IF YOU'RE AN INCOMING 1ST YEAR READ THIS: this class is hard and will not be like your high school chem class. You need to work ahead, you need to do practice problems, you need to know every inch of the content for exams, and you will not be able wing-it and get a good grade even if you're super "gifted." Its not impossible to do well but the amount of effort you put in is going to be what determines your grade in this class, you'll be putting in a majority of work yourself, not much help comes from the professors in my opinion. That being said: do not let the difficulty push you away from pre-med and other things, you have so many other classes and years, you don't need an A in this to get into med school, dont let it scare you!

the hardest class I had this semester, I get lots of stress from it and had a mental breakdown at the beginning. It should be basic, but it's very confusing. There are some concepts that you can't understand clearly without background knowledge in chemistry, but there are also concepts that are different from high school chemistry so you have to forget some of what you learned already. I put most of my effort into this class but got the lowest score comparing to other classes. Lecture videos most of the time are not very helpful for me in explanation of video quiz questions (some are), I have to depend on tophat, which is terrible because it doesn't explain knowledge in good sequence. For example, it mentions a term you don't know at the beginning once, bewilderingly, then talks about the meaning at the end. I made a lot of notes for open book exams, which I think ask the harder questions than those from homework or quiz. Plus Part 2 is a strike for someone who's not very good at English reading (international students be aware), I usually get almost perfect on part 1 then lose more than half of the points on part 2.
I don't know much about Columbus, since instructors teach together this semester. I know she's been through a hard time. Though I don't know if it's my problem, when I go to her office hour, she answers other people's question of more than 5 minutes explaining lots of things that are more than what student asks, but when it's my turn, she was quick and it only took half a minute?
Advise: ask TA for help, they provide you answer to question that you probably can't find in textbook or lecture video.

My friends and I nicknamed her "Lazy Linda". Her grading is unfair and your score on assignments and exams are arbitrarily dependent on the TAs. When students ask her questions during class she laughs and struggles to find a way to poorly answer the question. Do yourself a favor and choose a different professor - I recommend Welch. The assignments and textbook are on a website called TopHat where there are sometimes typos, errors, and misinformation. The class is not super difficult, however, all of the learning is up to you - you must teach yourself by reading the TopHat and I suggest using other supplementary websites, like ChemLibre, if you do not fully understand a concept.

Note: I took this course Fall 2020 so my experience may differ from how the course is in a "normal" semester

So given that the entire course was virtual, it didn't really feel like Columbus was my professor? Pre-recorded video lectures were released weekly (on Sundays usually), and each of the professors teaching this course took turns doing these videos. So I only got "lectures" from Columbus like 3-ish times this semester. On Tuesdays, she would be on Microsoft Teams and go over the material from TopHat, lecture videos, and answer student questions. Overall, I felt like she was good at explaining concepts and was helpful during those Tuesday sessions and office hours.

The exams came in three parts (more like 2.5 tbh). First part is done individually and was pretty easy given that it was all open-book. Second part is just a few questions that are more complex and because they weren't timed, I ended up spending a lot of time on this part. Third part is the same questions as the second part except this time you did with your assigned group.

In summary, this class was a moderate amount of work. Sometimes concepts were confusing, but they're easily clarified by just going to office hours or asking your friends/group members. I haven't looked at chemistry since 10th grade, and I managed to do well and learn a lot in this course.

#tCF2020

This review may not be super applicable to people taking this class in the future, as I took it during COVID and had a much different experience than normal. And if I'm being honest, I think a lot of the issues I had with the course were due to my own lack of motivation to study and put the work in. That being said, I would not call Columbus the best teacher in the world. Her lectures were pretty good (though again with COVID the lecture videos just alternated between all the professors so I didn't have her for the whole semester technically), but she does take forever to grade stuff, which is irritating.
As a lot of other people have said on these reviews, TopHat pretty much sucks. It is often not super clear and sometimes doesn't cover all the topics that you need to know to complete the Expo assignments.
But if you are willing to put in the effort, study for the exams, and take some time to do some independent learning and research for when TopHat doesn't suffice, you'll be just fine.

I took this class with Columbus because she was the highest ranked professor but I honestly do not understand why. She laughs at answer choices and does not explain content well. I listened to one of Welchs lectures and I wish i took with him instead. Do not recommend Columbus

First things first, TopHat, for the most part, is not your friend. Moving on: I thought Columbus was a decent professor. She knew what she was she was talking about and was willing to help students. My main issue is that she often goes of tangents and tends to get off topic from time to time. Just make sure to do the readings and understand them ahead of time or you'll feel lost the entire time.

I liked Columbus for her character as she is extremely flexible and understanding with her students. The exams were all take home until the final which was great because we could use notes, however, many people claimed to feel unprepared for the closed-book, in-class final. As a result, the individual portion of the exams are closed-book and in class in CHEM 1420. As far as the learning style goes, the structure of the class involves a once a week lecture, an expo where you do top hat with your group-mates, and top hat homework online that is due throughout days of the week. Top-hat is kinda annoying because it grades your answer to stuff you just learned buy yourself for accuracy. Other than that the class was do-able, make sure you do top hat and use your friends as resources when you need help because the TA's are not super helpful and the professors are not available as often.

COLUMBUS IS THE BEST PROFESSOR EVER!!!!! TAKE THIS COURSE WITH HER!!!!! She really cares about her students and makes the course material fun. The content is taught at a good pace that is not too fast or too slow. Overall it's not too hard to get an A as long as you consistently go to office hours.

Great course! I highly recommend this professor since she created the actual textbook that joins the assignments. Do not feel pressured to perform here, rather attend office hours and learn the material. You will do great!