Devarajan Thirumalai

This professor has taught: CHEM482, CHEM699C

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Information	Review
Devarajan Thirumalai CHEM482 Anonymous 11/01/2022	This professor have to take Teaching 101 course before teaching this graduate level course. He has no idea how to approach a specific lesson rather boasting about his own success. How he was hired anyway?
Devarajan Thirumalai CHEM482 Expecting a C Anonymous 11/04/2014	Never before has a professor actually made me dread coming to class the way he does. He serially picks on students for answers assuming we have a working knowledge of quantum mechanics, but the whole point of taking the class is that we don't know, we're there to learn. He's very much a bully, and he is more focused on humiliating his students than he is on teaching them, a fact that I find extremely aggravating. He doesn't have any sort of respect for time limits (he has only finished class on time once this semester so far) and will not give any sort of direction or help for homeworks and exams. 482 is a hard enough class without having a professor that works against you.
Devarajan Thirumalai Expecting an A ocon 04/22/2013	taught a lot of cool, conceptual stuff. basically made gen chem into a physics course (which was not very helpful for lab). very straightforward assignments/expectations. arrogant in a funny way.
Devarajan Thirumalai CHEM135 Expecting a d Anonymous 01/25/2011	wow i hate him! made chem scary!
Devarajan Thirumalai CHEM135 Expecting a D Anonymous 06/01/2009	If you decide to his worthless lectures, be prepared to listen to him complain about the students or something irrelevant 40% of the time. He is a complete asshole to the students and doesn't care about whether or not you are learning. I know this because he never once gave us a more than relative description of what would be on the exam. He just said "I don't know, I haven't made the test yet!" or "You need to study what we learned in class, what else would you be studying?" followed by some smart ass comment. This guy isn't teaching this class next semester, and hopefully, he will never teach again. He does not take his job seriously whatsoever. Many time, students would ask questions, and he would respond "I'd write it on the board, but I'm too lazy". He spent no less than two weeks attempting to explain Shrodinger's Equation to the class. Why? That's what I want to know. This guy is waste of time and money.
Devarajan Thirumalai CHEM135 Expecting a C Anonymous 05/22/2009	He seriously sucks, but he does curve the class to a C if you are around the average. He also gives you unlimited homework attempts. Our exam averages were 49, 64, 62.5, and I am not sure about the final. It was very hard to study for any of the exams because you don't know if he is about to pull questions out of his ass that he assumes we know even though he hasn't covered it. He is a rude jackass if you ask him any questions. He spends much of his time explaining how he hates when people talk in class. CHEM135 is suppose to be annoying and hard intentionally but this guy SUCKS, don't take him or even speak to him.
Devarajan Thirumalai CHEM135 Expecting a C Anonymous 05/20/2009	What these two guys have said is right, I had him this past semester. If I'd ask him to explain a question his answer was always "Find out for yourself." His tests always include things that have not been taught or even mentioned in class, he does not write legibly, he is incredibly rude, does NOT care about his students, and CANNOT teach or convey material at all. Do not take him!!
Devarajan Thirumalai CHEM135 Anonymous 05/20/2009	horribly rude and quick tempered professor. does a terrible job teaching, grades harshly, and makes the exams far too hard (ie. the average on each exam ranged from 45 - 60%). avoid at all costs. if avoid him means getting that horrible math teacher, take the math teacher.
Devarajan Thirumalai CHEM135 Expecting an F Anonymous 05/19/2009	He spends way too much time with "descriptive" chemistry in the beginning and then he mumbled through the rest of the course, not making too clear what we were learning. He was also an arse when it came to students asking him questions which he expected them to not ask or something. Besides his personality, the biggest problem was that he taught stuff that didn't always correspond with the book or was not in the book at all. The online ARIS homework also did not have any problems available to practice his not-in-the-book topics. He also refused to mention which topics would be on any of the exams--no not spoonfeed us of course, but not even some general chapters or topic names. Basically, he teaches stuff not in the book and doesn't give practice for it.
Devarajan Thirumalai CHEM135 Expecting a C Anonymous 05/19/2009	He is a smart guy, but not that great of a teacher. He spent a better portion of the semester going over some basic quantum mechanics and expected us to understand, take apart, and put back together formulas using ideas that we were supposed to have learned in high school. While I did agree with him that we should be able to use things like the quadratic formula from a 10th or 11th grade math class, I do not agree with how he covers the material. Alot of the first exam was material that he would briefly go over in class, some of the equations he only spent a total of 2 minutes on. He doesn't understand that not everyone in the room is a genius and can process equations through their heads like he can. He told us on the last day that he cared more about us understanding the material and that we shouldn't be worried so much with the grades. That is particularly easy for him to say when he doesn't have tuition money riding on a GPA. This is my second time taking the course, the first time I got a C because I forgot my calculator on my last midterm and my batteries died on my final exam. I heard he is not teaching this class after this semester, which is good news for everyone else because he was probably the worst professor I've ever had. However, I got 80's on his last two exams after I got the hang of how he teaches the class. It focuses mainly on taking apart equations and putting them back together. Once you get those ideas down his tests aren't too difficult. You just have to look over your notes and pretty much ignore the amount of time he spends on certain material, because it isn't proportionate to its importance.
Devarajan Thirumalai CHEM135 Anonymous 05/18/2009	this professor does not treat any student in his classes with any respect whatsoever, if you ask him a question he is completely unwilling to help. as far as teaching the material he is horrible he rushes through everything and very seldom does any examples and as the other review said, alot of the material on the test was never even mentioned in class
Devarajan Thirumalai CHEM135 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/16/2009	All the information about him is already stated!! The good news is he is never teaching this class again! so no worries This class was a waste of time for me! I wished I had learned some chemistry here! When i take the lab with this course I'm sure I will be super lost :( words cannot describe the frustration that students had for this class!
Devarajan Thirumalai CHEM135 Anonymous 05/04/2009	I didn't take this course, but I tutored two kids in this class and am posting this review to warn you about this class. Try your best not to take it. He spends the first third of the semester on the first chapter then rushes through the remainder of the material. The tests are pretty challenging because he hasn't taught some of the material on the test in the first place. The average on the first test was in the 40's, the second in the 50's and the third was in the 60's. I am pretty sure he is the worst chem professor on campus. Avoid him if you can!!!!!!!
Devarajan Thirumalai CHEM135 Expecting a C Anonymous 03/12/2009	He is rude and a terrible teacher. I had trouble believing he has a PhD. I'm sure he knows Chemistry but the point is that he sucks at teaching it, particularly for this class. His explanatations are horrible, handwriting is illegible, and accent is often hard to undestand. The whole class failed the exams because he didn't teach us anything (exam avg. = 47%) and he refuses to accept that he sucks at teaching and instead tries to help out by giving extra points and whatnot but it's still not enough for an A-student to even get a B. I give 1 star because he gives unlimited attempts on the online homework problems, which is nice. But I still hate him.