CHEM134 | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Amanda Souna CHEM134 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 07/04/2024	Spring 2024. She was super kind and understanding when I explained I had an exam right before the exam for this class; she said I could get a couple minutes extra at the end to compensate if I am late because of my previous exam, but I ended up getting there on time so it wasn't needed. She was great at lecturing, and made lecture summaries that helped explain it during review.
Amanda Souna CHEM134 Expecting a B- b1 12/23/2023	This class sucked, as most people took AP Chem and got a 4 so they had to take this, but I took a Chem 131 class at a local university which was very easy so when I came to this class I had seen barely any of the material. I would still reccomend taking this class rather than Chem 135 even though you need to do some more difficult concepts (deep into acid/base, electrochem, and some orgo), this class is a lot less work than Chem 135. Professor Souna was a pretty good teacher, class was only 50 minutes a week so you kind of teach yourself through the text book to learn most concepts, but the homeworks are not too bad (worth 1/3 of your grade) and she grades pretty leniently with lots of partial credit. Probably the best professor for this class possible as it would be impossible to teach all the concepts within the class time and I think she did a pretty good job of trying to.
Amanda Souna CHEM134 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/14/2023	Honestly what is going on with this chick. Like does she know that an study guide is supposed too guide your learning for the exam. I am not quite sure if she knows that because 10 percent of the final was based on the study guide, 10 percent was based on the homework and the rest was pulled straight out of knowhere. I busted my butt and doing her long study guide. Furthermore she said 20 percent was based on things learned before the midterm but non of that was on the final. She straight up screwed us over. She told us too studies stuff that wasn't on the final and then was surprised we failed. Her lectures are rushed she doesn't explain things in depth. In addition she doesn't give enough practice for us. Look the class material isnt hard but when you take a teacher that activley misleads you too study the wrong things it becomes a crap show.
Amanda Souna CHEM134 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/07/2023	Great professor and lecturer, CHEM134 has pretty hard subjects but she taught them quite well. Unfortunate that the only class slot (at least for my semester) was at 8am so I ended up not attending too many of the actual lectures... Homework is every 2 weeks, untimed, and is mostly relevant to what is taught in class which is nice. Good professor, would definitely not worry about it when considering taking CHEM134.
Amanda Souna CHEM134 Expecting a B Anonymous 11/30/2023	Being a student in Dr. Souna's class has been an absolute pleasure, and she has easily been my favorite prof this semester. She's very clear and concise in her teaching style and never fails to break stuff down in an easily digestible way. Many people, such as myself, come into this class having done AP Chemistry in high school. Dr. Souna explained stuff in a way that made me completely rethink and better understand the content I learned in AP Chemistry. She's very accommodating and also fair. Great all around!
Natalia White CHEM134 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 01/17/2023	While other people said this professor was a nice person, I think the opposite. She was not accommodating of an exam conflict with an ENES final that a handful of students had, claiming she did not want her (1 credit) class to be treated less than (even though there were make up days). She never finished the material on time, so we always an abundant amount of leftover homework to complete. I'm glad my high school AP Chem curriculum covered all the units well, so I did really well, but for those who barely got to titrations in high school, my condolences. She barely taught anything past titrations. Her electrochemistry lecture barely got to the actual electrochemistry. The homework wasn't extremely difficult, but as someone who liked chemistry in high school, it was not enjoyable at all, especially since it isn't my major. It was on Pearson, which deducts points for incorrect answers. Her exams were also extremely difficult, with extremely low averages, like another student said. Sometimes the problems on the exams were from topics not yet covered in class (how is that fair!). None of the individual exams were curved, but I ended with an A- and it curved to an A+. This course may be the bigger issue. With only 50 minutes a week to learn half of AP Chem, you're not set up for success. Tied in with this professor, good luck!
