3.3
Quality2.9
Difficulty54%
Would Retake95
Reviews54%
Would Retake
95
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
35
4
15
3
18
2
13
1
14
What Students Say
“We get it: you love chemistry”
CHEM110 - 3.0 rating“Horrible at presenting the essential material”
CHEM204 - 3.0 ratingClass Info
Attendance Mandatory
25%
Textbook Required
62%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Stable
-0.14 avg changeRatings by Course
204
5.0
(1)CHEM212
5.0
(1)CHEM204
4.4
(25)CHEM111
4.0
(1)CHEM
4.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
CHEM111
4.0
CHEMISTRY120
4.0
GENCHEM
3.5
CHEM120
3.2
CHEM574
3.1
Reviews (95)
Gotta love those demonstrations! Where else are you going to see stuff explode&#
Differential Equations on Fianal...****....didnt see that coming.
No Comments
damn the derivations!! But a very reasonable man.
just love this teacher- he's grate
No Comments
excellent teacher and sooooo funny
Very nice prof, definitely one of my faves this term
I'm gonna miss this one...
Very nice, likes the sound of his own voice a little too much however...
No Comments
This class would've been the worse and hardest ever if it wasn't for him! He managed to make physical chemistry fun and easy!!!! MUST TAKE FOR EVERYONE!!! DROP CLASSES, TAKE SUMMER COURSES BUT TAKE BARRETT
Impossible midterm.. doesn't prepare you for his tests.
hard midterm...but good prof and funny guy.. nice voice.. so nice it'll lull you to sleep
good teacher, but gives hard ass tests!
Likes to talk a lot, and has a tendency to go off on irrlevent tangents. Incredibly unclear, uses examples but doesnt explain how they correspond to the concepts behind them. Worst class ever.
his voice puts you to sleep and his midterm was crazy. i taught his material to myself b/c i cudnt follow him in class. he is a nice guy though and has an odd sense of humour.
Fantastic lecturer and seems like a real good guy. However, his test questions don't always reflect the material covered.
This teacher is amazing...He is very enthousiastic and cares about his students. His exams are hard but if you put efforts you can have 100 % ( As he would say.... ). Well, you can end up with a good grade. Choose him, you will never forget him !!!
Really hot and a little sarcastic...Good teacher, but his exams are really hard
bahhhrrriiinnngg, the other chem 101 lecturers rock, he's okayyyyy. just okay.
I'm terrible at chem and didn't understand anything...but WHO CARES!!!!!! are you sure he has a wife??!!??!
Amazing, enthusiastic, fun....and perhaps a new super breed of man.
Oversimplifies topics, makes vague generalisations and is very ambiguous in his wording of exam questions.
Very entertaining lecturer, too bad I failed his exam. No really, is he married??
No Comments
I really hate this chem. professor. He's the worst one out of all the chem. professors you might have in genchem. His notes suck, and he's mean...plus, he is married so stop dreaming about it.
He's good prof, I don't know why people complain so much. His exams are NOT that hard. He might have some unclear notes, but all profs do. Overall, he's pretty decent.
Very good prof. Makes lectures interesting
Truly an amazing teacher, and he loves his job a lot.
nice guy. for the record he IS married, i know his wife.
Love this prof... probably my favorite one at McGill...too bad I hated this class and it caused me lots and lots of grief. Would have been worse if someone else taught it...midterms are brutal but it all works out in the end... final is totally doable...
No Comments
This prof. likes the environment, so he should teach about it. Not ramble about fossil fuel depletions in the physical chem. section of the course, 85% of what he talks about isn't even on the exam.
Kind and open to students. It's just too bad that his classes are boring...
He's the worst chem prof out of all 4...cool lectures not up on time, lectures were boring and totally irrelevant (the baby analogy was brutal), and he's pretty arrogant too. One word of advice: go to the tutorials even if he tells you that they're only for struggling students.
VERY disorganized! ther grades arstill not up after 3 weeks, cool lectures are messed up. and he hasn't done anything about it. Very unclear and boring... he keeps explaining one thing until he totally loose you! Not happy iwth the lextures at all!
No Comments
great guy.. course notes really sucked but i thought he tought the course well. pretty funny too!
No Comments
This guy is amazing! Definitely one of my fave profs at McGill. Totally worth getting up for 8:35am. Passionate about chemistry and a terrific lecturer...people only complain (*ahem* whine) about his exams if they didn't study hard enough cause they're really not that bad.
Seemed like he had the potential to be a good prof but definately didn't teach this class well. His lectures were boring and 80% irrelivent to the class and his notes were useless. If you have him be sure to read the text and definately go to the tutorials.
lectures are boring.he's disorganized.he doesn'tteach he rambles abt rdm**** for all his lectures.midterm a joke(except for a trick in each and every question)Go to the tutorial.you can skip every lecture and still get a 100
His lectures were always very interesting. Unfortunately they had nothing to do with the midterm. Luckily the textbook is good.
