| Information | Review |
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Silvina Matysiak
BIOE232 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/18/2023 |
Dr. Matysiak is cool and clearly experienced with thermodynamics of proteins specifically, but she's not the best teacher. She took up a TON of class time with proofs when it would have been infinitely better spent teaching examples or explaining real-world applications. The material for this class is confusing, and it doesn't help that there are no real resources other than her lectures, so you can't teach yourself. She uploads lecture notes and technically does have a textbook, but the notes are VERY confusing (they don't explain anything) and the textbook doesn't contain most of the equations you need. My biggest gripe is with her exams. Her questions usually make no sense and don't resemble the homework. Your grade in this class is solely based on how often you can ask her questions during the exams because often her questions are confusing or based on an equation you would never expect. That seems pretty unfair to me, and that's why I've given her such a low score. Overall, you will survive, and she's really very nice. But be prepared for confusion and ask as many clarifying questions as you can during exams. |
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Silvina Matysiak
BIOE232 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/18/2023 |
Dr. Matysiak is a very nice woman and is always willing to help out students, but her class is I think the worst class I've taken at this university. As all the other reviews said her lectures aren't very helpful and the exams and homeworks were not similar to lecture. I feel like I have a good understanding of thermodynamics (I did well in PHYS and Gen Chem) and did not do well in this class b/c of the highly theoretical/abstract math based questions she asked on exams (I also have done well in all of required math courses our major takes). The exams for my semester were not at all similar to the past ones (and the hw) she had posted. The majority of the questions were very theory based and difficult to understand. I also felt like your exam score was dependent on how much help you could get from her. If you ask specific types of questions she almost completely guides you through a problem, or tells you you're on the right track. The issue with this is that everyone asks questions and some people take up more of her time than others. Basically, if you're able to ask more questions you have a greater chance at getting a higher score on the exam. I felt like this course was not based on your ability to understand the material, but rather how good you are at getting answers/her attention. Exams are also no longer open note (you do get a formula sheet). The exam averages for us were around the 70% range (for the 1st exam she curved the avg to be around 70 and no other exams were curved) and I'm pretty sure the grade distribution was pretty bad with most people lying around the average. Since the exams are weighted so heavily, your exams scores are your grade in the class. I did really well on the homeworks and quizzes which did nothing for my grade. For exam 1 and the final the highest score was a flat A. Based on the distribution and the highest scores I'm pretty sure basically no one got an A in the course and most of the grades lie at a C+ and B/B-. I did better than average on all of the exams and barely got a B in this course. She did not curve the final grades despite the distribution. I am upset about the grade I got in the course despite working really hard in this course, but what angered me more is that I have a good grasp of the concepts and didn't do well on the exams b/c of the strange questions she asks. Good luck to everyone taking this course and remember to ask questions during exams to maximize your grade. My piece of advice is take this class during the summer- most of the people I know did this. A different professor teaches it and the course is apparently very easy. |
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Silvina Matysiak
BIOE232 Anonymous 05/16/2023 |
Dr. Matysiak is very nice, but her lectures are awful. She teaches almost entirely theory and proofs. She spends the whole class deriving a few random equations and might get to one or two practice problems. Half of the time she doesn't explain where she got certain values to solve it and my friends and I often would stare at each other wondering where she got an answer from. She talks quietly and writes at the bottom of the board so sit up front! Also, during exams if you sit in the back, she's less likely to come over and answer your questions. For the midterms, they were so tough because she would come up with crazy problems that barely made sense. Learn your theory well though, because she always has theory problems (typically true or false format). She posts EVERY SINGLE PAST EXAM AND SOLUTIONS which is AWESOME, but many of her solutions are wrong, messy, or hard to read/keep track of. Still very helpful though for midterms. Exams are open note which is great we don't have to memorize equations and can have some theory and practice problems to jog your memory (I showed up to the final with almost a binder of material). Get ready to spend all your money on printing though, because she makes you print out tons of pages of tables that you might not even use except for the first exam... Discussion is a lifesaver because you can actually practice application problems and get the actual necessary equations. The homeworks were all over the place; one was 32 parts long and some might only have two or three problems. A couple required using excel to graph stuff. START EARLY ON THEM! Also, most of the problems on the finals I felt were NOT similar to the homework, but they were helpful for learning to manipulate the equations. The final is the worst. One of our problems was so poorly worded it said "water in water" when she was trying to create a problem about mixtures... Didn't even show up to the final either, so one TA was running around trying to answer all of our questions, and didn't know what she was allowed to tell us to help us. Typically on the midterms, Matysiak would give really good hints or help you figure out if you're on the right track, so that was infuriating considering she only has our one lecture and is NEVER in her office! Grading takes a long time and even longer for grades to be entered. Everything is out of 100 for some reason in the gradebook so its confusing to figure out your grade. I appreciate that she is very clear about her due dates and exam dates and what is on each exam and homeworks are typically paced to cover one or two topics at a time. Currently, a bunch of us in the class are unsure our grades, or honestly if we passed because of how bad the final was. Poorly written and not really testing us on what we learned or how to use equations, it all was adjacent rather than directly related. Final was unlike all of her past finals so we were all blindsided. Overall, good luck... |
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Silvina Matysiak
BIOE232 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/14/2023 |
I think Matysiak is the only professor teaching this class soooo... good luck. - The the material for this class wasn't too bad (it's like a mix of Physics260+GenChem). The issue is Matysiak rarely makes any sense during lecture. You will be looking back at your notes while trying to do your homework/study and you will have no idea what you're looking at. During class, Matysiak derives a bunch of equations and doesn't circle/highlight any of the formulas we need to know (so you don't know what's important and what's irrelevant in this jumble of random formulas). Therefore, towards the end of the semester, very few people showed up to class because of how pointless it was. - My biggest issue was the exams. The exams are very unpredictable, which means you could do all the practice exams on elms and all the homeworks, but still be stumped. The amount of times I've heard "7 practice exams for nothing" is a pretty good indicator of what you have coming. She also historically never curves the class (only add a few points to the exam if the average was below a 75%). She does drop a homework and a quiz. |
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Silvina Matysiak
BIOE232 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/08/2021 |
Really had no clue how to do thermo and every class I went to I regretted going because I learned almost nothing. If I had not taken chem classes I literally would've failed. Also she doesn't have each assignment weighted so you literally have no clue what your grade is ever. Don't recommend. |
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Silvina Matysiak
BIOE331 Anonymous 12/01/2021 |
Would not recommend this professor. I found her accent hard to understand and she was not reasonable when I asked for help. I basically had to teach myself and struggled to get a B when I usually get As. This was not up to par with my experience with other classes and professors. |
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Silvina Matysiak
BIOE232 Anonymous 10/27/2021 |
She is very knowledgeable about her material and will mention distinct lab applications. While connecting these points is good, her lectures are extremely proof and theorem heavy whereas the exams are not. The exams are open notes but you should definitely do textbook problems and old exams if you are not someone that immediately understands the theorems she is teaching. She is very nice and clear about her syllabus and when things are due |
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Silvina Matysiak
BIOE232 Expecting an A- Anonymous 09/28/2021 |
Her online lectures were hard to read due to the small size, but were alright. She made the exams flexible to take, but after above average performances on the first two exams the final was very hard. She was available to office hours ad was very accommodating during COVID. She is a nice professor and has a straight-forward teaching style, although her lectures are a lot of proofs compared to the exam. Go to discussion to get real exam practice, and solve all the previous exam problems (she gives good, detailed answer keys for them). |
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Silvina Matysiak
BIOE232 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/30/2017 |
Very organized, exams are fair. Lectures are theory and proof heavy. |