CHEM 2410

I am telling you right now you need to run. Frantz is the worst professor you could possibly have. Honestly, I think the upperclassmen lied to us 2nd years, so they could get the GOOD professor Samonina. They claim Frantz prepares you better for the MCAT...that's a lie. A complete lie. This woman will destroy your will, she finds joy in the class not understanding her and is not helpful. She's the kind of professor that simply REFUSES to answer your question, no matter how confused you are. Instead, she'll beat around the bush and waste your time.

Once, she casually mentioned that we'd have to memorize a bunch of carbonyls after a student asked a random question. None of us were aware and she said it at the very last minute. Her response to our shock? "I hope none of you want to go to medical school". Her exam averages are a complete disaster, if it weren't for her having exam corrections, this woman would be out of a job.

She needs to be fired. Immediately. As I write this I am preparing for her final which is known to be absolutely horrible and a gpa destroyer. Our latest exam average was 53%. by the way :) Please if you have any love for yourself, take Chruma or try to get Samonina. Unfortunately, she's hard to get if you arent a 3rd or 4th year because of enrollment priority, but please just avoid this woman. Chruma is better than her. Anyone is better. I hope after what I'm sure are very desperate course evaluations, UVA will at the very least increase Samoninas's class size.

Focus on understanding the concepts that are delivered. Constantly review SQ3R style and you should have success. The three midterm exams get corrections, so they are pretty low impact (10% each, w/ corrections making them effectively 5%). The final is more consequential at 25% w/o corrections. The rest of the class is participation, where if you consistently do your homework and attend class, you get full points (45%). This is not a class to skip, so make sure you have a class before this one to create accountability. Also ask the stupid questions when Frantz walks around as she is quite helpful at explaining things. Her office hours are also nice to attend if you don't have class. Otherwise, good luck and hopefully the final didn't go too poorly :)

Professor Frantz tells you day one what you need to do in order to do well in this class. DO IT. She is not kidding when she says it requires studying basically every single day. If you do exactly what she tells you, you will do well. It just requires more work than your average class. Here's what worked for me: Read the text book BEFORE class! Use lectures to add to those notes. After lectures, go over the notes and fill in anything blank / reorganize. Do the suggested in chapter practice problems for that day. A week before exams, start hard core studying. The more practice the better. Do the end of chapter suggested practice problems, specifically the integrated and challenge problems. This class seems daunting and don't get me wrong its a lot of work. But there isn't any reason to be scared of it, as long as you are willing to put in the work

This class is very much a weed out class. Frantz is a pretty nice person but her lecture style with clicker might not be for everyone as she goes pretty in depth, and expects memorization of lots of charts, graphs, and values the other classes are given on exams. There are people who succeed with Frantz but if you are unsure of your major or procrastinate a lot I wouldn't recommend because it will not be a fun experience. The homework clicker and discussion points make up almost half of your grade so try to get all of those points because exams are sometimes brutal. There are 3 exams for a total of (30%). The exam before the final had an average of a 50 or 60 so try to do well on the first two to set yourself up well for the final. That said the final was pretty rough and makes up almost the same amount as the exams but without corrections like the others(25%). The class is hard and stressful and I would have definitely preferred another instructor like Chruma, but if you do get Frantz it's not the absolute end of the world.

Honestly I think that a lot of people just like to complain about this class. While it was by no means easy, I would say that Frantz was a good and respectable teacher and did her best to cover the wide range of material that we needed to know within the constraints of class time. There are three main pieces of advice that I would give to anyone who needs to take this class: 1. When Frantz says to review every day, she absolutely means it. I did this pretty consistently throughout the semester and it makes everything much less stressful when test time rolls around. 2. Aim for 100's on the midterms. Not kidding. I know this isn't necessarily a realistic goal, but the point of me saying it is to emphasize how important it is to keep your grade as high as possible. Which brings me to 3. The final exam will be one of the most difficult tests that you take in your undergraduate career. There's no sugar coating it. I spent an entire week studying for around 8 hours a day and still struggled. This is probably the one bone I have to pick with Frantz, but I also understand that she has to make her class difficult in some way, and she does provide test corrections on midterms and lots of participation points throughout the semester to help offset it.
While this certainly wouldn't be a course I would take by choice, I definitely learned a lot and think that Frantz was not nearly as bad as many like to say. Go to office hours, do the practice problems in the book, and go to class and you will make it through.

