Xiaodong Shi | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Xiaodong Shi CHEM247 Anonymous 02/07/2025	He talks fast through the material. He makes corrections on the exam while taking the exam. There is not enough time for the exam, even though he adds an extra 30 minutes outside lecture hours. You just need to find a good study group and practice to pass!!
Xiaodong Shi CHEM247 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 01/28/2025	Easiest class I've ever taken.
Xiaodong Shi CHEM247 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/19/2024	To preface, I am giving a review on his teaching of the orgo 2 section for chem/bchem majors because I am fairly certain he would teach the non-major sections differently. To start, his lecturing is fast-paced, engaging, and to the point. There is not a single dull moment in this class because he talks very loudly to the point he's almost yelling, but that is entirely from enthusiasm. He likes to add in little stories here and there, and he is a funny guy. He explains the content perfectly so that it makes sense the first time you're hearing it; it's obvious that he is extremely smart and knowledgable. One extremely helpful thing he did in the beginning of the year was to go over some basic chemistry concepts like pka for the first two weeks of school. I felt behind compared to my friends who were in the non-major section, but we did catch up (ended up covering more than them, too) and all the basic concepts he took the time to go over came up over and over again throughout all the chapters. It helped make sense of why certain reactions are favorable. His slideshows are not that great if you're thinking of skipping class (and he doesn't record the lectures), so you're going to want to take notes throughout class. Now to the actual assignments that make up your grade. The class is out of 1000 points: 3 exams/midterms worth 125 each, six 5 point in-class quizzes, three 15 point quizzes during discussion, a 300 point final, and 250 points from the separate lab section. The 5 point quizzes were usually the last 5-10 minutes of a class and he pretty much told you the type of reactions or whatnot would be on them. Same thing for the 15 point quizzes, we had all discussion (50 min) to do them, but you definitely do not need all that time because he tells you what will be on them. The lab is handled entirely by the lab coordinator, who also handles the non-majors section. So your section will obviously be with your classmates, but you're doing the same experiments each week as the non-major sections. The 300 point final was a piece of cake because he copied questions directly from the 3 midterms and all the quizzes (which he told us in advanced). CONS: The reason I give him 4 stars instead of 5 is because of the 3 midterms. Our class was MWF from 10:00 AM - 10:50 AM. We had to come in at 9:30 AM so that we could take the exam for 1 hour and 20 minutes (students who had classes at 9 AM scheduled with him to take the rest of the 30 min at another time in his office). This was genuinely ridiculous to ask students to take an extra 1/2 hour to do the exam. I was discussing this with my boyfriend's dad, who is also a professor at UMD, and he said that this would get him in trouble with the department. Point is, he is not allowed to do this, and I regret not reporting it. In addition to the fact that we came in early to take these exams, the averages were unbelievably low. Orgo is a hard subject and the averages even in the easier non-major section will be lower than the standard 75%. But if the average for an exam is 45%, it is no longer the student's nor the nature of the content's fault. In all likelihood, your grade throughout the semester will be very low, but that doesn't matter because he assigns grades based on the distribution of the class. I usually dislike when teachers do this, but unless you are so far behind the lower end of the class, you are walking away with at least a C. My raw final grade (factoring lab in) is a high B, which translates to an A or A+, and I have a pretty good cushion, so I was never too worried about my grade. But my god, seeing the averages for the class was traumatizing. I am not 100% sure as to why the averages were so low, but my guess would be that it is too much content for the time allotted (yes, even after making us come in 1/2 a hour early) because most (if not all?) of the problems came from the textbook chapter problems. The textbook answer key is wrong sometimes, so watch out for that. TIPS: After reflecting on my experience, this is the advice I would give to approaching this class and reducing stress throughout the semester. I procrastinated every exam, and with a subject like orgo where there is a lot of information to process, leaving everything for the last 2 days is going to leave you extremely anxious. I think that as soon as he teaches a subject, do some practice problems (even 5 is fine) on it. Keep up with the textbook problems and his teaching. If you don't understand something immediately, watch a video on it or go to office hours ASAP because a lot of the stuff builds on each other. Just do not fall behind. Taking 1/2 hour max each day to do some practice problems will leave you in much better shape to take the exam. You will retain the information so much better and have solid foundations for future lessons. I think even with a heavy semester load, you can still take this class if you manage your time. If you have no confidence in your ability to do that, take the non-major's section. I believe my understanding of orgo is much deeper thanks to him, but it is a class you have to put the work into.
Xiaodong Shi CHEM247 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/17/2024	Dr. Shi is incredibly accomplished and unquestionably intelligent. I am incredibly inspired by his journey and his work, however, as a teacher, I think he conducted the classroom in such a way that encouraged competition between peers and "beating out" those doing better than you, as opposed to love of learning or enthusiasm about the content being taught. As a chemistry major, I always found orgo very cool and interesting, however this class was so exhausting that I found myself just trying to get through it and constantly just looking forward to the day when it would be over. 80% of the questions that appeared on exams were never discussed in class and were from the textbook example problems, which there are hundreds of to learn/memorize before each exam. He always states how this class is not about memorization, and then will write exam questions like: "give an example of blank reaction." Although he typically will make the class aware of strenuous mechanisms we should know, it is completely the responsibility of the student to teach it to themselves; sometimes he will say the name of a reaction, never teach it, and then give a quiz on it. This was fine for me, as someone who can memorize easily, however, studying for these exams and trying to cram hundreds of problems in a few days was near impossible. There was not enough instruction provided to know how to do all the test questions and even if there was, the exams were too long to have enough time to figure out all the questions if you hadn't seen them before, therefore you kind of have to have them memorized. I seriously recommend planning around this class, don't take too many credits with it and put off classes like physics 2 or calc 3 (ones that require a lot of time each day) until you are not taking this course. If you are planning on starting undergrad research the same semester as this class, don't. You honestly need like 6 hours a day to study for these exams, and as someone who is in a lab and took a really rough schedule with this class, trust me you will be so mentally unwell and exhausted and have no time to study the amount that Dr. Shi expects you to. Overall, Dr. Shi's lectures were great, he is very good at breaking down concepts and what he chooses to teach in class, you will learn well. However, this class is literally structured like "survival of the fittest" and if you don't have 100% of your time to dedicate to it and teach yourself the majority of what will appear on the exams, you will do poorly.
Xiaodong Shi CHEM247 Expecting a B Anonymous 11/25/2024	Amazing lectures, traumatizing tests, good guy. I have a lot of very mixed feelings towards this man. I learned so so much more chemsitry this semester than I did in orgo 1. Added context is that this was the chem majors section. He truly knows chemistry and knows how to teach it. He took the first 2 weeks of class to go voer some fundamentals (pka being a big big one) that he was able to reference later throughout the semester as we learnt new content. Early on in the semester he was very generous with telling us what would be on the quizzes/exam, and generally he is pretty vocal about what you need to focus on studyign which I appreciate. he is, however, totally allergic to givng people time to take his tests/quizzes LOL. He puts a lot of content on them, to the point where you could know how to do evertthing on it and still not have time to finish. Exam 1 in this class was literally so traumatizingly long. Exam 2 was better and 3 was. well. It's over. Allegedly (and he confirmed this, but I haven't taken it yet) he reuses questions from past exams/quizzes on his final so I do apprecoate that a lot. Be prepared for a little insanity form this man, because he made us come in half an hour early to take his exams. I really like him as a person bc I find him funny and think he's good at dispelling the tension of being in an organic chemistry 2 classroom, but I know not some find him more annoying. The way he will explains certain concepts is, to me, both funny and simple enoguh to make it click.

