CHEM 2420

Alright guys, I'm here to give you the real low down on Alicia. Firstly, the others are right. She doesn't care who you've had for Orgo 1. She's going to make sure you're accountable for everything you've learned from August to May with her final. God, her final is so tough and challenging, and no practice problem she provides us with can equate to her final. She doesn't give out study guides, and the homeworks are a joke compared to what type of questions she gives us on an exam. As for lecture, you must come to lecture prepared with a full set of notes. Her lectures zoom through a lot of material and often skip the explanations. I don't know why, she dedicates a lot of practice to the examples found in the textbook... the examples that are already worked and we are supposed to have read and done. I wish Alicia instead took this time to create questions written to "her" style so that we could better be prepared for exams. Her extra credits are jokes. They are 1 point, added to your grade which is out of 1000. Sometimes we are given an hour to do the challenge problems, but they're in no shape or form straightforward. They're meant to trick you and only reward the absolute best students in the class since they're closed notes, and the challenge problems often make you think of exceptions to what we've learned. Make sure you get full points on every other grading section besides exams because you will absolutely need it. By the way, yes exams have test corrections; however, she takes points off for the most littlest things at times. Sometimes, you're doing corrections back to get .25 of a point (which includes the right answer, a written explanation of the right answer, plus a dated/specific citation). Her exam averages are low for a reason - she reiterates the textbook and expects prodigies to emerge. Corrections or not, most of the students don't get the material. As for the professor herself, she tells you she's there for you and whatnot, but she really isn't. She absolutely shows favoritism to her top students, which isn't really a problem, but she doesn't really care for the rest of them. She isn't caring about your emergency situation and really, above all, prioritizes making her class hard and difficult and ensuring that B average distribution. I have huge regrets about not taking Samomina because she was new and I hadn't yet heard much about her. She is absolutely the better choice, as her class is structured to help you learn and grow and not just evaluate/demotivate you.

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 ...
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TLDR: Do all the work she tells you to, and you will do well.

#tCFspring2022

I took both Orgo I and Orgo II with Frantz. This semester definitely felt much more difficult. The class is fast-paced, and you have to stay on top of the numerous new reactions/mechanisms that are introduced almost every class--in addition to the material from Orgo I. Grading scheme is the same as for her Orgo I: 3 midterms, each 10% of your grade. She allows you to do test corrections to get up to half the points you lost back (e.g. if you get a 60%, you can correct up to an 80%). The first and third exam went well for me, but the second exam (pericyclic reactions) was pretty devastating ngl. The final is 25%, and you don't get corrections. The final was long and challenging, but it didn't feel that much harder than the midterms. The rest of your grade comes from clicker points (graded on completion), discussion group peer-evals, and homeworks and warm-up quizzes on Wiley. It's pretty achievable/easy to get 100% of the points possible on the stuff that isn't exams, so don't slack on those.

Regarding Frantz herself, I think she's a good person and professor. She makes herself available to students who want to meet with her outside of OH and she's friendly when she answers students' questions. I don't really like how her office hours are done over Zoom, but I suppose it's convenient.

Overall, doing well in this course is difficult and requires a lot of time and effort, but it's not impossible. I know most of my friends in the class are doing alright and on track to get at least an A- (minimum 90%). Since I've never taken Orgo with a different professor, I can't speak to how Frantz's class compares to the others. That being said, I have heard from other students who had other professors for Orgo I had a hard time adjusting to Frantz's class this semester (e.g. Orgo I with Samonina to Orgo II with Frantz was apparently a rough transition for some people). Something to keep in mind since not all Orgo I professors also teach Orgo II.

This class is one of the worst weeder classes that I have ever had. The course material is difficult and time-consuming, but a lot of it is actually really interesting (if you're into chemistry). The hardest parts of this class are definitely Professor Frantz herself and her exams. Most of the classwork is simple enough as long as you put in the effort and do the readings and practice, but almost nothing can prepare you for her exams. The questions are way harder than anything that you'll have as practice, and she delves deeper into the material for the exams than the textbook does. She is a good lecturer, but that gets overlooked by the fact that she actively makes things harder than necessary. If you need to take her, my main suggestion would be to get the highest score possible on every other topic and try to give yourself as much wiggle room for the exam. While the three exams are important, the final is what will really make or break you as it's almost worth all of the other exams combined AND doesn't have corrections or curves.

