Leung is the best professor to have for this class. He writes the tests and gives you clicker questions that are extremely similar to what you need to know for the quizzes and final. This class is not easy, but, if you follow his advice, you can do well. Tackle Aleks as soon as possible, take basic notes from the textbook before lecture, and add to your notes what Leung emphasizes in lecture. It's that simple.
Grade Distribution
21 Reviews
I came into this class expecting the worst. However, while there are definitely faults to the class, Leung is not as terrible as some reviews make him out to be. The course moves at an extremely brisk pace. To keep up, it is necessary to read material before the lecture, attend lecture (do clicker questions), review the material in the lecture, reread the textbook, do the practice problems, and study a TON for the test. If you do that, you can definitely get an A/A-. Chemistry is a subject that builds on itself, so building a sturdy foundation in the beginning is very important for future lessons. I also think the ALEKS system is pretty good and provided good practice. However, the main problem with the class is Leung himself. He can be very boring and the hour really drags on. His quizzes (tests) definitely had a few trick questions, though the weekly quizzes were not too bad. This is a weed out course that is required for premed and engineers. Just do your best to get through it
This class is a weed-out and unnecessarily hard. The class forces you to think about topics at a deeper level but is also not particularly interesting or engaging.
I'm not going to rant and rave about Leung. Everybody knows he's tough. Everybody knows he's tricky. If you want to do well in the course:
1) Meet your ALEKS mileposts
2) Read his lecture slides and make sure you understand them
3) Do the practice problems that he puts on Collab every week that no one does.
4) Go to his office hours if you need help on a specific problem. He has a very concise and effective way of explaining a concept that you might be completely lost on.
I feel like these, in combination with everything else he asks you to do like clicker questions and attending discussion, will help more than anything else.
On days where I have this class, I actually don't wear my bike helmet in the hopes that I fall and die before I have to sit in one of his lectures. This class is dreadfully boring and Leung's testing style of constant trick questions is ridiculous. Less of a chemistry class and more of a semester of this guy's mind games on tests.
Leung is a good professor and very willing to help; it is just a hard class. To do well you have to really study but it is also hard to fail since a 50 is a D. You just have to keep up with it and don't fall behind
Leung was uncreative and stubborn. He structured the class and "discussion" (actually just another two hours of lecture) very poorly. I would not recommend him.
This class consisted of two parts: Listening to Terry lecture in-class and ALEKS learning system for homework. ALEKS was tough and long but a really informative system- however it wasn't matched up very well with the pace of the class and I would often go too far ahead or not practice a subject until after we had been quizzed/tested on it. Lectures are meh so make sure you're doing some reading out of class. Also, don't buy the $260 textbook. Just don't do it. The earlier edition is fine and will save you hundreds.
The lectures are useless, the only reason anyone ever goes is because terry basically takes attendance. If you do ALEKS and study previous tests, you will make it out with a B, but this class causes a ton of stress due to a lack of communication from the professor and the randomness of certain test questions.
I liked Leung a lot. The ALEKS homework system we used was better than Mastering Chemistry in my opinion. Leung really does care about his students, and wants them to have a good conceptual understanding of the topics rather than remembering certain plug n chug patterns. The course is difficult, but stay on top of things from the start and you'll be fine.