CHEM401 | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Mercedes Taylor CHEM401 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/25/2025	Dr. Taylor is super chill and relatable. If you were good at conformations in orgo/visualizing rotation of molecules this class is a cakewalk. The course material was honestly pretty interesting, and as long as you go to class and write whatever she writes on the board you’re set for success.
Mercedes Taylor CHEM401 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/23/2025	there were no class slide shows, so everything was done on the board in the class. so if you missed class you had to get notes from friends or office hrs. besides that, being in her class was very fun and even though we had a larger class then she was expecting (around 80 or so people) she tried her best to build strong teacher student relationships. She taught the material very well and always held a small impromptu office hours after class if anyone had lingering questions (this saved my skin a couple of times) the work load was small for a 400 level chem class. only a total of 4 homework packets roughly every 3-4 weeks, 2 midterms, and a cumulative final. Some of the material for the class was a bit confusing but as long as you put in the effort, dont miss much class, and seek answers to your questions in office hours you will be fine ;). all in all her class was a great experience.
Mercedes Taylor CHEM401 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/18/2025	Dr. Taylor is not an exceptional lecturer; she's used to teaching this class for grad students so lecture is very meandering and she doesn't really answer any questions in lecture about the material. Lecture is just 50 min Dr. Taylor yap sesh and then I go teach myself the actual material on the homework. She's super chill and approachable, though; she's not trying to screw you over on exams or grades. Exams and homework are super reasonable. Curve is 85 is an A-.
Andrei Vedernikov CHEM401 Anonymous 05/15/2025	He's not at all helpful in lectures. Lectures are boring and hard to pay attention to. His exams are difficult and the practice questions are impossible to know how to do based on the lectures or even with the aid of the textbook.
Mercedes Taylor CHEM401 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/06/2025	She's funny. I'm a fan. I liked her drawing of a crab when talking about chelating ligands. I had heard this course was rough going in but for most of the semester it was decently straightforward. Dr. Taylor is a great lecturer and is helpful if you have questions about the material. She also provides a bunch of practice problems with answers for exam review which is super helpful. My only real complaints are that she does not make ELMS assignments for HWs, which led to me almost forgetting about them several times. There is also little to no partial credit on exams, though this actually isn't that big a deal because of how questions are broken down.
Andrei Vedernikov CHEM401 Anonymous 02/21/2024	Does not teach the course and instead goes off the lecture slides. You have to teach yourself the material.
Mercedes Taylor CHEM401 Expecting an A- Anonymous 07/10/2023	The workload of this class is actually very reasonable. All of the homework is directly related to what was discussed in class. The exams are mostly very fair, although occasionally they can ask about very obscure topics that were only mentioned once or twice. Her pacing is not the best, as there is a lot of time spent either of her looking at her notes trying to figure out what to say next or her re-drawing character tables five times in a given lecture since she just didn't use the projector for the first half of the semester. She would also occasionally have to completely re-lecture a topic the class after it was originally taught, which gets a bit frustrating. The cutoffs for the class are going to be a lot less forgiving than you might expect. Overall, this class was okay. Dr. Taylor is okay and she is very kind, but there are definitely things in her teaching that she needs to iron out as she gets more experience teaching undergrads.
Mercedes Taylor CHEM401 Expecting an A- florm 05/27/2023	Dr. Taylor is awesome!! She's probably the nicest, most relatable and approachable professor in the chem department. Her lecture are very easy to follow, and she does a good job of explaining some of the weirder and less straightforward concepts in inorganic chemistry. A lot of people would go to her office hours, and she'd be very helpful. She's willing to have thorough conversations about the things in the course that aren't very well-defined, or "hand-wavey" as she likes to say. There were four homework assignments which could pretty easily be completed just by looking at your notes, although they were graded for accuracy so you gotta make sure to check through them. And while she did make us buy actual clickers, I think in the future she'll likely transition to the app now that she's more familiar with the technology. Her exams were tough but fair, and had a combination of true/false, multiple choice, and short answer. The questions were never as in-depth as what was on the homeworks, where you might've had to do a bunch of repetitive math for group theory stuff. She usually threw in one or two curveball short answers that were hard, but could be reasonably figured out. You have plenty of time too, the exams never felt rushed. I doubt that there's a professor that could teach inorganic better than Dr. Taylor, so definitely take her if you can.
Mercedes Taylor CHEM401 Anonymous 01/30/2023	She makes you buy physical clickers
Andrei Vedernikov CHEM401 Expecting an A Anonymous 06/01/2013	Dr. Vedernikov is a very nice guy and a good professor. An 83% is an A. Just study his slides and go to class and you will do fine. Their is Homework due every 2 weeks. Questions very similiar to the homework problems and the old exams are on the exams. If you every need help understanding Inorganic Chemistry Dr. Vedernikov is very open to helping you be successful, just go to his office.
Andrei Vedernikov CHEM401 Expecting an A wordlife2101 07/29/2012	Dr. Vedernikov is straight up awesome. The first part of this class was centered around quantum mechanics and group theory, but he tries to make it as interesting as possible. From there, the class shifted into organometallic chemistry and catalysis, which is his area of research so he brings in a lot of modern day applications. Although his accent is a little tough at first you get used to it after the first week. And he's always willing to help if he was unclear about something. Exams are very fair, as in they never cover something you've never encountered in lecture or the homeworks - so go to class, do your work and you'll be just fine (oh, and the cutoff for an A is an 80%, which is good too).
Bryan Eichhorn CHEM401 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/21/2011	Dr. Eichhorn is not a great professor. His teaching styles are average, his exams were challenging, and he is a bit of a jerk. He lacks a few social skills and is primarily focused on his research. His actions speak for him that this class, albeit a senior-level advanced chemistry course, is not one of his priorities. He was lazy about putting stuff online, it took him weeks to grade the exams, and he was unhelpful and unyielding in office hours. Chem401 is a really challenging course and Dr. Eichhorn did a less-than-average job of explaining all the new, challenging concepts. He would do one example of each problem (if that) and move scurrilously on to the next topic. I ended up with an A in the course, but that is because the curve was so beneficial. And that was only because the exam averages were so low. But - of course - that is only because Eichhorn isn't a great teacher. You won't really have a choice in picking a teacher for 401 because only one section is offered once/year in the Spring, so hope that it is someone else (I hear Professor Sita is good). But if not, Eichhorn isn't the worst. He just very much so is not the best.
Lawrence Sita CHEM401 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/22/2009	Really good professor, who always has his students' best interests at heart. Exams were very fair and came directly from lecture notes (so go to class, pay attention, and take good notes). Don't panic if you do poorly on the first exam...I failed the first two and still managed to get an A-.
Lawrence Sita CHEM401 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/20/2009	Hes a great teacher and he really tries hard to make the students understand inorganic chemistry.All the questions from the exams are pretty much straight from the notes. Its not an easy A but it isnt too difficult if you go to every class. The book did not really help a lot. Only four tests and a final, which was take home.

