CHEM132S | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Christiana Guest CHEM132S Expecting an A+ Anonymous 10/02/2025	1. Dr. Guest, Dr. Guest, the malevolent ghost of freshman past. Oh what to say, but here is the tale, from 3 weeks in. 2. ELMS is so disorganized. It is ridiculous, every section is in ONE ELMS. You'd probably get 35+ announcements by the end of week 2. 3. Grading is beyond stupid. She says top 35% in the class will get an A. This means that out of ~800, only 285 students will get an A. So for a class based on collaboration with your peers (for collecting data), you have to compete and almost sabotage to get the top spot. It creates a toxic environment. 4. Go to TA Office Hours, it will help. 5. Your class sorta depends on TA, but your TA does not grade you lab reports. 6. Too much effort for a 1 credit class 7. Have fun with the labs 8. You have to take this class if you are a STEM major, so just buckle in. Good luck young padawan. 9. Your grade is relative to your classmates' grades
Christiana Guest CHEM132S Anonymous 10/02/2025	1. ELMS is beyond confusing. Actually disorganized. Every class is in one ELMS so you'd probably get 35+ unread announcements by the end of the second week. 2. Pre-labs and Post-labs are terrible. Some content is not even in the lab manual and some answers are mistyped or non-existent. 3. This hasn't been mentioned so I'll break it down: The grading system is meant to kill you. It's essentially a Hunger Games. She says the top 35% get an A in the class. That means out of 100 people, the top 35 spots will get an A. What I mean is a fixed number of students will receive an A. This type of grading almost ensures that students receive an average, which is a B- to C+. 4. Yes, your class generally depends on which TA you get. Mine is chill. HOWEVER YOUR TA DOES NOT GRADE YOUR LAB REPORTS. So keep that in mind. 5. The system is based on the fact that your grade is based relative to your classmate's grades. This relates to No. 3. 6. You might think that it is good that the next 34 spots would get an A if the highest grade is a 75%. WRONG!! Class percentages are to a weird decimal. So if your lab partner has a 65.02% in the class at #35 spot, and you have a 65.01% in the class at the #36 spot, YOU DON'T GET AN A! 7. Don't email Dr. Guest, you won't get a response. TA is the best bet, they are actually helpful. Dr. Guest is as reliable as a Tesla not bursting into flames. 8. Now looking at this, you might not want to take this class, but you have to, and Dr. Guest is the only one who does this class. This might honestly be the most difficult freshman class. Have fun!
Christiana Guest CHEM132S Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/18/2024	I think this is a dumb course. You do the labs and you go into it probably not really understanding it all that well despite the pre-labs, which you get 2 attempts for, but are mostly different questions the second time around. But doing the post labs isn’t difficult even if you don’t understand, because of the TA’s. They offer great help and if you find a good one, will guide you to the correct answer. I got 100’s on almost all my post-labs because of this. The post-lab reflections are quizzes you take at the beginning of each class. These were kinda hard, but aren’t worth too much. They’re scary though because they’re only 2-3 questions. However, you can have your lab manual out while taking them. Also my friend got a lot of 0’s or 50% on them but still got an A. This class didn’t really help me learn much, but earning an A is achievable.
Christiana Guest CHEM132S Expecting a B Anonymous 12/10/2024	GO TO TA OFFICE HOURS! Everything people say about this course is basically true. The lab is very unorganized and it doesn't line up at all with CHEM131. There are a lot of opportunities to go to TA office hours and I definitely recommend that. The lab reports are confusing and you need to get help from TAs to make sure you're doing it right and won't get a bunch of points off. Also don't turn work in late bc that tanks your grade a bit. The reflection quizzes are decently difficult too. It's definitely possible to get an A, but it takes some work and is generally annoying. Some labs go over time, some go under, so be prepared for both. Sometimes we would spend up to an hour and a half just waiting in line to get chemicals we needed to perform an experiment. This contributed to some labs running over time.
Christiana Guest CHEM132S Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/10/2024	You will never ever meet, or even see Dr. Guest. The entire course really depends on whether or not you get a good TA, and my TA sucked. Try your best, but honestly you're gonna have to work for it. Guest does not make it easy despite being the lab coordinator for this lab for many years. There is no final or midterm, so that's good I guess. You have pre-labs and post-labs which more likely than not, have only a slight amount of content in common with the actual lab, so you will have to actually study the content if you want to do well on this class. Her expectations for the course are higher than what people might think because you don't actually see her. It was WAY too much work for a one credit course. I believe in working hands on with the things you're learning in lecture, but only if it actually relates to the lecture. I'm not sure the last time Guest lectured for general chemistry, but I have a feeling it's been a while. If you do find her as a lecturer, DO NOT take her. You can tell her real passion lies with biochemistry because if you look at her review for BCHM, they are so much better than these. Also, despite what her syllabus says, she is IMPOSSIBLE to reach. I sent her multiple emails regarding questions I had about the course my TA couldn't answer, and it took 3 emails and then an email to her boss to get a response. I tried to schedule a meeting with her 3 times. The first time she didn't show up because she was printing off exams for her biochemistry class. The second time she didn't show up because she forgot she had office hours for her biochemistry class and didn't realize it was in a different location. Both of these are highly unprofessional excuses. The third time she showed up, but was 10 minutes late. The only reason I am giving her two stars is because she was very receptive as to what I had to say in terms of improving her course. But all of this is pointless because she is the only coordinator for general chemistry lab. So take this as a warning of what kind of behavior you can expect from her.
Christiana Guest CHEM132S Anonymous 12/06/2023	She is 100% uninvolved in the class, which I suppose is typical of lab coordinators but what really annoyed me was her lab manual. The questions are so unnecessarily difficult and the actual lab itself is usually pretty pointless. If you're trying to take a lab for a gen ed and can avoid this one, then avoid this one.
Christiana Guest CHEM132S Expecting an A Anonymous 01/18/2022	All the other reviews sum it up. Dr. Guest is basically an unseen malevolent entity. There was no consistency and no communication. Boo.

