CHEM 1410

This class will forever leave a negative mark in my first memories as a student at UVA. This class consumed my life and absolutely detracted from my overall experience during my first year. If you are looking to take this class because you are pre-med and expect to excel, look elsewhere. Leung is the least helpful and caring individual I have ever met. He only cares about the students that understand math/science naturally. Although it is not IMPOSSIBLE to get an Aish in this class, if you do, every other class you take will be sacrificed. Do not expect to succeed in this class, while excelling in your other classes at the same time. If you have any other option of taking this class without Leung, please proceed with that route. This class was a total nightmare.

Professor Leung is a chem genius. However, this does NOT translate AT ALL into a good professor. Leung is cold, disconnected, and never seems to care how well (or poorly) his students do. Students who went to office hours all the time say that he became more receptive to them, but he is just truly not an approachable, friendly person; a majority of students feel uncomfortable talking to him. The average grades on his tests are shockingly low for a university filled with bright, ambitious students… and he never curves. In addition to basically teaching yourself by reading the textbook, he assigns an online program called ALEKS in which students answer questions to earn "topics" on a pie chart of chemistry subjects. If you fall behind at all, you'll spend hours and hours of your time doing busy work that is NOT helpful in the slightest. (Leung will tell you to just finish it early, but he forgets that students have more to do with their life than chemistry). He has a very thick accent (which students can definitely adjust to), but honestly it makes an already very boring, monotone lecture a little more difficult. My first year academic experience would have been better without Leung and without this class … but I am pre-dental and had to take it. So, for those of you that are pre-med/pre-dental and have to take this class, my advice to you is this: Prepare yourself. You will not like Leung. Do NOT fall behind on ALEKS, try to do a couple topics each day. Read the textbook, you'll need to try to teach yourself. And I'm sorry but the tests are going to be crazy hard, even if you study a lot. They aren't impossible, but they're very hard and seeing averages in the 60s is not uncommon. Don't let fear of Leung stop you from pursuing a pre-med/pre-dental track, but know this will be an extremely challenging, time-consuming, and often frustrating class.

This class is really not as bad as everybody makes it out to be. You have to work for it, certainly, but it's not that hard. Just do the reading, the practice problems that he assigns, and stay on top of ALEKS and it is not that difficult to get an A. A lot of people take this their first year, and I think it is a shock for many that this is not as easy as high school was. However, there's no real secret to success here. Just do everything that you are assigned/recommended to do, and it will pay off, you will most likely get an A or A-. Regarding Leung, he definitely is very capable and knows his stuff. He does have an accent which is not difficult to adjust to, and I've heard that he's very helpful in office hours but honestly I never went.

Many people do not like this course because of the way Prof. Leung teaches it. I wholly disagree. Leung is a great man who holds his students in high esteem. He really really wants you to succeed and will do anything in his power to make sure you understand the material. But this requires a lot of work. You have to read the book and you have to listen in lecture and above all, you have to go to office hours. That's the only way you will understand the information. So yes, this class is difficult in that you have a lot of work to do outside of lecture before you understand the material. But learning from Leung is an absolute pleasure, especially if you put the effort in and go talk to him.

Professor Leung gets a lot of sh!t for being one of the worst professor for chemistry, but honestly if you put in the work and study for every test, and attend office hours somewhat, you'll be fine. The whole class is curved (example: 77 = B-). It's true he does not curve tests but he gives you a lot of busy work (which you SHOULD DO IF YOU WANT A GOOD GRADE) that gives your average a buffer. Leung himself has an accent but if you pay attention to every lecture you'll understand him by day 2.

STRONGLY STRONGLY, STRONGLY RECOMMEND taking Leung over Metcalf, if possible. Leung writes the tests, and Metcalf sucks at lecturing, I've attended both a few times to compare. Don't think this is an easy class though. It's a weed out class. You get back what you put in.

