LMAOOO let's be real, the chemistry department here is not ideal. So I guess I shouldn't be too surprised that Felker was not a good professor. I did all of the homework, I got 40s on both my midterms and I have no clue how I did on the final but I got outta there with a C- so I am content. But Felker's lecture style is horrible, you never really see his face during lecture because he's just facing the whiteboard rambling on about concepts that he never fully explains, just gives 500 examples of. It's definitely possible to learn the material well if you're willing to put in the work though. One of my friends aced both the midterms by reading and practicing the textbook. But you best know I was not about to learn all of the material myself so I gave up, but it honestly ended up alright (would not recommend tho)

This class was honestly the worst class I've ever taken in my entire life. Prof. Felker literally does not give a fk about his students and makes zero attempt to ensure that you know/understand what he's talking about in lecture. His lectures are all over the place, there is absolutely no structure to them. He basically walks in right when the class begins, says "Good Morning", turns around, waves his hands and blinks furiously, and then writes random crap on the board while also saying random crap. He goes fast and doesn't tell you what he's talking about. I had to learn all 10 chapters from reading the textbook. Literally every word in the 10 chapters, and I still got a shit grade. Also, the curve was ruined for this class cause a bunch of people got old tests from the test bank and put them on their cheat sheets (btw. you can bring a bunch of cheat sheets to the exams with you). Each test has 7 questions (cause there's 7 TAs and god forbid he should mark any of the exam questions himself) so pretty much if you get 1 question wrong you're at a B, and if you get 2 wrong then you're at a C/D. If you value your time/sanity just don't take this class lmao

Sell Principle of Modern Chemistry (blue cover, 6th) for 50 dollars. Used, like new. Contact at *************.

AVOID HIM AT ALL COSTS. Owl assignments are the worst thing I have ever had to do and his exams are impossible. But then again, I didn't take AP Chem and really struggled while my roommate put in a lot of effort and office hours and got an a in the class, just depends on the person. I personally think he requires way too much time and effort for this class and would recommend literally any other professor.

The homework is online, mandatory, and dreadful. The tests are open book and he allows one sheet of notes front and back.

With that being said,
I am selling the text book (Oxtoby 7/e) for 60$. I barely used it, but it is the paper back version/international version. Same thing just a different cover.
*************

(Took 20A and 20B with him)

Let me describe Felker with a story:
Sitting in the last day of lecture for 20B, and this little timid-looking girl is resting her arm sorta up against her shoulder (you know how people do).
Felker stops lecturing and calls on her: "Yes??"
She blushes -- "Oh n-no sorry uh I was just..."
"Okay class!" Felker interrupts in an mocking tone. "Remember, when you DON'T have a question, raise your hand!"
The class bursts into laughter and Felker smirks at the girl, who is now holding back tears, before resuming his lecture.
This sort of shit happened pretty frequently in his class. Oh also his office door is completely covered with Islamophobic magazine articles.

tl;dr the guy is just SUCH an asshole.

If you are looking at reviews for Felker, chances are you won't have much choice anyway and you'll have to take him even if he's not a good lecturer. However, despite all these reviews and publicity Felker gets, I have to note that this will definitely not be the hardest class you will have to take. The only reason it's known to be hard is because everyone who's taking him are freshmen and are not used to such standards. My best advice is to take this as a learning opportunity to grow and be able to take such standards as a college student.

There are many people giving their advices, so I'm also just going to give some of my advice too. (I got an A+ for the overall grade)

1. Lectures and discussions: personally, I don't think they are all that important purely because I think he's a really bad lecturer. All his TAs were not great as well, for some reason (must be my luck). If you need some rest or just don't want to waste the time, it's okay, you're not missing out. I fall asleep every single time I go for lecture anyway - he's REALLY boring.

