CHEM 1420

Professor Welch has very good intentions and really wants you to learn the concepts. He's not trying to overtly trick you in any of test questions. However, he seems to have the habit of making mistakes on tests and correcting them day of and also being unintentionally awkward with phrasing. Clicker questions are not graded for accuracy and overall, I thought his method of grading was quite fair. I would definitely recommend Professor Welch for Chem 1410/1610!

This course (Gen Chem II) is definitely harder than Gen Chem I (CHEM 1410). I'd definitely recommend taking the course with Prof. Welch because he is a really great professor. The questions aren't overly tricky, but they do a good job of testing your understanding of often complex chemistry concepts. This class is definitely difficult and you HAVE to put a lot of time into studying (even if you've taken AP Chemistry).
I would recommend reading the pertinent chapters before an exam and DEFINITELY do the optional textbook problems he assigns. While the textbook problems tend to be easier than the problems on his exam, they test concepts more and can help you gauge your understanding of the content.
This is a tough course for everybody, so treat it as such. (study, study study)

Chem 1420 is a tough course but required for many things. Welch is by far the best teacher available and relatively fair in terms of grading. He curves all tests at the end so that the test average is around an 80. He's also really flexible in terms of deadlines for Mastering homework but you should do it on time because it's good practice for the tests

Listen here yall. You will think that Welch is great, and perhaps you've heard rumors that he's the good professor to take for this class. HOWEVER Welch has recently turned and now his exams are quite honestly harder than the other professor's without the curve (Metcalf) or open notes (Columbus). Welch is a really great guy, but he has absolutely no concept of what constitutes an 'easy' exam. The trend for exams was downward for the class as a whole, with the first average being a 71 and the second a 67. The third has yet to be released, but I can guess it will be around a 55. People leave the exam room crying, there is a mass vomiting in the Clark bathrooms before exams (so use the bathroom in a different building). This is a weed out class, be warned.

This is a tough course. No joke. It is much tougher than CHEM 1410. Coming from someone that got a good A, know that you will need to put hours in doing Mastering Chemistry and Weekly Questions (as well as reading and studying). Luckily, these cushion your grade a good bit, so do well on them. Go to office hours and the TA's will help you a good bit. Going on Friday afternoon allows you to get help with the Weekly Questions which will help greatly. The problems take longer because this semester is all math and formulas. Welch's exams this semester were real tough and I wish there was more time for them because it would have helped me greatly. He curved all of the exam averages to a 77, so you want to be doing better than the class average and you will end up with at least a B-. If you're looking for the easiest professor, just go with Colombus. From what I hear, it's crazy easy. But, if that's not an option for you, be prepared to put in some work. Just remember that Welch isn't trying to put you down. I'm pretty sure that there is some guideline or curriculum that he has to follow if that makes you feel any better. Do the practice exams but understand how to do problems that would be even harder than them (because that will likely be what is on the exam).

This course was rough because it was so early in the morning, but I highly recommend taking CHEM over the summer with Welch! He's very helpful and willing to answer questions during class. Because summer classes are much smaller, there's more time to get to know your classmates and do group work while getting to know Welch as well. His tests were very fair and his lectures are thorough. He also stops every now and then to answer questions and adjusts his exams based on what he was able to get through. He didn't expect you to memorize the tiny petty things that the other professors make you, so you spend your time wisely memorizing and learning other things. Beware, summer classes can get annoying since they're every day with everyday assignments, but much easier than taking it over a semester (btw lab was also SO easy!!) To do well in this class, you need to review your notes after class every day and stay on top of the homework and assignments. Welch was very understanding about personal circumstances if you missed class or made mistakes on the online assignments.

ok so FIRST OF ALL, people hate on Welch because they did poorly in the class. But let me tell you, his exam curves are giant. I know several people who failed all three of the midterms and still got an A- in the class. Mastering is annoying and weekly questions can be super challenging, but lecture is always fun and non-stressful. Clickers are participation only and exams are fair. People got bumped up a ton on midterm exam grades, like 20 points. But seriously, if you study the lecture slides (especially the clickers!!) and weekly questions, you won't need the curves. He also curves the entire class at the end so people can get into orgo. I got an A+ before the class curve, and it was absolutely manageable. Pro tip: read the material before class and come with questions in mind!

I have mixed feelings about this class. Instead of being taught in the standard lecture form, this is taught in a format that involves one lecture a week, one class of group work, and online assignments due 3 times a week. Much of the class involves teaching yourself the material. The tests are also structured differently. Instead of being the usual in-class test, they are broken up into 3 parts: an individual, in-class exam, a take-home online exam (that is open notes but much more complicated), and a short group exam. I took 1410 in the standard lecture format, and after taking the two types of courses, I think that I like this format better. The tests are a bit more reasonable and aren't as large of a portion of your grade. Additionally, there are a lot of resources that you can pull on to be successful. There's a whole slew of TAs, an online question forum, your group members, and of course, Welch himself. He's a nice guy. However, my issues with this class largely stem from TopHat. The chapters we are assigned on TopHat are not very helpful and do a poor job of teaching the concepts. This is worsened by the fact that we have to complete questions based off the chapter (that are graded partially on correctness) before we've been formally introduced to the content in lecture. Thus, use outside resources to supplement TopHat!

I wouldn't say this class was fun, but taking it with Prof. Welch was definitely a positive experience. If you go to lecture, take notes, and do the homework you should be fine and be able to grasp the concepts. Of course taking classes with friends is fun, but I'd really recommend finding a friend in this one so you can be in the same group as them during chem expo.

Worst class I have ever taken at UVA. This class absolutely sucks. I came into this class wanting to be a chem major and left it hating chemistry and the department. The group exam questions are unreasonably unfair and completely unrelated to what we learn (or should I say teach ourselves). This class is 90% self-taught and 10% Welch talking about the basics in lecture (which we didn't even have once online). The chapter readings teach me more than Welch does and it still isn't enough compared to what is expected in expo and on the exam. I studied SO HARD for the final. I seriously spent over 2 hours every day for a week before the final doing all the practice problems and reading and taking notes on the chapters and still got an 82 on the final, are you kidding me? He even said the final was supposed to be easy, I can't imagine how people did who didn't study. I did all the readings and took notes on every single one, I took notes in lecture (when we had it) and worked on the problems with my group, yet still am probably going to end up with a borderline B+/A-. I have never been more frustrated. TAs are willing to help but most of the time don't know much more than we do, and Professor Welch wants to help but is always overbooked or his office hours are crazy busy. Once we went online nothing changed except the fact that we didn't have any kind of instruction (he just posted lecture slides with no comments). The same exact was expected of us during online, when we were getting half the instruction as before. I do not recommend taking this class with Welch, especially if you have to do it online. There is no organization to this course and good luck getting any help if you need it.