CHEM 1410

Kevin Welch is a pretty good professor compared to the other professors that my friends had from what I've heard. However, the class is honestly mostly self-taught from the online assignments. I stopped going to lectures after the first few weeks because it was just a review of the readings.

It's decently easy to get an A if you put in some work. You just need to make sure you understand the readings and ace the LBLA, BIT, and EXPO. The tests are open-note so they're not too bad. Group work is pretty important so hope you get group members that will also put in some work. Also, on the group exam, online research is your friend. Some of the answers to questions were special cases that were not covered in the readings and were completely opposite to the trends/concepts that you have learned.

Welch is a decent prof. Class was structured where you read the chapter and the embedded questions are due 11:59 PM day before lecture. In lecture he goes over what he believes is important from the chapter. I found the lectures not super helpful but sometimes they could be, especially if people ask good questions. Then theres LBLA (looking back looking ahead) due before expo- more questions. Then you have expo on the other day where you do group work, usually not too bad. Then you have BIT due sunday 11:59. 3 exams, all open note, resource, internet, take them where you want (alone). A final project and a final. Final is all mc or like enter a number as your answer and is also open note, resource, internet. Welch wasn't too bad. I think the class was only okay because it was open resource. Exams (except final) have 3 parts, individual, individual, and group. They also change how much each part is worth, first exam its, 20%,10%,70%, second is 45%,10%,45%, and last is 70%,10%,20%. #tCFfall2021

Tbh, I came into this class a little bit intimidated, as I had only taken honors chemistry in high school and while I passed with a 98, I feel like I did not learn anything. However, after going through this class, I can confidently say I learned a lot, and I mean a lot about general chemistry, and I loved the class. I will not sugarcoat this class, as I got a 93% this semester (an A), but I had to put in a decent amount of time studying. Do not be intimidated though, as all of our exams were open note and online (including the final, which was also only multiple choice!), so as long as you are prepared, this class is a great class to take. And in my opinion, I loved professor Welch. From my experience in lecture, he explains this well, and does not just regurgitate what you read in the textbook (which can be very confusing with big terms and run-on sentences some times). Overall, if you want/need to take Chem 1410, please take it with Welch.

Professor Welch is a good lecturer and does many examples in class, so I would recommend taking this course with him if you can. For some reason this course has a reputation for being difficult, but I did not find that to be the case. It may not be mind-numbingly easy, but as long as you keep up with all the assignments each week, it's not bad. Each week looks like this: reading the chapter before lecture, lecture at the beginning of the week, small assignment between lecture and expo meeting, expo meeting later in the week, small assignment due by Sunday night. In expo, you are assigned to a group of about 4 or 5 students, and you do practice problems together each week during class. I liked the format of the class, except for the readings at the beginning of the week. The readings are confusing and much more in-depth than you need to know for the exams, so the reading assignments were more stressful than they were helpful.

Welch is a great lecturer and super understanding. He always responds on teams to your questions. There is a lot of reading that is often hard to teach yourself, but usually it all makes enough sense by the time he lectures. Expo is the most chaotic time of your week. You kinda just get set free, but generally no one totally knows what is happening. The questions are great for reviewing for tests but really hard without a ton of help sometimes. Do the portfolio every week, it’s easier to manage that way (and it’s a great review). Review the test your understanding portions of the readings and BITs/LBLAs for tests. The material can be really confusing but if you plug away at it you will understand it.

Class set up is- 5% portfolio grade (completion), 15% each exam (open notes and split between individual and group), 20% final (open notes and super easy), 5% final project (group project), and 25% split between the tophat activities and expo portion. The group portion of the tests are super hard and should not even be legal. I hear Welch is the best professor but honestly, even he is not that good. Ended with a B (86.7, which they don't round to the nearest whole number, or I would have a B+) in the class, which I am not proud of, but I feel like if you study hard and try your best you should do decent and at least get a B-. Also, lectures are dry and are honestly useless.

Welch is a really nice person and he definitely knows his stuff. I only talked to him once but he was super friendly. However, I found that sometimes the lecture didn't pertain to the TopHat readings or were unrelated to anything we'd be tested on. They could be hard to follow sometimes. But he records lectures which is good. He also provides many resources in preparation for the tests, such a chapter review notes and recorded TA review sessions, which I don't think every professor does.

