CHEM 2220

This really isnt a worthwhile course...I am a Chem major and can honestly say I really am not leavning the course having learned anything new. Prof. Allen never attends his office hours, so getting help from him on problem sets is almost always out of the question unless you catch him in lab. If you have to take this course, you will probably get an A, but you won't take much away from it.

This class is painful. Two hour lecture goes on and on about nothing. The labs are easy but the theory behind them is hardly understood. There are weekly individual/group problems that are not too bad. It's very easy to get an A. It's just that I'm confident you will agree that this is the most boring and pointless waste of time.

As someone who hadn't taken gen chem since 10th grade, this course was a little more difficult for me than others. However, I still got an A even though my group had to re-do the midterm. Just get all your problem sets done and you'll get an A for sure.

Very bad class but easy A.

Allen was completely odd to say the least. The class emphasized group work for understanding chemical equilibria. There were individual and group problem sets due every two weeks that were turned in to the TAs for grades. There was a hard, group midterm as well as a hard, group final. There was also a final oral exam where he asks you about all the titration curves we've performed during the labs. Overall, it was an annoying course but it was easy to get a good grade.

Great Professor! Great Class! Find good partners and listen to the man and you'll get an A.

This class is pretty much useless, but it's a requirement for some majors. Prof. Allen talked about essentially nothing useless for 2 hours in lecture, and then gave really hard homework problems. His homework policy was to give problems 'unique so that you can't find anything like it in any book/on the internet to help you'. Predictably, if you were unsure of how to proceed it was rather annoying. His midterm/final are VERY difficult (because they're the same type of unique problems), but it's all group work so that helps. We did less than stellar on our midterm so for the final we just started early and consulted Prof. Allen about 20 times (because each time he gave us a hint or idea) and ended up with A's. The lab is really easy but long and boring, you don't really need to know what is going on except for the last couple which are the subject of the oral exam with your group. You need to know everything to minute details incase he asks, but try to encourage him to go on lengthy tangents (as he often does) and the time will fly by. Good luck!

Professor Allen made the class harder because he feels students are taking advantage of his lenient grading system and getting by without learning as previous reviews show. Material is super useful for the physical science section of the MCAT. However, some of the problems were extremely difficult and will not be of any use unless you decide to be a chemist. Teaching was mediocre to bad...Allen really doesn't explain things well (the fact that it took our class 3 rounds of quizzes to understand a simple concept about titration curves is evidence). No oral exam this semester probably made the class slightly easier than it should have been. Also, there is very minimal help available outside of class. Since there is no textbook, the gen chem textbook was extremely useful. Also, make sure you have at least one genius in your group...it will make your life so much easier. Finally, Allen likes to publicly embarrass students in order to get them to learn (like listing aloud the students who failed his quizzes - nearly half the class!) Overall, a poorly run class, but extremely useful for the MCAT.