Paul Paukstelis

This professor has taught: BCHM461, BCHM464, BCHM465, BCHM661, BCHM662, BCHM698, BCHM889A, CHEM399B

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Paul Paukstelis BCHM461 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/05/2024	I loved his class so much! His teaching style is very on par with my short attention span because he's very interactive and I always find him to be an engaging lecturer. He may go fast for some people but it personally helps me keep up with the content and it allowed him to touch upon a lot of interesting content. His exams can be tricky without preparation, but he typically tests us on general concepts rather than specific examples that you may not remember.
Paul Paukstelis BCHM461 Anonymous 12/02/2024	I found his teaching style to be very ineffective and very hard to actually learn the content. To me, his exams did not reflect what he was actually covering in class. The topics were the same HOWEVER he rarely went over any example questions. Not to mention, he never gave answer keys (or even a practice final) to the practice exams so there was nothing to go off of. I studied hours for his exams only to do very subpar because his practice exams are completely different to his actual exam. I would think I understand the concepts and be able to do his practice exams, only to be blindsided by his actual exams. I went to mearly every single lecture in person and I just think the way he structures this class makes it very hard for students to learn. If you need examples to learn (like me) then you're just screwed. Right now his expected curve is 5% which is crazy because with that new cut-off, the 25th percentile barely gets a 70%. Which means 1/4 of the class is estimated to fail.
Paul Paukstelis BCHM461 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/27/2024	Provided lectures online (recording of voice + what he projected on the screen. You couldn't hear student questions or see what he was viewing if it wasn't his tablet's notes). I went to all lectures in-person, but lecture were available online--although he said he would hold back on posting them if attendance began to drop dramatically, which it never did. The focus of the exam were not to memorize and regurgitate facts but use the facts you've memorized and apply them in word problems. Which can be harder. I will say some of the older reviews talk about the difficulty of interpreting questions, which is true. Some questions are vague like "what is interesting about this?" which requires a deep understanding and good memory of the material to put together what could be related to the course. The practice exams are really really helpful to understand the kinds of questions he asks. He holds an exam review section before each exam and it is very useful only if youve come prepared (attempted the practice exams beforehand). He does provide practice exams, but no answer key, which is partly why he holds the review sections. I loved his lecturing style. He was (mostly) organized and always tried to tie concepts together. Engaging lecturer. 4pm class is rough though, so I was only able to make it through by taking a Celsius each time. He would tell stories about things related to class sometimes and it never really put us behind ever in terms of lecturing, and I appreciated the brief break from instruction. If you attend lecture and have no need for recordings, most of the 1-star reviews no longer apply.
Paul Paukstelis BCHM461 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 11/21/2024	Paul, Paul, Paul. Lecture was him mostly yapping and I don't think we have finished a lecture without him saying we are behind. His notes are useless so you def need to attend class. In terms of exams, the practice exams and notes from class will not help. I recommend searching the topics he presents in class and studying them yourself
Paul Paukstelis BCHM461 Expecting an A Anonymous 06/01/2024	I had such high hopes for this professor, especially since he does not require any textbooks for this course. Boy, was I in for a shock. While he does not provide any old exam keys, I personally didn't mind because I learned more about the content that way. However, the exams themselves are egregiously difficult. The amount of interpretation and confusion with some of the questions, which are worth so many points, is not worth it. I have never met such a petty teacher. Yes, he does record the lectures. But if many students don’t attend the lectures, he purposefully WITHHOLDS the recordings AND the lecture notes until close to exams. After the exams are passed out, going to his office hours feel so tense. He is unwilling to try to sympathize with how terrible the exam design and questions were. Overall, his ego is HUGE! DO NOT TAKE THIS PROFESSOR!!! Oh, and by the way, even if he does post the lecture notes, the majority, if not all, are incomprehensible and illegible, so you would still need to watch the lecture recordings that he withholds. Good luck to those that do have to take him...
Paul Paukstelis BCHM461 Expecting a B Anonymous 06/01/2024	I had such high hopes for this professor, especially since he does not require any textbooks for this course. Boy, was I in for a shock. While he does not provide any old exam keys, I personally didn't mind because I learned more about the content that way. However, the exams themselves are egregiously difficult. The amount of interpretation and confusion with some of the questions, which are worth so many points, is not worth it. I have never met such a petty teacher. Yes, he does record the lectures. But if many students don’t attend the lectures, he purposefully WITHHOLDS the recordings AND the lecture notes until close to exams. After the exams are passed out, going to his office hours feel so tense. He is unwilling to try to sympathize with how terrible the exam design and questions were. Overall, his ego is HUGE! DO NOT TAKE THIS PROFESSOR!!! Oh, and by the way, even if he does post the lecture notes, the majority, if not all, are incomprehensible and illegible, so you would still need to watch the lecture recordings that he withholds. Good luck to those that do have to take him...