Natalia White CHEM134 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/30/2022	I hate chemistry and this class was definitely not worth going to at 8am. The posted powerpoints and homeworks are more than enough to make it through the class if you are just taking 134 to be done with your chem credit. She did curve for those worried about their grade.
Natalia White CHEM134 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/19/2022	Professor White is a nice woman who is clearly very knowledgeable about chemistry. However, Professor White + CHEM134? Every single day I came to class I wished I had studied harder to get a 5 on AP Chem. This is a 3 credit course disguised as a 1 credit course. The content is hard and there is a lot of it to cover, and Professor White's organization of the course is its downfall. How can you expect to cover 60 slides a week with one 50 minute class and no discussion? Every class she would run over time and only cover half of the content. She would frequently push back her schedule or just downright never finish the content in lecture. I stopped going to sleep in and just took the notes on my own time. The homework is a lot of work but nice padding to your grade. The exams were not awful but often included content that we had not even covered yet! And there were no review resources, practice exams, none. Steer clear or buckle up, read the textbook and be ready to study hard.
Natalia White CHEM134 Expecting a C Anonymous 12/18/2022	I'm not sure if my experience with Dr. White was horrible because of her or the class. CHEM134 is only 50 minutes a week and Dr. White went too slow so we ended up only covering 40% of the content, then leaving us to teach ourselves the rest. That's not her issue. Where I have an issue with her is how she fails to answer questions asked, she frequently would chastise the question asker and would never give a clear response. She also just made her exams super hard, with midterm averages of 50%. I strongly disliked this class and Dr. White did not do much to actually teach.
Natalia White CHEM134 Expecting a C- Anonymous 12/16/2022	Will do nothing more for you then the university requires her too.
Natalia White CHEM134 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/15/2022	Literally the slowest talker. I appreciated her letting us know what is on the exam and she seems like a nice person. However, we never finish the notes in class, meaning that either she pushes back the homework (leading to 2 homework assignments to start and finish in the last week of class) or you're responsible for finishing them on your own.
Natalia White CHEM134 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/12/2022	I'm sure the professor is passionate about chemistry, but the way the class was structured was horrible. Even though most of this class should be review (as most people taking it have taken AP Chem or an equivalent) it was unfair that she put material on the exams that she hadn't even covered in lecture yet which she then proceeded to teach after the exam. Communication is decent but she doesn't give much info about what's on the exams and usually posts review guides extremely close to exam dates. The exam difficulty is fair in my opinion, although there are no practice exams given to help you prepare. The one nice thing about this class is there's a lot of free points from the homeworks (about 30% of the final grade) and the homeworks are really forgiving so you should average 90%+ on them.
Bonnie Dixon CHEM134 Expecting a B Anonymous 04/02/2022	I'm giving her a 1 star rating mainly due to her attitude and general unhelpfulness, but I think my bad experience in her class was also due to the greatly overloaded curriculum and the 8 am lecture. This class should NOT be considered a 1 credit class, and I would strongly advise anyone against taking it.
Bonnie Dixon CHEM134 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 01/31/2022	Bad professor, at least for CHEM134. She didn't provide any study material for the exams, then got unhappy with us for wanting some. In one review session on a Sunday night, she told us she was watching the football game at the same time as the zoom. She gives one example of a problem and that's it. For example, when we did the small orgo unit, she gave us a single example of an electrophilic addition then sent us to do the hw/exam. If she makes a single mistake (which has happened), there are no other examples to check and the class is oftentimes too introductory for students to find the answers online. She doesn't use a textbook either. She will refuse to answer questions from people claiming there's not enough time in the lecture period (true, the classes are too short for the material), but will go on tangents about her personal life. She once compared the students in our class to nagging toddlers that she would lock in a bathroom. She has refused to repeat herself in class and also refuses to record lectures, even for an 8 am class. I've heard mixed reviews about Dixon teaching other classes. She might do great at those. But I am sure she should not teach chem134. Easily the most painful class of the semester. I would have accepted a 70 over a B+ if it meant taking another teacher.
