Student One

Professor: Sergei Egorov

Textbook: Physical Chemistry: A Molecular Approach by Simon and McQuarrie

Semester Taken: Fall, 2023

Intersting: 10/10

Workload: 4/10

10/10 meaning a the most enthralling course ever and ludacris amount of work respectively

Positives

• very interesting/engaging material
• exams provided good opportunity to problem solve and extend understanding of the material due to lack of time constraints from traditional in-class exams
• builds knowledge of the subject in a systematic way rather than introducing equations without any proofs/explanation

Negatives

• textbook is not good and can (and should) probably be switched out for a newer one
• the first couple weeks are unnecessarily confusing due to lack of contextualization on the subject (felt like I was just seeing random Greek letters and being expected to understand what they mean without being told what they mean) —> this kind of goes away naturally as you get exposure to the material
• math may be too difficult given the scant pre-reqs (I disagree but I know it’s a common complaint)

Possible Improvements

• new textbook (as mentioned above)
• teaching some things that were not explored in class but showed up on exams (Dirac notation for example)
• giving context in the first few lectures because it’s a very unfamiliar subject for most students who take it

Summary

An overall very informative class that gets a bad reputation from students that may not have the time or will to put in the necessary effort.