2.5
Quality3.7
Difficulty20%
Would Retake90
Reviews20%
Would Retake
90
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
8
4
14
3
25
2
25
1
18
What Students Say
“Allen may not be the best professor, but she is definitely fair and equips students with the knowledge to do well”
CHEM1220 - 4.0 rating“Awful teacher, not clear at all”
CHEM1220 - 1.0 ratingClass Info
Attendance Mandatory
8%
Textbook Required
80%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.74 avg changeRatings by Course
CHE122
5.0
(1)CHEM211
5.0
(1)INVITEDTALK
4.0
(1)CHEM121
3.4
(8)CHEM122
2.8
(21)Difficulty by Course
CHEM211
5.0
CHEM1210
5.0
CHEMISTRY1220
4.5
CHEM122
3.8
122
3.8
Reviews (90)
The students know more about chemistry then she does. If you already are intested in chemistry I suggest taking this class since her exams and quizes are extremely easy
She tries really hard, but her lecture is dull and goes way too slowly. Her exams were easy, but you have to teach yourself or already know the material.
terrible teacher, she can't answer simple questions for the life of her, i bet shes a smart woman, but teaching wise she's horrific, and theres not better word for it!
knows her stuff, willing to help or research anything she doesn't have an answer for on the spot. lots of self-teaching from the book but she's always enthusiastic about the lecture.
The flow of the material was horrible. The teacher doesn't teach well. Being self-taught is necessary to understand any material.
Horrible
It was the worst class i have ever taken!!!
Her first time teaching 121, it was not really a good lecture. She was used to teaching high level chemistry and simply assumed that we should all know certain things. Nice woman, and helpful if you go to her, but if you aren't good with chemistry before her class...she'll lose you real quick.
shes hot
Tests were not hard, she covered all the material that was needed, and I feel she did a pretty good job explaining it all. Study the notes, do the homeworks, and you should be fine. She's hot too. Nice bonus.
One of the easiest classes ever. If you don't know how to do dimensional analysis, maybe you should go back grade school because that is about all you need to know to pass this class. That, and memorize some periodic trends. Chem 121 is extremely easy, and she is not a bad teach at all.
One of the best teachers I have had. She speaks very clearly and you get a lot out of the lectures.
I liked that class, it's one of the best that I had so far
No Comments
Very hard class, tried to be helpful, exams are impossible, good luck.
Lectures are actually helpful, but requires you to buy a $45 "clicker" for in lecture quizes. Her exams are pretty challenging, but she covers the material in class very thoroughly.
No Comments
As one of my classmates put it, "I wonder if she could pass her own exams." She does a problem on the board and doesn't realize it's WRONG until a student corrects her. She assumes you know things you don't. Test questions are really difficult. She doesn't seem to care about her students. Doesn't know the material. AVOID THIS CLASS IF POSSIBLE!!
She does entire 15 minute problems only to have a student tell her it's wrong and do it all over again.
Very easy to understand, but she doesnt always seem to know everything she is talking about, and occasionally does enitre problems wrong. also, her exams are not straighforward at all, and include things not covered in lecture...the $50 clicker is also not my favorite. :/
She sucks. She does example problems in class wrong and only tells the kids who go to her office hours that she did it wrong. On one of the midterms she did calculations wrong so that the exact answer wasn't a choice, and she didn't dicount that question either. She made the class so much more work because she sucked at teaching it
Hard class, hard exams, ****y, does alot of problems wrong which throws you off and has stuff on the tests that she hasnt even covered.
She will spend half of class going over a problem only to have a student tell her that she has done it completely wrong. Her tests were random and she is very uncleaar and goes against the book a lot even though she claims she teaches from the book. Maybe if she read it herself, she would be a better teacher.
Lectures were pretty worthless. Clicker was worthless except for the free points it got you. Her review tests were nothing like the real tests. She did examples wrong on a regular basis. Overall I would not recommend the class.
Lectures are a waste of time, as well as the clickers. She spends most of the time going over useless problems that won't be on your exam anyway. Her tests, for the most part, were extremely difficult. And, if nothing else bothers you, then i'm sure her awful pony tail will keep you distracted just long enough to pass out from boredom.
This class was very difficult. You are expected to be responsible for all the material in the book and from the lectureds. Lectures were helpful to some and not others. However they were worth a few points. Her exams were very difficult. Expect to put alot of effort into this class-no slacking.
horrible teacher; makes mistakes every lecture that throws many students off. god help whoever takes this class with her
Be prepared to teach yourself. This class was horrible. It was sad that we had people correcting our professor every single day in lecture. She even asked students on several occasions to look up the correct answers in the text and to get back to her with the answer...sad. At least her double scrunchy pony tail will keep you entertained.
very tricky exams. her goal is to trap us in every questions she sets for the midterams and the finals.