Bonnie Dixon CHEM134 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/05/2022	Dr. Dixon is SUPER structured in that she will post skeleton notes the night before the lecture and the homeworks are based on the problems she gives in class. The tests are structured similarly to the homeworks. Do yourself a favor: GO TO OFFICE HOURS. I had her for CHEM134 and I made the mistake of thinking, "Oh a one-credit class, I probably won't have to put in effort outside of it". No. no. no. I took a phat L the first couple of homeworks because of it. If you want the A, you have to work. The work is what sets an A apart from a B. This is the schedule I followed to fix my grade and get to an A from a C: The night before lecture: Copy down the skeleton notes Day of Lecture: Literally write everything she says down. ALL OF IT. Every last breath that comes out of her mouth. After Lecture: Review notes/organize them and compare to the ones she has posted ** Sometimes she includes things not in the posted notes in class, so go - it's not a waste of time if you want an A. Start on the homework day of and go to an office hour to ask her any questions. She has SO MANY OFFICE HOURS. She's super supportive, so if you're diligent with your work, then you will be fine. Also, she's a little intimidating, but she's literally the best.
Bonnie Dixon CHEM134 Expecting a B Anonymous 01/03/2022	She should not teach 134. Part of the problem was the garbage curriculum but the professor would have made this a tolerable class. Instead, she gave almost zero effort, instead seemingly only caring about her orgo students. Yes it is a one credit class, but the content and time for this one do not reflect that. Just hope you got a 5 on your AP/IB I guess. Dixon provided little to no study material for the vast content of the class. For both exams, we basically just had our homeworks to look over, and an ancient and outdated exam sans answers anyway. The HW in themselves were a nightmare. For whatever reason she decided to only allow a window of 4 hours a week to submit. to her credit, the office hours were spread out through very helpful times, and were efficient for getting your question answered. I wholeheartedly agree with the other reviewers here so far: her lectures were dense and gave no time for clarification or followup, and barely time to write things down. She would never repeat herself if you miss something. At least record it, lady! Dixon expects knowledge from your AP so be ready to review shit she wont even teach. I have no idea who the TA even was, save for the final where they proctored it. Speaking of final... The first exam set an expectation of difficult material and a reasonable amount of time. The second one dashed all of that, instead opting for fair question content but nowhere near enough time to complete it. Most students scored below a fifty on that one, reflecting poor teaching or poor test writing or both. Luckily there is a class curve. Unluckily, it is not announced, and nothing is curved until after all grades are in and you've left campus. In summary, Dixon is a hard-ass and made a simple bridge course a pain, but she really knows her stuff, and expects you to as well.
Bonnie Dixon CHEM134 Anonymous 12/16/2021	Dixon is a bad professor for CHEM 134. She made it abundantly clear from the first class that she would be apathetic, bordering on cruel, for the entire semester. She delivers all her lectures in a way that makes it difficult to comprehend and follow along. Everything is prefaced with "don't come complaining to me". It did not seem to me that she tried at all to help students succeed. Very difficult, intimidating, and apathetic.
Bonnie Dixon CHEM134 Anonymous 11/18/2021	Only for CHEM134: She is kind of a hard-ass. Might be the new-englander poking through but her teaching style is no-nonsense. She knows her stuff and will dump the information down your throat. Very nice lady and will talk about her own life to an extent, but will not accept paper-thin excuses. She gave us very little review material for the midterm, and the homeworks are often only doable if you go to office hours and basically ask how to do the problems. CHEM134 is hard, and do not expect to be able to waltz through it with your shaky memories form AP chem. Since it's a one-credit course there is very little time to go over all the information necessary so there is minimal time for questions and clarification. I don't even know who the TA was because they were not involved at all.
