Reviews for CHEM132C

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Christiana Guest CHEM132C Expecting an A Anonymous_2018 01/21/2024	First, this review is mainly for the course and system. I can't really review Guest as a person because almost none of us, if not all, have ever actually seen her. I mean, we sometimes even joked if she even existed. I only emailed her like twice, which she responded to within a few hours, so that is one good quality, I guess. I do feel kind of bad that lab professors don't have much of a choice since they oversee a ton of sections, but the system and management are a bit poor and need adjustments. It's really all dependent on who your TA is. If you have a good TA, this lab will be tolerable, for the most part. I recommend reading and reviewing the experiment's instructions beforehand, so you're not totally clueless when it has to start. I had a decent TA (Docia) and lab partner, so the experiments went alright even though I thought they were tedious and pointless. If you're having trouble, just ask, and the TA might even just give you some data numbers so you can finish the lab. We had a total of 11 experiments, and each of them had its own pre-lab quiz and self-reflection quiz taken for the previous lab before the current experiment. The pre-labs were okay since they were online, but the self-reflections were frankly ridiculous. They were only 2 or 3 questions but worth like 5.3 or 3.6 points each. The questions themselves seldom directly related to what we actually did and often had like 7 or 8 answer options, no kidding, and only some had two attempts. If you bomb a couple, don't worry, but try to do your best for the majority to balance it out, and ace your lab reports because those have the most worth. Lab reports themselves weren't that time-consuming since they were mostly post-lab questions and/or data graphs, but I still suggest spreading them out. Don't wait till the last night to do it because chances are, you'll make some dumb mistake and lose a couple of points. For these reports, every point matters since some TAs will purposely go out of their way to deduct for the smallest of errors. Lastly, the best thing really about the lab is there was no midterm or final. I'm not even sure why labs used to have them, but for this past fall, we got to skip those. With that said, there wasn't any curve for this lab. In fact, most students, if not all, had a NEGATIVE curve. Yes, our grades went DOWN by like 3-6% because of one kid who got higher than a 100% because of a mistake Guest made at the beginning of the semester and didn't realize it till finals week. Although this "curve" didn't affect my grade too much, it still was annoying. In addition, the lab manual was a whopping price of around $80, which felt like a total waste, considering the errors and confusing instructions. Overall, this lab felt pretty useless for a 1 credit course and stimulated little curiosity, at least for me. (I was literally counting down the days till our last lab, so we would be free, lol.) Unfortunately, you have to take this for STEM majors, but just try your best and grind it through.
Christiana Guest CHEM132C Expecting an A Anonymous 12/14/2023	As Chem 132 is a lab course it is all taught by TA's and there is no interaction with Dr. Guest. My TA was lovely and very helpful, which made the course much easier. One thing is that all the grading is done by different TA's and there is some inconsistency in the grading, however the lab reports themselves are pretty straightforward. The pre lab quizzes were not too difficult. I think they implemented the new lab reflection quizzes recently and those were probably the worst part of this course. They are only 3 questions so getting one wrong was immediately a blow to the grade, and sometimes the questions on those went beyond what we learned in the pre lab and the lab. The lab overall was not bad at all. While the class is scheduled for three hours, me and my lab partner would finish our labs within at most 2 hours each time. Not bad overall, but this class is a required for many majors so there's no avoiding it either way.
Christiana Guest CHEM132C Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/21/2022	Just no... Best of luck... Do the lab reports well and study up for the finals. Thats all you can do
Christiana Guest CHEM132C Expecting a B Anonymous 01/11/2022	I just wanna put the nail in the coffin and say I hated this woman. Her $60 textbook was full of typos and mistakes, nothing was ever explained properly, and her instructions were insanely unclear. She once told us to put a boiling beaker straight into an ice bath. Guess how many beakers shattered? The midterm and final averages were both ~50%, and most people would fail the pre-labs. My TA literally told us it's smarter to not study for them and just guess, and that they were sorry if they had to take this class. BUT, we got a 9%(I think) curve at the end, so try your best and don't feel bad if you don't do as well as you'd like
Christiana Guest CHEM132C Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/23/2021	Dr. Guest is an absolutely terrible professor. First of all, I wouldn't even call her a professor because she didn't show up to a SINGLE lab class all semester. There is also no communication whatsoever between her and the TAs, so that makes it extremely difficult for exams. There is no practice material for the midterm and the final, so it's not clear which direction to study in or how to study for the exams in the first place. This pretty much sums up the 48% average on the first exam. When you show up for the exam, over half of the questions are things that you haven't seen. Some of the TAs really do try their best to help us by setting up review sessions and clarifying doubts during class and office hours. But there is also limit to how much they can help us. I remember our TAs telling us that they didn't know what would be on the midterm because of a lack of communication. The post labs aren't too hard as long as you clarify any questions with your TAs. But the pre-labs are difficult. Dr. Guest will give you a reading out of a lab manual, and the pre-lab will test nothing on the reading, causing people to usually get 5/10. The only upside to this class is that there is a fat curve in the end. Overall, just do your best on all of the post-labs because they make up the bulk of your grade and try to do your best on the pre-labs. Study however you can for the midterm and the final and just pray from there.
Christiana Guest CHEM132C Anonymous 11/15/2021	She doesn’t communicate with TAs and the prelabs and exams are unreasonably hard. We taught ourselves basically everything for the exam which explains why the average was a 48%. If I could give her less than a star I would.
Christiana Guest CHEM132C Anonymous 11/11/2021	She explicitly states that we should not expect her to answer/read our emails. TA wasn't instructed on the course and we essentially taught ourselves the entirety of the course. BTW the average on our midterm was 48% so take what you will.