CHEM 1410

I loved her! She is so nice and is beyond helpful at office hours. I think her lecture style (go over the major topics and most missed from chapter compared to every tiny thing) fit the class very well and helped me understand the harder topics better than people in other classes. The textbook is slightly annoying because it teaches like you have learned the information in high school but forgot it, so for the first real chapter and inorganic color theory it was a little rough but Morkowchuk knows that and has the perfect lecture to help students understand the content.

For some reason, Lisa got a bad wrap when I was talking to my friends, but I really loved her. All of the professors give the same exact workload and tests, so the only difference is the lecture. Lisa really cared that we were all doing well, did mid-lecture check ins, and took our feedback from the weekly homework and used those to guide the lectures based on what we said we were confused on. Tests are all at home open note open resource, so if you prepare materials well they're not bad. Plus there's three parts to each exam, one of which is taken with your Expo group, so lots of places to make up points if you do poorly. If you've taken AP/IB chem, you'll be more than fine, but even if not it's not that hard and lots of room for you to learn.

I actually loved Lisa. In her lectures, she always focused mainly on what was most difficult to understand in the chapter that week, and went over most missed chapter problems. I always felt a lot better about the material after walking out of expo. The structure of this class is terrible though. You go to lecture, and then expo, which is where you explore the material with an assigned group, and it is not helpful. Most of the time expo confuses you more, and they make you do a website webmo which makes no sense. My group would always raise our hands because Webmo told us one thing, but the chapter told us something else, and 90% of the time the TA would say webmo is wrong. If its wrong why are we using it so much? Other than expo, tests are super straightforward if you just study a little bit. #tCFspring2022

Going into this class I was very worried about all of the reviews saying that it would be extremely difficult, but it ended up being a very straightforward class. Lisa was a super energetic teacher who just gives off the vibe of being nice and into her job, and she makes the lecture so that it goes over pretty much exactly what will be on exams. Go to class and you will know how to do most things. There was also so many different homework questions each week that for exams if you feel unprepared you have every opportunity beforehand to practice on challenging topics and putting in any work into this class should give you a good final grade. Also the exams were online and open note so you don’t even have to memorize everything for them. I’d for sure recommend taking Lisa over other teachers as I had several friends that complained about their instructor but I really thought Lisa did her best to make sure everyone had every opportunity to pass her class.

This class is fairly easy if you do the readings and watch the lectures. Professor Morkowchuk goes over the core concepts in an efficient and difficulty appropriate level. I studied a couple hours before each exam along with doing the standard assigned work and did well. I do like and am good at chemistry, so take that information as you will.

I personally enjoyed having Prof Morkowchuk for Chem 1410. Because of covid, all of the 1410 professors shared the burden of recording lectures, so I watched lectures from Welch, Columbus, Stains, and Morkowchuk. Out of all of them, I preferred Morkowchuk's lectures the most because they were the most organized! Her powerpoint slides were easy to read, and she gave great examples. She can talk a little slow, but I just watch her lectures on 2x speed. If organization is important to you, then I highly recommend her. It was difficult for me to follow the other professors' lectures in comparison because they seemed to go on tangents or their ppt slides weren't as organized. Don't be discouraged by all her negative reviews! Chem is a difficult course no matter what; you just have to find the professor with the teaching style best suited for you. As for my grade, I hadn't taken a chemistry course in over two years, but I still ended with an A+. As long as you take good notes and study effectively, you should be fine!

I had Lisa for a traditional chem lecture / discussion format. Bad reviews scared me but I truly don't understand the negative opinions of her. It was a pretty straightforward lecture of notetaking, Mastering Chemistry homework was challenging but useful for learning, and exams were fine, not too bad if you study. I recommend Lisa.

Prof Morkowchuk is super nice and approachable, but her lectures are really boring and she mostly just goes over examples rather than the actual concept. The expos weren't helpful and completely unrelated to what we were learning and if you ask a TA for help they won't know the answer either. If you want to understand anything in the class you're gonna need to go to office hours all the time. Not a huge workload though which was a plus, but I guess having to go to office hours everyday evened that out.