Lenea Stocker CHEM134 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/29/2021	-Her class was completely asynchronous (because of her child). -So learning a HUGE load of material was hard. Although at first the amount of work seems okay, it is a lot more and very much difficult for a 1 credit course. -The quizzes too were either above average hard or just straight up hard. She does give a curve I believe so wouldn't completely say this is her downfall. -Also, she only had 1 office hours. This was also annoying as it was during my calc discussion class so could never ask for help on the new material she taught. -She has a strict work/exam policy. She apparently reported a bunch of people last semester for cheating so be aware she takes it serious and like will accuse you if she thinks even a sliver that you cheated. -She seems nice (literally talked to her once) and will go over stuff you don't understand in office hours If you only took CHEM131 last semester and now have to take 134, I'm sorry. Probably should've taken 135 even though I haven't heard great things about that class either. But she's okay, definitely not a top professor but just okay
Elizabeth Griffith CHEM134 Expecting a B rrex 12/18/2020	Dr. Griffith is an excellent lecturer and is very effective at communicating content from the course. She took over CHEM134 at the middle of the semester, so adapting to her expectations was a bit difficult, especially when it came to the final. Because of the switch, it was significantly different from most of what we did in class, although it was still manageable to a very well-prepared student.
Earle Stone CHEM134 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/26/2020	Stone is passionate about chemistry, but cannot teach. He makes the class very "passable," but his lectures were long, boring, and irrelevant. Weekly quizzes are based off his previous lecture, but are very difficult & confusing. As long as you fill it our properly, and select an answer you'll get credit. Homeworks can be completed based on CHEM 131 knowledge, or AP CHEM, not from his lectures. Homework counted for 40% of the final grade, and are easy. The program tells you how to solve the question, and then regenerates with similar numebrs afterwards. As long as you complete every homework, and every quiz you will be in good shape. His final is very difficult, but is very curved like the SAT/ACT, and the questions are much easier/straightforward than the quizzes. It is more than half T/F, then multiple choice.
Earle Stone CHEM134 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 03/25/2020	Dr. Stone is an interesting guy. He is very well versed in chemistry, don't get me wrong, but he is not the best teacher. He goes through the topics very quickly considering most of us have not heard this type of chemistry language in 1-3 years. He also sometimes gives quizzes or homework on material which we don't learn until the following lecture and his multiple choice quizes are harder than anything I have seen before. He also can get very annoyed when people leave the class early but he has some perks. He is very open to discussing topics with students in office hours, he grades very quickly, and the final was all multiple choice (easier than the quizes).
Earle Stone CHEM134 Expecting an A Anonymous 02/05/2020	Dr. Stone can put a whole lecture hall to sleep in a matter of minutes. His lectures have way too many words on the slides and are littered with irrelevant details. Avoid him at all costs.
Earle Stone CHEM134 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/18/2019	Let me start off by saying that I have Dr. Stone 2 stars because I strongly believe the setup of this course(with 40% of your grade being homework and a whopping 50% being the final) is kinda terrible. It means that your grade is essentially entirely determined by the final as most students entered the final with relatively similar grades up until that point. That being said, I do think that Dr. Stone is a bad lecturer. His classroom setting is flipped classroom meaning that he expects you to have read the book before class(which literally nobody does) and then he runs through his powerpoints in a brief overview. However, he is also very disorganized—there were multiple quizzes that were on material he would teach AFTER we took the quizzes. This meant that quizzes are essentially a crapshoot. A similar problem occurred with the homeworks(which is mastering chemistry and should be an easy 100), where the homework would be on material he had yet to go over. Also, he’s rude to students who leave during lecture for any reason. Ultimately, this class is easy to pass and hard to get an A in. If you want the A, either take Chem135 with a good prof like Griffith or grind your ass off for the final in 134.
Earle Stone CHEM134 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/12/2019	Dr. Stone clearly is passionate about chemistry. However, his teaching style is so boring and ineffective. Prepare for lecture slides with way too much text and boring lectures.
Earle Stone CHEM134 Expecting a B- Anonymous 12/17/2018	Seriously he is really boring and it seems he wants everyone to at least get a C- which is DEAD easy. But if you want better than that then expect to be shocked with the hard final that has a HUGE curve based on how everyone else did.
Earle Stone CHEM134 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/15/2018	Very passionate about chemistry but doesn't care about students personally. his quizzes are difficult but aren't worth the effort.. the final is easy as long as you study for it

