CHEM 1620

This class has to be up there on my list of least favorite classes. I took Chem 1610 with Columbus in the Fall and was extremely underwhelmed so I switched to Welch for the spring. He is a much, much better professor! Going to lectures was actually somewhat worth my time besides the participation grade. However, the "expo" portion of the class, which is basically an in-class project every week, continued to be extremely confusing and required a much higher level of understanding than either the readings or the lectures. The worst part were the tests. The typical part of the test, taken in lecture, was standard and actually relatively easy, but the second part, taken as a group in Expo, was horrific. They consisted of 6-8 multiple choice questions, where each answer was a paragraph. Did I mention that the tests required a whole new level of understanding, MUCH higher than readings, lectures, or even Expos? There was no adequate way to prepare for them. I will say that the TAs were very nice and gifted a large amount of points back to us based on our explanations of why we got the answer wrong (this was standard protocol) and because of this I ended up with an A-. Overall, this test is useful for learning basic information about chem, but causes undue amounts of stress and anxiety coupled with unfair methods of testing.

Prof Welch is a great professor. He explains all the concepts well and has time dedicated to questions. His tests are fair and the highest average out of all chem teachers.

Professor Welch is a solid professor, lecturer, and person. He has an enjoyable personality and sense of humor that makes his lectures engaging. The content of the course is not that difficult to grasp, even for a non-chemistry person (like me). I ended this course with a much stronger understanding of basic chemistry concepts, something I never received in high school. On occasion, homework got a bit tedious, but I find I understood the material much better after each problem set. The textbook was also fairly useful, though not completely necessary. Tests are straightforward and generally pretty fair. Overall, this was actually a decent general chemistry course in my opinion.