CHEM 14BL
General and Organic Chemistry Laboratory I
Description: Lecture, one hour; laboratory, three hours. Enforced requisite: course 14A or 20A or 20AH with grade of C- or better. Enforced corequisite: course 14B. Not open to students with credit for course 20L. Introduction to volumetric, spectrophotometric, and potentiometric analysis. Use and preparation of buffers and pH meters. Synthesis and kinetics techniques using compounds of interest to students in life sciences. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 3.0
Units: 3.0
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2021 - For this quarter, the workload consisted of: Weekly lab section activities: 90 points (21% of grade). She drops the lowest lab activity. This activity is done with your assigned group during lab. The lab activities were often unnecessarily long amd tedious and graded very harshly. Surveys: 5 points (1%) Team reflections: 5 points (1%) Weekly lab reports: 150 points (34%). Most are done on your own, however some were group lab reports. You work on these lab reports on your own time outside of lab/class. She made the total points worth 170 but would only take 150 points, meaning you have a 20 point buffer to still be able to get 100% in this section. Some of the lab reports were alright but others were unecessarily long. They were also graded harshly. Writing assignment: 25 points (6%). This assignment is grades by your peers amd the grade consists of your rating as a reviewer, the grades given by your peers, and if you "mastered" the oractuce review portions. Midterm: 60 points (14%). She gave 2 hours to do the midterm anytime between 8am-8pm. There was an individual portion worth 50 points. This is taken during the 8am-8pm slot. Then a group portion of the same midterm was to be done and was worth 10 points. The group portion was not timed. Final exam: 100 points (23%). The final could be taken anytime from 8 am-10pm and once startes you have a 3 hour time limit to complete it. It was much harder and lengthier than the midterm. The content itself isn't hard but she makes the material harsher than it should be for a 3 unit class. She gave an 8 point extra credit that was only to be applied to the lab activities section. The grading for this class is harsh, and it's almost as if they look for places to take points off rather than to reward effort. Honestly this class was not worth the time commitment and anxiety, especially during the pandemic. However, Casey is nice and very helpful in OH and engaging in the practice problem sessions.
Winter 2021 - For this quarter, the workload consisted of: Weekly lab section activities: 90 points (21% of grade). She drops the lowest lab activity. This activity is done with your assigned group during lab. The lab activities were often unnecessarily long amd tedious and graded very harshly. Surveys: 5 points (1%) Team reflections: 5 points (1%) Weekly lab reports: 150 points (34%). Most are done on your own, however some were group lab reports. You work on these lab reports on your own time outside of lab/class. She made the total points worth 170 but would only take 150 points, meaning you have a 20 point buffer to still be able to get 100% in this section. Some of the lab reports were alright but others were unecessarily long. They were also graded harshly. Writing assignment: 25 points (6%). This assignment is grades by your peers amd the grade consists of your rating as a reviewer, the grades given by your peers, and if you "mastered" the oractuce review portions. Midterm: 60 points (14%). She gave 2 hours to do the midterm anytime between 8am-8pm. There was an individual portion worth 50 points. This is taken during the 8am-8pm slot. Then a group portion of the same midterm was to be done and was worth 10 points. The group portion was not timed. Final exam: 100 points (23%). The final could be taken anytime from 8 am-10pm and once startes you have a 3 hour time limit to complete it. It was much harder and lengthier than the midterm. The content itself isn't hard but she makes the material harsher than it should be for a 3 unit class. She gave an 8 point extra credit that was only to be applied to the lab activities section. The grading for this class is harsh, and it's almost as if they look for places to take points off rather than to reward effort. Honestly this class was not worth the time commitment and anxiety, especially during the pandemic. However, Casey is nice and very helpful in OH and engaging in the practice problem sessions.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2020 - I took this online. Henary is very hard to understand. It's not just his accent; his explanations just aren't very clear. One of the worst things that stood out to me is when he was going over how to solve a problem on his slides, and he just verbally did the calculations. It was impossible to follow. I guess you can't blame him if he doesn't own a stylus/tablet, but surely with a little effort he could've figured something out. Another thing that irked me, and maybe this isn't a valid complaint, is that he would constantly ask "is this clear to you guys? Hello? Hello guys?" and wouldn't move on unless he got a few replies like"yes makes sense." I know he was trying to get input but it wasted time on already short lectures when we had to constantly tell him to move on. IMO the etiquette should be to listen if anyone says "no I don't understand," otherwise assume everyone understands. On a more positive note, Henary was very accommodating to the lockdown/protest situation. He apparently made the tests easier for us, which was very nice of him. Still wouldn't recommend this professor though. Now for TAs. I heard from people that they relied heavily on TAs to clarify material. My online TA was Kevin Chandler and he taught us nothing. We joined zoom for 10 minutes, he took roll, and then we left. Even before tests, when Henary told us the TAs would hold review sessions, Kevin didn't prepare anything. He just asked every week if we had any questions. But as TA he should really prepare SOMETHING for us. Also there were two times he was more than 15 minutes late to class. He was a lenient grader on labs for the most part. First day of class, I was like "this guy is so chill that's awesome," but by the end I realized too chill was a bad thing.
