Professor
Richard Kaner
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Most Helpful Review
Just another rave review here. Professor Kaner is awesome. He communicates the material very well, does demonstrations, takes all questions during lecture, and hosts multiple office hours. The class is out of 330 points with the following contributions: HW 30 points Midterm 100 points Final 200 points The midterm was straight forward but time is a major issue, the average in my class was 65. The final is substantially harder and was harder than the practice final, which surprised me. I assume a B in the class is around a 60 or 65. Last note: take his CHEM189 seminar, it's interesting and easy. He just talks about different materials for an hour a week. No homework, nobody even takes notes, you just listen. Easy 5 page paper due at the end of the quarter, but he lets you turn it in after finals so that it doesn't get in the way of studying.
Just another rave review here. Professor Kaner is awesome. He communicates the material very well, does demonstrations, takes all questions during lecture, and hosts multiple office hours. The class is out of 330 points with the following contributions: HW 30 points Midterm 100 points Final 200 points The midterm was straight forward but time is a major issue, the average in my class was 65. The final is substantially harder and was harder than the practice final, which surprised me. I assume a B in the class is around a 60 or 65. Last note: take his CHEM189 seminar, it's interesting and easy. He just talks about different materials for an hour a week. No homework, nobody even takes notes, you just listen. Easy 5 page paper due at the end of the quarter, but he lets you turn it in after finals so that it doesn't get in the way of studying.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2023 - Kaner was once again amazing by making the class so engaging and interesting upon solid state which discusses a lot about crystals/solids. Weirdly, I would say it's very slightly easier than 171 with simpler concepts (1/4 of the class was just lattice structures again) and only 7 PS w/ easy grading. However, there are a LOT more concepts and Kaner classic, the midterm was crazy long and hard considering the time constraint. I bombed it (below average) but the final was less tricky and I did much better which landed me an A-. I would say the class overall was interesting and ofc Kaner just makes it more engaging.
Spring 2023 - Kaner was once again amazing by making the class so engaging and interesting upon solid state which discusses a lot about crystals/solids. Weirdly, I would say it's very slightly easier than 171 with simpler concepts (1/4 of the class was just lattice structures again) and only 7 PS w/ easy grading. However, there are a LOT more concepts and Kaner classic, the midterm was crazy long and hard considering the time constraint. I bombed it (below average) but the final was less tricky and I did much better which landed me an A-. I would say the class overall was interesting and ofc Kaner just makes it more engaging.
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Fall 2025 - The entire grade for the class is based off of a single 5-page paper, due at EOD Monday after finals week. So long as he has it in his email before he wakes up on Tuesday, he says, you're good. And so long as you don't plagiarize the whole thing, you get an A. It can be about any topic you like, so long as you can relate it to inorganic chemistry. He is a fantastically engaging lecturer, with lots of props that he passes around. You can tell he's having a good time up there. If you are in 171, there is basically no reason to not take this too.
Fall 2025 - The entire grade for the class is based off of a single 5-page paper, due at EOD Monday after finals week. So long as he has it in his email before he wakes up on Tuesday, he says, you're good. And so long as you don't plagiarize the whole thing, you get an A. It can be about any topic you like, so long as you can relate it to inorganic chemistry. He is a fantastically engaging lecturer, with lots of props that he passes around. You can tell he's having a good time up there. If you are in 171, there is basically no reason to not take this too.
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