Christiana Guest
CHEM132S

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
10/02/2025

1. Dr. Guest, Dr. Guest, the malevolent ghost of freshman past. Oh what to say, but here is the tale, from 3 weeks in. 2. ELMS is so disorganized. It is ridiculous, every section is in ONE ELMS. You'd probably get 35+ announcements by the end of week 2. 3. Grading is beyond stupid. She says top 35% in the class will get an A. This means that out of ~800, only 285 students will get an A. So for a class based on collaboration with your peers (for collecting data), you have to compete and almost sabotage to get the top spot. It creates a toxic environment. 4. Go to TA Office Hours, it will help. 5. Your class sorta depends on TA, but your TA does not grade you lab reports. 6. Too much effort for a 1 credit class 7. Have fun with the labs 8. You have to take this class if you are a STEM major, so just buckle in. Good luck young padawan. 9. Your grade is relative to your classmates' grades

Christiana Guest
CHEM132S

Anonymous
10/02/2025

1. ELMS is beyond confusing. Actually disorganized. Every class is in one ELMS so you'd probably get 35+ unread announcements by the end of the second week. 2. Pre-labs and Post-labs are terrible. Some content is not even in the lab manual and some answers are mistyped or non-existent. 3. This hasn't been mentioned so I'll break it down: The grading system is meant to kill you. It's essentially a Hunger Games. She says the top 35% get an A in the class. That means out of 100 people, the top 35 spots will get an A. What I mean is a fixed number of students will receive an A. This type of grading almost ensures that students receive an average, which is a B- to C+. 4. Yes, your class generally depends on which TA you get. Mine is chill. HOWEVER YOUR TA DOES NOT GRADE YOUR LAB REPORTS. So keep that in mind. 5. The system is based on the fact that your grade is based relative to your classmate's grades. This relates to No. 3. 6. You might think that it is good that the next 34 spots would get an A if the highest grade is a 75%. WRONG!! Class percentages are to a weird decimal. So if your lab partner has a 65.02% in the class at #35 spot, and you have a 65.01% in the class at the #36 spot, YOU DON'T GET AN A! 7. Don't email Dr. Guest, you won't get a response. TA is the best bet, they are actually helpful. Dr. Guest is as reliable as a Tesla not bursting into flames. 8. Now looking at this, you might not want to take this class, but you have to, and Dr. Guest is the only one who does this class. This might honestly be the most difficult freshman class. Have fun!