Spring 2020 - I took this online. Henary is very hard to understand. It's not just his accent; his explanations just aren't very clear. One of the worst things that stood out to me is when he was going over how to solve a problem on his slides, and he just verbally did the calculations. It was impossible to follow. I guess you can't blame him if he doesn't own a stylus/tablet, but surely with a little effort he could've figured something out. Another thing that irked me, and maybe this isn't a valid complaint, is that he would constantly ask "is this clear to you guys? Hello? Hello guys?" and wouldn't move on unless he got a few replies like"yes makes sense." I know he was trying to get input but it wasted time on already short lectures when we had to constantly tell him to move on. IMO the etiquette should be to listen if anyone says "no I don't understand," otherwise assume everyone understands. On a more positive note, Henary was very accommodating to the lockdown/protest situation. He apparently made the tests easier for us, which was very nice of him. Still wouldn't recommend this professor though. Now for TAs. I heard from people that they relied heavily on TAs to clarify material. My online TA was Kevin Chandler and he taught us nothing. We joined zoom for 10 minutes, he took roll, and then we left. Even before tests, when Henary told us the TAs would hold review sessions, Kevin didn't prepare anything. He just asked every week if we had any questions. But as TA he should really prepare SOMETHING for us. Also there were two times he was more than 15 minutes late to class. He was a lenient grader on labs for the most part. First day of class, I was like "this guy is so chill that's awesome," but by the end I realized too chill was a bad thing.
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Winter 2024 - This class was definitely an experience. I struggled with the labs (sig figs was a big thing), but still did fairly well on them, but by the time the final came I was borderline between a B and A, so I studied by using the practice questions from lecture and labs to study, and did surprisingly well on the final (it was open-ended and closed note, whereas the midterm was online and open note). If you took 14A and B you should do well as long as you understand how to do the questions presented in class. This class was overall good, just stressful at times since lecture isn't recorded and sometimes we had a lot of homework to do for the upcoming week.
Winter 2024 - This class was definitely an experience. I struggled with the labs (sig figs was a big thing), but still did fairly well on them, but by the time the final came I was borderline between a B and A, so I studied by using the practice questions from lecture and labs to study, and did surprisingly well on the final (it was open-ended and closed note, whereas the midterm was online and open note). If you took 14A and B you should do well as long as you understand how to do the questions presented in class. This class was overall good, just stressful at times since lecture isn't recorded and sometimes we had a lot of homework to do for the upcoming week.
Most Helpful Review
Summer 2019 - This is my first ever bruinwalk review but I felt like I had to write one because the reviews on here doesn’t do Pang justice. He’s a very effective professor and gives little hints to help you memorize stuff while also being funny. Also he prints out the slides for the lectures which makes it easier to follow and take notes since you don’t have to worry about missing important info since most of it is already there (rip the trees tho lol). Pang also gives you a study guide for the midterm and final with solutions like what an angel. The study guide is harder than actual exams so you’ll do well if you just study off of it. The labs are time consuming but the manual gives you step to step directions. Some of the reviews blamed Pang for the structure of the class but it’s a freaking lab of course it’s going to have a heavy workload and every 14bl professor is required to assign those labs. Overall Pang is a real homie and I wish he taught the regular chem classes because I would’ve gotten way better grades with him as the professor
Summer 2019 - This is my first ever bruinwalk review but I felt like I had to write one because the reviews on here doesn’t do Pang justice. He’s a very effective professor and gives little hints to help you memorize stuff while also being funny. Also he prints out the slides for the lectures which makes it easier to follow and take notes since you don’t have to worry about missing important info since most of it is already there (rip the trees tho lol). Pang also gives you a study guide for the midterm and final with solutions like what an angel. The study guide is harder than actual exams so you’ll do well if you just study off of it. The labs are time consuming but the manual gives you step to step directions. Some of the reviews blamed Pang for the structure of the class but it’s a freaking lab of course it’s going to have a heavy workload and every 14bl professor is required to assign those labs. Overall Pang is a real homie and I wish he taught the regular chem classes because I would’ve gotten way better grades with him as the professor
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