Jane Zeile

I took Chem 115 with Dr. Zeile in Fall 2001. I was planning on taking Chem 215 this Spring, so I checked the schedule and found that it was Zeile who will be teaching. My immediate decision - no way I'm taking any class with her again, although I desperately need to take 215 ASAP. I also felt compelled to write a review about my 115 experience to warn others.

When I enrolled in 115, I was just repeating first year chemistry that I had taken 10 years ago. I remembered a lot of high school chemistry and even some of college chemistry covered in 115. Needless to say, I was very comfortable understanding the material, thanks to the excellent text that was used (McMurry and Fay). But it was utterly shocking to see the way the material was presented in the class, evoking no interest in students at all. Zeile is one of those teachers who actually makes everything harder to understand than if you were on your own. I doubt if she herself has clear understanding of Chemistry or if she's one of those who memorize their way through life. I can't believe she actually asked students to memorize the first 20-30 elements in the periodic table during the 2nd week of the lecture. I happen to be able to recall the elements from my previous chemistry experience, but have never actually sat down and memorized them. By the end of any chemistry course, you will end up remembering their names anyway because you work with them very frequently. Professors should not instruct students to waste their time in such mind-numbing, useless exercises.

Her exams deserve a whole paragraph. It's not that they were tough, but convoluted, tricky and "out to get you". She doesn't seem to test the students on the most important topics or topics that are likely to show a student's understanding of the subject. Rather, she seems to focus entirely on making the questions "clever". Seems like she picks the topics at random and puts a lot of thought into how to outwit students with the questions. Every few lectures, she would cover some material that is not in the text or clearly outlined in the syllabus and most often a somewhat non-relevant detour from the topic being studied. You can bet on it that there would be a big question on the next exam from such material, just to punish students who don't attend her boring lectures. I don't know a single good professor who has this kind of negative attitude towards students.

The lab was poorly synchronized with the lectures, so you'd end up doing experiments related to concepts that you are weeks away from covering in the lecture. The most annoying thing about this was that Zeile would frequently blame lab instructors for not doing a good job of explaining the theory required for the experiments, although the entire blame should rest on her as she was also the 115 lab coordinator, for that semester at least. It was her job to plan out the syllabus and the order of the experiments. Lab instructors do not have the time to explain the theory in the 10-15 minutes that they have before the students have to start with the experiments.

Overall, Zeile is definitely the worst science professor I've had at SFSU so far.

People gradually start to not even show up to her class as the semester goes on- this is because her teaching is ineffective and she's just plain BORING. She'll make you dread coming to Chem....

Her tests are of the worst kind- TRICKY and she seems biased in her grading(but that's just my opinion). For example...don't be fooled by the easy 1st exam....once you get your grade back and get around to exam numero dos, you'll be asking yourself wtf went on...

She gives some practice problems in class...sometimes taking a few mins to let students work on it and walking around the whole classroom peeking at what people are writing(verrry nerve wracking if you haven't been paying attention).

When taking her exams- TAKE ALL THE TIME YOU NEED!!! Double check EVERYTHING... like I said, some of the questions are tricky.

As a lecturer, I think she purposefully tries to take up time switching to a different chalkboard whenever she doesn't know what to say so at least it'll appear that she's doing something... time goes tooo slow in her class.

It doesn't help that the book she used to teach chem sucked...

But I will say one good thing about her- she has a clear speaking voice and it's loud enough to be heard in the back of the room. Her writing on the chalkboard is good.

Overall- the homework she assigns is frustrating, quizzes are short but the points could really kill your grade, pay carefull attention to the WORDING of her exams, and if you have the chance to take another teacher...by all means take it!

Pointer if you're in her class- get help EARLY as soon as you feel you've fallen behind. Or join a study group. All the information you learn builds on the past info she'll assume you know.

I was pretty surprised when i stepped into this class the first day and noticed that dr zeile was there instead of trautman. of course i didn't know what kind of challenge i was up for..i was totally oblivious...her lectures are on the surface and she's extremely impatient when it comes to helping you understand concepts in class. throughout this course, i picked up on concepts mainly from the textbook, the lab instructor as well as fellow students. she was no help to me. her exams started off fair but ended with unfortunate surprises. certain questions that she places on the exams haven't even been explained in the lectures. overall, she's more of a grad student professor..not a undergrad prof...so i'd advise you to take another professor.