Mercedes Taylor
CHEM401

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/25/2025

Dr. Taylor is super chill and relatable. If you were good at conformations in orgo/visualizing rotation of molecules this class is a cakewalk. The course material was honestly pretty interesting, and as long as you go to class and write whatever she writes on the board you’re set for success.

Mercedes Taylor
CHEM401

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/23/2025

there were no class slide shows, so everything was done on the board in the class. so if you missed class you had to get notes from friends or office hrs. besides that, being in her class was very fun and even though we had a larger class then she was expecting (around 80 or so people) she tried her best to build strong teacher student relationships. She taught the material very well and always held a small impromptu office hours after class if anyone had lingering questions (this saved my skin a couple of times) the work load was small for a 400 level chem class. only a total of 4 homework packets roughly every 3-4 weeks, 2 midterms, and a cumulative final. Some of the material for the class was a bit confusing but as long as you put in the effort, dont miss much class, and seek answers to your questions in office hours you will be fine ;). all in all her class was a great experience.

Mercedes Taylor
CHEM401

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/18/2025

Dr. Taylor is not an exceptional lecturer; she's used to teaching this class for grad students so lecture is very meandering and she doesn't really answer any questions in lecture about the material. Lecture is just 50 min Dr. Taylor yap sesh and then I go teach myself the actual material on the homework. She's super chill and approachable, though; she's not trying to screw you over on exams or grades. Exams and homework are super reasonable. Curve is 85 is an A-.

Andrei Vedernikov
CHEM401

Anonymous
05/15/2025

He's not at all helpful in lectures. Lectures are boring and hard to pay attention to. His exams are difficult and the practice questions are impossible to know how to do based on the lectures or even with the aid of the textbook.

Mercedes Taylor
CHEM401

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/06/2025

She's funny. I'm a fan. I liked her drawing of a crab when talking about chelating ligands. I had heard this course was rough going in but for most of the semester it was decently straightforward. Dr. Taylor is a great lecturer and is helpful if you have questions about the material. She also provides a bunch of practice problems with answers for exam review which is super helpful. My only real complaints are that she does not make ELMS assignments for HWs, which led to me almost forgetting about them several times. There is also little to no partial credit on exams, though this actually isn't that big a deal because of how questions are broken down.

Andrei Vedernikov
CHEM401

Anonymous
02/21/2024

Does not teach the course and instead goes off the lecture slides. You have to teach yourself the material.