Lisa taught two sections of CHEM 1410 this semester. One of them is taught traditionally, with lectures and a discussion, and the other section has only one lecture a week, plus an "Expo" section, which is essentially groupwork without instruction. This review is on the nontraditional Expo section of the class. Overall, this class was a disgrace to the subject of chemistry. The format is absolutely terrible. The textbook is on the online platform, TopHat, and was written by the professors, as far as I know. It is riddled with typos and is glitchy. The homework is embedded in the reading, and needs to be completed BEFORE you even attend lecture, so nothing makes sense while you are completing the homework. Lecture is pretty generic, and is the only part of the class that is not an absolute disgrace, except for the fact that lectures are not consistent throughout all sections of this class. Expo section might be the worst run class ever. You work in groups to figure out problems that you haven't learned the content necessary to answers, and professors Welch and Morkowchuk just sort of mill around the whole time. Exams cover material that hasn't been discussed in class, and half of the exam is in groups, so basically you are being graded on the knowledge of other people. If you are taking Chem 1410, do NOT take the TopHat/Expo section, take the traditional lecture, and save yourself from the disgrace that is this class. Chemistry is not a hard subject, and yet somehow this class has made it impossible to comprehend. The professors are clearly trying to implement some sort of newfangled 21st century learning strategy here, which is not working at all. There is a reason that classes are generally taught in lecture format, and not by self- teaching. I'm paying 48k a year in tuition for professors to teach me, not to teach myself. @ the entire Chem 1410 faculty: do better.

This review is more for those of you taking CHEM 1410 over the summer. The summer course with Lisa was amazing! Lisa is very approachable and she has office hours everyday. She is understanding and realizes that taking Chem over the summer is brutal, so she tries to make the exams easier. Most people either approve of or dislike Lisa's teaching style. I preferred Lisa's teaching style as she would practically write out your notes for you regarding the concepts that were being learned. Over the summer you pretty much have homework every single day (about 25-30 questions on average) and there are quizzes on Mondays and Wednesdays and exams every Friday. This is your typical summer crash course where you need to stay on top of lecture notes, homework, and readings. Overall, it was very doable so long as you put in the time and effort.

Lisa is a great professor. Her lectures are very clear, organized, and perfectly paced. All I needed to do was aim my eyes at the notes and I understood the material. I came from a high school where AP classes were not an option and I was taught that the earth was 6000 years old and climate change was a myth and I still got an A easily in this class. The only prerequisites for success in this class are an understanding of basic high school math and a desire to learn Chemistry. I've seen people say that they don't like the weight of the quizzes: These are the people who only ever came to class on Fridays when the quizzes took place and left midway through class when they were complete. If you are in class and take notes, the quizzes are super easy. The midterms are difficult, but that's because it's a difficult subject. If I made a list of the top 10 hardest exams I've taken so far at UVa, none of the four exams I took in this class would even be considered to make the list. So study and get good now because it sure is not getting any easier in future classes.

After surviving Lisa's class for a semester, I can say that, without a doubt, Lisa gets a lot of unfair reviews. The homework is NOT overbearing, the weekly quizzes are NOT hard, and the tests ARE fair. If you go to lecture and pay attention, even if you did not take AP Chem in high school (which I did not), this class is completely passable. I overloaded on credits and still managed to get a B in the class. The reason why I think Lisa gets such poor reviews is because some salty premed majors got destroyed and now their med-school dreams are crushed. Cry me a river. If you put in the time for this class, it seems like it would be very easy to get an A, just do the work. It may not be exciting or glamorous, and it may not be fun, but I sure learned quite a bit. For most of this semester, I heavily bought into the idea that somehow my poor performance in the class was a result of Lisa being a bad prof, but she really isn't. I believe Lisa was probably one of the better instructors I had this semester, and I don't think it's fair to say that she's a bad prof simply because her class averages are C+'s on every test. If you actually try in this class, you being a student who is at least slightly above average intelligence, you have every ability to get an A in this class even if you're a premed doing this for the requirement. It won't be easy, but it'll be doable.

