CHEM425 | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Natalia White CHEM425 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/13/2024	I think professor White means well, however the class is structured in a way such that you will not be evaluated based on your knowledge, nor your ability to learn or perform labs. Lab partners are chosen during the lab orientation and cannot be changed, unless you wish to write the reports yourself. This sucks for anyone taking a hard semester outside of this class if you have a bad partner because the only alternative is to write the reports individually. To this end, if you are busy and have unknowingly chosen a bad lab partner, assuming that you didn't know anyone in the class, your choices are to shoulder an unreasonable amount of work or let your irresponsible lab partner tank the lab portion of the grade. Regarding the midterms, there are practice exams posted (without an answer key) and the midterms taken during the class never have answer keys. Additionally, wrong answers on the midterms are not marked with the correct answers. This results in not being able to correct conceptual misunderstandings effectively. I think the course policies are set up in a manner that makes students have to work against the class. It's unfortunate that this class is a requirement for majors.
Natalia White CHEM425 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 01/16/2024	This lab is not a very hard lab conceptually, but there is a ton of writing. The labs are actually pretty cool if you think about them, but you have a lot of downtime in some of them. You generally have limited interactions with Natalia, but she does grade one of the intro reports and you can ask her questions. She is a very nice professor and will take the time to explain instruments to you since she also teaches this course in the spring. Some wisdom for this course is choose your lab partner carefully since you have to write the reports with them. If for some reason your lab partner doesn't write their parts, Natalia will make you write the reports individually, and that sucks.
Peter Nemes CHEM425 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 01/16/2024	If you take him for instrumental, he is a super funny lecturer, but at the end of most classes, his 'real world' example is one of his publications. His exams are totally random and weird. You have to do a lot of prep for them anyway, and he'll ask you a mix of super general and super specific questions and sometimes about things he didn't talk about at all. Overall he's not the worst chemistry professor in the department, but he has a huge ego and is sometimes mean. He was usually considerate of the greater stresses people were having which was nice. He also did this strange thing where he allowed no one to ask questions during exam at all, and he didn't show up to our exams, having Natalia proctor them. The lab is run by Natalia White (such a queen), so Nemes will never talk about it.
Peter Nemes CHEM425 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/19/2023	this is probably the weirdest class i’ve ever taken. the lab part is super helpful and i’ve learned a lot, but i think the lecture was utter nonsense. there’s so much dense information and the exams are not indicative of the material. the final was like maybe 10 questions all worth 20 points and only covered a small section of the material. i feel like i studied all of this for nothing. the grading is harsh and you have to predict what he wants you to write very carefully or else you will have no credit. i do think this is one of the more useful and important classes in biochem/chem, but the way they test your knowledge is upsetting and unfair. averages were generally low as well. he also talks a lot about his own research which is not very useful for us but i understand him trying to flex. decent guy i guess but he is not a super great lecturer
Neil Blough CHEM425 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/23/2013	Dr. Blough is an excellent professor, and potentially the best one I have had at Maryland as a biochem & neurophys double degree. His lecturing style is the clearest of any professor I've had thus far (in 7 semesters), he's enthusiastic, and I could readily and easily recall all of the material he lectured about during exams, even if I hadn't studied a particular topic intensely. Your TAs are usually sympathetic towards you (you're taking 6 hours of lab a week for this one class, after all) - just make sure you keep up with the lab reports (which are VERY time intensive), attend lecture, and the lecture will basically do the work for you.
Natalia White CHEM425 Expecting a B- Anonymous 05/19/2013	CHEM 425 is the most difficult class at the University of Maryland period. Mrs. White is the lab coordinator for this course, which has 10, 12+ instrument printouts page lab report due every week on a new laboratory instrument. There are prelabs every week. The biggest problem I had with Mrs. White was that the answers for the prelabs were not given. This is a problem because you have to write a 12+ page lab report on the topic of the prelab. The grading of the lab reports is very strict, when I was in this class I spent approximately 40 hours a week doing work for the laboratory portion of the course. There is also a lecture portion of top of the lab. The course is not curved. This class was extremely helpful in teaching me how to write lab reports. For that I am very thankful. If you are not an expert scientific writer go to the writing center every week! Read scientific papers to see how it is done. Grading is tough.
Neil Blough CHEM425 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/18/2013	Amazing professor. You dont need the textbook. Just attend lecture and take notes. exams are super straight forward. There's a curve. Our year an 84% was an A. Lab reports are the killer just make sure you see a Ta before submission. Start strong, thats the trick.