Really nice guy. I definitely enjoyed his lectures. I still haven't done an exam for him though, so I haven't got the whole picture yet. And what exactly makes him HOT??
Good guy, made his lectures interesting, and is good at relating abstract chemistry concepts into something concrete that is easy to understand. Really enjoys teaching it seems
No Comments
He's a nice guy and good speaker but his lectures and notes do not explain how to solve a lot of the problems you will be asked for on the exam. Luckily most of the material is simple enough you can learn it yourself but you do need to practice. To do well you will need to read the book and GO TO TUTORIAL!!!
Entirely incomprehensible. He goes on for the entire lecture about the environment and other useless stuff you will never need to know, but he skips over important concepts like Hess's Law and the Arrhenius equation. His material is not hard, so just attend tutorials and do the practice problems. His slides confused even the TA!
Puts you to sleep, gives terrible notes, and is unable to stay on track for more than 30 seconds. He's nice and tries to be helpful if you approach him. It's a rough transition from Mittermaier's crystal clarity to Barrett's abyss of confusion.
No Comments
Very confusing. Never teaches the theory, just jump straight into "real-world" examples and very quickly diverges. Really nice though.
His notes suck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Has a tendency to go off on confusing tangents. Didn't do enough therory, very focused to real world examples. Nice guy though.
Makes absolutely no sense and cannot stay on track for more than 10 seconds. Attend the tutorials. He is a pretty nice guy, but in terms of teaching, he is simply awful. Pray for Mittermaier's quick return.
Awful lecturer. Digress too much in class
He is such a "digresor" if there is such a word for that. Ironically, invited lecturers are much better than himself.
He likes to digress a lot. Can someone just fires him already? Oops, he got his tenure already so you will be unlucky to get him. Avoid his class.
You've really got to appreciate all the work Prof. Barrett's put into rebuilding the CHEM 214 curriculum. He presents the material in such a clear and interesting way; I definitely enjoyed attending class. His tests were also really fair; everything was basically lifted from the lectures and problem sets.
Professor Barrett has been a joy this year and his teachings have made a dreadful and boring course relatively interesting.
Clear. loves what he teaches and makes you love it. His exams are as easy as it can get and he is fair. From wat I heard from people who took this course in previous years, I was really lucky to be able to take physchem with such a wonderful prof. The thing I like about him is that, he has really made me like physchem as strange as it may sound :)
He's the best.
He uses comic sans!!
After reading the comments here and listening to some people from previous years, I took this class. BIGGEST MISTAKE EVER. Material not even close to phys chem. Tests us on stuff that he does not talk about! When someone emailed him two days before the final to ask how the long ans written final was to be graded... His answer was he didn't know yet
Phys chem should be mostly quantitative, but the prof made it completely qualitative. The stuff in this course is super blurred, and part of the stuff is not academic related. The midterms were harder than the previous ones because the course is still evolving. Memorize everything in his slides, then you can get an A.
I dreaded physical chemistry before meeting Prof. Barrett. He made the subject much more interesting by incorporating current topics! Although the evaluation based on qualitative questions can be frustrating at first, but he emphasizes conceptual understanding rather than mere calculations. Overall, he really cares and the class is enjoyable! :)
Professor Barret is one of the kindest teachers I have ever come across at the university. He is very clear, and always helpful. I highly recommend taking this class if you have interest about the subject, otherwise it may be difficult.
There are very few professors who care as much as Prof Barrett about how well their students do. He's pretty funny, and brings Timbits for the whole class! If you pay attention to lectures, and do his practice exams, it's very easy to get an A.
A professor that genuinely cares about his students. Once he forgot to record a lecture using the cool system, so he took the time to re-recite his lecture in his office and post it for students that missed the class. His exams are fairly straight forward. Be sure to do the practise problems and read the slides a couple of times and you'll be fine
He's a good professor that cares about his students, but he does not know how to teach CHEM 204. He rambles on about trivial things that honestly, nobody really cares about. He tries to "trick" students by showing false videos then using them in the midterms. Good professor, but not for chemistry.
Amazing! He explains clearly & records all lectures (he deleted one by accident and rerecorded it on his own time). His slides are extremely clear and he is probably the most approachable prof at McGill. Do the textbook questions over and over again to do well on the exam/MT's. Memorize the graphs he shows as they come up a lot.
