He's only nice to you if you participate in his class. He was very rude when i asked him to recheck my midterm. He excludes some material from his notes and then you don't study the material thinking you're not going to be tested on it. Overall BAD professor. VERY BAD.

Horrible and boring prof. Totally unclear. Although the final was extremely easy.

Talks very loudly and angrily when doing/finishing tests. I have no idea what he is talking about when he is trying to explain equations that skip approximately 10 steps in between. Hence hard to follow. ! :( His class makes me not want to watch family guy any more.

Really, really hard exams. Spends too much time going over basics, giving little to no time to go over the hardest material at the end of the course (crystal field theory). Be ready to teach yourself almost all of the material. Gives no answer keys to any of the exams, practice or otherwise, probably so you don't ask for them to be regraded.

Failed 59 students (out of 200). The course was actually pretty easy; he was just bad at teaching it. Basically spent most lectures talking about irrelevant things (or talking about what hes going to talk about -.-). Do your self a favour and read the book at home. Should you choose to attend his lecture, I really hope you like phosphorous!

He's passionate about Chemistry, that's the only positive thing I can say about him. Uninteresting lectures, insanely difficult exams compared to the material, expects you to know much more than what he taught in class. I had to drop out of the class because it was bringing my GPA down so much.

Probably the worst prof I've had. Not clear at all, wastes too much time talking about things that aren't relevant, expects you to know the "basics" when its a course for people who have never taken Chemistry before. Doesn't care for students. To the future students taking CHEM 111 next year and he is teaching... good luck.

Unbelievably awful professor. Covers only the basics in lectures but tests on the hardest material in the textbooks. First midterm average was 41% and he did not scale. Failed a third of his class last year. The fact that he is still allowed to teach this course honestly blows my mind. UBC, give your head a shake

Doctor Gates seems to have good intentions but doesn't understand the level of the 111 class who are beginners. He assumes everyone is at his level and thus makes the evaluations and the content covered way too extensive and hard for the students.

very rude and going to class is a waste of time. Worst prof.

Plan to spend 4 hours a week doing online hwk and quizzes, worth 7.5 % of the final grade. The Petrucci textbook was difficult to understand, and had errors in it. While the ChIRP focused on "read for interest"material. This course will be hard to pass for those who without a genuine interest in Chemistry. NOT A RESPECTABLE NOR HELPFUL PROF.

You know it's bad when over 50% of class consistently gets 0% on the quizzes. Tried to convince us to drop out of the course and take Chemistry 12 outside of UBC. I get a feeling that he hates teaching this course. Tests are extremely difficult, it'll be a miracle if I pass. Lectures are mostly a waste of time, if there were no iclickers...

I had strep throat and I missed a couple lectures, when I asked him about a specific question regarding the a concept in the CHIRP he refused to answer and told me that he already went over this. Super inconsiderate, what a guy...

Get credit for Chem 12 outside of UBC (I recommend looking at VLN (Vancouver Learning Network) which offers Chem 12 online for graduated students for free.) Gates wasn't helpful at all in lectures and made me despise Chemistry by the end of the semester. He covered an entire chapter of tough material, in two lectures, the week before finals.

Please for the love of GOD do not take chem 111 with Derek Gates at UBC. I passed with a 51 percent (class average was 60). However that being said I spent average of 6-8 hours on each quiz he assigned and this class almost ruined my relationship because I was " always doing chem." Gates is unhelpful and talks down to the class. good luck!

I feel like he just was not teaching at all. He spent all the time telling you what you should learn on yourself. And loves to torture his students with the hardest exams.

Dr. Gates has made many of my friends suffer to the point of emotional breakdowns while in his office hours. Seemingly this is normal for him as he commented "I ran out of tissues this morning". Makes you feel stupid for asking questions and much of the content will have to be self taught. I failed on my first attempt.

I know you love phosphorus, but we are not here for your love toward phosphorus. I took ap chemistry before coming here but it still seems difficult to me for the last 2 chapters in chirp. He is just an awful prof and do not teach useful stuffs. Highly recommend watching ap chem series in khan before taking this class.

Dr. Gates didn't teach CHEM111 this year (UBC finally caught on I'm assuming). I failed my first attempt with him, but this year taking the same course with a different prof I got a high A... that says something about his teaching, but when you're applying for graduate schools this man single handedly may have ruined your options...

