Professor
Daniel Nasrallah
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2022 - Syllabus Breakdown: Lecture Quizzes - 10% Prelab Assignments - 15% Participation/Attendance - 10% Postlab Assignments - 25% Final In-Class Presentation - 15% Final Exam - 25% Lectures: You have to watch the in-person lecture and an old "experimental" lecture, which is basically a recycled video from when school was entirely virtual, in order to get all of the content required to understand the lab/ fill out the pre-lab and post-lab. The problem with this is that half of the content overlaps, but he doesn't edit his slides or material. He could easily fit everything into one lecture and save everyone's time, but he chooses not to do that. Anyway, if he continues with this, I would watch the experimental lecture first before attending lecture. Participation/Attendance: Attendance was mandatory for our 8am Monday lecture, but you could attend via Zoom. He sometimes did not even take attendance, so you get free points regardless if you are there. He does not tell you that he is doing this until you're 5 minutes into lecture, so it is a bit of a gamble. Lecture Quizzes: Every lecture has a post-lecture quiz that is posted on Gradescope. They are due about 24 hours after lecture I think. It is usually 3-4 questions, and they are pretty easy as long as you pay attention in class or have your notes to refer to. Pre-labs: Pre-labs were okay. If you watch lecture and take notes on the mechanisms for the week, you are good to go for the most part. Post-labs: Arguably the worst part of this class. The assignment itself is pretty standard, but they are graded pretty harshly. The questions have vague wording, but you can get a ridiculous amount of points taken off if they do not fit his standards. Many assignments rely on an NMR processing software called Mnova. He uploaded a video on how to install the program on your computer, but never actually shows you how to process real, imperfect lab data on it. Dan, if you're reading this, it would be helpful to have a more comprehensive video tutorial for people to reference. We turned our assignments in via Gradescope, but Dan hides the rubric, so you are not able to see what you did wrong unless you go to office hours or email your TA. Final In-Class Presentation: He puts you into a group with 1-2 other students in your lab section, and assigns you to one of the labs we covered during the quarter. You have to make a 10-minute presentation on the experiment (background, procedure, conclusion, etc.). Final Exam: All of his previous finals and their keys are posted a few weeks in advance for students to start studying early. Really take notes and study the most recent finals he has given because your final will most likely be the most similar to those. Tips: If you are willing and able to, I would suggest going to office hours to get your questions answered if you miss points on assignments. There is a lack of transparency in grading for most, if not all, of the assignments. This absolutely sucks, but I am doubtful that he will change that policy, so go and ask questions or email someone. Dan and the TAs are approachable, so that makes it a little easier to do. Also, if I were to do this all over again, I would not enroll in the first lab section of the week. Getting help is a lot easier if your section is in the middle or towards the end of the week because you have more time to ask questions and work on assignments.
Spring 2022 - Syllabus Breakdown: Lecture Quizzes - 10% Prelab Assignments - 15% Participation/Attendance - 10% Postlab Assignments - 25% Final In-Class Presentation - 15% Final Exam - 25% Lectures: You have to watch the in-person lecture and an old "experimental" lecture, which is basically a recycled video from when school was entirely virtual, in order to get all of the content required to understand the lab/ fill out the pre-lab and post-lab. The problem with this is that half of the content overlaps, but he doesn't edit his slides or material. He could easily fit everything into one lecture and save everyone's time, but he chooses not to do that. Anyway, if he continues with this, I would watch the experimental lecture first before attending lecture. Participation/Attendance: Attendance was mandatory for our 8am Monday lecture, but you could attend via Zoom. He sometimes did not even take attendance, so you get free points regardless if you are there. He does not tell you that he is doing this until you're 5 minutes into lecture, so it is a bit of a gamble. Lecture Quizzes: Every lecture has a post-lecture quiz that is posted on Gradescope. They are due about 24 hours after lecture I think. It is usually 3-4 questions, and they are pretty easy as long as you pay attention in class or have your notes to refer to. Pre-labs: Pre-labs were okay. If you watch lecture and take notes on the mechanisms for the week, you are good to go for the most part. Post-labs: Arguably the worst part of this class. The assignment itself is pretty standard, but they are graded pretty harshly. The questions have vague wording, but you can get a ridiculous amount of points taken off if they do not fit his standards. Many assignments rely on an NMR processing software called Mnova. He uploaded a video on how to install the program on your computer, but never actually shows you how to process real, imperfect lab data on it. Dan, if you're reading this, it would be helpful to have a more comprehensive video tutorial for people to reference. We turned our assignments in via Gradescope, but Dan hides the rubric, so you are not able to see what you did wrong unless you go to office hours or email your TA. Final In-Class Presentation: He puts you into a group with 1-2 other students in your lab section, and assigns you to one of the labs we covered during the quarter. You have to make a 10-minute presentation on the experiment (background, procedure, conclusion, etc.). Final Exam: All of his previous finals and their keys are posted a few weeks in advance for students to start studying early. Really take notes and study the most recent finals he has given because your final will most likely be the most similar to those. Tips: If you are willing and able to, I would suggest going to office hours to get your questions answered if you miss points on assignments. There is a lack of transparency in grading for most, if not all, of the assignments. This absolutely sucks, but I am doubtful that he will change that policy, so go and ask questions or email someone. Dan and the TAs are approachable, so that makes it a little easier to do. Also, if I were to do this all over again, I would not enroll in the first lab section of the week. Getting help is a lot easier if your section is in the middle or towards the end of the week because you have more time to ask questions and work on assignments.
AD
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