Amanda Souna
CHEM134

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
07/04/2024

Spring 2024. She was super kind and understanding when I explained I had an exam right before the exam for this class; she said I could get a couple minutes extra at the end to compensate if I am late because of my previous exam, but I ended up getting there on time so it wasn't needed. She was great at lecturing, and made lecture summaries that helped explain it during review.

Amanda Souna
CHEM134

Expecting a B-
b1
12/23/2023

This class sucked, as most people took AP Chem and got a 4 so they had to take this, but I took a Chem 131 class at a local university which was very easy so when I came to this class I had seen barely any of the material. I would still reccomend taking this class rather than Chem 135 even though you need to do some more difficult concepts (deep into acid/base, electrochem, and some orgo), this class is a lot less work than Chem 135. Professor Souna was a pretty good teacher, class was only 50 minutes a week so you kind of teach yourself through the text book to learn most concepts, but the homeworks are not too bad (worth 1/3 of your grade) and she grades pretty leniently with lots of partial credit. Probably the best professor for this class possible as it would be impossible to teach all the concepts within the class time and I think she did a pretty good job of trying to.

Amanda Souna
CHEM134

Expecting a B
Anonymous
12/14/2023

Honestly what is going on with this chick. Like does she know that an study guide is supposed too guide your learning for the exam. I am not quite sure if she knows that because 10 percent of the final was based on the study guide, 10 percent was based on the homework and the rest was pulled straight out of knowhere. I busted my butt and doing her long study guide. Furthermore she said 20 percent was based on things learned before the midterm but non of that was on the final. She straight up screwed us over. She told us too studies stuff that wasn't on the final and then was surprised we failed. Her lectures are rushed she doesn't explain things in depth. In addition she doesn't give enough practice for us. Look the class material isnt hard but when you take a teacher that activley misleads you too study the wrong things it becomes a crap show.

Amanda Souna
CHEM134

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
12/07/2023

Great professor and lecturer, CHEM134 has pretty hard subjects but she taught them quite well. Unfortunate that the only class slot (at least for my semester) was at 8am so I ended up not attending too many of the actual lectures... Homework is every 2 weeks, untimed, and is mostly relevant to what is taught in class which is nice. Good professor, would definitely not worry about it when considering taking CHEM134.

Amanda Souna
CHEM134

Expecting a B
Anonymous
11/30/2023

Being a student in Dr. Souna's class has been an absolute pleasure, and she has easily been my favorite prof this semester. She's very clear and concise in her teaching style and never fails to break stuff down in an easily digestible way. Many people, such as myself, come into this class having done AP Chemistry in high school. Dr. Souna explained stuff in a way that made me completely rethink and better understand the content I learned in AP Chemistry. She's very accommodating and also fair. Great all around!

Natalia White
CHEM134

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
01/17/2023

While other people said this professor was a nice person, I think the opposite. She was not accommodating of an exam conflict with an ENES final that a handful of students had, claiming she did not want her (1 credit) class to be treated less than (even though there were make up days). She never finished the material on time, so we always an abundant amount of leftover homework to complete. I'm glad my high school AP Chem curriculum covered all the units well, so I did really well, but for those who barely got to titrations in high school, my condolences. She barely taught anything past titrations. Her electrochemistry lecture barely got to the actual electrochemistry. The homework wasn't extremely difficult, but as someone who liked chemistry in high school, it was not enjoyable at all, especially since it isn't my major. It was on Pearson, which deducts points for incorrect answers. Her exams were also extremely difficult, with extremely low averages, like another student said. Sometimes the problems on the exams were from topics not yet covered in class (how is that fair!). None of the individual exams were curved, but I ended with an A- and it curved to an A+. This course may be the bigger issue. With only 50 minutes a week to learn half of AP Chem, you're not set up for success. Tied in with this professor, good luck!

Natalia White
CHEM134

Expecting a B
Anonymous
12/30/2022

I hate chemistry and this class was definitely not worth going to at 8am. The posted powerpoints and homeworks are more than enough to make it through the class if you are just taking 134 to be done with your chem credit. She did curve for those worried about their grade.