Take everything said about Frantz with a grain of salt. People like to complain about stuff and organic chemistry is a very hard class, which makes it easy to complain about. Orgo 1 is considered a walk in the park compared to Orgo 2, so it is best to get a really good teacher who will prepare you for Orgo 2. If you can't get Samonina, I would highly recommend Frantz. I think she is a good professor and going to give you a very fair shot at getting a good grade in this challenging course.
First off, I enjoyed the structure of her class (Mon./Wed. are lectures, Fri. is practice problems) because she gives you a lot of chances to practice the material. She gives a lot of "easy" points. There are daily quizzes before class and weekly HW and you can basically get 100s on all of them. It seems like a lot of assignments at first, but they are super helpful in terms of understanding the material and you get used to it. You also get a lot of discussion and iClicker points that help your grade a ton so make sure you do those. The 3 midterms are very reasonable. You get 1/2 points back on the midterms through corrections which is a great grade boost. Even if you bomb one, your grade can still be okay in the end. The final gets a lot of hate but I thought that it was relatively reasonable. Obviously it was hard, but if you genuinely understood the material throughout the course and studied a lot you will do fine.
For this semester, our class average was an 84%. Overall I got an A-. I am not a chem genius, but I did put a whole lot of work into this class. Here is some of my advice:
1. My biggest piece of advice is to study throughout the course, Frantz tells you this on the first day. She is not joking. Make sure you are constantly reviewing topics. I had flashcards with me at all times and tried to study the material a bit every day.
2. Put in 100% effort through out the course because, in the end, every point matters and could be the difference between a 89.5% and a 90.0%. I know too many people who did well on the first exam, started slacking because they thought they could get away with it and ended up being super unhappy with their final grade. Do the EC discussion points, they can make a difference in the end.
3. Before coming to class make sure that you have done the readings. Her lectures are very beneficial if you have already been exposed to the material. I did all of the reading for the upcoming week on the weekend so I had the whole week to really understand the info. This made such a difference and, although it was kind of exhausting, I would HIGHLY recommend this strategy.
4. The integrated problems at the back of the book, the HW, discussion problems, and the Friday practice problems are super similar to the exam questions. Some of our exam problems even seemed to be based on these questions. Do them to study.
5. If possible, do not take other challenging courses while taking this course. I know for some people's schedules that is not possible, but it is easiest to succeed in orgo if you are just focusing on orgo.
At the end of the day, this class is emotionally exhausting. I can honestly say that I enjoyed the material and thought it was super interesting, but it was still super stressful. This is not a fault of the professor, it is just the truth of a medical school weed out course.

I'm going to preface this by saying that I have never written a course forum review before, but I felt it necessary given that most of the current reviews on this page are not the most accurate representation of the class. The class is structured with 3 midterms (each 10%, corrections to get half points back), clicker and homework questions (45%, easy to get full points), and the final (25%, no corrections). I think our class averages for the midterms were 73, 65, and 53 (before corrections) and the final was probably around a 50. My advice is to do all the assigned readings for the week on the weekend prior to going to class. This will give you a better understanding and allow you to remember the information better. I studied for about an hour each day before lecture as if we were getting quizzed on the info (which worked for me but might not be necessary for everyone). My goal was to be comfortable with the information before seeing it in lecture. However, you should be studying daily just because of the sheer amount of information. There is a lot of memorization, but try to understand why things happen because it makes it easier to remember. Pay special attention to problems during discussion (similar level of difficulty to exam). To prepare for exams I would do all the recommended textbook problems she assigns and do ALL the integrated problems. There is usually a problem or two on each exam that is pulled straight from the integrated problems. I would study the new information daily and start studying for exams 1-2 weeks in advance by doing a ton of practice problems. The reviews on this page make the final out to be impossible. This gave me so much stress and anxiety leading up to the exam. It is very long and tedious, but the problems are no harder than the problems you have been doing all year (still around the difficulty as integrated problems). My mistake was taking other course reviews to heart and thinking that this is an impossible class. It is not. You have to be willing to put in a lot of work, but I promise the constant studying and hard work pays off in the end. A lot of people would procrastinate and wait until the last minute to study which I do not recommend. I was a little discouraged with my midterm grades (without corrections a 82, 73, and 80) as I didn't think they reflected how much I worked/how much I knew. However, being able to learn from your mistakes with test corrections is really helpful. I was able to score around a 88 on the final so succeeding in this class is definitely possible.

