CHEM 1821

Serbulea is a great lecturer, so I would recommend her as a teacher. She can seem a bit abrasive, but I know she cares about her students. Heck, she knew ALL of our names. I don't even know how. The write-ups suck. So bad. And the labs can be frustrating, but it is the best feeling to finish this class successfully.

As a non-chem major in this course, I found it very difficult. The write-ups took me easily 4-5 hours per week, and you get marked off by the most seemingly minor pieces of missing information. Serbulea is a decent teacher, and while apparently abrasive is fairly friendly and does truly care about her students, learning all of our names. Make sure you can get your hands on a basic 4-function calculator as the final (and only) exam will require it.

Professor Serbulea is fantastic and makes the lab assignments really clear and easy to execute. The lab itself was fascinating and exceptionally relevant to anyone that wants to work in a lab. It was probably one of my favorite classes this semester, and I highly recommend it.

This class was miserable. Lab reports were graded incredibly harshly and no one ever knew what to expect with grading - even the TAs. Serbulea would expect you to have very specific things in your reports and if you didn't, you instantly lost a ton of points. Eventually you learned how to write how she wanted you to and sort of learned to anticipate what she was looking for. However, it was a painful process and it took me an unreal number of hours to write each lab. On weeks when I didn't start writing my report days ahead of time, I was forced to pull all-nighters in order to finish the report and have it be of acceptable quality. The course was structured with a 3-4 hour lab every week (which was usually fairly interesting and taught a lot of lab technique). Then, every week there was a 5-page single-spaced lab report due. There were also prelab quizzes which weren't usually that easy. This class was the worst, most stressful class I've ever taken at UVa. After getting nearly 100 in the first semester of 1800 lab and lecture, I thought this class couldn't be too bad. I was very, very wrong. I would strongly recommend dropping to the 1400 series after first semester rather than taking orgo in the 1800 track. It is 100 times harder, you get no special credit or designation for having taken this harder class, and it only hurts your GPA (as well as quality of life).

This was by far my hardest class of the semester. The first two lab reports were graded unfairly and I lost about 15 points on each solely on formatting errors because my reports "didn't match the Journal of Organic Chemistry." After that I did well on most of the reports but had to go to one or more office hours to know what the TA's wanted exactly. The quizzes were mostly memorization but not easy but the final was fair if you studied the preparatory materials. Overall, I would say I put more effort into this class than any others this semester and I still only got a B because Serbulea doesn't believe in curving, despite the TA's harsh grading. However, I did learn a great amount about lab procedures and reports in this class that I will be sure to use in the future.

This course requires way too much work for three credits. The labs are great, and you genuinely learn a lot of theory because Dr. Serbulea's lectures are very informative, but it seems that professor Serbulea wants you to go to office hours if you want to do well on the reports. Unfortunately, not everyone has the time do be doing so. If you are taking an otherwise light load during the semester, definitely take this course. However, don't couple this course with other science classes beyond the lecture course.

Although I learned a lot about lab techniques in this course, there could definitely be improvements to this course. This course was extremely time-consuming, and was a lot of work, even for a 3 credit lab. Lab reports (all of them were 5-page, single-spaced lab reports) often took me 7-8 hours in total (spread out over multiple days) to actually complete and proofread, and attending TA review sessions are basically a must if you want to know what information the TAs are looking for, although for many it doesn't exactly fit into their schedules. One thing I didn't like was that the lab reports would be given back to us after we turned in the next lab report; multiple times I did end up unneccesarily losing points on lab reports because I didn't get a chance to get feedback on previous lab reports in a timely manner. However, I quickly learned what was to be expected on lab reports, and ended up getting pretty high marks on them after the first two lab reports, although it does depend on the person. Lab lectures were definitely long and slow, but you do learn information and theory that is important for the labs. Prelab quizzes were not free 100s, so definitely study the theory/procedures for the lab before coming to lab, as there is always going to be a prelab quiz before each lab. One thing that I hated were the prelab modules, which often had poorly worded questions. I think normally they aren't mandatory, but when we switched to online learning she made them count as a grade, but only if they helped you grade, which was nice of her. There is a final at the end of the course, and it is not super easy, so make sure you really understand what she teaches in lab lecture and understand your experiments you do in lab. Overall, I learned a lot about scientific writing and lab techniques in this course, but be prepared to work hard for this course.

I had a bit of a love-hate relationship with this lab. You will definitely learn a lot from this class, both in the lab and in the lab lectures. You learn a lot of lab techniques that you use throughout the semester and will probably use in other chem labs in the future. There isn't a prelab like in 1811, but you need to have your lab notebook prepared with the procedure and all reagents/possible unknowns (names, structures, hazards, properties) listed out, which can take a hot minute. You start each lab with a prelab quiz, 5 questions about the procedure or other general information about the lab. They aren't difficult as long as you know what you should be doing. Unlike 1811, 1821 labs are done individually, but you work with a hood partner which is great. The labs really take the full 4 hours sometimes and you need to work fast because at the end everyone needs to use the same IR and you might not get your data in time if you're at the back of the line. The reports are a full report (intro, results and discussion, methods, conclusion, 5 pages single spaced) for each lab instead of bits and pieces like 1811. You NEED to go to TA office hours to know what they are looking for in the reports, or at least have someone else go and tell you later. 1821 also has a final exam so it's important you understand why you are doing certain things in lab and not just follow the procedures without thinking about them. Also there's clickers, because Serbulea. The 1821 labs sometimes match with the content from 1820, so they are easier to think about together than the 1810/1811 class and lab. I thought this lab was great, but it was a lot of work and it wears you down sometimes. Good Luck!

I would say this course overall is tedious, but on the bright side, you get used to chugging out a full blown lab report on an almost weekly basis. Overall, I did learn basic lab skills and reinforced some concepts learned in 1820, so it wasn't too bad. Highly recommend going to TA office hours if you can because, as you probably know, Serbulea is particular about what she wants for each report so if you want to do well, you best find out. Also she gives out snacks (at least during COVID times)!
#tCFspring2021