Jane G. DeWitt

Dr. DeWitt should be cloned a million more times, because she is one of the best, and will be the only few best professors I'll ever have at SF State. Her lectures are very clear, detailed, and oriented. She lectures slowly without "skipping steps," and makes sure all 100 of her students understand the material before moving on to other topics. All professors should follow her method of instructing.

If she taught Chem 215, I would have taken the course with her regardless of whether it related to my major or not, because she has now inspired me to further explore the subject of Chemistry. I'm suprised of how well I performed in this class because I did miserably in HS Chemistry(receiving a D-). Dr. DeWitt cleared up all my snafus in the subject. Having to say all of this , I deffinitely reccommend her as a professor.

Dr. Dewitt gave me new hope for understanding chemistry. I returned to school deciding to do something in the health field after not seeing any kind of science in over 6 years. I was nervous, apprehensive, and absolutley not looking forward to chemistry. Seeing her lecture and realizing I can understand these things made all the difference. She is a truly excellent lecturer and teacher. Everything, I mean everything is clear, concise, and to the point. If I could have taken her for Chem 215 I would have been so happy. Too bad she doesn't teach it. Maybe she could in the future :-). Thank you Dr. DeWitt for making chemistry interesting and painless!

Mrs. DeWitt is a great teacher who is easy to acess if you talk to her. She was realyl helpful with me and she gave me help when I asked for it. Her lectures were very good, and she appeared to have a firm grasp on the material. I would definitly reccomend her for Chem 115! IF you have any questions, ask her, she is very helpful, but only if you ask becasue she cannot read minds.

She's definatly one of the best professors you can take for chem 115. She explains the topic well and her tests are not that hard. Especially when you do all the online homework. If she would have taught chem 215 I would definatly take her.

She's clear on lectures and excellent with the students when it comes to learning chemistry. You're #1, Dewitt. Keep up the good job.

I took this class after barely making the grade on the entrance exam and without a clue as to the difference between an electron and an atom. forget orbitals. never heard of them. dr. de witt's lectures and homework combined to both educate and inspire me - chemistry is intriguing, literally awesome, beautiful and, if you work hard and have a teacher as creative and thorough as dr. dewitt, accessible to anyone! we are lucky to have dr. dewitt here at sfsu - by all means take advantage of her expertise and teaching talent if you can!

Dr. DeWitt demonstrates the rare quality of speaking accurately while still being creative and engaging. This is a tough course because of the varied student backgrounds and the trend to go more qualitative versus analytical. So the emphasis is on developing an instinct for gen chem - Training someone to develop an instinct is very difficult, but she (and one of the physics lecturers) has that ability.

But you won't get the grade by being passive, expecting to be spoon fed - you have to work and practice.

One neg. comment: there sometimes was a difficulty gap between what was covered in lecture and what was in homework problems. But lecture is to introduce material, not to be a study help session.

I count myself lucky to have taken Chem. 115 with Dewitt. She makes Chemistry easy to understand and she is just a wonderful person...She is a little shy initially when you talk with her one on one but after awhile her personality comes shining through I couldnt help but like her. She is also incredibly fair, easy to talk too, a really good teacher and just in general fun. I have never encountered any of the problems with her having a bad temper or hurrying anyone out of office hours. It is possible she had a bad day, but after having her for Chem 100 and Chem 115 I have never seen anything in her personality that would suggest she would EVER do anything such as that. Her tests are fair, and she offers so many opportunities for helpThe only thing that did suck about this class was that for some reason I ended up with this Newbie lab T.A. who showed up for lab late almost everyday, or not at all and didnt seem to know what was going on, or if he did was unable to explain it. Other than him, I really liked this class and hope that I have her for my other Chemistry classes.

Prof. DeWitt is a very good teacher. Her lectures completely cover test materials and her exams were always fair. Just make sure to do all the reading and practice problems, and you shouldn't have troubles in the course.

Prof. Dewitt was a good chem. instructor. Her notes are pretty organized, considering she handwrites all of them on the board. Her tests are pretty easy, but you really have to study for them. This class is the first chem class I've ever taken, and it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. She has a huge curve for the class (ie. 50% is still a C), so it doesn't take much effort to pass the class.

Dr. Dewitt is a great chemistry teacher. She is very straight forward in her teaching style. She makes a big effort to make sure everyone can understand the concepts, which occasionally results in a boring lecture if you happen to already understand the concept being discussed, but it is a small price to pay. Especially for someone like me who absolutly HATES chemistry, she is a good teacher because she actually cares about the students and gives pretty good lectures. Overall I highly recommend Dr. Dewitt for chemistry.

I highly recommend Dr. DeWitt for Chem 115. I never encountered anything like what some of the critical reviewers describe - I was never rushed out of her office, never saw her lose her temper, found her very approachable. Perhaps she has less patience with non-science majors, given her level of expertise. This is unfortunate, but if you are a Chemistry or Biology major, you will probably find her to have many strengths as a teacher.

What I really appreciated about her is that she answered email. I was working full time when I took her course, so that was incredibly helpful.

Her exams were extremely fair - if she discussed it in class, expect to be tested on it. Pretty straight forward. None of it was stuff that you wouldn't absolutely need as a science major anyway.

I did not receive a very good grade in her class, which was due to my own shortcomings -and a lab TA who was truly wretched. The nice thing about DeWitt is that she actually listened to our complaints about the TA.

I found Prof. Dewitt to be a very friendly, approachable, and knowledgeable instructor. Her tests are fair and she gives lots of opportunities for help by practice exams, tutorial and accessible office hours. Shes clear and doesnt mind questions on the material. I ended up getting a C in this course, but I have to say the fault was my own and not do to anything she did or didnt do. I recommend her highly, I learned a lot from her.

