CHEM 1410

Professor Welch was a fantastic professor for my first semester of college level chemistry. He made lectures pretty entertaining as far as chem lectures go which is no easy task. That being said, I didn't love the format of the flipped classroom with the TopHat textbook readings/questions, and the readings themselves were extremely over complicated and ambiguous. The expo session of this class was a little tiring but it was definitely helpful in reinforcing my understanding of the material. This class also had the most outside work out of all my classes this semester. If I was reading the chapter very thoroughly and taking good notes, it could take me anywhere from 1-3 hours. The LBLA and BIT got more routine and easier to complete for me throughout the semester. If I had to give a word of advice it would be to utilize the help of your professors and TA's! They are there to help. Lastly- the exams each had three parts to them, and took up basically and entire week each. These were definitely stressful, but if you know the material you will do well on at least the 1st and 3rd (group) portions. Good luck!

I love Kevin Welch. I took AP Chem in high school, but with this course it's really not needed all that much. The most difficult thing about this course was quantum numbers (which was in the beginning), but once you find a routine of balancing TopHat (the resource used for reading/homework/group work) readings/homework and real time lecture the class begins to make sense. Welch really wants students to understand the course content and succeed, but you need to pay attention in lecture to do so!!! Expo was not great but bearable. Honestly the TAs in Expo were not much help when my group didn't understand the chapter and apparently Welch was present in other Expo sections but not the one I was in. Your success in Expo is very greatly dependent on your knowledge of course material, how well you work with others, and the people in your group. I highly recommend taking this course with Kevin Welch!

Prof Welch is probably one of the most easy going yet incredibly disorganized people I've ever met. His lectures are a little discombobulating, but he's always happy to help after class and during office hours. That being said, go to office hours! I learned most of the material by talking with him in office hours and really going through the material. Welch will be super understanding and he's always open to giving extensions on almost any assignment except for the exams (if you don't have a valid excuse). Speaking of exams, there are two big things: 1. Don't throw away your Part 2 (individual for group work); even though it's only 10% of your total exam grade, it makes a difference! and 2. always look over your exam immediately after it's returned and get those regrades -- Welch and the TAs don't do an awesome job of making sure Gradescope grades correctly, so get as many of those points as you can :)
#tCFfall2021

I was really nervous to take this since the last time I'd taken chemistry was a regular chem course in 9th grade. Even then, I'm on track to get an A in the class. This class is structured to give you a lot of work for only 1 chapter a week. You have textbook reading/homework, then questions to answer before, during, and after Expo. This might feel like a lot, but usually it was well balanced and really helped me in the long run- I've never retained so much material throughout the semester for any other class.
The reading's dense (and just god-awful), so I'd recommend just skimming and highlighting key terms and statements, anything that you need to answer the homework. Usually, Welch does a good job of summarizing the reading and making it easier to understand, but his lectures are pretty surface-level. Honestly, the rest is up to you and your expo group, and your ability to connect different concepts. My expo group was great this semester and is probably a big reason why I was successful in this course.
Overall, this class isn't bad unless your expo sucks. Welch is super approachable and caring, and the material itself isn't too difficult. The exams, for me, were pretty fair.

First of all, I would like to say that Prof. Welch is probably the best professor I've had since I've been here and his lectures make everything make complete sense. This class does have hard concepts which the textbook is terrible at simplifying. However, in lecture Welch is very good at explaining these difficult topics. He also puts himself out there to help as much as he can, which is nice.

Welch is an amazing professor. He is extremely kind and really fast at responding to questions on Teams. I'm a CS major and this made me so much more interested in chemistry than I was before. The course wasn't difficult, but it was a lot more reading than I expected. I suggest taking detailed notes on the readings. The lectures aren't always that helpful but it's worth going to/watching them because Professor Welch says some important info that isn't in the reading but is covered on exams. I'm really glad I took this course and I might take CHEM 1420 later on because of it!!

If you're going to take CHEM 1410, take it with Welch. I was scared going into his class with how he had the biggest lectures, but he is genuinely there to help. The format of the course does involve a good amount of outside work, but it is all work that better helps you to understand the material. There is the chapter reading due midnight the night before your lecture, then the LBLA is due one hour before your Expo section (aka workshop/discussion section,) the Expo work is due the night of your Expo section but it can usually get done in class, and then the BIT was due Sunday at 11:59pm for my class (I had lecture on Tuesday and Expo on Thursday.) I consider myself someone who is not that great at science, but I found myself succeeding in this class beyond my expectations. The chapter readings are dense, as people have said, but I found rewriting them in my own document helped me to better read through without the interruptions of the questions throughout. The chapters that did seem confusing often made more sense when I reread the chapter in my own document before the test. I recommend reading the chapters at least a day before they're due so you're not cramming and can actually understand, and ATTEND LECTURE. Welch does a lot of drawings during lecture so I recommend having a notebook or tablet you can draw on. These help a lot if you're a visual learner as well. Doing the LBLA right after lecture and the BIT right after Expo can help you get in a great routine.
Like I said, I always thought I was bad at science before this class, but I still managed to get the grade I wanted. Expo is a great time to ask your Expo group for help if you're confused because then it can be explained in a more understandable way since they're your peer and not a textbook, but TAs and Welch are also extremely helpful during Expo. If your Expo group is bad, it does cast a bit of a downfall on that aspect of the course, but I really liked Expo overall because it dulled my fear of the big lectures preventing me from better understanding chemistry.
TL;DR. Take this class with Welch. Get in a routine with all of the outside assignments. Take notes and draw during lecture. Take advantage of the help that you can get in Expo.

I thought Welch was a really great professor. Basically every gen chem class is structured the same way, so you're not going to have a super unique experience no matter which professor you take, procedurally speaking. I often found the readings to be quite hard to understand, but Kevin's explanations in lecture really cleared things up. This is not a chill class to fulfill a STEM requirement, but if you're one of the thousands taking chem for your major, I'd recommend this prof

This class is a really good intro to chem class. Professor Welch is really good at keeping lectures interactive and working individually with students to create a positive learning environment. He is very accommodating towards any extensions and is also more then willing to give extra help for understanding. I would 100% recommend him.

I did get an A in this course, but I would say it is difficult to do. I separated my review into the course itself and the professor.

Professor:
He is an absolute joy of a professor. He is accommodating and always willing to work with you. I would highly recommend taking Chem 1410 with Welch. He is very good at conveying the concepts in a basic manner. Professor Welch genuinely wants every single student to succeed. It is in your best interest to have a meeting with him early if you are at all struggling.

Course:
The exams are application based and sometimes there are questions that in order for you to get them correct you would need to understand virtually everything. Still, there is a good amount of buffer assignments in this course. The Tophat assignments are the key to success. You must take the extra effort to check answers on the Tophat weekly readings, LBLA questions, EXPO, and BIT questions. I know it is a bit unreasonable that you are expected to do well your first time sitting with the material, but its important to do well on this assignments. After all, they make up 25% of the grade.