Taylor Plank

This professor has taught: CHEM231, CHEM271

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Taylor Plank CHEM271 Anonymous 05/19/2021	Absolutely not. Plank is very passionate about the material she teaches but I do not recommend her. I genuinely did really good on the homework and the book practice problems but her exams were so hard for no reason. The questions on the homework did not prepare you on the exam at all. I put so much time and effort in this class and I think its unfair not to curve. Try to avoid her If you actually care about your mental health and your GPA.
Taylor Plank CHEM271 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/18/2021	Spring 2021 was Dr. Plank's first time teaching General Chemistry 2 at UMD. All things considered, given the online environment and her first UMD experience, the class was taught very smoothly. While the pace was relatively fast, Dr. Plank was always willing to give recordings of lectures if you asked for them, and she always kept the notes slides up-to-date by making them accessible through the ELMS course files. For valid reasons, the synchronous lectures were not made publicly available unless asked, because it would incentivize people to not attend. Dr. Plank encouraged participation, which were easy free points that also helped us stay on track with the course material (at the very minimum, show up to discussion - you don't even have to talk - and you'll receive these). While she had no practice exams to reference due to the fact that it was her first time teaching the course with the specific structure at UMD, she still made sure to give us comprehensive practice through practice problems for each chapter and through Mastering Chemistry. I personally did not find discussions to be the most helpful place for practice since I did not feel most engaged with them, but they were a resource too. Dr. Plank was also always open to contesting homework questions- speaking from personal experience, I found an error in a question, and she ended up giving back points to everyone who experienced the error, and all it took was a quick email exchange. Additionally, when we had some technological discrepancies with the first exam's Mastering Chemistry platform, Dr. Plank not only allowed us to submit regrades, but she also allowed us to complete an extra credit follow-up assignment to make up some points. She was apologetic, and it was obvious she cared about our success. Dr. Plank was one of the very few, if any, professors at the UMD Chemistry department who actually took the time to communicate and help students, and her willingness to help us and to keep us on track were a testament to how she actually cared about us learning the material, which she explicitly stated. I do not agree with the unfairness that some of my peers are claiming with regard to this course, because Dr. Plank was ALWAYS receptive to our questions, whether we asked in-class, at office hours, through email, or through Slack, where she made herself readily and directly available. She was responsive no matter how many times we asked about grading and curves as well, and while it can be frustrating to not do as well as you had hoped, the average for this class was relatively high for the chemistry department, and given how straightforward her exams and final were, we frankly do not need one. I understand that the COVID-19 pandemic and online environment has caused an incredibly stressful, grueling experience for us college students, but I think that makes it even more necessary for us to take a step back and process what has happened in order to show more grace before projecting the pent-up frustrations and stress that naturally came from this year of online classes.
Taylor Plank CHEM271 Expecting a D- Anonymous 05/18/2021	Even during a difficult time as the COVID 19 pandemic, she was absolutely awful and inflexible. I did every homework assigned and received As on all of them, I was able to complete them without too many issues with the help of the textbook as her lectures were too confusing to really get much out of them. The questions in her exams were much more complicated than what she covered in lecture and did not allow for partial credit despite the intensive math. The first exam was administered through MasteringChem which is a fine website for homework but absolutely horrible for exams, as I was kicked out of the exam after the first question. When I was let back in, I could only see one question at a time and could not change my answer after entering it in the allocated space, and between the time crunch and my inability to view all of the questions in the exam, I had no way of estimating how much more work I had to do and how much time I had for each question. Needless to say, my grade on this exam was absolutely awful. And it did not get any better! I practiced more and received a better grade on the second exam, but the third exam was again quite difficult. For a 2 credit class, I spent more time studying the textbook and practice exams than some of my other 4 credit class this semester, and despite everything, it got worse! I strongly recommend taking anyone BUT her. Save yourself from the headaches and the tears, college is already stressful as it is. She doesn't even curve the class. She refuses to curve... Please do not take Plank. GPA and mental health will be ruined forever. + No curve.
Taylor Plank CHEM271 Expecting a D Anonymous 05/18/2021	Pretty sure the 271 review on here is from Plank herself because everyone was confused the whole semester. Everything was pretty messy and the averages for exams were in the 70's but she refuses to curve even though other CHEM classes usually curve to a B-. I guess she curves to a C/C- so please avoid her at all costs. The first exam was horrible and so many students had a hard time navigating the exam.
Taylor Plank CHEM271 Anonymous 05/06/2021	The first couple weeks of the class were pretty messy because she was assigned it a couple days before, but I think she was a great lecturer and had fair expectations from students. The lectures were really straightforward and she provided a lot of examples on how to do problems. The exams were also very similar to the homework and practice problems she provided. She was really responsive to students and responded to emails and slack messages quickly. The only negative thing I could think of is that her lecture was a couple weeks behind lab but that seems to be an issue with a lot of chem courses.
Taylor Plank CHEM231 Anonymous 02/06/2020	Pretty sure the review on here is from Plank herself because no one in the class thought she was a great teacher. She was a graduate student teaching for the first time, so everything was pretty messy. Pretty sure the averages for her exams were in the 30s, 40s and the curve wasn't very strong. I don't think she's teaching again but if she is listed, try to avoid her.
Taylor Plank CHEM231 Anonymous 03/01/2018	Wonderful lecturer and cares about students. Really knows her stuff and makes organic understandable. Her class is the type of class that makes me look forward to my day! Even at 8 am, taking her is SOOOOOO worth it.