everyone's academic self esteem. Most importantly, however, His tests are the hardest tests I have ever taken, they belong in a 4000 level course. Not an intro class. They do not test your knowledge on the subject material at all. So do not feel bad if you are getting 60% or lower on them, your grade is not a representative of your intellect in the subject material, for instead, his tests test on how minute of details can you remember, how well can you decipher what Prof. Leung's questions are asking you, and how well can you not fall for the trap of trick questions. AVOID taking Prof. Leung at all costs. No matter what teacher you have for lecture, if you are in general chemistry there is no escaping the awful nature of Leung's tests. However, the rest of your year can be a whole lot less miserable, and your homework and participation grade saved, if you do not take this class from Prof. Leung. Again may I reiterate, worst teacher ever?

This is the worst class I have ever taken at UVA and really regret taking it at all. Leung is a horrible teacher, and a mean person as well. He's impossible to learn from, doesn't care about his students, and is very condescending when you ask him for help. I don't know why he's still a professor here when so many people fail his class and so many can't stand him. I put in so much effort into his class and studied for days and days for the quizzes. Still, I ended up with a C given that there was no curve. The funny thing is though that Leung himself told us he got a 50% in O-chem when he took it in college in the States and because of a massive curve, he ended up with an A. So, basically Leung has gotten through life with generous curves in hard courses but he refuses to curve at all for his students. What a joke.