Pr. Barrett is a good professor. Always willing to help, quite clear and really passionate about what he's teaching. I think CHEM 204 can be great for those who are interested but I hated phys chem before and still do so I had a hard time going through the course and the exams. As everything in life, you do better in things you're interested in
Thumbs up, great professor
He made phys chem really interesting by including a ton of real world applications. I thought I was going to hate the class and ended up loving it. It's much more conceptual than calculation based but he gives lots of part marks. Highly recommend over the other phys chem options. He really cares and is very willing to help.
Who cares if a prof is nice or not, what is important in univesity is the level of clarity in which the class is given. I am a straight A student, had a very hard time understanding what we were going to be tested on, ie: Surface tension was taught, 2 problem sets were given on it and not a single question was asked on the topic...
Dumbs everything down to a level where it actually becomes confusing. He covers almost no material during the lectures, but you're expected to know everything for the problem sets. I would take half a page of notes in his lecture, then go and take 6 pages from the text. Horrible at presenting the essential material. Way too animated for a Chem Prof
lovely guy!
Barely talks about the actual course content. Basically a do-it-yourself course. We get it: you love chemistry. It wouldn't hurt to actually teach us some of the material instead of going off on tangents about random stuff.
Bring your pillow to class. Just kidding don't take the hour and a half lecture unless you want to die. I watched the lectures online to not fall asleep, he also talks fast and gets off topic.
His midterm was really hard, the class average was a B(compared with our second midterm). Most of the questions people lost marks which I believe were those theory problems. So if you wanna get a good mark on his midterm, you better have to understand every point on his slides.
He seems to really genuinely care about his students; it's a shame that his lecturing skills are lacking. Going to the lectures will make you more confused. I suggest reading the textbook and then watching the lecture recording for those little conceptual tidbits he likes to put on the exam. Exam was fair and easy if you read the textbook.
He's a smart guy and his research is cool but he's not the greatest lecturer and he tests on random facts he mentions once in class that are nowhere to be found in the textbook. If it seems like he's getting off topic from the actual chemistry, he is, but you'll still be tested on it so PAY ATTENTION. Also, make sure you read the text!
He didn't make the knowledge really clear and the notes on myCourse is not always the same as the things he talked about in class. I went to every single class, but it felt like I am still learning by myself by reading textbook and doing questions.
He is a really good prof! Love him !
GREAT PROF! Explains well, very approachable if you have any questions. He's also extremely caring and attentive. On our last lecture with him he even brought Champagne to class! Regardless of the champagne, his lectures are amazing, you'll be hooked on learning his material-read the book also and make your own notes from it, it will help you :)
Really nice guy, very approachable, however his lectures are very unorganized. I found his slides impossible to take notes on, and as someone who had never learned about quantum mechanics, I found his explanations unclear. As long as you do the readings and make an effort to understand the material you should be find. Very fair midterm.
Highly charismatic. Conveys the material using the best teaching strategies.
HIS LECTURES ARE THE BEST hes super fun and explains things well. Really cares about his students and makes the subject clear and interesting. You can definitely do well on this course if you work for it.
Slides incoherent. Don't trust the guy check the videos he shows. He put a midterm q on a video he showed and turns out the video was a hoax. Read textbook, read a lot because he just loves his stupid conceptual questions. If you can't explain the material well why ask picky conceptual questions. Wow glad I got over that one!
Very interesting lectures. He makes you realize stuff and question yourself! Don't skip class, and read the chapter in advance and read them again when he finishes them.(trust me, it's worth it)
Great guy with a good dad sense of humor. Barrett always made the material interesting and his test questions were derived directly from the lectures, highly recommend copying down the notes from the slides & lecture and reviewing them before the midterm and final!
He is not clear on what is covered in the course. He doesnt have too much things to share. His talk will finish in 2 weeks and he tries to repeat every word until the last day of class. However, he is very nice and lovely teacher.
I took this course in the last semester as an engineering student. Professor Barrett is an awesome teacher in delivering materials in his lecture. Even though his test is a bit hard with a lot of conceptual questions. As a student just want to safely pass the course and enjoy the last part of uni life, Barrett is a great prof with interesting ideas
Prof Barrett makes awful powerpoints. His slides are a mess which makes it super hard to take notes... I'd definitely recommend using the textbook to really understand quantum mechanics. He's enthusiastic during lectures, but he makes some pretty bad analogies when trying to simplify things. Feels more like a high school teacher...
don't recommend... disliked a class because it was too easy. He definitely had favorite students.
Class Info
Attendance Mandatory
25%
Textbook Required
62%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Stable
-0.14 avg changeRatings by Course
204
5.0
(1)CHEM212
5.0
(1)CHEM204
4.4
(25)CHEM111
4.0
(1)CHEM
4.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
CHEM111
4.0
CHEMISTRY120
4.0
GENCHEM
3.5
CHEM120
3.2
CHEM574
3.1