Professor Sundberg has an excellent grasp on the subject however I found the textbook more useful for learning the material. You really need to put the time in memorizing reactions and mechanisms, as well as for understanding the general concepts from the beginning of this class because its very easy to fall behind and almost impossible to catch up. We had four exams plus a final and 5 problem sets. There was a curve at the end of the class that takes care of you but its pretty frustrating not knowing what you actually have the entire time. I had a 77 and got a B+.
Grade Distribution
14 Reviews
Professor Sundberg wasn't the best professor, which was bad for a class with very difficult material. That being said, organic chemistry could be pretty interesting at times and wasn't as horrible as people said. Overall, the class was okay.
I absolutely love Sundberg! He is different from Harman, so I was a bit thrown off at first. But having him for two semesters was wonderful. He cares about his students, so I made him my major advisor. Just remember, organic chemistry is a HARD subject. I would recommend taking the 80s series over the 40s because you can get more individual attention, class interaction, and you get to know the professor and your classmates over four semesters.
Read the textbook and you'll be fine. Prof. Sundberg is a good professor, but orgo itself is a huge subject to cover, so he is forced to cover material pretty quickly. Read the textbook!
The book is clear so helps with understanding where the lectures were rushed. Study for tests by completely understanding each material because its better to really know what you can rather than a little of each. The TAs were extremely helpful.
Coming from Harmon, Sundberg can initially seem like a nightmare. His lectures are often scattered and he fails make the points he is trying to make. He is a nice guy, but not a great teacher. Tests can be brutal. The textbook; however, is very good and will save you more times than lecture notes will.
This class takes up a lot of time. Go to office hours and rewrite your class notes multiple time before exams if you want to do well. Still a hard class
This class is a difficult class. It is going to be one of the most difficult classes you take. You will need to work very hard to get an acceptable grade. Luckily most people do, as the grade distribution reveals. Professor Sundberg is a good professor. I think a lot of people don't like him because he's just so different from Professor Harman, but I disagree. It's more the case that organic chemistry, especially at an 80s-series level, must be taught in a different style than gen chem, because there's just too much to cover.
I had a lot of trouble in this class. I don't think that Sundberg was the greatest teacher and his lectures are very hard to follow because he goes very fast. The exams are extremely difficult and a lot of people leave entire pages blank
While I think Sundberg is genuinely a nice guy, he is a horrendous professor. Many times he was unable to answer simple questions, was forgetful, and generally seemed confused. I don't feel that the grading was ultimately fair; howvever, I know people who did quite well in the class that feel the same way. Drop out of the 80s series for organic chemistry and come back and take 281 with Harman in the Spring semester of the second year. Good luck.