Natalia White
CHEM134

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/19/2022

Professor White is a nice woman who is clearly very knowledgeable about chemistry. However, Professor White + CHEM134? Every single day I came to class I wished I had studied harder to get a 5 on AP Chem. This is a 3 credit course disguised as a 1 credit course. The content is hard and there is a lot of it to cover, and Professor White's organization of the course is its downfall. How can you expect to cover 60 slides a week with one 50 minute class and no discussion? Every class she would run over time and only cover half of the content. She would frequently push back her schedule or just downright never finish the content in lecture. I stopped going to sleep in and just took the notes on my own time. The homework is a lot of work but nice padding to your grade. The exams were not awful but often included content that we had not even covered yet! And there were no review resources, practice exams, none. Steer clear or buckle up, read the textbook and be ready to study hard.

Natalia White
CHEM134

Expecting a C
Anonymous
12/18/2022

I'm not sure if my experience with Dr. White was horrible because of her or the class. CHEM134 is only 50 minutes a week and Dr. White went too slow so we ended up only covering 40% of the content, then leaving us to teach ourselves the rest. That's not her issue. Where I have an issue with her is how she fails to answer questions asked, she frequently would chastise the question asker and would never give a clear response. She also just made her exams super hard, with midterm averages of 50%. I strongly disliked this class and Dr. White did not do much to actually teach.

Natalia White
CHEM134

Expecting a C-
Anonymous
12/16/2022

Will do nothing more for you then the university requires her too.

Natalia White
CHEM134

Expecting a B
Anonymous
12/15/2022

Literally the slowest talker. I appreciated her letting us know what is on the exam and she seems like a nice person. However, we never finish the notes in class, meaning that either she pushes back the homework (leading to 2 homework assignments to start and finish in the last week of class) or you're responsible for finishing them on your own.

Natalia White
CHEM134

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
12/12/2022

I'm sure the professor is passionate about chemistry, but the way the class was structured was horrible. Even though most of this class should be review (as most people taking it have taken AP Chem or an equivalent) it was unfair that she put material on the exams that she hadn't even covered in lecture yet which she then proceeded to teach after the exam. Communication is decent but she doesn't give much info about what's on the exams and usually posts review guides extremely close to exam dates. The exam difficulty is fair in my opinion, although there are no practice exams given to help you prepare. The one nice thing about this class is there's a lot of free points from the homeworks (about 30% of the final grade) and the homeworks are really forgiving so you should average 90%+ on them.

Bonnie Dixon
CHEM134

Expecting a B
Anonymous
04/02/2022

I'm giving her a 1 star rating mainly due to her attitude and general unhelpfulness, but I think my bad experience in her class was also due to the greatly overloaded curriculum and the 8 am lecture. This class should NOT be considered a 1 credit class, and I would strongly advise anyone against taking it.

Bonnie Dixon
CHEM134

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
01/31/2022

Bad professor, at least for CHEM134. She didn't provide any study material for the exams, then got unhappy with us for wanting some. In one review session on a Sunday night, she told us she was watching the football game at the same time as the zoom. She gives one example of a problem and that's it. For example, when we did the small orgo unit, she gave us a single example of an electrophilic addition then sent us to do the hw/exam. If she makes a single mistake (which has happened), there are no other examples to check and the class is oftentimes too introductory for students to find the answers online. She doesn't use a textbook either. She will refuse to answer questions from people claiming there's not enough time in the lecture period (true, the classes are too short for the material), but will go on tangents about her personal life. She once compared the students in our class to nagging toddlers that she would lock in a bathroom. She has refused to repeat herself in class and also refuses to record lectures, even for an 8 am class. I've heard mixed reviews about Dixon teaching other classes. She might do great at those. But I am sure she should not teach chem134. Easily the most painful class of the semester. I would have accepted a 70 over a B+ if it meant taking another teacher.