2. Textbook and OWL questions: That said, you still need to know the concepts VERY well. And I do mean VERY because his tests really require a very strong understanding of the material. The best way to do this is to read the textbook, make your own notes, do the assigned OWL questions, do some more OWL questions on concepts you're not sure of and take note of any extra difficult OWL questions you face (these can be potential candidates for future exam questions). After you're done with understanding the basic concepts, test your understanding by doing the starred textbook questions. These will usually throw you off because the can be really hard but if you can do them, it would've meant that you've completely understood the concept. Please ensure that you nail all the concepts down before you take any of his tests!!

3. Test bank and past papers: I'd say this is a must because you don't want to be shocked the first time you took the test. Some of his past year papers are not that hard so be prepared for a way harder test than his previous exams, but it's still helpful because you'd be used to his style. I feel that it shouldn't be hard to obtain his tests because it's circulating everywhere so you should definitely do them. Pester your seniors to get their final paper back if you want to know how his final look like. I got mine back but I had to go to this room to request for it and blah.

4. Cheat sheets: you're allowed cheat sheets and the entire textbook for all his exams. Even though most people thinks that it's not useful, I'll say that they are not using these privileges to their maximum potential. For me, I tagged and labeled all the important pages in the textbook (where I can get ALL the delta G values etc.) (scrutinize every single page for any possible values you might need - you won't want to keep flipping the textbook during the exam). For my cheat sheet, I filled up one page with all the formulas I will ever need (again, less flipping of textbook) and the other page with any extremely difficult questions I encountered in OWL, textbook starred questions and past exams, with the simplified method to go about doing it. You know, just in case it comes out and you can't think of the method straight from your head. It only helped me in one question on the midterm, but hey, at least one fully correct answer that most people will not be able to get, right?

5. Office hours: I have never been to his office hours because I don't really like him, but from what I heard he will answer your question and it's very helpful. If you don't want to see his face then Google is your best friend. After all, this is only Gen Chem, it's not too hard a material to understand (compared to what you'll have to take in the future).

6. Regrades: Check for mistakes in your paper btw. I added 8 marks for my second midterm because I spotted a marking mistake on my paper. I know this will not happen to everyone but you know, in case you've never thought about it. I went directly to the TA who graded that question during his discussion (and sat through his one hour excruciatingly boring and unhelpful discussion).

7. Believe in yourself: it's okay if you fail in the first midterm, or the second. I was below average for both midterms but I managed to do really well in the final and got an A+ overall. Remember: the class is curved so your scores doesn't matter. All you need to do is to keep calm and don't freak out and do the best you can, :)

Overall, if I were to list the essentials for this class in order to do well, I'd say definitely do textbook starred questions and past exams. On that note, good luck! You'll need it hahaha

Judging from my experience, I agree with most reviews before. Boring lectures, hard exams, those things well characterize Felker’s class. So I’ll just give some tips about how to survive his class:

1.Do the reading before his lectures. He does a lot of maths during lectures, but if you pre-read the materials on the Oxtoby it’s much easier to understand what’s going on in his lectures.

2.Try to learn how to solve problems by yourself. Felker never talks about how to solve a specific problem, so the best way to survive his exams is to do as many problems as you can. OWL questions are easy and never like exams, so treat them as starters. Also examples on textbook are good helpers. But these are not enough. Try to solve problems at the end of each chapter, especially additional problems cuz they can be quite similar to what’s gonna appear on the real exams. The answer keys to odd additional problems are only available in the solution manual, which you can borrow from Powell.

3.Get his past exams from Testbank. This is probably the only way you can avoid getting “intimidated” by his exams. His exams often use confusing language so that you don’t even know what they’re asking for, and with past exams you can get accustomed to his style.

Overall, choosing Felker doesn’t mean a guaranteed fail. It just means you have to put more efforts to get a pass, or an A, or whatever you want. Avoid him if you can, but don’t get too upset if that’s the only option. Good luck :P

P.S. Some stats from 20B Winter 2015 Lec 2:
Midterm 1: Median 59, SD 18
Midterm 2: Median 56, SD 16
Final: don’t really know

Took 20A and 20B with Felker. I was counting down the days of lecture I had left with him. His lectures are terribly boring; I eventually learned that the best strategy is to do the OWL homework early, learn the topics from that (or the textbook if you have the diligence to read that thing), and then get the knowledge reinforced via his lectures. The only good part about Felker is that he is a fair grader. He gives quite a bit of partial credit on his tests. The hardest part about his tests is figuring out what the question is asking; the actual solving part is usually not that challenging. My advice to survive his tests is to look at plenty of old ones from the testbank. Overall, avoid him at all costs, but if you must take his class, you can survive...via the curve.