Dr. Gates was my least favourite professor in my entire first year. He is dismissive of student's questions, reads from the textbook with little deviation, and is generally too fast even when student's would ask him to slow down. The class content was difficult already, but his lecture style made the class infinitely harder than it needed to be.

His lectures are lengthy and boring and he never does examples, so it really doesn't help you at all. Too obsessed with phosphorus. Had to teach myself most of the course using the Chirp.

The material in this class is whack. Instead of teaching useful polymer chemistry techniques, he teaches learn the history of polymers and random industrial methods. The tests are also just as bad; a quarter of the questions on the test are random trivia facts and another quarter are things we didn't cover in class.

Raises his voice a lot in the classroom setting. Gets frustrated when students ask questions in the lecture. I would not recommend taking this course under this prof. On the whole, this has been the worst experience I have had with a professor so far in my degree.

Dr. Gates was my least favourite prof in my first year. All he talks about is phosphorous and goes off on a tangent almost every lecture. It was hard paying attention during his lectures but you had to go since the lectures weren't recorded and there were clicker questions. His quizzes were fair but some questions we didn't learn how to do them.

Many questions in the quizzes were not covered inclass, including some content which were clearly indicated in the textbook (written by professors of the course) that will not show up in exams. Little time to do every quiz, most quizzes are hard (avg was ~65%). While many other professors gave easy online quizzes (easy100%) that opened for a week.

he talks too much and it's not even about what we're learning

He yells a lot and gets frustrated, such a boring lecturer, with 0 engagement, I wanted to fall asleep almost every lecture! He goes on random tangents and rants.

Do your best to register for other sections

Dr Gates is not great: -doesn't have office hours -doesn't give practice midterms -his notes are unclear -and doesn't answer questions properly and called us stupid once in lecture

Tough grader

Drop him

Explains concepts in the hardest way possible. He uses math and formulas foremost instead of breaking down material into logical steps. His quizzes are nonsensical and unlike the textbook or exams. He makes you feel bad about questions and gaslights the class by saying everything is easy, even though his averages are lower than the other classes.

We didn't have graded homework, we just did the questions on the chirp which weren't even close to exam style questions. went on and on about phosphorus 2 classes before the final when we hadn't even finished the course. is boring and doesn't teach well at all, yeah we get it you're on tenure but come on dude!

He's very boring. I honestly suggest you go to a different class for lectures and just show up for the quizzes. His quizzes are difficult but they're barely worth anything so don't stress. If you want to learn, don't go to his class, attendance doesn't matter so yeah.

No, just no. Try getting a different prof.

Honestly he's a super condescending professor. I asked him a question during lecture and he made me feel awful about it - essentially just made me feel stupid for asking the question. I essentially stopped going to lectures and just taught myself the content through the chirp.

The quizes are difficult.

Quizzes are hard and not very engaging or approachable.

Very hard lecture and he has his own understanding of chem but he does not know everybody is not that clever as him

Lectures don't add significantly to your learning. I stopped attending the last few lectures. Used the CHIRP and taught myself everything in the book! Despite asking the class for questions, no one would answer because of the atmosphere. Attend for the quizzes which make up a portion of the grade, otherwise, the CHIRP is your best friend.

Every lecture there was a minimum of 4 students that were asleep in his class. He is a very nice professor, however he doesn't really make his lectures engaging as he talks a lot. Use the chirp instead of his lectures to learn, it'll help you in the long run. Oh and his quizzes are very difficult compared to the other sections.

He's deeply passionate about chemistry and cares about students -- all undone by his deeply boring lectures. Intense with tests (he gave someone a 0 for handing their test back a few seconds late). Quizzes are HARD (moreso than midterms!). I'm pretty sure grades are curved considering the challenging final. Still, go for Stirchak's section instead.

he talked about phosphorus so much he had a peee kingk #childmaltreatment #uppergyatt

Snoozefest. Fell asleep every single lecture for the first few weeks so just stopped showing up and used the textbook and watched Stirchak's posted videos. Quizzes were incredibly difficult with little time. Take a mwf section and Stirchak cause Tues/Thurs is brutal. Probably could've cared more and gotten a higher grade with another prof.