Mercedes Taylor
CHEM401

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
07/10/2023

The workload of this class is actually very reasonable. All of the homework is directly related to what was discussed in class. The exams are mostly very fair, although occasionally they can ask about very obscure topics that were only mentioned once or twice. Her pacing is not the best, as there is a lot of time spent either of her looking at her notes trying to figure out what to say next or her re-drawing character tables five times in a given lecture since she just didn't use the projector for the first half of the semester. She would also occasionally have to completely re-lecture a topic the class after it was originally taught, which gets a bit frustrating. The cutoffs for the class are going to be a lot less forgiving than you might expect. Overall, this class was okay. Dr. Taylor is okay and she is very kind, but there are definitely things in her teaching that she needs to iron out as she gets more experience teaching undergrads.

Mercedes Taylor
CHEM401

Expecting an A-
florm
05/27/2023

Dr. Taylor is awesome!! She's probably the nicest, most relatable and approachable professor in the chem department. Her lecture are very easy to follow, and she does a good job of explaining some of the weirder and less straightforward concepts in inorganic chemistry. A lot of people would go to her office hours, and she'd be very helpful. She's willing to have thorough conversations about the things in the course that aren't very well-defined, or "hand-wavey" as she likes to say. There were four homework assignments which could pretty easily be completed just by looking at your notes, although they were graded for accuracy so you gotta make sure to check through them. And while she did make us buy actual clickers, I think in the future she'll likely transition to the app now that she's more familiar with the technology. Her exams were tough but fair, and had a combination of true/false, multiple choice, and short answer. The questions were never as in-depth as what was on the homeworks, where you might've had to do a bunch of repetitive math for group theory stuff. She usually threw in one or two curveball short answers that were hard, but could be reasonably figured out. You have plenty of time too, the exams never felt rushed. I doubt that there's a professor that could teach inorganic better than Dr. Taylor, so definitely take her if you can.

Mercedes Taylor
CHEM401

Anonymous
01/30/2023

She makes you buy physical clickers

Andrei Vedernikov
CHEM401

Expecting an A
Anonymous
06/01/2013

Dr. Vedernikov is a very nice guy and a good professor. An 83% is an A. Just study his slides and go to class and you will do fine. Their is Homework due every 2 weeks. Questions very similiar to the homework problems and the old exams are on the exams. If you every need help understanding Inorganic Chemistry Dr. Vedernikov is very open to helping you be successful, just go to his office.

Andrei Vedernikov
CHEM401

Expecting an A
wordlife2101
07/29/2012

Dr. Vedernikov is straight up awesome. The first part of this class was centered around quantum mechanics and group theory, but he tries to make it as interesting as possible. From there, the class shifted into organometallic chemistry and catalysis, which is his area of research so he brings in a lot of modern day applications. Although his accent is a little tough at first you get used to it after the first week. And he's always willing to help if he was unclear about something. Exams are very fair, as in they never cover something you've never encountered in lecture or the homeworks - so go to class, do your work and you'll be just fine (oh, and the cutoff for an A is an 80%, which is good too).

Bryan Eichhorn
CHEM401

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/21/2011

Dr. Eichhorn is not a great professor. His teaching styles are average, his exams were challenging, and he is a bit of a jerk. He lacks a few social skills and is primarily focused on his research. His actions speak for him that this class, albeit a senior-level advanced chemistry course, is not one of his priorities. He was lazy about putting stuff online, it took him weeks to grade the exams, and he was unhelpful and unyielding in office hours. Chem401 is a really challenging course and Dr. Eichhorn did a less-than-average job of explaining all the new, challenging concepts. He would do one example of each problem (if that) and move scurrilously on to the next topic. I ended up with an A in the course, but that is because the curve was so beneficial. And that was only because the exam averages were so low. But - of course - that is only because Eichhorn isn't a great teacher. You won't really have a choice in picking a teacher for 401 because only one section is offered once/year in the Spring, so hope that it is someone else (I hear Professor Sita is good). But if not, Eichhorn isn't the worst. He just very much so is not the best.

Lawrence Sita
CHEM401

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/22/2009

Really good professor, who always has his students' best interests at heart. Exams were very fair and came directly from lecture notes (so go to class, pay attention, and take good notes). Don't panic if you do poorly on the first exam...I failed the first two and still managed to get an A-.

Lawrence Sita
CHEM401

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/20/2009

Hes a great teacher and he really tries hard to make the students understand inorganic chemistry.All the questions from the exams are pretty much straight from the notes. Its not an easy A but it isnt too difficult if you go to every class. The book did not really help a lot. Only four tests and a final, which was take home.

Reviews for CHEM401