Content-wise, I didn't really enjoy the material, but I'm not a big chemistry person in general so that was probably why. The tests weren't impossible - they're open internet/note so they mostly tested on concept application instead of stuff you could just memorize. They're basically a week-long event though (3 parts over 3 days) which can be a hassle.

You don't get to pick your Expo group but they're really important as you do the group test with them. The expo questions could be difficult sometimes; in the beginning our group would use up almost the whole time to finish them all but we got quicker throughout the semester.

Also if you know you're going to take 1420 the semester after, get the year-long subscription for TopHat because it's used in all of those classes too lol.

Overall take this class if you need to. I don't really see a reason to if you're not interested in chemistry/premed/engineering etc since it's not the most captivating material. However, it's not necessarily as difficult as it is time-consuming.

I'll start by prefacing that I am not a STEM-major, nor am I by any means a chemistry prodigy. I came in the semester with basic chemistry knowledge from high school and the CHEM 1410 professors made it clear early on that it did not matter what background knowledge you had going in to the semester. While I am not sure how true that statement was, fortunately I did exit CHEM 1410 with a B. The class is split up into three parts: lecture, expo (kind of like a group discussion), and lab. Definitely make sure you attend lecture, whether it be remote or in-person, Professor Welch definitely knows his stuff, and while it does feel easy to feel lost in the crowd, you can message him or the TAs on Microsoft Teams for extra help. As for expo, for your own sake, make sure you end up with a helpful group. You do not have much choice in your group for lab, but expo is 100% self-taught team based, so ensuring that you have a group that either knows their stuff or are hard-working will work to your favor in the long-run. The content of the class is difficult. Chances are you won't understand things the first read-through. That is what lecture and expo are for. If you have meaningful discussions with your expo group, pay attention in lecture, and study, you should be fine.

People say Chem is hard but Welch and the UVA chem teachers made it pretty easy to do work/ understand. Expo can be annoying at times but really not that bad considering its group work. Weekly readings can be annoying at times but make sure to understand it well as thats where you will learn most of the content. It will take a good amount of time depending on how fast you read and comprehend things. Overall, if you have to take chem it's not that bad.

I came into this course not having any knowledge of chemistry from a previous institution. I found this course challenging, often frustrating, yet doable. Since there are plenty of solid reviews explaining the structure of the course, so I would like to share only my tips that allowed me to finish with an A-.

TopHat Tips:
- Take thorough notes on the weekly chapter with emphasis of trends and exceptions. They will be helpful in your completion of later assignments within the week.
- Not all chapters are created equally. Some have typos. Some are poorly worded. Some are just bad. There are other more concise recourses to learn course content from before attempting the imbedded questions. I recommend Professor Dave Explains and/or the Organic Chemistry Tutor on Youtube.

Lecture Tips:
- Usually they upload the lecture slides a few hours before it begins. I would take notes in advance and then take notes only on what he says during lecture. Professor Welch will suddenly switch the camera and starts doing practice problems on paper, and it's best to be fully engaged when he does that.
- They usually contain most of what you need to know, at least in 1410.

Expo Tips:
- You have no control over your group. Hopefully you have a smart person. If not and you're willing to work hard, you will become them.
- Complete your portfolio assignment immediately after Expo. It is less annoying this way, trust me.
- Don't hesitate to ask the TAs questions, and don't worry about sounding stupid. There's a chance they may not understand anything either.

Individual Exam Tips (1):
- Usually several (if not most) of questions stray from the types you will have encountered on weekly assignments. It is imperative that you have a decent conceptual understanding of each topic in order to approach these problems. I would call my parents and give them chemistry lectures without looking at my notes to work towards that. Lame? Perhaps, but it worked for me.

Group Exam Tips (2 and 3):
- :(
- These questions are always outside the scope of the course and do a poor job at assessing knowledge because students are expected to come to multi-step conclusions on concepts that are not covered during lectures or mentioned briefly in TopHat with vague instructions.
- Process of elimination is your friend here, and trust your instincts if you are torn between two choices.
- Getting a 6/10 is perfectly fine! Don't panic!

On Professor Welch:
- I did not directly interact with this semester. I consider him a decent lecturer.
- He is most passionate about inorganic chemistry (observed during color & crystal field theory weeks), and they ended up being the most interesting chapters to me as well (and least difficult exam).