Professor
Heather Maynard
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Most Helpful Review
She taught directly out of the book and didn't explain things in even remotely scientific terms. She actually didn't explain anything. The whole class was a bunch of "This attacks here, and then this attacks here, and then this attacks here, and then this falls off. Any questions?" And of course there weren't any because it's pretty straight-forward when you don't have to actually understand it. So if you like memorization, great, you're love her. If you like hearing about electronegativity and pKa and all those other reasons WHY reactions happen, then take Merlic instead. Yes, her exams are a lot easier, but because of that there's pretty much no partial credit and the curves are really high. Also she curves based on a C+, though I'm not sure that's uncommon. So just make sure you're two standard deviations better than your peers before you take her class. She has a lot of energy, which was really amusing, but overall I got very little from the class.
She taught directly out of the book and didn't explain things in even remotely scientific terms. She actually didn't explain anything. The whole class was a bunch of "This attacks here, and then this attacks here, and then this attacks here, and then this falls off. Any questions?" And of course there weren't any because it's pretty straight-forward when you don't have to actually understand it. So if you like memorization, great, you're love her. If you like hearing about electronegativity and pKa and all those other reasons WHY reactions happen, then take Merlic instead. Yes, her exams are a lot easier, but because of that there's pretty much no partial credit and the curves are really high. Also she curves based on a C+, though I'm not sure that's uncommon. So just make sure you're two standard deviations better than your peers before you take her class. She has a lot of energy, which was really amusing, but overall I got very little from the class.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2025 - I was worried about taking this class after seeing the previous BruinWalk reviews, and it seems like a lot of other people were too since the class was less than half enrolled by week 2. However, I think Maynard is a very fair professor who gave us the resources we needed to do well in the class. Our grade was based on 3 in-class unit exams (worth 33.3% of our grade each) that were technically cumulative but only really focused on the past few weeks of content. Pros: -She does not provide practice exams, but the homework problems are extremely similar to those on the test so knowing how to do those will prepare you really well for her exams. -If you ask her, she will straight up tell you what she expects from you on the exams. (The average % on the exams went: 71, 87, 63) -She offered partial credit on the unit exams as long as you showed your work. -She and the TAs offered plenty of office hours, and she hosts additional office hours right before the unit exams. -Maynard is very kind during office hours and is happy to re-explain concepts or re-draw entire mechanisms. -Homework and discussion are optional but really help for understanding the content. I liked that they were optional because I enjoyed having more free time. Cons: -There is no extra credit, curve, or grade buffering, your grade is based solely on the in-class exams. -Homework is given on the platform Aktiv which I had to pay $30 for since I opted out of Inclusive Access. -There is no hand-holding in this class, and it is really easy to fall behind if you miss lecture (which is not recorded). -This class moves really fast (especially in the last three weeks) and covers a lot of content that builds on itself, so you do need to set aside a lot of time to practice mechanisms and do practice problems. Overall, the grading scheme is unforgiving and the content can be difficult but Maynard doesn’t make the class harder than it has to be. She uploads her annotated lecture slides and is happy to answer any questions you might have during office hours. She asked us for feedback about her lecturing style and listened by giving us more time to do practice problems in class. She is also clearly passionate about what she teaches, and I never felt like she was just reading off of the slides. Don’t judge the class based solely on the previous reviews since it seems like she took a lot of feedback into account.
Winter 2025 - I was worried about taking this class after seeing the previous BruinWalk reviews, and it seems like a lot of other people were too since the class was less than half enrolled by week 2. However, I think Maynard is a very fair professor who gave us the resources we needed to do well in the class. Our grade was based on 3 in-class unit exams (worth 33.3% of our grade each) that were technically cumulative but only really focused on the past few weeks of content. Pros: -She does not provide practice exams, but the homework problems are extremely similar to those on the test so knowing how to do those will prepare you really well for her exams. -If you ask her, she will straight up tell you what she expects from you on the exams. (The average % on the exams went: 71, 87, 63) -She offered partial credit on the unit exams as long as you showed your work. -She and the TAs offered plenty of office hours, and she hosts additional office hours right before the unit exams. -Maynard is very kind during office hours and is happy to re-explain concepts or re-draw entire mechanisms. -Homework and discussion are optional but really help for understanding the content. I liked that they were optional because I enjoyed having more free time. Cons: -There is no extra credit, curve, or grade buffering, your grade is based solely on the in-class exams. -Homework is given on the platform Aktiv which I had to pay $30 for since I opted out of Inclusive Access. -There is no hand-holding in this class, and it is really easy to fall behind if you miss lecture (which is not recorded). -This class moves really fast (especially in the last three weeks) and covers a lot of content that builds on itself, so you do need to set aside a lot of time to practice mechanisms and do practice problems. Overall, the grading scheme is unforgiving and the content can be difficult but Maynard doesn’t make the class harder than it has to be. She uploads her annotated lecture slides and is happy to answer any questions you might have during office hours. She asked us for feedback about her lecturing style and listened by giving us more time to do practice problems in class. She is also clearly passionate about what she teaches, and I never felt like she was just reading off of the slides. Don’t judge the class based solely on the previous reviews since it seems like she took a lot of feedback into account.
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