Peter Palmer

Don't be fooled - despite the fact that this class was so instrumental in my development as a chemist and the fact that this class is getting an awesome review, THIS CLASS IS A LOT OF WORK! There are 10 journal-style lab reports (6 abridged versions containing an abstract and a results/discussion section; 4 full reports with the abstract, intro, methods, results/discussion) along with 3 (possibly 4? I forget) extremely thorough exams and a final.

The upside to the massive workload is that he guides you through the entire class, balancing out the two so you're not sitting there completely stuck. His lab manual is detailed and the first few experiments have specific questions that you should include in your lab reports. Eventually, the directions/guidelines disappear as you progress through the semester. It feels like riding your bike with training wheels on; eventually they have to come off!

Do not give up if you get less than stellar grades on the first four lab reports! These are the beginner abridged reports and sometimes it takes awhile before you get into the swing of things. My advice is to try an thumb through some of the anal. chem. or JOC journals located in TH808. Even if you don't know what they're talking about, it might help to see how things are worded/layout. When in Rome..

Also, another upside to the extremely detailed exams that he gives is the fact that uhm, HELLO HE DROPS OBVIOUS HINTS DURING LECTURE AS TO WHAT ARE SOME OF THE TOPICS THAT WILL DEFINITELY BE ON THE UPCOMING TEST!!! He also assigns homework problems that are well worth doing, as they will serve you well come exam time. He ALSO gives out a study sheet to remind you the potential topics that will covered in the exam. Between his lecture, the book (which should reinforce the topics covered in lecture - do not read more than you have to), the homework problems, and the study guide, there should be no qualms or issues as to what is going to be on the exam. And the one piece of advice that Paul Young gave me was to try and organize the material when studying in TABLES. There is so so so much information that proper organization is key, and creating charts and tables for some of the topics not only helped me study, it saved me time when I took the test. Try to keep up, as the final covers EVERYTHING.

This class is also curved, but Dr. P has set the highest grade on the curve to a B if it's too low. There have been high exam scores of 99, and some smart cookie in my class got a 180/200 on the final (not me), so it is possible. And he really cares about his students, and feels personably responsible if his students don't do so well. If you're planning on getting the B.S. in chemistry, take this class seriously. The two labs following instrumental (p-chem and inorganic) are still being developed and aren't quite as spelled out compared to this class; there are no "training wheels," so to speak.

Did I mention he does a mean Yoda impression?