I took this class at 8am because reviews of professor Sundberg seemed to be the best. I now realize those reviews were old and outdated, like him. He's retired and came in to cover for one semester. He rushes through lectures and doesn't stop to make sure everyone understands, often brushing off student's questions so that he can continue with the lecture. Because he was so quick in his lectures, he got ahead of the syllabus making it almost impossible to keep up with the readings and then added on an additional chapter to make up for extra time. He writes his notes on a piece of paper projected on the screen, so it's often not legible or he moves on too quickly. He does then scan these notes and upload them to collab (when the assistant is available because he cannot do it himself). The tests themselves can go either way, but his grading style is harsh.

What a class..... For those who took the risk to take Orgo with a Professor Emeritus in the hopes of learning from the famous Sundberg, I would venture to say 99.9% were let down. A caveat to note is that Sundberg is 80 years old and the fact that he is still able to recall concepts from Orgo and made it to every 8 am is impressive within itself. Unfortunately, although he was physically there, he might have been doing nothing - by the end of the semester, I would say maybe 30% attended because 1) the lectures were incredibly dry, 2) he literally stood at the projector and wrote random ideas in sharpie with no direction 3) he would go through a chapter a week and draw random mechanisms with no insight or help. This class might as well have been taught by Yurkanis (the author of the textbook). I came out with a good grade in this class but without my broad orgo class in high school, I would've been lost. The TA's (Serbulea's) saved this course and often complained about how little insight Sundberg gave them. At the end of the semester, the grade distribution was A+ > 95.00; A >93.00; A- >89.00; B+ > 85.0; B > 74.0; C+ > 71.0 ; C > 67.0; C - > 60.00; D > 55.0; D- > 50.00. This results in a distribution of 22% A, 52 % B, 21% C and 4% D. Yes, I know that there is no B-, this was the email he sent us. From an objective standpoint and witnessing others' disappointment and confusion, I am utterly disappointed that UVa let a class like this be taught.

The class overall isn't too difficult if you work for it. Read the chapters, listen in lectures, and you will be golden.

Organic Chemistry is a hard class no matter what professor you have at UVA but Sundberg is a good professor he knows his stuff, it can be boring at times but if you read the book and keep along you will be fine. The tests are a lot like the practice questions/ homework problems so there really aren't too many surprises on test day.

Sundberg is such a nice professor. He is so understanding and very fair. The book can be slightly confusing at first, but he goes over the tricky parts in lecture. TA really enjoys what she does. Her enthusiasm is contagious. Professor Sundberg really likes the subject that he is teaching and knows what he is talking about. He is also very good at responding to email and posts notes online. Overall, enjoyable class. Professor makes such a difficult class better.

Sundberg is a good prof (really knows what he's talking about and seems to enjoy teaching it), but you have to be awake and thinking in his lecture to follow him. Go to office hours promptly (he had them right after class this semester) if you don't understand. Do the problem sets before the test. Kendal was a great TA.

Sundberg isn't the best lecturer but with lots of book reading/studying the tests are doable. Good curve at the end means a good grade if you're above average.

The hardest part about Prof. Sundberg is understanding his mechanisms, because he likes to leave some steps out. Once you get the hang of it, the material isn't too hard to figure out. That being said, his tests are very difficult, but fair because he likes to draw questions from previous exams and class examples. Just put the time into studying and you can do very well in his class.

The key to this class is to study the practice tests and problem sets he gives out. Sundberg repeats questions like crazy. You can expect the same concepts to show up on multiple choice and anywhere from 1-2 of the previous free responses to show up. He curves a lot at the end too. When I took this last fall an 85 and up ended up being an A. Sundberg is definitely underrated. I kept hearing from everyone that he was hard and that Gerrans was the way to go but in comparing tests from the two classes (my friends were in Gerrans) I would say that I prefer Sundberg's. (Gerrans just tries to trick you while Sundberg tests you on you knowledge)

class is tough but sundberg does an adequate job of making the tests fair for the students