On to Frantz. I think she gets a lot of unnecessary hate. Her exams are tough but fair. Her class is super interesting but can be overwhelming if you do not prepare. My big complaint is that she introduces new content (for the next exam) on exam week, which I found a little inconsiderate. However, I firmly believe she gives you all the tools necessary to succeed. Other reviews make it seem like she is never available for help. That is not true, I would say she is very available. She holds office hours, and says that we can always email her to schedule time for help or to just talk about life/things in general.

Succeeding in orgo is about you. Everyone will have a different experience, and different study techniques work better for different people. My main piece of advice is to keep a positive mindset. I have always been someone that has to work twice as hard as others to keep up, so this class gave me a lot of anxiety and imposter syndrome. I wish I enjoyed the class a little more and didn't worry as much. Keep working hard, learn from your mistakes and adjust study habits if necessary, and try to enjoy the information and I promise everything will work out in the end!

All of the other reviews about this class are pretty accurate. Expect to have to do a ton of work if you want to do well. The readings before class are not optional. You need to do them every time to succeed. It is difficult to get an A in this class but very easy to pass. The test corrections are clutch, and they basically ensure that you won't fail the class if you put in effort. I really liked Frantz, and I learned a lot in this class. This class is probably harder to get an A in than the other orgo professors, but you are going to learn more. I would still recommend taking Frantz since orgo 2 is much harder than orgo 1, and you'll get a better foundation from Frantz than the other professors. 45% of the grade is an easy 100%, and 30% are from the midterms (which have test corrections). The final was very challenging, but I still ended up getting an A in the class. My biggest piece of advice would be to do every single extra recommended problem in the back of the book and to BUY THE ANSWER KEY! Once I did this, my grades and understanding improved a ton. Hard work will pay off in this class!

Dr. Frantz knows her stuff and is willing and able to explain it-- she is somewhat intimidating from afar, but when you talk to her one-on-one, I found her to be extremely kind and patient.

This class definitely has a lot of work involved-- she recommends on the first day of class to read the textbook (which is a great resource!) and take handwritten notes prior to the lecture that covers those sections. In addition to notetaking, there is also a short warm-up quiz due the night before each lecture and a weekly homework that can take anywhere from 1-3 hours (albeit I go at a slower pace, YMMV). This is altogether a lot of work and assignments to keep track of, but really taking the time to learn from these will help in the course. Her lectures can help to clarify concepts/certain aspects that she may test on, but I found I got a lot more out of lecture (i.e. the in-class practice problems) when I came prepared with pre-written notes. I would not suggest solely relying on lecture for understanding the content.

As for discussions, mine typically went for an hour and a half on average, but it really depends on how much time the TA's give for the small groups to work on the problems and how long they take to review them. Discussions are mandatory, but essentially solely participation-based. It can be worth it to stay longer to work on the challenge problems with your group, but they are closed-note and the difficulty varies. Still, you potentially get extra points back on exams (?) at the end of the semester.

Finally, the tests-- I personally found the midterms to be a lot fairer than I was expecting going into them. If you understand the content well enough to explain it to classmates, you should be in good shape. I found that the best resources to prepare were study groups, her recommended problems, reading through notes, and looking over discussion/in-class/homework questions. They're generally free-response, so make sure you know your stuff versus relying on recognition. If she says that you should know something (e.g. pKa values), make sure you know them! Test corrections are life-saving and worth doing! The final was a lot more challenging than anticipated, relies on concepts learned throughout the semester that you may not have used in a while, and there are no test corrections/curves. #tCFfall2021

Yes, you have to study your butt off for Orgo. NO ONE is kidding. If you fall behind even a little bit, it will be very hard for you to catch up. But I am here to talk about Frantz. I think she is really rude. She laughed at people a couple times in class- someone asked "Will we be expected to know these values on the exam?" and she laughed. She really wants you to learn the most you can out of orgo, so she makes it really difficult so you remember the most. At this level, that is not manageable with the amount of info that is being pumped out to us. You will be SO much better trying Samonina or Chruma, which don't make you memorize as much on exams. Frantz's final was absolutely ridiculous, that I didn't even feel bad about myself after I left because it was that hard. I think Frantz caters more to E school kids and and the rest of us regulars can't keep up- but she doesn't care who you are or what your strengths are- everyone is expected to do the same.

You have to study for Orgo A LOT in general, but I think you will have better luck with literally anyone else other than Frantz.