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She's a mediocre professor at best. She once marked me wrong because my k wasn't small enough for a chemical equation. She's a horrible marker, but the labs are fun.

One of the worst profs Ive come across. Makes things seem way harder than they are. Ruthless grader, its as if shes just waiting to dock points for the most minor errors. Somewhat condescending. Did horribly in the course because her teaching confuses me for the most part. Id rather have Gaia teach the lectures cause she explains so much better

She was the worst professor I've ever had. She doesn't give out blank notes so her lectures are a surprise to everyone including herself. If you want to ask a question, don't, because she judges you instead of helping you. I would highly recommend taking this course in the summer with another prof or a different school.

The in person lectures were useless because she was completely unorganized, even the videos were only okay. She doesnt teach or give any examples that are at all similar to the tests. I honestly lucked out with my grade. Be sure your very self motivated if your going to take her class!

A lot of self taught, mostly self taught actually. Not a big fan of "boat", "chair", and "UFO". There is physically not enough time to thoroughly and confidently answer all the questions on an exam, the minimum time should at least be class length, but it isn't even that. Also, sky diving is overrated, need a nap, -0.25/5.

hard course and her teaching just made it even harder

In her lectures she would beat around the bush of the topic? She always shows examples instead of actually explaining the concepts or telling us what to learn. She does not give exam questions! instead expects you to buy her "supplementary notes". So when revising we only have capa qs, which are so much easier than the exam qs

One of the worst profs I've had since starting university. She does not explain the material well during lecture, and I had to self-teach myself most of the course. She regularly answered questions with half answers, with "yes and no" being her go-to response. The supplemental notes are a must-have to do well in this course.

She never explained things just did a demonstration on the board assuming we already understood the concepts. There were posted lecture videos which was helpful. The exam was worth 60% but there was still a good amount of homework that had to be done

Be prepared to teach this course by yourself. She doesn't give us practice questions for us to study for the exams. When you attend her concept room hours, she doesn't clear our doubts. She wants us to figure out the answers on our own by studying her videos and supplementary notes. She's a tough grader and there's less TA's who explain OCHEM.

I just finished the CHEM 2401 final and I definitely failed. I have never felt like this over an exam before. She says to buy her supplementary notes as they have practice exams and tests yet the practice exam in the supplementary notes was nothing like the exam. The majority of the exam was on a topic she started teaching the last 2 weeks of class

The final exam was ridiculously hard and basically only covered the last 2 weeks of course material. It is worth 55% of your mark which is completely unnecessary as there are multiple tests throughout the term

The final today was tragic. worth 55% said to be cumulative yet 50% of it was material learned the days before class ended. A lecture was missed because of a snow storm and the material on that lecture was on the exam even though there was no examples/updates at all. looking at past reviews this teaching team can't do anything right it seems.

The final exam was brutal, worth 55%, and focused on content learned 2 weeks before class ended, prof was condescending and unhelpful when asked clarification questions, the questions didn't come even close to the supplementary notes and were unnecessarily hard. I went into the final with a 95 in the course and I'm pretty sure I failed the final.

Every day this prof reminds me PhDs are not teaching degrees. I believe I would learn better from a rock. Up until the final, everything was fine. She was never a good prof but the tests were manageable. Not a single person walked out of that final confident they even passed. People who went in with a 998% avg are now scared they will fail. Awful!

Allison's ranking is not as high as it seems. She has another profile on this site with her last name misspelled as "Thomson". Don't see her semi-decent ranking and think she's good. She is the worst prof employed at Dalhousie. She laughed at students who were crying in her final!

Alison's final exam is unfair and doesn't test students' understanding of the material. Over 50% of the final exam content was on material that was 'taught' less than a week before the exam. No one I know is confident they passed the final, despite having an A+ prior to. This is absolutely ridiculous and in no way benefits our education.

atrocious final. all I can say.

writing this after just taking the 55% final, went in with an 85 avg, most likely just failed the final and therefore the course, that i need for my degree. she doesn't know how to teach, cannot explain concepts properly, final did not represent the midterms at all.. she crammed the final topic we learned in two weeks which made up 75% of the final

Absolutely ridiculous 55% final. She crammed in a whole chapter in the last week of class and then made well over half the exam on it. Don't know a single person who thinks it went well or the exam was fair.

