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Silvina Matysiak BIOE232 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/18/2023	Dr. Matysiak is cool and clearly experienced with thermodynamics of proteins specifically, but she's not the best teacher. She took up a TON of class time with proofs when it would have been infinitely better spent teaching examples or explaining real-world applications. The material for this class is confusing, and it doesn't help that there are no real resources other than her lectures, so you can't teach yourself. She uploads lecture notes and technically does have a textbook, but the notes are VERY confusing (they don't explain anything) and the textbook doesn't contain most of the equations you need. My biggest gripe is with her exams. Her questions usually make no sense and don't resemble the homework. Your grade in this class is solely based on how often you can ask her questions during the exams because often her questions are confusing or based on an equation you would never expect. That seems pretty unfair to me, and that's why I've given her such a low score. Overall, you will survive, and she's really very nice. But be prepared for confusion and ask as many clarifying questions as you can during exams.
Silvina Matysiak BIOE232 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/18/2023	Dr. Matysiak is a very nice woman and is always willing to help out students, but her class is I think the worst class I've taken at this university. As all the other reviews said her lectures aren't very helpful and the exams and homeworks were not similar to lecture. I feel like I have a good understanding of thermodynamics (I did well in PHYS and Gen Chem) and did not do well in this class b/c of the highly theoretical/abstract math based questions she asked on exams (I also have done well in all of required math courses our major takes). The exams for my semester were not at all similar to the past ones (and the hw) she had posted. The majority of the questions were very theory based and difficult to understand. I also felt like your exam score was dependent on how much help you could get from her. If you ask specific types of questions she almost completely guides you through a problem, or tells you you're on the right track. The issue with this is that everyone asks questions and some people take up more of her time than others. Basically, if you're able to ask more questions you have a greater chance at getting a higher score on the exam. I felt like this course was not based on your ability to understand the material, but rather how good you are at getting answers/her attention. Exams are also no longer open note (you do get a formula sheet). The exam averages for us were around the 70% range (for the 1st exam she curved the avg to be around 70 and no other exams were curved) and I'm pretty sure the grade distribution was pretty bad with most people lying around the average. Since the exams are weighted so heavily, your exams scores are your grade in the class. I did really well on the homeworks and quizzes which did nothing for my grade. For exam 1 and the final the highest score was a flat A. Based on the distribution and the highest scores I'm pretty sure basically no one got an A in the course and most of the grades lie at a C+ and B/B-. I did better than average on all of the exams and barely got a B in this course. She did not curve the final grades despite the distribution. I am upset about the grade I got in the course despite working really hard in this course, but what angered me more is that I have a good grasp of the concepts and didn't do well on the exams b/c of the strange questions she asks. Good luck to everyone taking this course and remember to ask questions during exams to maximize your grade. My piece of advice is take this class during the summer- most of the people I know did this. A different professor teaches it and the course is apparently very easy.
Silvina Matysiak BIOE232 Anonymous 05/16/2023	Dr. Matysiak is very nice, but her lectures are awful. She teaches almost entirely theory and proofs. She spends the whole class deriving a few random equations and might get to one or two practice problems. Half of the time she doesn't explain where she got certain values to solve it and my friends and I often would stare at each other wondering where she got an answer from. She talks quietly and writes at the bottom of the board so sit up front! Also, during exams if you sit in the back, she's less likely to come over and answer your questions. For the midterms, they were so tough because she would come up with crazy problems that barely made sense. Learn your theory well though, because she always has theory problems (typically true or false format). She posts EVERY SINGLE PAST EXAM AND SOLUTIONS which is AWESOME, but many of her solutions are wrong, messy, or hard to read/keep track of. Still very helpful though for midterms. Exams are open note which is great we don't have to memorize equations and can have some theory and practice problems to jog your memory (I showed up to the final with almost a binder of material). Get ready to spend all your money on printing though, because she makes you print out tons of pages of tables that you might not even use except for the first exam... Discussion is a lifesaver because you can actually practice application problems and get the actual necessary equations. The homeworks were all over the place; one was 32 parts long and some might only have two or three problems. A couple required using excel to graph stuff. START EARLY ON THEM! Also, most of the problems on the finals I felt were NOT similar to the homework, but they were helpful for learning to manipulate the equations. The final is the worst. One of our problems was so poorly worded it said "water in water" when she was trying to create a problem about mixtures... Didn't even show up to the final either, so one TA was running around trying to answer all of our questions, and didn't know what she was allowed to tell us to help us. Typically on the midterms, Matysiak would give really good hints or help you figure out if you're on the right track, so that was infuriating considering she only has our one lecture and is NEVER in her office! Grading takes a long time and even longer for grades to be entered. Everything is out of 100 for some reason in the gradebook so its confusing to figure out your grade. I appreciate that she is very clear about her due dates and exam dates and what is on each exam and homeworks are typically paced to cover one or two topics at a time. Currently, a bunch of us in the class are unsure our grades, or honestly if we passed because of how bad the final was. Poorly written and not really testing us on what we learned or how to use equations, it all was adjacent rather than directly related. Final was unlike all of her past finals so we were all blindsided. Overall, good luck...