This class is an unavoidable hell that you will have to just get through if you want to go to medical school. If you are just looking to fulfill the science credit for the college do NOT take Chemistry. You can find so many other science classes to fulfill that science credit and you'll hate your life if you decide to take chemistry instead. ALEKS doesn't seem bad until the end when you have all the hard topics left and they take about an hour+ to get through. The tests are very difficult and I'd recommend doing the practice tests inside and out because the questions on the test are basically the same as those questions just worded different so that you question every answer choice you make. TAKE THIS WITH LEUNG!!! He writes the tests and is a goofy guy. I sat near the front and wound up in Leung's "favorites" exam room for the final lol. Try not to go too insane while taking this course because many other Hoos are going through the same thing and you can bond over how much you hate and dread chem.

This class is not that bad. If you read go to lecture and read the textbook to prepare or supplement your learning you will begin to have a solid grasp on the content. A key to success in this class is also not seeing ALEKS (the digital learning component) as a chore or homework but instead as a valuable resource to use for completing practice problems. ALEKS will force you to be honest with yourself about what concepts you do and don't understand. The TA's for this class are also all extremely nice and helpful and going to their office hours can be very helpful. Also, go to Leung's office hours since he is such a nice guy and even though it might seem otherwise when quiz results come back, he really wants students to become interested in chemistry though this class.

I know that a lot of people just don't like this class and complains about Leung a lot, but to be honest, Leung is an amazing teacher. When you're in class, he trolls a lot and puts up this big persona where he's the big guy and doesn't care about you. But I got the chance to be really close with the TA's and him and realized that he cares so much about his students. He's always there for you and tries to help you become successful in whatever you do. With that said, he goes over chemistry concepts very carefully to make sure that you know the concepts. He also has assignments (ALEKs, weeklies, etc.) to help you with your grade. My biggest advice is to keep up with ALEKs, do one or two topics per day so you're not scrambling to do them at the end of the week and get all stressed out. And for quizzes, go over the practice quiz very carefully. I went to TA's or Leung's office hours a week before the actual quiz just to go over major concepts and understand his style of test. So if you do everything stated above, this class should not be difficult.

Compared to my high school chemistry education, I have enjoyed taking this class a lot more than I thought I would. Leung is my favorite professor this semester (and therefore at UVA so far). He clearly put a lot of time and effort into structuring the course in a logical way so that the concepts build on one another. I would recommend trying to do the recommended textbook reading prior to the lecture, and then the lecture does an amazing job of clarifying the complex topics and showing you the most important take-aways from each topic. Leung is a very engaging lecturer- and very funny. He does have an accent, but it never hindered my learning. Contrary to the popular belief, I actually enjoyed doing ALEKS. As long as you keep up with it, and do not wait until the night before a milepost to complete it, it is very beneficial in giving you concrete practice for the concepts you have learned in lecture. This class isn't a whole lot of fun, and I wouldn't recommend taking it unless you have to for your major/career goals, but as an intro chemistry class, I have learned a lot about how to be self-motivated and a successful student. The TA's were very knowledgeable and accessible, and helped out a lot. Bottom line: if you do your work and keep on top of ALEKS and the readings, it is completely feasible to succeed in the course (I got an A). Don't expect your hand to be held, but if you learn how to self-motivate and get help when you need it, an A is well within your reach.

I came into the class expecting to die, but it ended up being fine. Leung is a decent (and funny) professor, but can sometimes confuse the class with what he sees as "simplified" concepts. The TA's will try to clear it up and tell you to ignore his knowledge "breakthroughs". To succeed, you HAVE to read the textbook first, then attend lecture. Sometimes it was frustrating that what was listed as the week's readings did not correspond completely to lecture-some topics came up much later and he didn't specify exactly what we needed to know from the textbook that wasn't covered in lecture. I completed ALEKS on the corresponding topics after each week's lecture (even though he didn't tell us how to choose a specific topic until halfway through the semester).
The class has 3 tests which he calls "quizzes." His tests are designed to trick you and emphasize logic questions so READ CAREFULLY/recheck your answers. Often there will be extremely similar questions on the practice quiz and the actual one, but the processes to solve each are very different. Go get help and figure out how to do every practice quiz question. The grading is actually very buffered. The lowest quiz grade is demoted to 5%, and homework (ALEKS) is a completion grade and even can give you extra credit if you complete is according to his schedule. Discussion attendance counts as part of your grade, but it was often helpful anyways and shows you where you make mistakes (It can last from 30 min- 1.5 hrs usually). It is very possible to succeed. You're going to have to spend twice the time on this class though.