Dr. Zeile is a fairly good lecturer. I will concur with the other students that her exams are difficult and she expects you to know the material inside and out even if she only covered it briefly in class. Her office hours were inconvenient and I was never able to make them with my class schedule. She was flexible though on letting people take exams a day early if you had to leave town or something like that. I did notice that alot of people in lecture were confused much of the time (including myself). With the help of my lab instructor and fellow students I was usually able to understand the concepts. She does not encourage you to learn equation solving, instead you should focus on understanding the concepts. With this in mind though, there will be a few questions on the tests where you might have to balance equations or redox reactions. With redox in particular, I found her explanation confusion and never fully got it when she taught it. Instead a friend tutored me, explaining it very differently and it finally clicked. Another thing is that she has forgotten what it's like to be a first-time chemistry student. She skims over things in the beginning that seem easy to her, but that many of us did not think were that easy to grasp. Overall, she's a pretty good teacher, but the level of this class is very high so be prepared to come to all the lectures, take good notes, form a study group and perhaps find a tutor if you want to get an A.

the one thing i can say about this professor is that she is an awesome lecturer. she makes the point she's trying to come across very clear. she also makes everything that you should know very clear in her syllabus so that if you stop attending lecture you will not be lost. the bad thing is that her exams take the simple concepts you learn to totally different levels. the homework problems she assigns are difficult if you don't have a study group to discuss them with. her quizzes are difficult as well and they can cover anything you've learned within the time period from the las quiz. you never know what you should really be studying for so you stay up long hours studying for everything. take for instance the fact that she stressed the importance of redox reactions and the half reaction method. she only went over net ionic equations like once and on the exam all you saw were net reaction problems. for most people who studied what she went over the most it was quite a scary experience. for the most part her exams dealt with the stuff she covered the least in lecture. if you take her study the stuff she only mentioned slightly the most. the lab experiments were not terrible, but answering the questions was. we had lab before lecture so we would have to sit there reading the book for hours trying to answer questions. the next day she would lecture about it in class and we'd be like oh that's how you do it. chemistry itself is not difficult, but when the concepts are taking to a completely higher level of understanding they can turn extremely ugly. expect not to have to do many problems where you show the work. i guess the most important thing you should know is that her exams consist of 25 mulitple choice questions and a second part that has two questions. the second part is crucial. let me tell you that she will take a concept and expect you to explain it in complete detail like a scientist. for the first exam she asked a question about a wave and we had to draw a diagram and explain it. the second exam dealt with ionization energy and you had to explain why they were highest for three different ones. then the third eaxam dealt with solubility rules. she gave you 5 different ions and wanted you to use them to create an insoluble product, a soluble product, and a salt. for this you had to have remembered the solubility rules form like the first week of school, all the ions, and how to write reactions. if that wasn't bad enough you had to explain why each one of them formed what they did and what could be added to change it from soluble to insoluble etc. the second part of the exam is worth 50 points so if you totally mess up on it there goes your grade. zeile is not a bad person, but her exams are very difficult. the fact that she counts hw and quizzes make you stress all the more. if i could go back i would have taken michaely, but i didn't want to go to school everyday. if you're understanding of chemistry is perfect then take her, but if it isn't steer clear.

Chemistry itself is absolutely fine. The homework for this course has been fine...lectures have been fine *as long as you don't miss tiny gems .008/sec long which will eventually appear on the exam as major questions*...but the exams have been excrutiatingly painful. They are NOTHING like the course itself. It's quite an unsettling dichotomy. I'm sure the final exam will beat us all to a bloody pulp. Oh joy. Bottom Line: Take Zeile ONLY if you're prepared to go through the wringer with her exams.

Poorly set up class. Teaches like everyone is like doctors. Means well, but should not teach undergrads. I would say her style should be for graduates. Exams are nearly impossible. She is pleased with an average of 60 points... Out of 150. Must say something.