Bonnie Dixon
CHEM134

Expecting an A
Anonymous
01/05/2022

Dr. Dixon is SUPER structured in that she will post skeleton notes the night before the lecture and the homeworks are based on the problems she gives in class. The tests are structured similarly to the homeworks. Do yourself a favor: GO TO OFFICE HOURS. I had her for CHEM134 and I made the mistake of thinking, "Oh a one-credit class, I probably won't have to put in effort outside of it". No. no. no. I took a phat L the first couple of homeworks because of it. If you want the A, you have to work. The work is what sets an A apart from a B. This is the schedule I followed to fix my grade and get to an A from a C: The night before lecture: Copy down the skeleton notes Day of Lecture: Literally write everything she says down. ALL OF IT. Every last breath that comes out of her mouth. After Lecture: Review notes/organize them and compare to the ones she has posted ** Sometimes she includes things not in the posted notes in class, so go - it's not a waste of time if you want an A. Start on the homework day of and go to an office hour to ask her any questions. She has SO MANY OFFICE HOURS. She's super supportive, so if you're diligent with your work, then you will be fine. Also, she's a little intimidating, but she's literally the best.

Bonnie Dixon
CHEM134

Expecting a B
Anonymous
01/03/2022

She should not teach 134. Part of the problem was the garbage curriculum but the professor would have made this a tolerable class. Instead, she gave almost zero effort, instead seemingly only caring about her orgo students. Yes it is a one credit class, but the content and time for this one do not reflect that. Just hope you got a 5 on your AP/IB I guess. Dixon provided little to no study material for the vast content of the class. For both exams, we basically just had our homeworks to look over, and an ancient and outdated exam sans answers anyway. The HW in themselves were a nightmare. For whatever reason she decided to only allow a window of 4 hours a week to submit. to her credit, the office hours were spread out through very helpful times, and were efficient for getting your question answered. I wholeheartedly agree with the other reviewers here so far: her lectures were dense and gave no time for clarification or followup, and barely time to write things down. She would never repeat herself if you miss something. At least record it, lady! Dixon expects knowledge from your AP so be ready to review shit she wont even teach. I have no idea who the TA even was, save for the final where they proctored it. Speaking of final... The first exam set an expectation of difficult material and a reasonable amount of time. The second one dashed all of that, instead opting for fair question content but nowhere near enough time to complete it. Most students scored below a fifty on that one, reflecting poor teaching or poor test writing or both. Luckily there is a class curve. Unluckily, it is not announced, and nothing is curved until after all grades are in and you've left campus. In summary, Dixon is a hard-ass and made a simple bridge course a pain, but she really knows her stuff, and expects you to as well.

Bonnie Dixon
CHEM134

Anonymous
12/16/2021

Dixon is a bad professor for CHEM 134. She made it abundantly clear from the first class that she would be apathetic, bordering on cruel, for the entire semester. She delivers all her lectures in a way that makes it difficult to comprehend and follow along. Everything is prefaced with "don't come complaining to me". It did not seem to me that she tried at all to help students succeed. Very difficult, intimidating, and apathetic.

Bonnie Dixon
CHEM134

Anonymous
11/18/2021

Only for CHEM134: She is kind of a hard-ass. Might be the new-englander poking through but her teaching style is no-nonsense. She knows her stuff and will dump the information down your throat. Very nice lady and will talk about her own life to an extent, but will not accept paper-thin excuses. She gave us very little review material for the midterm, and the homeworks are often only doable if you go to office hours and basically ask how to do the problems. CHEM134 is hard, and do not expect to be able to waltz through it with your shaky memories form AP chem. Since it's a one-credit course there is very little time to go over all the information necessary so there is minimal time for questions and clarification. I don't even know who the TA was because they were not involved at all.

