Professor
Patrick Harran
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2022 - I loved this class so much. The professor was very knowledgable of the subject and expanded the content we learned to other interesting things. Harran made jokes here and there and you could tell he really loved the subject. His lectures were pretty good because he does a demonstration mostly on the whiteboard to explain concepts while the slides were there to lay out organized and detailed tables that are helpful to review. The class was engaging and the TAs were wonderful and they busted their butts off to help all of the students. I really liked how direct the grading and exams were. The scores came out pretty fast as well. Despite the gnarly averages, the curves helped a lot. I ended up getting a 90 and then a 70 on the midterms and ended up getting an A. As long as you score over the average by a margin of 15-25 I don't think you do not have to worry about getting below an A. There were many resources and helpful resources, the best being the professors and TAs themselves. The textbook is genuinely the best thing to study if you want to understand the content well. It takes a lot of time and effort to really understand the material. This class is a reflection of how if you really want it, you can have it, but you need to work hard for it. Some advice would be to not fall behind. Always stay on top of the class and read ahead of time. Ask your TA or professor for help. Practicing problems and doing the textbook problems were very helpful, too. It's all about repetition and understanding how things worked.
Fall 2022 - I loved this class so much. The professor was very knowledgable of the subject and expanded the content we learned to other interesting things. Harran made jokes here and there and you could tell he really loved the subject. His lectures were pretty good because he does a demonstration mostly on the whiteboard to explain concepts while the slides were there to lay out organized and detailed tables that are helpful to review. The class was engaging and the TAs were wonderful and they busted their butts off to help all of the students. I really liked how direct the grading and exams were. The scores came out pretty fast as well. Despite the gnarly averages, the curves helped a lot. I ended up getting a 90 and then a 70 on the midterms and ended up getting an A. As long as you score over the average by a margin of 15-25 I don't think you do not have to worry about getting below an A. There were many resources and helpful resources, the best being the professors and TAs themselves. The textbook is genuinely the best thing to study if you want to understand the content well. It takes a lot of time and effort to really understand the material. This class is a reflection of how if you really want it, you can have it, but you need to work hard for it. Some advice would be to not fall behind. Always stay on top of the class and read ahead of time. Ask your TA or professor for help. Practicing problems and doing the textbook problems were very helpful, too. It's all about repetition and understanding how things worked.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2022 - Professor Harran is a great guy. He tries to make his lectures fun and attempts to connect with real world topics. He is a master at what he teaches, and often surrounds himself with friends that have great accolades in the field as well. BUT, at the end of the day it is OCHEM after all. This class is not easy, it is very demanding, professor is not demanding, the class is. Since there's no HW or any BS points, its just 2 tests and a final. So basically u have to get your sh*t together if u want to succeed. Class is curved, but that doesn't mean you can stop putting the effort in. The class averages were definitely scary every time. WARNING: don't try to memorize anything, he purposely makes tests that require you to have a decent understanding. So instead of memorizing reactions, learn how and why each of the steps work. (etc. electron pushing, resonance, stuff that you have to practice NOT memorize!) Averages: - MT 1 - ~60 - MT 2 - 51 - Final - we were not given an average or our scores back but take a look above and you can guess how we did. Class avg was probably curved to a C or C+.
Fall 2022 - Professor Harran is a great guy. He tries to make his lectures fun and attempts to connect with real world topics. He is a master at what he teaches, and often surrounds himself with friends that have great accolades in the field as well. BUT, at the end of the day it is OCHEM after all. This class is not easy, it is very demanding, professor is not demanding, the class is. Since there's no HW or any BS points, its just 2 tests and a final. So basically u have to get your sh*t together if u want to succeed. Class is curved, but that doesn't mean you can stop putting the effort in. The class averages were definitely scary every time. WARNING: don't try to memorize anything, he purposely makes tests that require you to have a decent understanding. So instead of memorizing reactions, learn how and why each of the steps work. (etc. electron pushing, resonance, stuff that you have to practice NOT memorize!) Averages: - MT 1 - ~60 - MT 2 - 51 - Final - we were not given an average or our scores back but take a look above and you can guess how we did. Class avg was probably curved to a C or C+.