This class will not be too difficult if you read the book. Just go to her class and read the chapter instead of paying attention to her. In the time wasted in 3 classes listening to her, you could have already read the chapter at hand 2 or 3 times and know more than what she presents in lecture. It works.
Tougher class but not because she was hard. If you payed attention in 121 and learned that stuff, this is much easier. If you didn't learn that, this class will just be that much harder.
No Comments
No Comments
Bad Class Bad teacher, doesn't help students in office hours, I would avoid her if i could do it again. Material is not to bad though, just don't count on her lectures to teach you what you need to know.
Horrible notes, horrible teaching, impossible exams. My TA helped me out in the class an insane amount, giving 3 - 4 hour review sessions before exams. Labs are easier than 121. The only curve she gave was 60 - 80 C, 80 - 90 B, 90 - 100 A.. pretty lame.
Totally unclear lecturer;spends much of class going over sample problems only to realize that she left something out from the start, then goes back and redoes them all. Ends up spending about 80% of the class on such pointless examples. Exams often had no correct answer, justified by saying we should choose the closest one, or leave it blank. Avoid
This was a terrible class. It took up a lot of time and made it much harder for me to find time to work on my other classes. As for the professor, she's really pretty good compared to the other two chemistry professors I had at this school.
tests unfair
crappy teacher, just interested in research, wasted all class time doing long drawn out examples on the board, then after taking an hour on one problem, she would realize she got the answer wrong
Easily the worst class I've ever had. The Professor had no idea what she was talking about. All she did was write her notes on the board. This might've been fine if she'd be able to explain them , but someone else had clearly written said notes. Grading was easy but inconsistent.
very easy to understand, and she knows her stuff. She is very helpful, and willing to help anytime! Fun answering questions through text messages without need to buy Clickers!
This professor seems very smart and into what she does but the lectures don't actually help me to learn the material. I have to read all the chapters in the book in order to feel prepared for the exams, which is hard to do while in other classes.
She is more concerned about going to her conferences and her research than her students. She is hard to contact since she is almost never available. Her lectures are pointless, she does not show you how to do the problems, her notes skim the information and do not help. You are better off reading the book and using the internet to help.
We all know the Gen. Chem series at OSU is rough and is under review, and she helps out with that. She is a terrible professor. I knew when she asked on the first day to "avenge her reputation" on this site, that she was not going to be helpful. If you can, take another professor. You will not learn anything by going to lecture. Good luck.
Dr. Allen is a far better lecturer than other ratings here may suggest. She said that her lectures are a supplement to reading the text, which seems accurate to me. Though dedicated to her research, she is still dedicated to students if you are willing to seek her out. The course isn't the best, but as far as professors go, she's reasonable.
Take a different professor.The lectures are pointless. She does no example problems in class and if she does they are the easy ones that are already done out in the book.She didn't seem that interested in teaching;cared more about her research.
She's a nice person, but this class altogether is a horrible class! You really don't learn anything about chemistry in this class.
Biggest waste of time. Absolutely ridiculous this class exists.
If you take a class with this professor, you will ruin your grades in other classes too. She gave too many time wasting materials that wouldn't help you in the exams.
Dr. Allen is a terrible professor. Lecture is a waste of your time. She isn't good at explaining concepts, I learned more from reading the book and doing example problems myself. Only example problems she does are the easy ones that are already done in the book which at 20x easier than the ones on the exams. Take a different professor if you can
More interested in doing her research than actually helping students and making sure they understand. I advise taking a different professor if you actually want to do well in the class. Example problems she does in lecture are useless.
Dr. Allen is a terrible professor. Her lectures were truly useless. I would suggest trying to find another professor ASAP. I, personally, just read the book and got a tutor because she doesn't teach anything. Her example problems are from the book and easy. Her exams are mostly all math. She is mostly interested in her research, not her students.
Dr.Allen said her overall goal was to "redeem her rep. on rate my professor". However, with the limited time she put towards her students and the immense amount of time to her research-that was an impossible goal and she didn't succeed. i suggest a different teacher that doesn't do research & dedicates themselves to teaching.
I would not advise this professor. While a nice person, she simply is not a good teacher. I went to every one of her lectures and learned scarcely anything. She only covered the basic concepts, yet a lot of the midterms/finals involved complicated mathematical problems. Plus even though the class final average was a 56% there was almost no curve.
This professor asked us to fix her rating on here at the beginning of the semester, and while I wish I could do that, I can't. She did not teach more than basic concepts in lectures (and these concepts were covered completely and more clearly in the book), yet assigned homework and gave exams way above that basic level. Beware of this professor.