you either like lisa's teaching style a lot or you absolutely hate her. if youre someone who never took ap chem in high school, kinda suck at science in general, and have no choice but to take lisa's section and are worried like i was, i hope this review helps!!! LECTURE STYLE: writes notes out with you instead of using slides, so for slower paced learners/ppl who never read the textbook like me lmao this is a Good Thing (tip: she smtimes says important things and not write them down so MAKE SURE u take notes on things she says as side notes bc theyre usually important to kno anyway/help you understand concepts better). a lot of ppl have problems w her lecturing bc she sometimes explains in a way that isnt exactly scientific or generalizes which can throw you off if u dont get her point. this is probably why some ppl find her lectures misleadingly easy but this is where the textbook reading comes in: i literally never read before class bc she teaches u the main ideas in lecture BUT for those topics you feel like lisa didnt explain well, find the section in the text and read it to supplement lecture info. i found this "reading after lecture" strategy really helped with understanding concepts and doing hw. HW: weekly mastering chem assignments that can range from taking like 1hr to 5hrs depending on how many annoyingly complex and mathy problems she assigns. i had to look up a lot of these for outside help, but understanding these involved ones really do prepare u for some of her harder exam problems. also i rly recommend splitting the assignments in half between 2 days if u dont wanna be sitting there and doing it all in one go cos that rly just drains u and willl ruin ur friday if u leave hw til the day its due.
ASSESSMENTS: she gives weekly mini-quizzes in the beginning of friday lecture which can be challenging if u dont know the material well by then. she'll also always quiz on topics covered the week before, this usually lines up with the mastering hw, so i recommend finishing mastering thursday night if u can. she'll drop ur 3 lowest quizzes at the end of the year, and quiz questions r examples of the depth of understanding she expects on exams so listen 2 her explain the answers (tip for ppl who are always late to class: i have found u can consistently be up to 4-5 min late to her class everyday before u start missing new content/the start of the mini-quiz, so try not to b too late on fridays unless u decide to take an L on that week's quiz). for exams, there are 3 midterms, 1 cummulative final, usually a mix of multiple choice, short answer, fill in the blank, and they are definitely hard. theyre not many points/questions so missing more than a few will hurt u, like her exams suck lmao cos shes really testing to see if u have deep understanding. when doing practice exams, focus on the more recent ones. she rarely curves. if youre a crammer, make sure the night before the exam u clear the day cos u will want to dedicate a lot of time to studying i promise. ABOUT LISA: she clearly loves the material, nice lady, and REALLY wants her students to do well. her office hrs might be inconvenient bc they tend to be morning hrs, but if u go to them, she answers questions really well and gives good strategy tips. emailing correspondence experience with her has also been pretty good, she'll answer your questions literally the day of an exam if she has time, and if you cant make office hrs but desperately need help, she will make time to meet with you 1-on-1 and schedules them so you get a full hour with her which is rly nice.
overall, doing well in lisa's class is challenging and can be time-consuming if you're not the strongest in chem/science but its doable if you utilize her resources and rly take time to learn the material. she's a good teacher for slower learners (as opposed to welch who is fast lecturer), and sets u up well for long term learning which is good if ur on a track w higher level chem!!! good luck !

Lisa's a nice professor and I found her lectures to be pretty easy to follow - she writes down notes on an overheard projector while lecturing and posts them afterwards. This makes it pretty easy to look back at her notes at a later date. There's clicker questions for some easy participation points every lectures and a mini-quiz every Friday. She's super understanding and really loves her job. The cons of her class are the exams and the TAs. Her averages for the exams are around a high C and the exams have little room for error. Personally, I thought the exams were quite hard and the questions on them were vague. You usually have to do some sifting through the TAs before you find one that's knowledgeable AND good at explaining things.

