CHEM 2410

While organic chem is obviously quite hard, I think Professor Frantz gives you the best shot at a good understanding of orgo as well as a decent grade. There are plenty of points padded into your grade to boost it, and the mid-semester exams are only worth 10% each. The exams are hard but fair, and although Frantz is kind of a savage, she makes herself very available in office hours or whenever you need extra help.

This is an extremely difficult course. Reading the textbook BEFORE class is essential because Frantz goes through the class material very quickly. Frantz does clicker questions, but she only grades for participation, which is very helpful. Frantz does test corrections (after you take the exam, you get to redo all the problems you missed and get up to 50% credit back for the problems you missed), which makes the exams more manageable. However, the final is INSANELY difficult. There is nowhere near enough time to complete a final of the difficulty Frantz gives. The best thing about this class are the TAs. My TA, Vik, was phenomenal! He would quiz us in class to test our understanding, and he was SUPER helpful in office hours and very understanding. I 100% would have failed this course if it weren't for him. I recommend scheduling a one-on-one meeting with Frantz early in the semester even if you are doing well in the course. The exams get successively difficult, and if you don't meet with her/get her advice in the beginning of the semester, she won't help in the end. All that to say, Frantz is a very knowledgeable professor and she knows orgo material very well. You will need to spend a lot of time on this course if you want an A in the class.

Dr. Frantz tells you on the first day of class each semester what you need to do to succeed. She is not exaggerating the amount of work necessary to do well in her class. Organic Chemistry at all colleges is difficult, and this class is no exception. That being said, if you read and take notes on the textbook before class, pay attention and engage yourself during class, and review after class, you will do well. The most important of these is READING THE TEXTBOOK BEFORE CLASS; she often zooms through the concepts presented in the textbook during the lecture, so if you don't have anything written down already, you can't engage during the practice questions because there isn't enough time to write everything down in class. Get all of the points you can on the things that are not tests (homework, warm-up quizzes, clicker questions, discussion). The three midterms are manageable but focus on the example questions you do in class because one of them generally is on the test in some sort or another. I would also recommend doing all of the recommended practice problems she puts on Collab before the tests as well as doing ALL INTEGRATED PROBLEMS for each chapter covered on the test. The final is unlike anything you will have ever seen before and is extremely hard; it is definitely used to separate the A's from A-'s from the B+'s ... . TLDR: Do all the work she tells you to, and you will do well.

Do yourself a favor and take the class with anyone else. Samonina for example. Honestly, this class is made far harder than it ever needs to be. I understand organic chemistry is a hard subject but you are pretty much lulled into a false sense of hope in this class with the test corrections and then demolished by the final, which is and always will be the hardest exam I have ever taken. Frantz is nice as a person and her lectures are decent but I wouldn’t call her “student friendly”. I took Frantz thinking that the difficulty of her exams and final would be offset by the fact that she’s a good lecturer but I was sorely mistaken. The most frustrating part of this class is you can study until the cows come home and you still will find questions pulled out of left field that aren’t indicative of what is taught in class. Bottom line, take orgo with another professor if you want a chance at getting a decent grade.

Do yourself a favor and take the class with Samonina. I have friends who went from a C+ in orgo 1 with Frants to an A+ in orgo 2 with Samonina. If someone tells you that Frantz prepares you better for the MCAT don't listen to them.

I thought that this was a HUGE jump from the introductory chemistry classes. You need to be prepared to stay on top of every unit when youre learning it, and not procrastinate in any way. I got really sick for a month, and because of that my grade really suffered. The first three exams arent terrible but the final is baaaaad. I would do lots and lots of practice problems

I have kept a record over the past two semesters of how many times she has said "Quiet Please" in lecture. I realized one week in that it was going to be an absurd amount. Keep in mind that this total is based on only classes I was present for, so a margin of error does exist and this is most likely a low estimate. Without further ado, here are the results:
Fall semester QP's - 45 over 10 days (4.5 avg per day) estimated 149 over entire semester
Spring semester QP's- 126 over 33 days (3.8 avg per day) with 2 silent stares and 1 "I'll wait"
Total QP's - 171
Estimated Total QP's - 275

Please, just be quiet.

Frantz has favorites in the class and these are the good reviews that you see on here. I think she makes the tests unfair by pulling information that we have not discussed in class from the Klein textbook (we were not told to purchase this, I only have it because tophat sucks). Once you're in the spring semester, she puts questions on the exam from the fall, even though many students did not take the class with her during the fall semester. She can be unreasonable with any technical problems with the class. For example, when tophat isn't working and you are unable to answer in class questions, she won't give you credit for them even if you are there. She says that its not her problem, its tophats! She is not very understanding in terms of exam conflicts. Good news is her exam corrections are awesome. dont take orgo if you don't have to. In my opinion, lecture is optional (as long as you're answering the tophat questions from home.... and the app is working).

I feel like a lot of people give Frantz a hard time, but this is one of the most difficult classes at UVA and I think she does her best to make it clear and enjoyable. The TopHat readings are kinda of stupid and have a lot of typos and information you don't need to know. I found it more helpful to go to class and take notes, and then read the sections about what was covered in class afterwards. The key to doing well on exams is doing sooo many practice problems. If you can get access to the Klien Orgo textbook, use those chapters/problems for practice. I always found the Klien chapters more clear and those problems more relevant than the tophat ones. I don't think it is Frantz's fault this class is so miserable; she does the best she can to teach the material and is super nice in office hours. I think taking this with Frantz is the way to go. ALSO: When you take this class, please appreciate it and don't take it for granted because Orgo II is a million times worse.

Professor Frantz is by far the most skilled lecturer I've has at this University. She is excellent and makes what I thought would be a hard class one of my easiest ones. Do the readings and it will be hard for you to get less than an B+ in this class.