Paul Paukstelis BCHM461 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/27/2024	You guys. PLEASE TAKE THIS CLASS. I have been losing my love for chemistry and this man was able to reignite it. he loves to teach and is good at it. his exams are always fair. He also makes the content simple and fun to learn. absolute king. Super easy to talk to. He loves to answer questions and is ALWAYS down to help someone who is struggling. A lot of people in this class i knew (including myself) got an A, Which is really impressive for a biochem class. LOVE LOVE LOVE HIM.
Paul Paukstelis Expecting an A Anonymous 05/23/2024	I chose him only for the spring semester because his ratings were higher than Lee's, and it was honestly a choice between which professor was less bad. He doesn't cover the entire curriculum in Biochemistry 1 and skips sections on lipids and carbohydrates. This means you will need to self-study these topics when you take Biochemistry 2. He doesn't provide a textbook and handwrites his lecture notes during class. As other reviews have mentioned, his handwriting is barely legible, and he delays uploading the lecture notes because not enough students are attending lectures. I find this very unfair, as many students attend every lecture but are penalized because of others (I understand why some don't come since it's an 8 AM lecture). His exams were pretty difficult, but the final was a bit more straightforward. The curve was approximately 14%, which shows how poorly everyone performed in his course. The course grading is 95% exams and 5% homework. I was only able to get an A because I did well on my midterms after studying endlessly a week before the exam. He does provide past exams but without an answer key, and they are not similar to the actual exams. He is also quite rude and always hesitant to answer questions directly, making us work for it even if we don't know how. I've caught him ignoring me a couple of times as well after saying hello or thank you, which is also pretty rude. Overall, I do not recommend him, and I have to spend time during my summer learning about lipids and carbohydrates because he didn't teach them.
Paul Paukstelis BCHM465 Expecting a C- Anonymous 05/18/2024	HES AWFUL, doesnt care about students at all and failed several graduating seniors even when they were super close to the cutoff. Zero empathy from this professor. He takes terrible notes and doesnt really explain anything if you go to office hours.
Paul Paukstelis BCHM461 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/17/2024	PAUKSTELIS MY MAN. What a guy lol he’s the goat. This class is structured pretty typically, with three 100 point midterms, and then the final was worth 150 points. Additionally, there were about six homeworks this semester, and combined they totaled to about 20-25 points. The homeworks don’t really make a big impact on your grade, but it is important to do them and understand them, because he pulled some concepts almost directly from the homeworks onto the final (when he hadn’t really done on midterms). He also provides his lecture notes and lecture recordings after each class, which is extremely helpful to go back and review. The material can be a bit dry at times, but Dr. Paukstelis did his best to make the class engaging, especially considering it was at 8am. You will learn a lot in depth about proteins and nucleic acids, and it is all fundamental information I am sure all bio/chem students will use going forward. In that sense, a professor like Paukstelis is critical to ensuring you have a strong foundation in the subject. He would always try to incorporate real-life analogies and visual representations with the Pymol software to illustrate the concepts. He’s also funny lol. He has his own interesting sense of humor that runs a bit on the dry side, but that I appreciated a lot, especially at 8am. I still remember a whack story about inhibitors and his annoying neighbor lol. Also, I don’t know why but I get the feeling he’s a huge 80’s-90’s rock fan, which is right up my alley lmao. He does give you practice exams before each exam, usually about a week before. He emphasizes at the beginning of the semester itself to start early, and he’s right. He does not give answer keys for his practice exams, however, you honestly wouldn’t need them unless you started studying the night before. Before each exam, he hosts a review session during class time, and he would spend the entire time period answering any questions we had relating to the practice exams or the course content in general. He also hosted multiple office hours in the week that you can (and should) go to for extra clarification. The exams are very doable with both of these resources, and he would sometimes pull directly from the practice exams for the actual midterm (which was really nice of him!). Would it be nice to have the answer keys to old exams as well? Sure, but I don’t think it's the end of the world like some people make it out to be. He genuinely wants to help you succeed, but he wants to see that you’ve put in an honest effort to make headway yourself first. Overall, the class is what you make of it. If you are proactive in studying ahead and asking good questions during class and during office hours (not just stuff you can find word for word in his lecture notes), you will be more than fine. There is a huge curve at the end which is more than generous. After the third exam, I genuinely thought my grade would be three grades below what it was, but the curve is massive. TLDR: He’s funny, extremely accessible and helpful in class/office hours, wants you to do well, and gives fair exams, with a large curve at the end. But the class is what you make of it, and you have to make sure you start studying ahead of time so that you can get your questions answered beforehand.