Lisa is purely awful. It was a mistake to take her as a first year entering UVA, as she will absolutely destroy your confidence in doing well in this class. She teaches using poorly written out notes on a scrap of paper and projects them on a screen, which sometimes makes it impossible to learn if you find her handwriting to be seriously illegible (which I did).

She makes chemistry seem like the easiest thing in the world, until you take her exams which are ridiculously difficult and high-stakes. A majority of the material she tested was talked about for 2-3 minutes in class, while the rest that WASN'T tested took up 95% of her lecture time. She prides herself in weeding out students of their hopes and desires in science, as it is her job to make us supremely miserable. Her office hours were completely inaccessible to me, and she gave the worst explanations in her e-mails. I asked her to clarify a simple concept, and she gave me something that confused me even more. I asked for a follow-up... no response. She is the sole reason why my GPA is noticeably lower than it should be.

I wouldn't diss on a professor so much if he/she was passionate and inspiring yet is a hard grader by nature, but Lisa comes to class everyday held up by some cheap coffee while squeaking in a monotone, annoying, high-pitched voice and teaches the class with absolutely no enthusiasm at all. If you want to learn actual material, get a good grade, and not ending up dreading chem, take it with Columbus or Welch.

I would recommend taking this course with another teacher. Professor Morkowchuk is a great teacher who explains ideas and concepts fairly well, BUT she has very challenging exams and if you do poorly on the exams then it does not matter how good of a teacher she is. If you are in her class just know you will have to study a little harder but its chem what else do you expect!

I was super worried about taking Professor Morkowchuk's class my first year, but she's actually an amazing teacher and a really nice lady to boot. As long as you are willing to study in this class, it is not bad at all.

I had to take this class because I had a conflict with Welch's class timing. Biggest mistake ever. This class absolutely wrecked me, even though I had taken AP Chemistry and was very well-versed in chemistry. Morkowchuk thinks you know more than you really do, and although she does a decent job lecturing, her tests and quizzes are almost impossible to do. We had daily clicker questions that counted for participation. Every Friday, we had iClicker quizzes that counted for 10-15% of our grades and the questions, like I said, were impossible. The exams were actually intolerable. She gives you practice tests that deliberately mislead you about what is going to be on the test. Her exams were 10x harder than Welch's exams (because we have access to all the practice exams), and some of the questions were so vague that you don't even know what they're asking. She tests on discrete exceptions that are not heavily emphasized in lecture either. Unless you have a photographic memory, you're kinda screwed. Morkowchuk gets away with being terrible since she's a little better than Metcalf, but not by a whole lot.

Professor Morkowchuk's lectures are fine, but her exams are very difficult with relatively few multiple choice questions - they have become much more difficult since last year. Additionally, the exams are only out of 25 points or so, so if you miss more than two or three you will not get an A on a given exam. One of the exams based nearly 20% of the grade on a topic that was not covered in the homework and was only covered briefly in class. Additionally, Morkowchuk says that if a topic is only covered in the reading that it will not be on the exam and that the textbook is therefore unnecessary - READ IT ANYWAY. Additionally, if you feel confident about what is on the Mastering assignments, that does NOT mean you are prepared for the exam as the question types are usually very different, and as a result it is very difficult to get a feel for what to expect on each exam. You will learn a lot in this class, but I would avoid this professor if possible unless you have prior background with chemistry at this level.

An okay class, lectures are somewhat boring but usually concepts are fairly well explained. Textbook is engaging enough and the amount of reading per class is very reasonable. The once-a-week online assignments are quite time consuming and I'm not sure how helpful they are. The assessments are challenging because they have relatively few questions (usually only around 25), and from my experience average grades on tests are usually in the mid-high 70s or low 80s.