Incredibly boring and out of touch. Unfittingly difficult quizzes. Little care for students in their questions and input, frequently outright ignoring questions even when there was time to address them. Unhelpful/judgmental during office hours.

Terrible at explaining, not a good atmosphere. Makes you worse off for the midterms and finals. If you're stuck in his class, watch Stirchak videos or try to change your section. His tests are inaccurate compared to the midterm and final. My prayers are with you guys.

Found him to be very judgmental towards those who did not understand concepts on the first go. I attended all the lectures before the first midterm however when I was talking to classmates with other proffs, I learned that Derek was not teaching us all the concepts needed. After this, I started attending stirchak instead, I learnt a lot more.

If you take his class, be prepared to self study like a lot. And the only thing that will help you is watching other profs recorded lectures or chirp. He doesn't like teaching which is evident through him just reading off of slides. He skips from 1st page to like 10th in one minute. At one point, I stopped going to his lectures. worst prof.

Horrible at teaching and lectures and has a passive aggressive tone. Lecture's are so bad you are better off reading the chirp and watching stirchak's recordings. I feel worse and more confused sitting in his lectures than not attending.

the prof even teased me for giving out an example which was really rude and uncalled for

He went through his slides very quickly, without explaining the concepts clearly. Stopped going to his lectures after the first midterm. Stirchak's lecture recordings and office hours were much more helpful.

Awful, nothing else to be said.

Horrible at teaching and explaining, you're better off just learning on your own from the CHIRP. Lectures are basically chirp content but explained in a more confusing and worse way. Watch stirchak's recordings if you can't make it to her lectures, it's much better and more helpful.

Horrendus office hours, he takes 45mins to 1hr to explain one question. His explanation? Horrendus, just more confused. Very arrogant and mean, made me cry. Talks alot in lectures, once talked about his fav element for 20 mins Goes very fast over very important chapters Expect to learn on your own He's overall just big yikes, AVOID AT ALL COST!

I found his lectures useless because he often went off-topic, and made subjects much more difficult than they had to be. I stopped going to his lecture after failing the first midterm and my grades skyrocketed (just by teaching myself and watching the online recordings of the other prof).

Peter Griffin over here cares more about glazing his own works than actually teaching a class. Will spend 25 out of 50 minutes rambling about the nobel peace prize and how he met one of the winners. Tells you to pre read because he cant never cover the topics hes supposed to in class. Doesn't use a mic so gl if you're in the back of the class

Very hard to approach. Either have tough skin, or don't take his class. Although I'm sure nothing personal is going on, the way he answers questions feels derogatory to the student. Comments made to the class may also feel quite discouraging to anyone who is already struggling.

Worst Chem121 prof at UBC. Doesn't explain anything in lecture, yaps about things irrelevant to the course instead. Very rude and doesn't answer questions in class, even in office hours he's so rude, and makes you feel stupid. Stopped wasting my time at his lectures after first midterm didn't go too well, taught myself and my grades skyrocketed.

So baically if you want to understand what he is talking during class. You will need to preview every chapter in the textbook. If you do that, great! You can probably understand everything without him, otherwise, you will just sit there and don't know what is going on. He just gave a bad lecture, every few point is useful. Tip: Do self learning

Don't expect you can understand his lecture. He just gave a bad lecture which you can only understand if you preview the chapter. But if you read through the textbook you may understand everything thing by yourself. So good luck if you have his class, it just challenges your self learning skill

Run……………..

GET OUT OF THIS COURSE ASAP. He has a sense of humour, but other than that he has no redeeming qualities. He focuses on things that do not matter, you're better off just learning from the CHIRP. If possible, SWITCH INTO STIRJACK'S SECTION, or honestly anyone other than him. I wouldn't retake this course for $10 million.

During the first week, I went to him to ask about what I could do if I was going to miss a week of class and a midterm (for a legit reason, I got concession for other classes), and he told me to "get your priorities straight" and that "you should drop the class or you will likely fail". He would also ridicule students for answering wrong in class.

Dr Gates clearly cares about chemistry, but he doesn't teach the course well at all. He takes a few pages out of the ChIRP every lecture and goes over it quickly. Lectures are as boring as it gets bar a couple cool demos from the TA. Way better off reading the ChIRP word for word on your own time to learn the material.