The final exam was the worst exam ever, worth 55% and is 80% stuff we have only just done in the past few weeks. Completely unreasonable, went into the exam with a 95% and came out thinking about what I'm going to do when I dont even pass the exam and have to retake it next year. Everybody I've spoken to thinks this

if you wanna pass this course, dont go to class until the last two weeks because thats all the final exam is!

Her teaching is extremely unhelpful and is completely on you to study on your own time. Lectures are useless and all she does is stand and draw some ridiculous molecule. What is taught DOES NOT show up on exams or is it evenly distributed through all topics covered. Shed be better locked in a lab with no socializing.

This woman was high as a kite writing up her final. I've never had a prof so incapable of teaching. Be prepared to teach yourself EVERYTHING and a 55% final based purely on topic 6, which for us was taught in a week, with a missed class. You would be better off finding an imaginary person to teach you this course, and lord knows you'd do better.

More tears on my final than writing. Think I scored a solid 10%. Unfair since upper-year students said their final exam in previous years was an easy 90% and was taken on Capa. idek what to do with myself now.

Might be one of the worst professors this university has to offer. She is the worst type of teacher, basically a self-taught course. She made the midterms simple and made the toughest final exam I've ever written in Dalhousie. She rushed topic 6 and half the exam was about that. She had me rethinking my life choices mid-exam. BRUTAL EXAM!!!

Before the final exam I felt confident in the material Alison presented to us in class, but after writing that exam I may have to rethink my whole major. The final was 80% of topic 6 (which we learned the last 2 weeks of class) and the topic 6 questions were VERY challenging. I don't recommend taking this class unless you need to ... good luck!

I was prepared to write a decent review for her until I wrote the final exam (worth 55%). Her method of "lecturing" is just doing examples with no background info. She posts videos and you can buy practice questions that are similar to the midterms to make up for awful crap lectures. The final was insanely hard causing my first Dalplex panic attack

Be prepared to find all the extra help that you can get because she definitely does not prepare you for the final. She loved to draw molecules without clearly explaining mechanisms during the lecture. However, the TAs and the lab team are extremely helpful and kind. If I fail the final, this was a poor use of my time, effort, and money.

The final was worth 55% and based heavily on the hardest parts of unit 6. You need above 40% on the final to PASS the class(ridiculous). You need almost a 70% in the class to even move on to the second semester! What was the point of any assignments/midterms, for fun? Even if I end up passing, I'm not paying over $2000 to re-do it for a better mark

Just so y'all know. You have to get above 65% in 2401 to even take this class. I definitely won't be able to. Some people may have to rethink majors if they don't want to spend tons of money and time re-doing 2401 to just get a better grade. Also she was laughing at students crying during the exams... :)

worst thing to happen to me

The worst prof I've seen so far at Dal. Very poor teaching capabilities. Avoid this course if possible. For the prof to laugh at students who are crying during the final exam is simply inappropriate behavior. God only knows the connections she has made to keep her position thus far because it certainly isn't due to her competency as a prof.

The final exam was horrendous, spent the majority of it debating if I should drive off the McDonald or Mackay bridge afterwards. Had an 83 going into the final worth and u need at least a 40 on it to pass the class, no one I knew felt like they got above 40. Here lectures are not helpful. teachers rude. wouldn't recommend it to my greatest enemy.

no amount of chit chat could've prepared me for this final.

Went into the final with a 95%, I believe I failed the course after taking it. Hardest exam I've ever taken. She is terrible at explaining and doesn't mention SO many key points. 80% of the exam was taught in the last 2 weeks, much harder than all the practice material. If you get less than 40% on the final, you fail the course. Very unreasonable.

professor Alison Thompson can't understand normal thinking!

The final exam for this course did NOT accurately represent our knowledge of course content. Typically midterms are harder or equal difficulty to final exams, not this one.. People hugged and cried after it saying "See you next year" knowing they didn't get above a 40%. Truly a disappointment for all the students who had studied so hard to do well.