I was pretty nervous about having Morkowchuk as a professor for this class because I know a lot of people who don't like her and prefer Welch (because who doesn't lmao) but it was honestly a pretty good class for what it was! Be advised that she does have a different lecture style than most other teachers - she uses a projector to display her own notes as she writes them out - but I honestly found this style more helpful for taking notes (because you can honestly just copy her stuff word for word). Her tests are fair but she does expect people to be able to understand ALL concepts that she goes through in class in-depth, which is why the class average is usually like a 75ish. Also, she was hella pregnant this semester so I don't know if she's teaching this class next year but if she is I'd take her!

Professor Morkowchuk's lectures were pretty easy and not too hard to follow long in class. She also posted all the notes online which was great but I wouldn't recommend her class. Her midterms are very difficult and nothing close to the easy level examples she uses in class to get the general concept across. She seems to pride herself on the fact her class averages are in between that of Metcalf's and Welch's, but the test averages are usually around 73% and she does not offer corrections or a curve. The range of scores vary so much that some students could get an A+ while the majority get Cs and below (on some of her exams the lowest was like 20%). Her exams are also only a few questions but for 25 points so if you miss one part that's a big blow to your grade, not to mention you don't get partial credit. She's very understanding when it comes to making up an exam due to sickness or injury but that's about it. Take her class only if it's the only time available but otherwise I would recommend taking Columbus or Welch for a better grade and understanding.

While the exams were pretty difficult, I found it easy to follow along with Professor Morkowchuk's lectures as she would essentially take notes along with us in class. This made my life much easier because I am a first year and find it difficult to take notes when the professor uses powerpoints as he/she usually goes too quickly. In comparison with Welch's and Metcalf's exams, I find Morkowchuk's exams more straight forward and "easier".

I love Lisa! I took both semesters of chem with her and I did very well. In lecture, she writes all of her notes down instead of speeding through a powerpoint, so it isn't hard to keep up when writing notes. She also started posting her lecture notes online last semester. Tests can be tricky - that's probably why some people don't like her. To do well on tests, I suggest doing the readings, redoing HW, solving the integrated problems in the textbook, making study guides, and going to office hours! I only went to office hours the day before the tests, but people always seem to ask the right questions and she gives away some hints. Problem solving questions can also be tricky, but they aren't a big part of your grade and they are a great way to test your knowledge before the exam. Homeworks don't take up much time either. I recommend taking chemistry with Lisa, but be prepared to spend a fair amount of time studying (at least a few days before each exam) if you want to do well.

She was new last semester, and it took a bit for her to get adjusted. I took both Chem and Bio, and I found the workload to be totally manageable. There was a lot of review from high school chemistry in the beginning, but a whole lot of new information too. I don't particularly enjoy chem, but she made it accessible for me. I attended lectures regularly, but they aren't mandatory because she posts class notes online. I didn't read the textbook until second semester with her, and I highly recommend you do the readings. All in all, if you need to knock out a prereq, she's a solid choice. Not too hard, but still a challenging class. Homeworks allow for many attempts at the answer and you can submit it up to 9 days late, so a very fair grading system there. Exams are tough but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. iClicker grades from in-class assignments account for 20% of your final grade; some are announced and some aren't.

Very interesting professor. Just started UVA in the fall of 2016. The class is very doable. Very little homework to be quite honest. We have about one sapling (online hw) ranging from 20-40 questions about every other week. There are 4 midterms and yes there is usually a midterm right before the final (as in one week before the final). Her midterms can be very challenging and unpredictable. Class average varies from exam to exam. It could be as high as a 79% or as low as a 62%. There was not a curve my semester in the class because she only curves if the class average is under an 80%. Her exams are somewhat difficult because she has awkward worded questions that can be hard to determine what she is asking for. She's very unorganized and only offers about 3 office hours a week and if you can't make it she will try to meet with you outside of them. I just think shes very weak on making herself available to students. She says not to use the textbook as a primary source, but I suggest you do. Her lectures sometimes make NO sense and the textbook is very clear cut on the meaning of the concepts and terms.