Paul Paukstelis BCHM461 Anonymous 05/13/2024	He record all of his lectures and tests on things that he said during class. He writes his notes as he lectures, there are no presentation/slides. You can not go off just his notes. I felt the need to nearly transcribe everything he said in class because some of his questions were on things he said and never wrote. Lectures were relatively interesting but the way he presents information is very ineffective. His handwriting isn't good either. His exams are not like the past exam he provides in class, so keep that in mind when studying. Would not recommend him. Exams are very application based and very little recall. There is also a big jump from Gen Chem 2 to Biochem so prepare yourselves and don't underestimate this course.
Paul Paukstelis BCHM461 Anonymous 05/02/2024	Terrible handwriting so it is impossible to go over lecture notes without having to rewatch the recordings. The exams give very vague questions and he looks for very specific answers (if you don't say a certain keyword you don't get credit). Graders this semester were extremely harsh and nothing was done to counteract this, exam averages just remained low. Also not very sympathetic if you go to office hours to discuss exams with him. I was disappointed because during lecture I felt as though I thoroughly understood the material, but that understanding was never reflected on the exams because the questions were written so poorly. The exams are pretty much your entire grade besides a few 4 point homework assignments. I feel like if you are a good test taker this class could be fine but otherwise I would go with a different professor.
Paul Paukstelis BCHM461 Expecting an A Anonymous 03/28/2024	Handwriting is terrible, lecture notes are elementary.
Paul Paukstelis BCHM461 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/23/2023	Teaching style is horrible and he has awful handwriting. He records lectures which is nice, but that's the only helpful thing he does. Past exams are given with no answer key and they aren't anything close to the real test. Mean person and you can tell he doesn't want to speak to students during office hours or after class at all. I only got an A- because I studied an insane amount for the final and the curve was pretty big(about 9%). But even with the curve, awful class and very difficult to do well it.
Paul Paukstelis BCHM461 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/17/2023	A lot of these reviews are misleading. During lecture, he is a good lecturer and presents the information pretty well and makes us understand the material. I learned a lot of information in this class. However, my grades do not reflect that because his exams are made so poorly. He asks a vague question and expects a specific answer which is so frustrating. I know all the material and yet I couldn't answer his questions just by the way he asks it. He is the kind of teacher that makes the tests deliberately harder just because people are doing well (first exam went very well and the second exam was so hard for no reason). Also, your grade is solely based on your exam grades (he has like 20 points of homework which makes no difference). Adding on, he doesn't really help you when you need help. We tried to ask for any tips for the final since it is all cumulative and there is equal chance of anything to be on the test, but he said he can't give us tips and that it isn't his job. He is a professor. His job is to help us. He can be very condescending and rude at times and I am annoyed that I learned so much and understood all the material, but the way he asked questions on the exam were so unfair and not reflective of what I knew. I would not recommend him to anyone.
Paul Paukstelis BCHM465 Expecting an A Anonymous 07/17/2023	I really liked Dr. Paukstelis. He's got the most pleasant speaking voice, although it can be a little sleepy sometimes. I also loved that he was super into the material, like for the first exam he 3D printed DNA base pairs for us to analyze in 3D space, which was sick and I think shows the dedication of a good and cool professor.
Paul Paukstelis BCHM465 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/24/2023	Paul Paukstelis is an absolute cutie and a nerd, and I love it. First of all, if he ever made a podcast, I would listen to it, because he has the most pleasant speaking voice ever. Second, he was not so passionate about teaching, but he was passionate about the subject, and that was pretty cool, because he actually would share things from his own experience with us, or just like hand out DNA primers because why not. On the first exam, he 3D printed nucleotide base pairs for everyone which is so cool and thoughtful, and it made us really look at the DNA in our own hands and analyze it. I thought that was sick, and the sign of a pretty special professor in my opinion. Ok, that's all. I liked him. Still do.
Paul Paukstelis BCHM465 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/15/2022	Lectures can get pretty dry with just him writing on his iPad or whatever he uses but it seems like he really puts a lot of effort into making us understand DNA/RNA biochemistry. In fact, during our first exam he actually 3-D printed models of DNA base pairs for each of us to use to answer some of the questions in the exam. He lets you keep them too! He records his lectures but his handwriting is not the best and the microphone quality isn't the best either. I would still recommend attending lecture every day. Paul is very personable, having a broad range in music taste which is not too surprising given that he played music at the start of his lectures for like the first few weeks. If you're a fan of Fugazi I bet you could strike up a nice conversation with him about it, he seems pretty passionate about music. His exams were generally reflective of what he taught in class. There was never a question which made me feel blindsided. For our last midterm he gave us a test bank of like 50 or 60 questions and essentially said that he would choose 6 or 7 of those questions to ask us on the midterm, which is a pretty cool system if you ask me. There was a significant curve at the end of the semester. He didn't do plus minus grading the semester I took the class, which was nice since I would have ended with an A- otherwise. Additionally, his class has 4 total exams weighted equally (including the final) and he drops one of those exams at the end of the semester, which means if you do well enough on all the midterms, you won't have another final to worry about.