Dr. Dewitt is an excellent teacher. I came in this class thinking that it was going to be a pain in the ***. Dr. Dewitt makes it very easy to learn the material as long as you show up to class, read the book , and do the assigned homework problems. If chemistry isn't your favorite subject (it isn't mine, either), take Dr. Dewitt's class. She makes it very easy to grasp the material.

I have to say that Dr. DeWitt is the best general chemistry professor in SFSU's chemistry department. She did a wonderful job of helping me to learn general chemistry I. I have to say that general chemistry is not an easy course, so be aware. Doesn't matter how great the teacher is, you still have to put in a lot of time solving problems. I did well because I went to the lectures, solved "all" the homework problems, and I went to her office hour for questions.

Well, I suppose I am one of those students in her class that did good... if you read the book, pay attention in class (i've sat in zelie's or however you spell that name's class and i preferred dewitt's lecutres), and even go to the help sessions you *should* do fine. Her lectures are straightforward and you can actually read her handwriting.

I've never been to her office hours, so I cannot talk about that, but going to her help sessions before an exam really help because you can ask anything (and she answers your questions in a PATIENT manner) and she'll even give out some hints here and there as to what might be on the test. And for those of you who did horrible, did you have homework that was suggested, but not assigned? And did you even DO the "homework?" I'm finding it tough to see how she could've gotten an F of all things, but I suppose I'd be a bit pissed (and inclined to give her the worst grade possible) if I got snubbed during her office hours, too.

Her exams are pretty straightforward.. no trick questions that I could remember. You're going to have to know your stuff, cause you're definitely going to need the whole period (plus a few extra minutes) to do her exams.

And if you have an extra 40 bucks to spend on the study guide, I *highly* recommend it. Did those problems as well, and my exams went from a C+ to an A.

do the recommended homework problems + study guide if you want a good grade in the class.

Miss Dewitt has got to be the worst teacher I've had. Her lectures were good, but she as a regular human being wasn't. Don't even bother going to her office hours, as she gets upset if you don't understand the material. HELLLLO, WHY WOULD I GO IF I UNDERSTOOD IT?-she's not patient 1-1, so go somewhere else 4 help! She was ok in the lecture-that is about all that she was ok in!

Dr. DeWitt is a great instructor. She really knows the material. Her lectures are organized and clear. She makes it easy to take notes in class by writing important concepts on the board and demonstrating through practice problems and occasional experiments. Her exams cover exactly what she teaches in class. If you go to her office hours, she's willing to help you with the problems in the book as long as she sees that you have made an attempt to work them out yourself. The only bad thing is that her office hours are usually very busy and you have to wait in line to see her. I often waited so long that I gave up and asked my lab instructor for help instead. Overall, Dr. Dewitt is an excellent teacher and one of the best at SF State.

Jane DeWitt is one of the reasons i like chemistry. her lectures are interesting, informative, and she writes everything you need to know as an "outline" (or list) on the board. i felt she tried to prepare everyone for her exams, which i thought were fair, but challenging. i had her for chem 111 also. i did pretty well in both classes, i think because she was so straight forward - her exams, homework, expectations, etc. all come from her lectures. i believe if you go to class regularly (always), ask her questions whenever you're stuck (she's really nice and helpful), and study your notes and turn-in homework, for the exams etc., you can get an A and learn to love chemistry at the same time.

Dewitt knows her stuff, but is not too good at teaching it. During class she talks to the wall that she's writing on. She writes nonstop and gives you no chance to learn. DO NOT GO TO HER OFFICE HOURS, she gets mad fast if you don't understand her explanation. Now I am having a hard time in my upper divsion classes because of my weak background in gen. chem 1.

dewitt's makes an OK chem teacher but during her office hours she shows favortism to students that are doing well. So DO NOT go to her office hours unless your getting a B or better! On the plus side her finals are known to be simpler then her mid-terms!

Prof. Dewitt is a very organized and clear lecturer making the material easy to understand. She holds two review sessions the week of each exam which I found to be extremely helpful. If you take her class, definately take advantage of these review/problem solving sessions. She takes the time to work out problems/questions step by step... and over and over if necessary. Her exams were very fair--if you understand the material you can do well... and (unlike many other science classes) there was always enough time to finish the exam.

Dr. DeWitt's class is boring. Her exams are stupid. I wasted too much time in her class and still didn't learn anything from her. I have to rely solely on the textbook.She is irresponsible. She calculated my grades wrong. I have never seen such an irresponsible professor before.

Prof Dewitt is a great teacher. She makes class interesting and Chemistry fun to learn. We had six exams and they are half multiple choice and half work problems. Dewitt is willing to spend time with you individually to make sure that you understand the materials. By doing this she leave a lot of office hours for you to ask her questions. Everytime before a exam she also will hold two review sections to make sure that you understand what she is going to test you on. She is also helpful even when you ask her other chemistry questions that is not from her lecture. One problem that I have is that I think that she calculated my final grades wrong, not how she had said that she will.

Prof. DeWitt is an organized interesting lecturer. She assigns a lot of work, but after completing her class I feel confident in my ability to continue to the next level. She puts in the most effort of any professor I have encountered at State. She not only had =6 hours of in office tutoring available, she gives 2 study groups for two hours each before every one of the 6 exams in her class. She also arranged a resitation period for additional help.The test cover the material she lectures on and are challenging but fair. She finds material that is iteresting and has practical application in the everyday world.(which is uncommon in chemistry) If you take Jane DeWitts class and avail yourself to all the extra help and still cant pass. change your major.