Chem 2401 seemed "alright" until the final. The term tests were manageable and mostly fair. but cramming the longest/most difficult topic in the final week to have it be 3/4 of the final exam is wild. with other exams and heavy final lab reports it was difficult to find a week for studying. and to have that time feel meaningless sucks.+labs r lame

Organic chemistry in Dalhousie is a joke and the quality of teaching in this department is so very low. They're on a spree to fail all students, basically.

On the first day of class, she told us to drop orgo if we didn't need it because more students were still trying to register for it... babe do you really think we're taking orgo for fun? She's gonna need a bigger auditorium next year since half our class is retaking it in the fall after that final! Props to her for giving dal more money tho!

womb womp

What is there to say that hasn't already been said? If you excel in a class by vigorous self-study and learning by yourself, you'll probably come out of this course ok. The exam being worth 55% was completly inexcusable to being with; this is beyond a weed out course, it's a money grab.

This professor is the worst one I've ever had. The only thing I learned in that class is that I wasted too much money just to take an exam that left people crying and contemplating a different program. So unreasonable its genuinely disappointing

i have never felt more like a failure than spending day and night for almost a week studying for the final only to go in and confidently answer a single question. she doesn't even teach you anything in class, it's essentially all self-taught. not worth the stress. i will never retake this class as long as she is teaching it. AWFUL PROF!! AVOID!!

The worst one I've had so far! I'm hoping to never have a class again with her. She tested us on something she taught us literally 3 days before the exam.

The final exam felt like an attack from the back

The final was cursed. 80% of it was questions on stuff we learned in the last week of the semester, and were 10x harder than even the hard practice problems. Final exams should be testing your comprehension on the general topics from throughout the course. L prof + ratio

if youre thinking of taking chem 2401 next year, good luck getting in, because theres going to be our entire class retaking it bc of how unfair that final was

Everyone worked so hard all semester then that hard work got completely wiped away from an incredibly difficult final. We were like sheep getting led along only to fail in the end. Would not recommend

I just did the final for this class and it did not seem fair at all. Most of the exam was the final chapter of the course, which was the hardest one and the class that we had only just learned. Also a 55% final is just laughable. Very disappointed as Im sure many other students are.

need to reconsider my major over a course thats not related to it. crazy weed out course. except i think this course weeded everyone out so maybe add an extra section next year so people dont have to fight over seats when they have to repeat it. also get us a new prof please alison should go chit chat somewhere else. end of my academic weaponry

I'm able to recognize when an exam is fair and the final was NOT a fair exam. It wasn't meant to test our understanding of the course content and instead seems that it was made for students to fail. I have never experienced an exam like that before. I also have never seen anyone, never mind a prof, laugh at students who are in distress. Crazy!

She has no idea how to teach...pretty sure she gets off on students failing her class

goodbye to my dreams of keeping the door open in chemistry to help me get future jobs. i don't even know what to do now with just a biology degree... thanks prof!

was fine until the final. she crammed lecture material that we learned less than 5 days ago and chose to test only that material. no one walked out happy.

I think I can speak for most of us that nothing... NOTHING could have prepared anyone for this final exam. 80% of the exam was on the last topic (which she had barely taught). BRUTAL. This is not supposed to be a self-taught class, and I expected more from a PhD professor. Upsetting to say the least.

Her lectures were confusingly random, with little logical flow or clarity. It is definitely necessary to buy the supplementary notes to supplement the little amount of teaching that occurs. She taught us the material that was covered on half of the final exam during the last week of school. Half of this material was a self-study during a snow day.

Completely unfair. Spent more time in the final rethinking my degree path rather than actually trying to come up with some type of answer for her absurd questions. No amount of studying could have prepared us for that. I will definitely be needing to have a chit chat with an advisor on how to avoid Alison Thompson for the rest of my life

I had 95 going into that exam and knowing that I will have to take it again next year after failing that final makes me want to cry. Hard work ALL SEMESTER just to make the exam impossible is cruel, not to mention unfair. Studied for weeks for this when I could've been studying my other STEM subjects and it was all for nothing. AVOID AT ALL COSTS

I had a 98 average going into the final, and I have no idea if I even passed the course at this point. If you're not an F student already, she'll turn you into one.