Paul Paukstelis BCHM465 Expecting an A Anonymous 06/12/2022	He’s a great professor and an excellent lecturer. He even made a discord for us where we could ask him questions (which he was pretty good at responding to). I will say his tests are difficult at first but once you get used to them, they become much easier.
Paul Paukstelis BCHM465 Anonymous 05/18/2022	This professor is one of the best lecturers I’ve had- he’s very thorough in explaining material and linking concepts to make them make sense. The exams are fair if you memorized and understood the material, and study guides really help to know how to think on exams. Would take again!
Paul Paukstelis BCHM465 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/11/2022	Each of Dr. Paukstelis’ classes consisted of a 10-15 minute review portion before he introduced new content, which is usually presented through him hand-writing his notes on his laptop. The lectures themselves have always been recorded, but the microphone quality for a lot of his lectures are pretty bad. His handwriting isn’t very legible, and often I find myself struggling to make out what he writes. Generally, Dr. Paukstelis’ notes consist of broadly encompassing points (which can often be scatterbrained and disorganized), but the details of the topics presented are left to his spoken words, so be sure to pay attention to the questions he asks as well. BCHM 465 feels much closer to a biology class than a chemistry or biochemistry course. If memorizing facts over reaction mechanisms is your strength, this class will probably be easier for you than it was for me. The chemistry which was discussed in this course was simple, but the topics were more focused on the structural aspects of biological macromolecules, which personally I did not find particularly interesting.
Paul Paukstelis BCHM461 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/22/2021	My favorite professor in the chem department I have ever had! He truly wants you to understand course content. His research is in nucleic acids, so he teaches this more in depth compared to other 461 professors I think. Exams were fair and some questions were similar to old exams or GSS content. He records his lectures which was super helpful for review. In live lectures he does a good job at answering student questions. His lectures provide all you need to know for exams, you don't need a textbook. Class had a big curve in the end. Would take him again!
Paul Paukstelis BCHM461 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/22/2021	This is an expected 400 level class. Lots of information needs to be absorbed quickly from lecture to lecture, which is arguably the hardest part of the class. However, the information itself is not inherently difficult and should be easy to understand. What really irked me was the lack of study material in the form of past exams or questions. Past exams were provided but without a key which meant that it would be difficult to know what a complete answer should be. That being said, Dr. Paukstelis was great during office hours and available to answer questions quickly. The curve for this semester was also quite heavy (9% ish) but that's probably because this was the first semester in person and people were still adjusting from online exams to in-person ones. Overall compared to other BCHM461 professors he would be your best bet, and while lectures can sometimes be dull he does record them and posts them the same day.
Paul Paukstelis BCHM461 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/20/2021	This semester was pretty ok. The curve was around 8% (pretty normal). I think Paukstelis is a great lecturer but his notes were a bit messy and unorganized. Exams were pretty fair in my opinion and were made to make you truely understand biochem. Paukstelis even provided recorded lectures which were a big help. If you are planning to take BCHM642, I wouldn't recommend taking Paukstelis because I'm fairly certain the stuff Paukstelis teaches is different than other BCHM professors such as Julin (which you should take if you're going to take 462 because he teaches it).
Paul Paukstelis BCHM461 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/16/2021	This is a difficult class with very little support available to students. Paukstelis is not helpful, his lectures are messy and unorganized, he seems to put the bare minimum of effort into teaching this class. In fact, the only effort he does put forth is whenever he can make life more challenging for students, he seems to enjoy when students are having a difficult time and when exam averages are unreasonably low. He records online lectures which may be the only redeeming thing about taking him since you don't have to sit through the boring lectures. From what I've heard his 461 class does nothing to prepare you for 462. If possible, avoid him and take someone else.
Paul Paukstelis BCHM461 Anonymous 01/22/2021	This is an intense class with a lot of material. While some concepts can simply be memorized, you will need to be able to connect concepts together to do well on the exams. Two lecture videos were uploaded weekly. I found the lectures hard to get through in one sitting, but they provided most of the material needed to do well on the exams. I definitely recommend using office hours and discussion to ask questions. Dr. Paukstelis and the TAs were both very nice and approachable.