Chemistry and Biochemistry

Took this course with high hopes as everyone I spoke to claimed that the Orgo professors were all great and the subject matter itself was easier than Gen Chem. Definitely not the case, unfortunately. Bunt is a nice guy, but he is a classic chem department example of genuinely being too smart and too good at the advanced theoretical concepts of Orgo to accurately and helpfully teach the basics. He talks FAST and it feels like a lot of the time he's only talking to himself in lecture and we are just watching his thought process with very little background information. He gives weekly quizzes which became take home, and there are a ton of exams (one per month ish) that are difficult (we all took about 4-5 hours on them on average) but at least they are also take home. Readings are HEAVY and if you don't do them, lecture makes even less sense, so it is so easy to get bogged down and lost if you have one bad week. On a more positive note, Rafa, our lab professor, is maybe my favorite person in the universe. He was brand new and I was a bit nervous about that at first, but he is so easy going and fun and makes lab low pressure and low stakes, but you still learn so much. Lab reports and pre-labs are easily graded and fairly short, and when he gave lectures, I felt like it was the only time I was actually learning this semester. Highly recommend Rafa, Bunt is fine, just will require you to make Orgo your entire life for a semester.

Took this course with high hopes as everyone I spoke to claimed that the Orgo professors were all great and the subject matter itself was easier than Gen Chem. Definitely not the case, unfortunately. Bunt is a nice guy, but he is a classic chem department example of genuinely being too smart and too good at the advanced theoretical c …Read more

Despite Shrestha not being a great lecturer, nor very helpful outside of class, the course is not overly difficult. Doing the needed work outside of class like readings and problem sets are important since the lectures are unhelpful. If you're taking this class because of an interest in studying chemistry I warn against taking it with Shrestha. Her enthusiasm for the subject is low which reflects in her teaching style and influences the mood of the classroom.

Despite Shrestha not being a great lecturer, nor very helpful outside of class, the course is not overly difficult. Doing the needed work outside of class like readings and problem sets are important since the lectures are unhelpful. If you're taking this class because of an interest in studying chemistry I warn against taking it wit …Read more

I thought this course was fine. Bombed my placement exam so this was basically just a review of what I did in high school, but if you paid attention in lecture and actually did the achieve I felt it was very doable. Achieve got a little bit tedious, but was good exam review, and TA hours were helpful.