Paul Paukstelis

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

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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.