Xiaodong Shi
CHEM247

Anonymous
02/07/2025

He talks fast through the material. He makes corrections on the exam while taking the exam. There is not enough time for the exam, even though he adds an extra 30 minutes outside lecture hours. You just need to find a good study group and practice to pass!!

Xiaodong Shi
CHEM247

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
01/28/2025

Easiest class I've ever taken.

Xiaodong Shi
CHEM247

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/19/2024

To preface, I am giving a review on his teaching of the orgo 2 section for chem/bchem majors because I am fairly certain he would teach the non-major sections differently. To start, his lecturing is fast-paced, engaging, and to the point. There is not a single dull moment in this class because he talks very loudly to the point he's almost yelling, but that is entirely from enthusiasm. He likes to add in little stories here and there, and he is a funny guy. He explains the content perfectly so that it makes sense the first time you're hearing it; it's obvious that he is extremely smart and knowledgable. One extremely helpful thing he did in the beginning of the year was to go over some basic chemistry concepts like pka for the first two weeks of school. I felt behind compared to my friends who were in the non-major section, but we did catch up (ended up covering more than them, too) and all the basic concepts he took the time to go over came up over and over again throughout all the chapters. It helped make sense of why certain reactions are favorable. His slideshows are not that great if you're thinking of skipping class (and he doesn't record the lectures), so you're going to want to take notes throughout class. Now to the actual assignments that make up your grade. The class is out of 1000 points: 3 exams/midterms worth 125 each, six 5 point in-class quizzes, three 15 point quizzes during discussion, a 300 point final, and 250 points from the separate lab section. The 5 point quizzes were usually the last 5-10 minutes of a class and he pretty much told you the type of reactions or whatnot would be on them. Same thing for the 15 point quizzes, we had all discussion (50 min) to do them, but you definitely do not need all that time because he tells you what will be on them. The lab is handled entirely by the lab coordinator, who also handles the non-majors section. So your section will obviously be with your classmates, but you're doing the same experiments each week as the non-major sections. The 300 point final was a piece of cake because he copied questions directly from the 3 midterms and all the quizzes (which he told us in advanced). CONS: The reason I give him 4 stars instead of 5 is because of the 3 midterms. Our class was MWF from 10:00 AM - 10:50 AM. We had to come in at 9:30 AM so that we could take the exam for 1 hour and 20 minutes (students who had classes at 9 AM scheduled with him to take the rest of the 30 min at another time in his office). This was genuinely ridiculous to ask students to take an extra 1/2 hour to do the exam. I was discussing this with my boyfriend's dad, who is also a professor at UMD, and he said that this would get him in trouble with the department. Point is, he is not allowed to do this, and I regret not reporting it. In addition to the fact that we came in early to take these exams, the averages were unbelievably low. Orgo is a hard subject and the averages even in the easier non-major section will be lower than the standard 75%. But if the average for an exam is 45%, it is no longer the student's nor the nature of the content's fault. In all likelihood, your grade throughout the semester will be very low, but that doesn't matter because he assigns grades based on the distribution of the class. I usually dislike when teachers do this, but unless you are so far behind the lower end of the class, you are walking away with at least a C. My raw final grade (factoring lab in) is a high B, which translates to an A or A+, and I have a pretty good cushion, so I was never too worried about my grade. But my god, seeing the averages for the class was traumatizing. I am not 100% sure as to why the averages were so low, but my guess would be that it is too much content for the time allotted (yes, even after making us come in 1/2 a hour early) because most (if not all?) of the problems came from the textbook chapter problems. The textbook answer key is wrong sometimes, so watch out for that. TIPS: After reflecting on my experience, this is the advice I would give to approaching this class and reducing stress throughout the semester. I procrastinated every exam, and with a subject like orgo where there is a lot of information to process, leaving everything for the last 2 days is going to leave you extremely anxious. I think that as soon as he teaches a subject, do some practice problems (even 5 is fine) on it. Keep up with the textbook problems and his teaching. If you don't understand something immediately, watch a video on it or go to office hours ASAP because a lot of the stuff builds on each other. Just do not fall behind. Taking 1/2 hour max each day to do some practice problems will leave you in much better shape to take the exam. You will retain the information so much better and have solid foundations for future lessons. I think even with a heavy semester load, you can still take this class if you manage your time. If you have no confidence in your ability to do that, take the non-major's section. I believe my understanding of orgo is much deeper thanks to him, but it is a class you have to put the work into.