Lenea Stocker
CHEM134

Expecting an A
Anonymous
04/29/2021

-Her class was completely asynchronous (because of her child). -So learning a HUGE load of material was hard. Although at first the amount of work seems okay, it is a lot more and very much difficult for a 1 credit course. -The quizzes too were either above average hard or just straight up hard. She does give a curve I believe so wouldn't completely say this is her downfall. -Also, she only had 1 office hours. This was also annoying as it was during my calc discussion class so could never ask for help on the new material she taught. -She has a strict work/exam policy. She apparently reported a bunch of people last semester for cheating so be aware she takes it serious and like will accuse you if she thinks even a sliver that you cheated. -She seems nice (literally talked to her once) and will go over stuff you don't understand in office hours If you only took CHEM131 last semester and now have to take 134, I'm sorry. Probably should've taken 135 even though I haven't heard great things about that class either. But she's okay, definitely not a top professor but just okay

Elizabeth Griffith
CHEM134

Expecting a B
rrex
12/18/2020

Dr. Griffith is an excellent lecturer and is very effective at communicating content from the course. She took over CHEM134 at the middle of the semester, so adapting to her expectations was a bit difficult, especially when it came to the final. Because of the switch, it was significantly different from most of what we did in class, although it was still manageable to a very well-prepared student.

Earle Stone
CHEM134

Expecting a B
Anonymous
05/26/2020

Stone is passionate about chemistry, but cannot teach. He makes the class very "passable," but his lectures were long, boring, and irrelevant. Weekly quizzes are based off his previous lecture, but are very difficult & confusing. As long as you fill it our properly, and select an answer you'll get credit. Homeworks can be completed based on CHEM 131 knowledge, or AP CHEM, not from his lectures. Homework counted for 40% of the final grade, and are easy. The program tells you how to solve the question, and then regenerates with similar numebrs afterwards. As long as you complete every homework, and every quiz you will be in good shape. His final is very difficult, but is very curved like the SAT/ACT, and the questions are much easier/straightforward than the quizzes. It is more than half T/F, then multiple choice.

Earle Stone
CHEM134

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
03/25/2020

Dr. Stone is an interesting guy. He is very well versed in chemistry, don't get me wrong, but he is not the best teacher. He goes through the topics very quickly considering most of us have not heard this type of chemistry language in 1-3 years. He also sometimes gives quizzes or homework on material which we don't learn until the following lecture and his multiple choice quizes are harder than anything I have seen before. He also can get very annoyed when people leave the class early but he has some perks. He is very open to discussing topics with students in office hours, he grades very quickly, and the final was all multiple choice (easier than the quizes).

Earle Stone
CHEM134

Expecting an A
Anonymous
02/05/2020

Dr. Stone can put a whole lecture hall to sleep in a matter of minutes. His lectures have way too many words on the slides and are littered with irrelevant details. Avoid him at all costs.

Earle Stone
CHEM134

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/18/2019

Let me start off by saying that I have Dr. Stone 2 stars because I strongly believe the setup of this course(with 40% of your grade being homework and a whopping 50% being the final) is kinda terrible. It means that your grade is essentially entirely determined by the final as most students entered the final with relatively similar grades up until that point. That being said, I do think that Dr. Stone is a bad lecturer. His classroom setting is flipped classroom meaning that he expects you to have read the book before class(which literally nobody does) and then he runs through his powerpoints in a brief overview. However, he is also very disorganized—there were multiple quizzes that were on material he would teach AFTER we took the quizzes. This meant that quizzes are essentially a crapshoot. A similar problem occurred with the homeworks(which is mastering chemistry and should be an easy 100), where the homework would be on material he had yet to go over. Also, he’s rude to students who leave during lecture for any reason. Ultimately, this class is easy to pass and hard to get an A in. If you want the A, either take Chem135 with a good prof like Griffith or grind your ass off for the final in 134.

Earle Stone
CHEM134

Expecting a B
Anonymous
12/12/2019

Dr. Stone clearly is passionate about chemistry. However, his teaching style is so boring and ineffective. Prepare for lecture slides with way too much text and boring lectures.

Earle Stone
CHEM134

Expecting a B-
Anonymous
12/17/2018

Seriously he is really boring and it seems he wants everyone to at least get a C- which is DEAD easy. But if you want better than that then expect to be shocked with the hard final that has a HUGE curve based on how everyone else did.

Earle Stone
CHEM134

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/15/2018

Very passionate about chemistry but doesn't care about students personally. his quizzes are difficult but aren't worth the effort.. the final is easy as long as you study for it

Reviews for CHEM134