Do yourself a favor and don't take him. He is quite boring, dislikes answering questions in class, and to top it off, he is brash and not a nice guy. His exams are hard and lectures, while they do have some value conceptually, are ineffective due to Felker's inability to speak in public. He's tarnishing his own legacy, but that's his problem. If he's the only option left, take chemistry next quarter.

If I could describe Professor Felker in one word, it would be this: boring.

Yet that's not all that there is to either him or his class (Chemistry 20B, Winter 2014).

Before officially starting this class, I read a lot of his reviews, and I feared for myself. I came into this class thinking that I would be faced with impossible tests, an absolute horrible chemistry professor, and an overall miserable experience.

However, that was not exactly the case.

Felker is a shy individual, as shown by his lack of eye contact with his students, constantly waving one of his arms whenever he tries to make a point, and sometimes looking at the board and talking at the same time. His lectures are derivation-heavy at times, and whenever this occurred, i felt that he covered material that would be good for an Honors class. That said, he actually does explain the material relatively well, but he does it in a dry manner. Nevertheless, I found a lot of the material quite interesting.

In terms of his homework, it is no longer optional like older reviews have stated. One now does online homework from OWL. This homework takes a substantial amount of time (a LOT-be prepared for Chapter 15!) so do it all; you get unlimited tries even though Felker only says you get six tries. I did not take the Chapter 15 homework (the longest series) seriously, forgot about the deadline, and was not able to finish it all, and I feel that this may have been the difference between a B+ (what I got in reality-it's not too bad, and I am not TOO bitter about it) and an A-.

Now, the tests follow this format: they are all open book and open note. The first midterm is very easy (almost plug-and-chug with a conceptual question on phase diagrams). The second midterm is more difficult but still somewhat fair (almost entirely on thermodynamics with some chemical equilibrium), and the final was tough but NOT impossible, and it was NOT the most difficult test I've ever taken in my whole life. The final had an impossible question on selective precipitation, but a really easy one on chemical kinetics with some harder and intermediate questions thrown in.

TIPS FOR THIS CLASS AND THE TESTS:

1. Do book problems!
2. Get old tests and do ALL the problems.
3. Look for patterns between the book problems and his previous exams.
4. Discussion is hit-or-miss, depending on your TA (Mine, Steven Sasaki, was just ok).
5. In terms of Felker's office hours, I never went, so I cannot comment on that. However, I have heard that he is not the type of person to ask whimsical questions. In other words, there are some professors whom one can just say "Help me, please!" Not Felker. I asked him a question after class BUT I gave him an educated guess (keyword)and I was right on that, and he helped me. He was not mean about it either because I gave him an educated guess without blindly asking him for help-having this attitude may help you when asking him questions after class or in his office.

Averages for the midterms:

MT 1: 90 (Don't screw up on this one)
MT 2: 69 (Not even kidding; make sure you know your thermodynamics well and about a heated solid going into an ice-ice, ice-water, or water-water mixture, etc. etc.)
Final-Do not know, but he was supposedly aiming for a 50. Also, the final consists of post-midterm 2 material and thermodyanimcs (nothing from Chapters 9-11 was on the final from what I remember).

I got an A in 20A with Scerri and a B+ in 20B with Felker. Take homework seriously and try to avoid stupid mistakes; if I had followed this, I would have gotten at least an A-.

In the end, if Felker is your only option (or best option), do not fear; it is not the end of the world.

However, get prepated to be bored by Felker, but don't worry, 10 weeks pass by quicker than you think.