Reviews for PLSC275

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Wendy Peer PLSC275 Expecting a C Anonymous 04/26/2023	Dr. Peer is really nice and always lets me make-up quizzes, but she cannot teach well at all. She doesn't finish problems she is going over and her lectures are excruciating to sit through. If you do have to take her class though, review the learning outcomes for each topic of the weeks and you'll do much better. You honestly don't need to watch the videos if you memorize the learning outcomes, I learned this too late :(
Wendy Peer PLSC275 Expecting a W Anonymous 12/21/2022	Wendy Peer is a nice lady, however her teaching style was completely horrible. She would get quiet and not finish sentences, which made an already confusing course even more unbearable. She would also give us test questions based on extremely minute details from the book she had us read. I read the book and still couldnt answer her questions. DONT TAKE DR PEER'S CLASS, you will regret it. I dropped the class and I am opting to take regular orgo instead.
Wendy Peer PLSC275 Expecting a W Anonymous 08/30/2022	This instructor will just keep talking and talking at you, and will not stick to what info you will need. I found her to be quite uncertain and disconnected as an instructor. Often times she gets quiet during lecture, or doesn't fully finish her thoughts, and loses focus (which makes me lose focus).
Wendy Peer PLSC275 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/23/2022	I've taken classes in the chem department before and it's brutal. That's a well known fact at UMD. But Dr.Peer took a chemistry class (Orgo for plant sciences) and removed all the frills and trickiness. In practice I'm sure I didn't see as much material as the standard Orgo I kids, and I'm sure I didn't see nearly as tricky problems, but I think when push comes to shove, we will remember about the same material and know it about as well a year or two down the line. I think she taught what needed to be taught, and what could effectively be learned in a one semester course. She does give regular quizzes but I balanced it pretty well with some other very tough classes ( 2 CS courses), she says she pulls quiz problems right off the ungraded HW (your choice to do it or not...it's not handed in). And the test are basically the HW's so if you do the couple of Hours of homework you're asked to do a week, you're in fantastic shape. Honestly she (effectively) 3 quizzes so if your overloaded with work one week...as long as you catch up before the tests or the final you're fine. The one complaint is the one test and one final which are weighted evenly, but they were both straight forward tests with a absolute no trickery (did I mention she doesn't try to trick you), and I think they both had a fair amount of extra credit (at least the final did)! Good teacher, very accommodating, very friendly, made a daunting topic easy, great topic. If you have the choice between taking 275 and Orgo I, if you have a choice...take 275 with Dr. Peer.
Candace Pritchard PLSC275 Expecting an A Anonymous 09/04/2020	Dr. Pritchard is an excellent and very fair professor, who explains concepts very well and was accommodating of the needs of (other) students in class who had difficulties. Unlike a CMNS course, her class in NOT curved (I personally dislike curved courses) and you will learn information which is very applicable to your career. Dr. Pritchard writes very fair tests which have a fair time-frame, and (in my experience) accurately reflect your comprehension of the learning objectives. Although professors may be exhausted by their workload (caffeine has a relatively short half-life) and nobody is an exception, she makes an effort to make each class engaging and relevant. During the disastrous year of 2020, she made continual efforts to reach out to students, and make fair assessments on our learning progress. As (in my opinion), teaching ability is a talent that one is born with, and is very difficult to cultivate artificially, Dr. Pritchard has a natural talent for teaching. If you are an Animal Sciences major, I would rate her teaching ability and course structure similar to that of the legendary Dr. Black. With this in mind, I would like to advise prospective students that many of the topics of this course will be biochemistry, and that this course is probably modeled after similar courses offered in other institutions, such as the introductory biochemistry course which CALS students take at another agricultural college. Although I was particularly good at the topics of this course, as well as very interested in the subject matter, I would recommend it to any student who is interested.
Christopher Walsh PLSC275 Expecting an A- Anonymous 01/06/2016	Dr. Walsh is one of my favorite professors on campus and I've only had him for this one class. As everyone else has said he is super passionate about what he does which makes the class so much better. He made the material interesting and I really appreciated the non-traditional reading (chapter books over textbooks) because chemistry at any level is difficult for me. He brought in great guest lecturers and because he had conversations with the class and wrote all the material on the board, keeping up with his lectures wasn't hard. It's true that there is a lot of information to remember and his exams are mostly short answer (never MC or matching), but if you study straight from your notes and diagrams covered in class then there's no way to fail! :)