Silvina Matysiak BIOE232 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/14/2023	I think Matysiak is the only professor teaching this class soooo... good luck. - The the material for this class wasn't too bad (it's like a mix of Physics260+GenChem). The issue is Matysiak rarely makes any sense during lecture. You will be looking back at your notes while trying to do your homework/study and you will have no idea what you're looking at. During class, Matysiak derives a bunch of equations and doesn't circle/highlight any of the formulas we need to know (so you don't know what's important and what's irrelevant in this jumble of random formulas). Therefore, towards the end of the semester, very few people showed up to class because of how pointless it was. - My biggest issue was the exams. The exams are very unpredictable, which means you could do all the practice exams on elms and all the homeworks, but still be stumped. The amount of times I've heard "7 practice exams for nothing" is a pretty good indicator of what you have coming. She also historically never curves the class (only add a few points to the exam if the average was below a 75%). She does drop a homework and a quiz.
Giuliano Scarcelli BIOE232 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/11/2023	Giuliano is the sweetest and definitely most caring professor I've had. He definitely makes sure to get to know his students and takes feedback very seriously and has a genuine desire to make sure students have everything they need to succeed. He really put in the effort to ask for our opinions on how the class was going and already had plans in place to pivot if needed. He was once even chewed out (rudely) by a student about how we were prepared for an exam (no one really agreed with this student), and when other students voiced that they disagreed with this student Giuliano still made an effort to validate that student's opinion and reasoned that people learn in different ways and promised to try to adjust for them as well. He's also a very lenient grader. You can get a totally incorrect numerical answer on an exam and still get full credit if you can explain why the answer you got doesn't make sense, because he ACTUALLY cares about his students learning. He wants you to understand the material/derivations and cares less about little calculation errors. You can tell he's a very passionate guy. He's even stated that thermo is one of his least favorite subjects but somehow he had the most helpful and lively lectures, even despite having his class immediately after two other back-to-back hour and a half classes each week. If you go to discussions and office hours (which he holds instead of lecture during his Thursday classes so it's super convenient), his exams are totally doable and fair.
Giuliano Scarcelli BIOE232 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 11/20/2022	I like Giuliano a lot. He is probably the only BIOE professor I've had that actually seems to enjoy teaching and getting to know you. Exams are kinda hard but we definitely take harder classes in BIOE so thermo overall isn't that bad
Giuliano Scarcelli BIOE232 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/15/2022	Amazing professor super sweet and helpful. He only has negative reviews because there is an insanely rude girl in his class this semester who yells at him and writes bad reviews. He is a great professor and person really kind and gives great helpful resources to students. He wants all of his students to succeed.
Giuliano Scarcelli BIOE232 Expecting an A- Anonymous 11/15/2022	I think I lowkey know who posted the negative review on 11/8 but lemme tell you, Scarcelli is one of the best professors I’ve had. He is so goofy and sweet and genuinely cares about your understanding of the material. He is a professor that wants you to succeed. The people who do not do well in this class guess and retake the online quizzes without watching the lectures, they do not attend classes on Tuesday’s where the lecture material is reiterated, they copy the homework’s without understanding, they do not attend Thursday office hour classes, and they do not show up to discussions on Friday. Of course if you put in the bare minimum, you will not be happy with your test scores. Scarcelli goes out of his way to provide the necessary materials you need to succeed, is SUPER nice about partial credit (he wants to see that you understand the theory behind topics), and is just overall a good guy. If you don’t take advantage of the classes, quizzes, online lectures, office hours, and discussions, then that’s on you lmao. (Shoutout to Anjali for being the best TA btw. She’s super helpful and clearly explains how to do relevant practice problems, so make sure you don’t miss them)
Giuliano Scarcelli BIOE232 Anonymous 11/08/2022	Doesn’t explain materials well and does not give help to students
Giuliano Scarcelli BIOE232 Anonymous 11/08/2022	Scarcelli does not explain the material well and does not give any outside resources to help understand the materials other than homework problems.
Silvina Matysiak BIOE232 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/08/2021	Really had no clue how to do thermo and every class I went to I regretted going because I learned almost nothing. If I had not taken chem classes I literally would've failed. Also she doesn't have each assignment weighted so you literally have no clue what your grade is ever. Don't recommend.
Silvina Matysiak BIOE232 Anonymous 10/27/2021	She is very knowledgeable about her material and will mention distinct lab applications. While connecting these points is good, her lectures are extremely proof and theorem heavy whereas the exams are not. The exams are open notes but you should definitely do textbook problems and old exams if you are not someone that immediately understands the theorems she is teaching. She is very nice and clear about her syllabus and when things are due
Silvina Matysiak BIOE232 Expecting an A- Anonymous 09/28/2021	Her online lectures were hard to read due to the small size, but were alright. She made the exams flexible to take, but after above average performances on the first two exams the final was very hard. She was available to office hours ad was very accommodating during COVID. She is a nice professor and has a straight-forward teaching style, although her lectures are a lot of proofs compared to the exam. Go to discussion to get real exam practice, and solve all the previous exam problems (she gives good, detailed answer keys for them).
