Prof. Welch was overall a very enjoyable professor to have. He made time for everyone's questions at office hours and after lecture, and he was relatively quick to respond to emails. I would definitely aim to have him as your expo instructor as well since he knows what will be on the exams and is sure to emphasize relevant points (which the other expo ta's cannot do). The group portion of the exams can be bit frustrating, but that's really the only complaint I had, and Welch is good about moving people around if you don't like your group.

TAKE THIS CLASS WITH WELCH (thank me later) Seriously such a nice guy who actually cares about his students and is very accommodating to any problems you are having. The class isn't too hard if you put in the work with the readings and actually try to understand the material. Whatever you don't understand, Welch is great at explaining. All exams are open book and open internet as well.

I don't even know where to begin. Gen chem is taught so awfully here. Starting from the structure to the fact they purposely want you to not succeed since it is a 'weed out' class. I feel you need to have a background in chemistry to do very well in here, I did mid and I did not but spent so much time on outside resources to make up for the lack of efficiency of lecture. Welch is VERYYYYYY overhyped. TAKE IT WITH STAINS. She is much more organized and clear in her lectures, as well as her exams (much clearer, more related to content, etc). I think the biggest issue was truly with the exams. I generally understood the content, but the exam questions were totally unreasonable and were huge stretches from practice problems, reading problems, and TA reviews. Godspeed to all of you who take it. (dont get me wrong welch is such a nice and funny guy, love him, but dont take 1410 with him)

Welch is probably the best introductory chemistry professor at UVA. If you have to take this class, take it with Welch. He is extremely supportive of his students and very willing to work with you. Lectures are only once a week and he tends to work through the main concepts from the chapter. Welch does not have slides for his lectures. He typically draws out different problems and works through topics from the chapter conceptually. It helps with basic understanding of the chapter, however there are usually topics that he doesn't get to because we ran out of time. The only other class meeting during the week is Expo. You are randomly divided into groups of 4-5 to work collaboratively through difficult assignments. I had a really good Expo group last semester and we had to rush to make it through the whole assignment during our class time.

There are four assignments every week that you rotate through:
1. Chapter reading - One chapter per week. This is the longest assignment and usually takes a few hours on the weekend.
2. LBLA (Looking Back, Looking Ahead) - This assignment becomes available after lecture and must be completed before Expo. Typically between 10-15 questions and can be completed in less than an hour.
3. Expo Assignment - You do this with your group. This is the most challenging assignment of the week. Get as much help from the TA's as you need during class time.
4. BIT (Bringing it Together) - This assignment is due Sunday at midnight and wraps up all the chapter material from the week.
There is a constant stream of assignments and it feels like you don't get a break. You just have to keep up or else it will be very hard to catch up if you get behind.

There are three unit exams and one cumulative final exam. The exams have three parts:
1. Individual multiple choice and short answer
2. Individual attempt at 5 long multiple choice questions
3. Group attempt at same 5 multiple choice questions
The exams are pretty difficult but are open resource. Prepare for the individual multiple choice section by putting all your formulas on one sheet to eliminate time searching through your notes. During the group exam you have to write 1-3 paragraphs explaining why you chose your answer. Be prepared to defend your answer.

I found the topics of this course extremely interesting. I took this class in my first semester because I was originally pre-med, but I'm still glad I took it because the content covered changed some of my perspectives on everyday life, things that were not taught in AP Chemistry. However, Professor Welch is not a good professor. Yes he is super nice, but the only way you learn is through reading the textbook (your weekly reading is online and has 25-40 homework questions attached). Personally I don't learn very well through a textbook, but when I would go to lecture he wouldn't even discuss the topic of that weeks reading, Welch would talk about something completely different and I would walk out even more confused. There is a lot of work for this class, you have 3 weekly assignments: Readings, LBLA, and BIT, all done on the same website.

If you thought intro chem is a boring weed-out class, think again. The course itself is pretty low-stress if you are able to keep up with the chapter readings and understand the topics solidly with enough practice. I really enjoyed having Professor Welch for lecture because he actively explains concepts in an easy-to-break-down manner. I just wish he could delegate more time near the end of lecture for the last (and usually most difficult) topic(s) of the chapter.

In addition, the course is structured really well with a hybrid teaching method that makes it really easy for students to reinforce chem topics:

1. Attend lecture with THE Prof. Welch himself after reading a pre-assigned chapter
2. Go to expo and collaborate in small groups to practice and discover important concepts (usually very interactive)
3. Bring it together at the end of the week with a small, personal review assignment

The online textbook is easy to digest and the assignments aren't designed to be hard (TAs and office hours are always available). The few exams over the semester are comprehensive and easy if you've been following along; since it's open notes, make sure your reference sheet is good to go and that you've practiced enough questions. Professor Welch cares a lot about his students and is very approachable, so if you ever have a reasonable problem, he and is team of TAs will be there for you. Intro chem is a delightful road to understanding the world around us, so buckle up and you'll do fine :) #tCFF23

Welch is the best!! He breaks complex chemistry concepts down into ways that are easy to understand. I highly recommend going to his office hours if you're ever confused in the class or just want to talk to him. He's super nice and always understanding towards the fact this is just an intro chem course so he doesn't expect too much out of you #tCFF23

I personally didn't like the way he taught the course. I don't think he spent enough time on the most difficult topics. But a lot of people really liked him.

For a college chemistry course, which is inherently going to be difficult, I thought that this one was well-designed and well-instructed. Each weekend, you will read a chapter from the online textbook and answer practice questions (takes about 3-4 hours if you take notes). This is mostly graded on completion. Then, you will meet for lecture at the beginning of the week and listen to Professor Welch talk about what you just learned. He's a good lecturer and a very understanding instructor (pretty much always willing to give out extensions), but the only reason I didn't give him a 5/5 is that oftentimes during the lectures he'll only go over the very basic material in the chapter and not go into the more complicated content that more people are confused about. I usually had to go to TA help hours to really understand the harder topics. After lecture, you have a couple of days to do the LBLA, which is just a few questions about the content you just learned as well as questions that will prepare you for the second class of the week, the expo session. During expo, you will meet with your group of 4-6 people and work through online activities together. After expo, you have a day to complete the BIT, which is a short activity that sums up everything that you've learned. You also answer questions to put into a portfolio that you turn in before each exam. Not including studying for exams, all of the work for this course comes out to about 6 hours per week, but you quickly find a groove as to when you complete everything. Each exam, including the final, is open note, so they aren't too bad as long as you ensure you understand everything that you do during class. Excluding the final, two parts of each exam are individual and one is done with your expo group. There is also a final project at the end of the course, done with your expo group, but that was cancelled for my class because of the Nov. 13th shooting. All in all, I would recommend Professor Welch to anyone needing to take this course. #tCFfall22

Here’s the deal, Welch is great but he doesn’t go into enough detail in lectures nor does he use power points. He is a great guy and emphasizes that your work shouldn’t fully revolve around Chem (which is a breath of fresh air compared to other teachers) but I didn’t learn well from him in class. I ended up going to Staines lectures and liked her style better. It seems like Welch’s tests are easier though so pick your poison I guess. I ended up with an A- but that was due to an amazing EXPO group and luck. This class is a requirement for a lot of programs, so do your best and whatever the end result be proud for getting through it!