Wow... where to start. This class was a nightmare. While Zeile is a good lecturer and presents things in a clear and easy to understand manner, her organization of the class and the difficulty of the tests are horrible. She assigns homework and expects you to turn it in before she covers the material in class. We repeatedly did lab exercises on material that we hadn't covered in class. It leaves you groping in the dark trying to teach yourself the extremely difficult material so you can do the homework/labs etc... That technique may work in a history class, but not chemistry. If I could teach it to myself, I wouldn't have enrolled in the class. And the exams!!! Like I said, her lectures are clear and she explains the basics well. But her tests are far from basic! She teaches at a basic level and gives graduate level exams. They are ridiculously hard. The highest grade on the final was a 70%!!!!!! Hello, the highest grade in the whole class on the final was a C-. Something is wrong here.

Let me start off by saying I took this class at another (equivalent to SFSU) University - I received the TOP grade in my class. The reason I am taking it again is because it was in 1993. Needless to say I am not acustomed to failure (or not being successful).

This class is VERY poorly organized with Zeile pointing her finger at the Lab Instructors and vice versa in regards to where information should be obtained. My stomach would be in KNOTS before lab because I could never figure out what the hell the goal was. Many of the concepts presented in lab are not easy to understand (and once again, this was my second time around - my advisor told me it would be a good refresher and an easy A, what a JOKE).

Dr. Zeile had us doing so much work in relation to the lab and lecture, it was as if this class was 10 hours. Also, although the lab required equal or more time than lecture and technically counts as 2 of the 5 units, the lab portion was only worth 25%.

Don't be fooled by her kindergarten lecture style - her exams are killer and she never gave us the specs (T/F, fill-in, essay) of the exams, with the exception of the final. Many of her questions are vague (which was why I got a B instead of an A) so make sure you write down everything you know that she is asking even though you won't have enough time. I went to her in regards to this (asking for more time or more clear, concise questioning) but she of course did not agree with me. Once she feels a certain way on something, she is not budging. By the way on 9/11 (you know with the WTC) class was cancelled. However, we had just taken a quiz that I don't think anyone was mentally prepared for in light of the events and Hunter (from the Chem stockroom) came in and said that all classes had been cancelled. If you think she dropped that quiz, you'd better think again.

She was however accomodating to my schedule in relation to office hours but with regards to conflicting information and lack of preparation she made it known that she was doing everything she could (I did not agree).

All in all, I would recommend taking another instructor. The only reason I got a B was because this knowledge was gained the first time I took this class.

Jane lectures are set up where she briefly presents what you need to know, but it's up to you to basically learn it on your own. This new section, Chem 115, was the worst class experience I've had since I've been attending school. The lab expects one to know material that has not been covered yet in lecture. Her test are not only difficult, but I feel they specifically cover quite a lot that was not even discussed in class. Many people in lab, and in lecture are very frustrated, and many good students, like I, are struggling to maintain a C. Hopefully the lab can bring your grade up. All the material is doable, but the way it is presented and the way the tests are set up makes one a "mad scientist" trying to go for the blue rose of the impossible(grade wise) I notice that all the good reviews for Jane are those who get very good grades. I might recieve a B in the class if I barracade myself in my room and teach myself the material. Avoid this one if your transcript means anything to you...

Dr. Zeile is a tough but helpful professor. In class she is passionate about chemistry and she clearly intends to teach a challenging course. Sometimes in her intent to be challenging she can make the beginning student feel a little over-challenged: she sometimes talks to the class like she's sort of surprised everyone doesn't understand this stuff. Her exams are also pretty difficult and as a result I was utterly shocked to receive a good grade--the result of a steep curve. (She also dropped the scores of people who performed spectacularly out of the curve, which helped.) But in office hours she is quite warm and helpful, and students who work hard are rewarded with her respect. After seeing her in office hours I realized that her almost confrontational lecture style was both a conscious strategy to keep students on their feet, and perhaps the unconscious result of a strong passion for chemistry. Her in-class demos were quite good--I didn't appreciate how good until I took some other chemistry classes.

I found in talking to other students that many people were intimidated by Dr. Zeile, so I recommend that if you are going to take her class make sure to go to office hours and get to know her outside of class a little bit. Also, although she assigns a fair amount of homework, I succeeded better when I did more than the homework she assigned; remember, she's tough.

Dr. Zeile is a committed teacher, very available outside class, very supportive. She doesn't stay to her schedule very well, and she doesn't lay out material methodically. I had a good experience in her class though. Her anecdotes were helpful in making the material more interesting.