Xiaodong Shi
CHEM247

Expecting a B
Anonymous
12/17/2024

Dr. Shi is incredibly accomplished and unquestionably intelligent. I am incredibly inspired by his journey and his work, however, as a teacher, I think he conducted the classroom in such a way that encouraged competition between peers and "beating out" those doing better than you, as opposed to love of learning or enthusiasm about the content being taught. As a chemistry major, I always found orgo very cool and interesting, however this class was so exhausting that I found myself just trying to get through it and constantly just looking forward to the day when it would be over. 80% of the questions that appeared on exams were never discussed in class and were from the textbook example problems, which there are hundreds of to learn/memorize before each exam. He always states how this class is not about memorization, and then will write exam questions like: "give an example of *blank* reaction." Although he typically will make the class aware of strenuous mechanisms we should know, it is completely the responsibility of the student to teach it to themselves; sometimes he will say the name of a reaction, never teach it, and then give a quiz on it. This was fine for me, as someone who can memorize easily, however, studying for these exams and trying to cram hundreds of problems in a few days was near impossible. There was not enough instruction provided to know how to do all the test questions and even if there was, the exams were too long to have enough time to figure out all the questions if you hadn't seen them before, therefore you kind of have to have them memorized. I seriously recommend planning around this class, don't take too many credits with it and put off classes like physics 2 or calc 3 (ones that require a lot of time each day) until you are not taking this course. If you are planning on starting undergrad research the same semester as this class, don't. You honestly need like 6 hours a day to study for these exams, and as someone who is in a lab and took a really rough schedule with this class, trust me you will be so mentally unwell and exhausted and have no time to study the amount that Dr. Shi expects you to. Overall, Dr. Shi's lectures were great, he is very good at breaking down concepts and what he chooses to teach in class, you will learn well. However, this class is literally structured like "survival of the fittest" and if you don't have 100% of your time to dedicate to it and teach yourself the majority of what will appear on the exams, you will do poorly.

Xiaodong Shi
CHEM247

Expecting a B
Anonymous
11/25/2024

Amazing lectures, traumatizing tests, good guy. I have a lot of very mixed feelings towards this man. I learned so so much more chemsitry this semester than I did in orgo 1. Added context is that this was the chem majors section. He truly knows chemistry and knows how to teach it. He took the first 2 weeks of class to go voer some fundamentals (pka being a big big one) that he was able to reference later throughout the semester as we learnt new content. Early on in the semester he was very generous with telling us what would be on the quizzes/exam, and generally he is pretty vocal about what you need to focus on studyign which I appreciate. he is, however, totally allergic to givng people time to take his tests/quizzes LOL. He puts a lot of content on them, to the point where you could know how to do evertthing on it and still not have time to finish. Exam 1 in this class was literally so traumatizingly long. Exam 2 was better and 3 was. well. It's over. Allegedly (and he confirmed this, but I haven't taken it yet) he reuses questions from past exams/quizzes on his final so I do apprecoate that a lot. Be prepared for a little insanity form this man, because he made us come in half an hour early to take his exams. I really like him as a person bc I find him funny and think he's good at dispelling the tension of being in an organic chemistry 2 classroom, but I know not some find him more annoying. The way he will explains certain concepts is, to me, both funny and simple enoguh to make it click.