Drop the class

didnt do well on my other very challenging final tonight because i was so focused on studying for alisons class only for her to make the final downright impossible and then laugh at students struggling. awful human being and professor. wish we had a different option of professor for a course required for many other degrees

Class instruction was okay, on the disorganized/mediocre side, but the final exam was psychotic

I can't even express how much I despise this prof. This final was meant to save my grade because I wasn't doing well on her other exams. She ruined my chance to do well in the final and now I'm failing as a result of her. She tells us to "make our own questions"as she refuses to provide us practice questions.

This woman can't even explain things properly. When I attend her lectures, it's as if she's talking to and teaching herself at this point. Her lectures are so unorganized and her videos are not as useful or in order. There are barely any TAs who explain organic in the concept room. Alison doesn't answer our questions even in the concept room.

She fails to comprehend that we are only second year students, not PhD candidates. She doesn't go over the basics of the curly/curved arrow mechanism or other complex subjects. We're basically learning organic for the first time. I feel her rushing the section rather than explaining the information. She needs to see ochem through our eyes.

It is an insult to the academic institution of Dalhousie University that Alison Thompson is a professor. She rushes through topics, and answers questions with unrelated tangents. She talks down to the students, and come the final exam, made a majority of it impossible - basing it off the final topic, which she only spent a week sloppily "teaching"

Horrible. Went into the final with an A, probably failed the class after the final. She has made me reconsider my entire degree and made my want to transfer out of Dalhousie all together.

Went into the final with an A and just calculated my grade and I finished with a C, meaning I can't take next semester organic chemistry because you need at least a C+. The final was so unfair. She's literally setting so many people behind. I heard a lot of people are going to the dean. I will never take a class with her again unless I have to.

I never want to see this joke of a human being again. She fail me (went in with A and finished with C) and 250 other students who were unlucky enough to not hit the required C+ for next semester. Dalhousie has bad profs, we all know that, but when I say I'd rather transfer than see her again I'm being dead serious. Dal needs to do better.

The worst FINAL exam in the history. She could apply for the Guinness.

Went in with an A and finished with a C-.. what a joke. Dal needs to do better.

Worst prof ever. I haven't met or gotten to study in a course worse than this because of the prof. There is nothing more to say I am done.

i am so sad. fell slightly below the 40% threshold needed to pass. if that threshold did not exist i would have passed the class even with a disappointing final exam mark. why was it so hard?? my poor gpa :(

Have never felt so clueless writing an exam, the majority of the exam content was crammed in the last week of lectures and the practice in the supplementary notes does not prepare you well for it. Also the grade distribution in the course is ridiculous, making everything but the final meaningless. Frustrated I have to redo this course.

I'm also one of the A students who are walking out with a C. When I reviewed the paper with her, she was condescending! I was fighting to get points! Before making an exam, she needs to think about her position as an educator. It ain't a crime to help your students succeed. That is what the job of a professor is; not to sit and laugh at our misery.

I cant stress over the fact that how much she lowered my self esteem with the final paper. No one talks about how hard it is for international students who r taking hard core courses like these in their second language, which is already a challenge for them and then rethinking their choice just because of one final.

dr. thompson is not a good prof. If you are forsaken with having to take her class, make sure to skip all lectures and try your best to understand the jumbled mess that are the videos posted online. in case you cant tell by the other comments, the final was extremely difficult.

If a final counts for the majority of a grade that's fine but it's unfair to make 80% of the final be harder examples of content taught 4/5 days before the exam. She doesn't provide adequate resources, her messy lectures and supplementary notes (which you have to PURCHASE) aren't enough to help you grasp the concepts you're meant to understand.

She just scaled our grades up (mine went up a letter grade) so I lowkey feel bad about these reviews now, but regardless there is no reason to make a 55% final exam very difficult in order to "weed students out". I was expecting a minimum B+ before the exam, but finished with a C with scaling after only getting straight A's all of 1st year.

supplementary notes are basically mandatory but alison writes the textbooks herself so she gets the money. not sure why she cant just simply teach it in lecture