Natalia White
CHEM425

Expecting a B
Anonymous
05/13/2024

I think professor White means well, however the class is structured in a way such that you will not be evaluated based on your knowledge, nor your ability to learn or perform labs. Lab partners are chosen during the lab orientation and cannot be changed, unless you wish to write the reports yourself. This sucks for anyone taking a hard semester outside of this class if you have a bad partner because the only alternative is to write the reports individually. To this end, if you are busy and have unknowingly chosen a bad lab partner, assuming that you didn't know anyone in the class, your choices are to shoulder an unreasonable amount of work or let your irresponsible lab partner tank the lab portion of the grade. Regarding the midterms, there are practice exams posted (without an answer key) and the midterms taken during the class never have answer keys. Additionally, wrong answers on the midterms are not marked with the correct answers. This results in not being able to correct conceptual misunderstandings effectively. I think the course policies are set up in a manner that makes students have to work against the class. It's unfortunate that this class is a requirement for majors.

Natalia White
CHEM425

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
01/16/2024

This lab is not a very hard lab conceptually, but there is a ton of writing. The labs are actually pretty cool if you think about them, but you have a lot of downtime in some of them. You generally have limited interactions with Natalia, but she does grade one of the intro reports and you can ask her questions. She is a very nice professor and will take the time to explain instruments to you since she also teaches this course in the spring. Some wisdom for this course is choose your lab partner carefully since you have to write the reports with them. If for some reason your lab partner doesn't write their parts, Natalia will make you write the reports individually, and that sucks.

Peter Nemes
CHEM425

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
01/16/2024

If you take him for instrumental, he is a super funny lecturer, but at the end of most classes, his 'real world' example is one of his publications. His exams are totally random and weird. You have to do a lot of prep for them anyway, and he'll ask you a mix of super general and super specific questions and sometimes about things he didn't talk about at all. Overall he's not the worst chemistry professor in the department, but he has a huge ego and is sometimes mean. He was usually considerate of the greater stresses people were having which was nice. He also did this strange thing where he allowed no one to ask questions during exam at all, and he didn't show up to our exams, having Natalia proctor them. The lab is run by Natalia White (such a queen), so Nemes will never talk about it.

Peter Nemes
CHEM425

Expecting a B
Anonymous
12/19/2023

this is probably the weirdest class i’ve ever taken. the lab part is super helpful and i’ve learned a lot, but i think the lecture was utter nonsense. there’s so much dense information and the exams are not indicative of the material. the final was like maybe 10 questions all worth 20 points and only covered a small section of the material. i feel like i studied all of this for nothing. the grading is harsh and you have to predict what he wants you to write very carefully or else you will have no credit. i do think this is one of the more useful and important classes in biochem/chem, but the way they test your knowledge is upsetting and unfair. averages were generally low as well. he also talks a lot about his own research which is not very useful for us but i understand him trying to flex. decent guy i guess but he is not a super great lecturer

Neil Blough
CHEM425

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/23/2013

Dr. Blough is an excellent professor, and potentially the best one I have had at Maryland as a biochem & neurophys double degree. His lecturing style is the clearest of any professor I've had thus far (in 7 semesters), he's enthusiastic, and I could readily and easily recall all of the material he lectured about during exams, even if I hadn't studied a particular topic intensely. Your TAs are usually sympathetic towards you (you're taking 6 hours of lab a week for this one class, after all) - just make sure you keep up with the lab reports (which are VERY time intensive), attend lecture, and the lecture will basically do the work for you.

Natalia White
CHEM425

Expecting a B-
Anonymous
05/19/2013

CHEM 425 is the most difficult class at the University of Maryland period. Mrs. White is the lab coordinator for this course, which has 10, 12+ instrument printouts page lab report due every week on a new laboratory instrument. There are prelabs every week. The biggest problem I had with Mrs. White was that the answers for the prelabs were not given. This is a problem because you have to write a 12+ page lab report on the topic of the prelab. The grading of the lab reports is very strict, when I was in this class I spent approximately 40 hours a week doing work for the laboratory portion of the course. There is also a lecture portion of top of the lab. The course is not curved. This class was extremely helpful in teaching me how to write lab reports. For that I am very thankful. If you are not an expert scientific writer go to the writing center every week! Read scientific papers to see how it is done. Grading is tough.

Neil Blough
CHEM425

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/18/2013

Amazing professor. You dont need the textbook. Just attend lecture and take notes. exams are super straight forward. There's a curve. Our year an 84% was an A. Lab reports are the killer just make sure you see a Ta before submission. Start strong, thats the trick.

Reviews for CHEM425