Christiana Guest
CHEM132S

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/18/2024

I think this is a dumb course. You do the labs and you go into it probably not really understanding it all that well despite the pre-labs, which you get 2 attempts for, but are mostly different questions the second time around. But doing the post labs isn’t difficult even if you don’t understand, because of the TA’s. They offer great help and if you find a good one, will guide you to the correct answer. I got 100’s on almost all my post-labs because of this. The post-lab reflections are quizzes you take at the beginning of each class. These were kinda hard, but aren’t worth too much. They’re scary though because they’re only 2-3 questions. However, you can have your lab manual out while taking them. Also my friend got a lot of 0’s or 50% on them but still got an A. This class didn’t really help me learn much, but earning an A is achievable.

Christiana Guest
CHEM132S

Expecting a B
Anonymous
12/10/2024

GO TO TA OFFICE HOURS! Everything people say about this course is basically true. The lab is very unorganized and it doesn't line up at all with CHEM131. There are a lot of opportunities to go to TA office hours and I definitely recommend that. The lab reports are confusing and you need to get help from TAs to make sure you're doing it right and won't get a bunch of points off. Also don't turn work in late bc that tanks your grade a bit. The reflection quizzes are decently difficult too. It's definitely possible to get an A, but it takes some work and is generally annoying. Some labs go over time, some go under, so be prepared for both. Sometimes we would spend up to an hour and a half just waiting in line to get chemicals we needed to perform an experiment. This contributed to some labs running over time.

Christiana Guest
CHEM132S

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
12/10/2024

You will never ever meet, or even see Dr. Guest. The entire course really depends on whether or not you get a good TA, and my TA sucked. Try your best, but honestly you're gonna have to work for it. Guest does not make it easy despite being the lab coordinator for this lab for many years. There is no final or midterm, so that's good I guess. You have pre-labs and post-labs which more likely than not, have only a slight amount of content in common with the actual lab, so you will have to actually study the content if you want to do well on this class. Her expectations for the course are higher than what people might think because you don't actually see her. It was WAY too much work for a one credit course. I believe in working hands on with the things you're learning in lecture, but only if it actually relates to the lecture. I'm not sure the last time Guest lectured for general chemistry, but I have a feeling it's been a while. If you do find her as a lecturer, DO NOT take her. You can tell her real passion lies with biochemistry because if you look at her review for BCHM, they are so much better than these. Also, despite what her syllabus says, she is IMPOSSIBLE to reach. I sent her multiple emails regarding questions I had about the course my TA couldn't answer, and it took 3 emails and then an email to her boss to get a response. I tried to schedule a meeting with her 3 times. The first time she didn't show up because she was printing off exams for her biochemistry class. The second time she didn't show up because she forgot she had office hours for her biochemistry class and didn't realize it was in a different location. Both of these are highly unprofessional excuses. The third time she showed up, but was 10 minutes late. The only reason I am giving her two stars is because she was very receptive as to what I had to say in terms of improving her course. But all of this is pointless because she is the only coordinator for general chemistry lab. So take this as a warning of what kind of behavior you can expect from her.

Christiana Guest
CHEM132S

Anonymous
12/06/2023

She is 100% uninvolved in the class, which I suppose is typical of lab coordinators but what really annoyed me was her lab manual. The questions are so unnecessarily difficult and the actual lab itself is usually pretty pointless. If you're trying to take a lab for a gen ed and can avoid this one, then avoid this one.

Christiana Guest
CHEM132S

Expecting an A
Anonymous
01/18/2022

All the other reviews sum it up. Dr. Guest is basically an unseen malevolent entity. There was no consistency and no communication. Boo.

Reviews for CHEM132S