I don't understand why so many more people prefer McGarvey over Serbulea because she's definitely a better teacher. Her lectures are kinda straight from the book and sometimes she skips over stuff but overall she's fair and knows what she's talking about. She's crazy good with names if you go to office hours and there's a lot of TA office hour opportunities too. There might be no curve but if you study hard enough, understand how she writes her tests, READ THE CHAPTERS AND DO PRACTICE PROBLEMS, and get as many extra points as you can on homework and iclickers then you'll be fine because I actually ended up with a pretty decent grade and I suck at chemistry.

My first advice would be to ignore all the negative comments in the comment section. This class was not that bad. As a transfer student from CC, my first mistake was to read all these comments! The class requires you to read the textbook before coming to class and doing all the problems from end of chapter and in chapter problems. I didn't do so well on the first two tests (a D and an F) because I was still adjusting and was feeling burned out already, but I pulled through and ended up getting a B overall (B+ on third test and B- on final). I recommend that you divide up your work instead of doing all of the problems at once; if you don't have time, do half of the in chapter and end of chapter problems. The textbook is amazing at explaining things and the powerpoints in class are good as well. I did ok on the iclickers for discussion and lecture; at first they will seem difficult, but then you will get used to them and will do well. She also provided extra credit opportunities by making some of the iclickers in lecture and discussion as extra credit. Also, she "curved" the tests by adding in 4 extra points for first test, making the test out of 96 and not 100 on another test, and sometimes giving extra credit questions on other tests/final exam. She is an awesome professor, and you should definitely meet her outside of class (she is very nice). The TAs were good as well, but my favorites were James, Emily, Khatija, Chi, and Erin. Work hard and everything will be ok! don't stress out!

There are 3 exams and a final which are all free-response. Her lectures, presented in a powerpoint format, follow the book strictly which I like because you can easily go back and review topics that you don't understand. Overall, she's pretty good at presenting the information. If you keep up and read the textbook and do all the practice problems in the back of the chapters, you wouldn't have a problem because the tests are pretty straightforward. She would never try to trick you on the exams. For our year, she created a bunch of weird extra credits (instead of curving the class 3% at the end which she did for previous years). However, the extra credits were incredibly confusing and made it difficult to calculate your grade (maybe I'm just stupid or too lazy to figure it out). But in the end it worked out in my favor so I didn't investigate further.

So honestly I was a bit disappointed in this course. I thought Orgo was supposed to be the big killer, but, at least for me, it was a rather straightforward class. I'll mention that I had about a 60-70% attendance rate to Serbulea's lectures, but managed to still pull off an A. To be blunt, Serbulea's lectures and exams all branch off of major topics covered in the book for the class. The weekend before an exam, I would just read and maybe re-read chapters covered in the upcoming exam, and score easily 15 points above the average. While Serbulea is not a bad lecturer, I'd have to say that she's rather superfluous to learning the material, seeing as 90% of organic chemistry builds off fundamentals you should have learned in general chemistry. And while her syllabus may say that the class has absolute grading (no curve), she still will give a huge curve at the end of the semester. So just stay 12-15 points above the average and you're set for an A at the end, and that's if you forget to do your homework or decide not to get clicker points.

I took Orgo in the summer and it's a common misconception that the course is "easier" in the summer. Lecture was most certainly not easier (although maybe lab may be easier). Taking it in the summer time really helps you focus on the material, but be prepared to have your life basically just be all about organic chemistry if you want to do well in the course. Organic chemistry by itself is already a challenging course to master, and I have to admit, Serbulea does not make it easier either. Nonetheless, she was an amazing professor, very interested in the subject matter, and willing to help explain concepts one on one until they made sense (go to her office hours!) Just remember, to practice practice practice to perform best on the exams. Do practice problems in the book, as well as chapter end Self Tests in the solution manual (definitely purchase this, well worth it). Although the class is very hard, it is definitely doable. Orgo is really not about how smart you are, but how much work you are willing to put it. I really enjoyed the course overall, and learned a bunch. Also, don't get consumed into the hype that Orgo is possible and you will fail on Day 1. That will just make you nervous and set you up for failure. Enter the course with a positive mind and just be disciplined. Good luck!

I took this class over the summer too. Serbulea is a wonderful professor. Very clear and very cute. Like everyone has mentioned, she doesn't curve. Even though the clickers, homework, and learn smarts were your 'curve,' it still sucks when the exam average is so low and you know half the people will literally fail. Her exams are hard, but not hard at the same time. You have to pay attention to everything, which is honestly just exhausting. And sad. But I think everyone can agree that they're fair. Homework and learn smarts were online through connect. It was the WORST! Half the class couldn't even get one of the questions on the last homework, and the correct answer didn't even make sense! They also take FOREVER. But you'll learn so much from her that it's worth the frustration. If you're pre-med, you should take it with Serbulea. Heck, take it with Serbulea even if you're not premed. Go to the discussions because the TAs go over problems! I liked Chi because was organized, knew her stuff, and had original questions that even showed up on exams! Her questions were challenging, but they weren't unreasonable, just long. She also makes a lot of helpful charts. I don't know why she stopped second semester! Dan was also good too, but different. Get Chi as your TA if you can during the year!! Wish me luck on my final tomorrow because I'm writing this review instead of studying.

Overall Serbulea is a great teacher. She makes sure to go over each top over and over until it gets in your head. Her clickers are super fast (30 seconds) and her lecture can be a tad bit boring. Not too bad. The discussion can be boring, but its sort of forcing you to study. Overall it depends what kind of professor you want. From what I've heard, McGarvey is a lot less structured and his students tend to teach themselves while Serbulea's homework and discussions force you to study but obviously, its more work. Personally, I would recommend Serbulea.

Excellent professor, very hard but fair course. Lots of pre-meds got their dreams killed by this class. Go to her office hours, expect to spend hours on hours outside of class and try to have a good understanding of the material before class so she can fill in the gaps. You kind of have to understand and memorize everything for this class. Just memorizing won't cut it but there's an element of memorization too. It's a lot of work all semester long but do NOT get behind in the beginning or you'll be lost forever. The tests are very hard and a level up from the book problems, but a very fair test of your understanding. There are a lot of components to your final grade though, so there are buffers and even the tests are doable. The final can make or break you so there is pretty much no such thing as too much studying. I got an A in the class-it's very possible but you really have to work for it. I see on here the average hours of reading a week were 6.5 for the other reviews...I probably spent more like 10 or 12. It's a lot, but Laura's the bomb.

Orgo is hard, there's no way around it. Prof. Serbulea is an amazing professor, however. She explains things multiple times in her lecture powerpoints, and her office hours are SO helpful - one on one and she'll keep you in there until you understand what she's trying to explain. With all that being said, the tests are very, very difficult. Averages are around 60, and she makes it very clear that there is no curve. The 2 hour mandatory discussion sections SUCK and were not very helpful anyway. An actual review session during this time instead of essentially an additional 2 hour lecture would have been much more helpful. Expect to spend hours on hours doing practice problems and reading the book, and try problems from different sources because she doesn't even test from the required textbook. Only take it if you have to.

Great class. Super interesting and Serbulea is a great professor, but this class can and will take over your life if you want to do well. Try to take a lighter course load if you take this class.