CHEM 1420

Columbus is an interesting professor. I took Chem I with Welch first semester which caused me to fall in love with chemistry. Second semester, I took 1420 with Columbus. I rarely went to her lectures because I felt like she taught very very slowly. She's a super approachable woman and you can tell she's super passionate about teaching, however I felt like that passion got in the way of her lectures a bit. She's constantly telling her classes to not stress out and everything will be okay. She's super supportive and understands the difficulty of this class, but although this reassurance was really nice to hear from the same person who's responsible for our grades, it made lectures seem really drawn out since she would sometimes spend like 10 minutes talking about how we will be okay and just need to stay persistent.

In terms of the actual class, we used TopHat which is really nice. All of the assignments are consistently scheduled and the timing of the due dates are fairly low pressure and easy to do a little bit each day. Don't get me wrong, this class had some really hard concepts to grasp. If you've taken Welch, the class material is identical down to the exams. They work together and give their students the same course work, readings, and exams. Columbus normalized our class grades to match Welch's as well. All of our exams were curved, and I thought that they were pretty fair questions, with MAYBE 3-5 incredibly difficult questions that you won't get right even if you study for hours each day because they require a deeper level of interpretation of the taught concepts.

Overall, Columbus is a good professor. She is incredibly approachable and understanding. There were several times where I missed a tophat assignment (and even a few times where I forgot to submit my online exams) and she quickly responded and reopened the assignment for me without any penalties. This class requires a lot of effort to be successful, including doing all the readings (I read over the TopHat textbook 3-5 times to make sure I fully understood it thoroughly), and not trying to BS your way through certain assignments. Columbus cares about her students, and if you have an issue/question, seriously do not hesitate to approach her.

This is probably one of the worst classes I've taken this semester. My first semester chemistry experience was significantly better. Columbus was poorly organized, didn't even show up to class for the last month, and was not very receptive to emails either. TA's were not very helpful, especially in expo. Expo was sometimes so difficult and problems didn't even make sense. I have no idea why this class was so bad this semester but I definitely feel that grading, organization, and the structure of the class were poor, resulting in unfair results.

This course was odd. The lectures themselves weren't very useful as the course is self-taught through the online top hat textbook. Regardless, I still ended with an A+, and have compiled some tips to succeed.
There are 3 assignments due each week: The chapter introducing new material, LBLA reviewing lecture the chapter and preparing you for expo, and BIT a summary assignment for the week. My tips here are to start the questions on top hat early, and check all your answers at office hours or with friends. Top hat chapters can be grueling and sometimes long. At the end of the semester top hat is worth 15% of your course grade, check your answers and get as close to a 100% as you can. Attending office hours is also good to clear up anything confusing. Though lecture is usually pointless you should attend to get the participation points. For the ePortfolios, they're graded on completion, just keep up and do them. Aside from lecture you have "Expo" each week which is just group work using top hat, and sometimes spartan (a program where you can build molecules). Expo can get confusing and difficult quickly, so make sure to ask questions often. The in-class exams are usually pretty straight forward, just use the old top hat questions to review and you should be fine. The take-home exams are annoying and you should google A LOT. The answer choices for these 6-8 multiple choice questions are usually in paragraph form and you should set aside a great deal of time to go through them. Though, as long as you take your time you should be fine.
I took the large lecture-style course (with Dr. Gunnoe) first semester and also ended with an A+. However, I felt that through the course with Columbus required a lot more work, it was easier to get high grades. Overall I would recommend Columbus, because though the style can be annoying, you do learn in detail, and it is easier to do well.

I took this class with Linda both semesters, and I have no idea why but it was terrible second semester. She showed up on rare occasions so we were left with some random teacher that only went over the basics. The textbook was useful for the most part although there are countless typos and even some errors. TAs were not helpful and rarely gave us correct information. I did not attend a single office hour and have an A currently only because of my ability to use google. Take this class with literally a n y o n e else because I only "learned" the material from Khan Academy, google, and my smart friends. Piazza questions are rarely answered. For the last test, there were questions NOT covered in the textbook whatsoever. Don't be fooled because that some people got As. It is necessary to spend SO much time taking notes and doing work for this class to do remotely well: it was not due to lectures, TAs, or Expos.

This has been quite possibly the most disorganized course I have taken at UVA. First of all, Professor Columbus rarely attends her own lectures and never attends expo sessions. Lectures are dull and cover homework questions which have already been graded, which defeats the point of having a lecture at all. Secondly, expo is the most pointless method of learning I have come across. The answers are obscure and require a lot of googling as none of them can be found in our "textbook" (more on TopHat in a minute). The TA's are told not to explicitly show us how to complete the questions and only the final numerical answer is released, which begs the question, how exactly are we supposed to be learning this material?

Now TopHat: this would be a good program, IF written correctly. The text is confusing at times, contains grammatical errors, and at times INCORRECT INFORMATION. When asked to clarify missing/wrong info on Piazza, instructors fall silent, leaving students to go on a wild goose chase around the internet in hope of an answer. Some questions get answered by TAs during office hours, but this info is never shared.

All in all, I took Lisa in the fall and it was much better. Her tests were harder, but at least they were consistent and had a real text to learn from. I have quite literally learned nothing in this course (I already took AP CHEM) and feel very underprepared to take orgo next semester. The only consolation is the curved grading they give on the group sections of tests. TLDR: don't take this course if you actually care about learning chemistry.

Columbus didn't come to class at all this semester. We were left with some other teacher who wasn't listed on the course. Overal, I think the students in Welch's class learned more than in Columbus's class. The class wasn't that hard, but it's basically all self taught so get friendly with Khan Academy and make some friends in the class

This chemistry class taught by Columbus is more focused on organic chemistry than the other 1420 CHEM classes. Also, this class is easier than the other chemistry classes as it only meets once a week and the topics are not that difficult.

This is one of the best Chemistry classes I have ever taken. Professor Columbus is one of the greatest professors I have ever had; she is super willing to listen to your justification about answers and give partial to full credit depending on the validity of your argument. The format is the same as semester I with her. The Top Hat questions are occasionally esoteric and require synthesis of knowledge but that is beneficial to students as it serves as practice for the exams. I highly recommend you take this class with Professor Columbus. While this section is extremely different from traditional lectures ie from Welch, Metcalf, and Morkowchuk, it truly preps students for Organic Chemistry. This class has take-home tests that are fairly difficult, however. I found myself putting in full days in order to finish them. However, I believe the flexibility is worth it. All in all, take Chemistry with Professor Columbus for a positive and collaborative environment where you actually learn to synthesize chemistry as opposed to memorize it.