This is the worst class I've ever taken. Frantz had already broken me down in Orgo I but Orgo II is somehow worse. The exams are ridiculously hard and don't match the discussion problems at all. Frantz pulls the most niche reagants and throws them in the exams. And like always, she is so incredibly anal about her exams.

Pros:
- Test corrections (Frantz will give you back up to 50% of your missed points)

Cons:
- Frantz is evil

Tips for success:
- Seek therapy
- Start antidepressants
- C's get degrees
- Keep it pushing

I purposely avoided taking Frantz for Orgo 1 because of her reputation, but had no choice for Orgo 2. If I knew that would happen, I might have just taken her for Orgo 1 solely for consistency purposes since she structures both semesters the same. I did think she is a really good lecturer. Insanely, almost intimidatingly knowledgeable about organic chemistry, very organized slides, and had an answer for every question and rationale behind all her decisions.
With that being said, this class frustrated the hell out of me. The class builds off Orgo 1 concepts and covers an insane amount of information, and Frantz expects you to know all of it. Sure, there are gimme points with the homeworks, warm-ups, discussions, and clickers, and there are test corrections and a drop, but I still believe Frantz is trying to weed you out/fail you with the difficulty of her exams and NO CURVE on her final (despite the exam average probably being like 50%). Yes, it is Orgo 2 and will be difficult no matter what, but I feel like she made it harder than necessary and does not care about student’s best interests. I have never studied so hard and done so poorly, despite following her recommendations for how to succeed in this class. It is disappointing when hard work doesn't pay off, but you'll learn a lot about yourself from taking this class. Good luck.

I came from Samonina thinking I was doing myself a service by actually learning this semester and being taught chapter-by-chapter. You will learn, but your grade will suffer. The final being impossible is no joke I promise you. I know Samonina is no longer teaching, but you are much better off taking the other professor. Your grades MATTER! And don't let the wrong choice haunt you or let you reconsider med school, at the worst. Getting a B after countless hours (hundreds, if not, thousands) is extremely demoralizing after attending almost every P2L, every class, and being a diligent student. As your orgo 2 older sister, I want you to not make the same mistake as me, unless you want to leave with a solid grip on orgo but a mortifying (realistically) grade on your transcript. Grades don't define you, until you get knocked with an ounce of realism and it clicks that your GPA might be the first thing that's looked at for grad school applications. God speed to you all <3

Frantz is definitely a great instructor (in the sense that she teaches well, goes into the content in-depth, and knows her stuff). As someone who had Samomina first semester, I highly recommend taking both Orgo I and II with her to maximize your orgo learning, UNLESS other orgo professors are easier, and you are SURE you can get into their classes for both semesters with no scheduling conflicts or screwy course registration times. I was terrified coming into Frantz's class as an ex-Samomina student and may have cried a bit because the knowledge gaps are big at first.
My strategy for this class was to do all my preparation over the weekend by reading the textbook, doing all the warmups, and homework. This meant I had more time during the week to just review the material rather than try to learn it for the first time, and also do work for other classes because I was taking physics as well.
For the first exam, I got a 90% (95% with corrections) just by doing recommended practice problems and memorizing the key reagents (there aren't that many for the first exam). However, for the later exams I cannot emphasize enough the importance of meticulously memorizing Frantz's lecture slides. Every exam question relates to a concept covered in her slides, no matter how vaguely or quickly it was brought up in class, or how long ago she taught that concept. By internalizing the slides alongside doing recommended practice problems (there's a pdf floating around somewhere of them), the exam content felt more familiar.
And while her exams are really challenging, the teaching quality and advice Frantz gives you will make up for it. I finished her class with an A (she doesn't do A+s) by following the advice she gives out on the first day of class, eating her lecture slides for all of my meals, and a lot of cramming.
She also does give plenty of opportunities to boost your grade through HW, warmups, clicker questions, and bonus points. She offered a 20 question ACS-style mcq on Canvas a few days before the final -- depending on how many you got right, you could get up to a +12 bonus on the final exam grade (which is out of 250, so that's like a 4.8% bonus). Doing her pre- and post-course surveys also give you an extra +1 each. Frantz also threw in a +5 bonus question on the final exam itself. With the bonuses, I got over 100% on my final exam.