Jose Aranda-Espinoza BIOE232 Expecting an A- Anonymous 04/05/2021	Helim should not be allowed to teach anymore. The only reason I performed well in this class is that I never attended lectures. The lectures are pointless repetition from the textbook. He also randomly calls on students. All in all, he just seems like the kind of professor that's out to get students. I do not align with this teaching style because it is ineffective.
Jose Aranda-Espinoza BIOE232 Expecting an A Anonymous 03/08/2021	Response to the review below: Helim is a nice dude, agreed. I am not mad that I did not do well, I have an A+ right now. Helim is a terrible professor absolutely horrible. For his lecture, he reads the textbook and goes over the examples that are already done in the book and his explanations usually contribute nothing to the our understanding of the materials. His lecture is borderline useless I don't know why I even show up. The only way to succeed in this class is to read the text book. And even then, it is hard because this textbook sucks. It will prove something or solve an example and show absolutely no work, skipping from the first step to the last for any given 5 step problem. It makes absolutely no sense for someone trying to learn something for the first time. To make matters worse, the assigned homeworks take concepts in class and multiply the difficult 10x over, leaving you struggling to understand what the hell is happening or how to even begin. The TA's in this class (especially Martha) have been incredibly helpful, they are by far the best material provided to us. All in all, avoid at all costs. You will have to read a textbook multiple hours a day, and maybe even multiple times before you begin to understand anything. In this is coming from someone who is doing very well so far. Just take it another semester if you can or you will hate this class and be sad with how much work you have to do.
Jose Aranda-Espinoza BIOE232 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 11/24/2020	Helim is a nice dude. People giving him a one-star cuz they mad they did not do well. This course is not easy and you definitely have to take things more into your own hands. He does not give HW often so you NEED TO REVIEW AND PRACTICE A LOT ON YOUR OWN and make do with whatever problems he does do. His exams were very doable if you put in the work. It is very easy to ignore this class until it is too late to do anything so stay on top of it.
Silvina Matysiak BIOE232 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/30/2017	Very organized, exams are fair. Lectures are theory and proof heavy.
Gregory Payne BIOE232 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/23/2012	DR. PAYNE IS A PHENOMENAL TEACHER. First he manages to keep everyone awake in a class that has the potential to bore you to death. He is also a fountain of knowledge; he can answer most all of the questions you could think of during class. The best part is his focus on the practical understanding of Thermodynamics. Rather than just shove a bunch of equations down your throat, he actually take the time to make sure you LEARN SOMETHING. In short, great professor, take BIOE232 with him if you get the chance!
Keith Herold BIOE232 Expecting an A terpfan8591 06/02/2011	Herold's a pretty mediocre teacher. He's a nice guy and he'll definitely do his best to make sure you understand, but his lectures generally aren't that helpful. If you don't get something don't be afraid to ask, he's willing to put the time in to help you. In our class there was a huge range of scores on exams. Basically, the kids who understood the material right away found the tests easy and got A's, and the kids who didn't get it but probably could have learned the material with better instruction did very poorly. The key to this class is to put a lot of time into the homework. There are solution guides out there but I wouldn't use them. I did all the reading and spent a ton of time on the homework, and I found the quizzes and tests to be easy without having to study that much. If you don't have time I recommend doing the homework during class (don't skip because he gives quizzes), you'll benefit more from that than from paying attention.
Keith Herold BIOE232 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/21/2011	We were supposed to have quizzes every Thursday but we ended up having 5 all semester. We were supposed to have only 2 exams and a final but the average on the second exam was really low (like 60), so we convinced him to give us a 3rd. For homework, he expected us to 'think' about the problem and find ways it connected to other problems, which none of us had time for. His first exam was almost identical to the practice exam but some parts were confusing. We did not cover like 3 chapters because he was really disorganized. He is a really nice guy and cares about his students but he is not a great professor. He tried really hard to change the course as the semester went along but hopefully he will have better luck teaching it next semester. An important thing to remember is that if there are too many exams in one week (like the week before spring break), then you can ask him to move the exam. I had a BSCI330 exam, this class and a core class exam in the same week. core and thermo I would have been fine but BSCI is really hard and requires a lot of memorization so everyone focused on that first and then when it was time for Thermo, we did not have enough time to study and so our second exam scores were really terrible. Good Luck!
Keith Herold BIOE232 Expecting a B Anonymous 04/04/2011	He tries, but he fails. Nice guy, but believes a student should be able to extrapolate quantitative skills from being just taught the more conceptual information. Homework-like examples would have been helpful...but he's very passive aggressive and takes offense to any criticism made about his teaching style. He believes everything he writes to be "straight-forward" while in fact he couldn't be further from the truth. Also, he wants students to "think" about and "apply" the problems in the real-world while doing homeworks....but this is too much to ask for since the homework is already extremely demanding, and takes way too much time...and most of us have 15-18 credit schedules and can't put the heart into a homework assignment. He basically needs to understand we have other classes to focus on as well, and to be a little less uptight about the course.