Dr. Allen is a kind and friendly professor who is obviously very passionate about her work in environmental chemistry and research. With that being said, DO NOT take a class with her teaching. She is dry, doesn't know how to explain material and gives you an addition problem and then asks you to do calculus on her exam. She is a horrible teacher.
This professor is seriously horrible! Her lectures are VERY boring and she has very few practice problems in class that are actually related to the test problems. Her tests are extremely difficult and she doesn't really care at all! BEWARE!
If you are reading this, I am assuming that you are about to take Chem 1220 next semester. Most people forget that Chemistry at OSU is extremely difficult. Dr. Allen may not be the best professor, but she is definitely fair and equips students with the knowledge to do well. The students typing these reviews were probably asleep during lecture.
I went to every lecture and she is unbelievably boring. She traveled before every midterm and the final so we could not ask her questions. If you can take Chem 1220 with another professor I would suggest it. At the beginning of the semester she said that she wanted to raise her score on this site. Well, in my opinion her score is accurate
If you read the textbook before class and come to class with any confusion she will be more than happy to help you after lecture or during her office hours. She is NOT confusing just listen and participate and you''ll be fine. Everyone giving her bad grades probably never went to class or prepared themselves. You can do it Be proactive.
Yea this class is brutal, but that's chemistry at THE Ohio State people! It's not meant to be easy, it's meant to be a filter class. With that being said, Dr. Allen was passionate about what she taught and very available for students with questions. She tried hard to connect with students and I appreciate that. Also she's a total babe.
She is a good professor and lecturer. There were two things I hated about this class: home works were all over the week, she would changed due dates and times 300 hundred times. Final was ridiculous, home works didn't help. The worst part is labs, where you will have to write reports like research papers. Yes chem classes are filtering at OSU.
Dr. Allen tried to be helpful and encouraged students to come to class and office hours (coffee, doughnuts, reminders). Although she tried to explain well, she is just too smart and a lot of what she said went over my head. Her midterms were easy compared to other professors, but her final was ridiculously hard.
Dr. Allen was always available to help and really wanted her students to learn chemistry. She offered tons of incentive like coffee and food since lecture was at 8 am. If you don't read the textbook beforehand you're not going to understand her lectures very much. The midterms were like the practice ones but the final really tested your knowledge.
I write this for Asian international student only. This is a very easy course for Asian students to take, I stopped showing up in lectures since midterm 1. She is not helpful and it's better to study by reading the book and the PPT that she posted. Lab's reports are kind of hard for international students to write. Anyway, easy to get A.
Gave her class 0 curve for the fall semester when the average for the final was a 56. Awful teacher, not clear at all. The only compounds she knows how to manipulate are O2 and N2 since she's an environmental chemist. She has no idea how to explain the other topics in this class. SWITCH OUT IF YOU HAVE HER.
This was by far the hardest class I have ever taken. DO NOT skip class. Even though her lectures are extremely confusing and poorly explained, attendance will help. Read the textbook because her notes come directly from it. She doesn't go over any math problems, so practice those! The average on the final was a 56%. Be prepared to study very hard.
She is awful!
I stopped going to her lectures because I learned nothing from her. Her "examples" usually consisted of working out half the problem, realizing she messed up, and said "but you guys get what I mean." If the practice problems we had were at a difficulty level of 4, then the midterms were at a 7, and the final a strong 10. Switch out of her class
She's a decent lecturer. You can tell she doesn't really like teaching, she likes research. Exams are just like her practice exams and she does examples in lecture that are on exam.
I only showed up to 2 lectures before the first midterm and scored 20% above the average. Never showed up to another lecture and the same happened each exam. Just make sure you do the homework, practice problems and her practice midterms before the exam and then you will do well. Her practice exams are almost exactly like the real exams.
She literally just mumbles and scribbles stuff on the board. She assumes that you already know how to do everything so she doesn't really teach the material...I don't bother attending lecture because its useless. I spent a ridiculous amount of time with chemistry tutors.
She's a pretty boring lecturer, but that's not too big of a deal. If you have a bent towards Chemistry, then her class will be no problem. Make sure to do the homework and practice midterms. I've only missed a total of 9 questions on all 3 midterms combined, a lot of that due to her practice midterms being almost identical to the actual midterms.
Dr. Allen is very straight forward in describing what the exam will be like. Sometimes she doesn't explain topics well in lecture, but she's much more specific if you attend her office hours. Also, the visiting the chem tutors a couple times a week is helpful.
Basically taught myself. Stopped going to lectures toward the end of the semester because there was no point. The practice midterms are pretty much like the actual midterm so that was helpful but other than that, 10/10 don't recommend
Pros: Streamlined useful information, was open to meeting with you to go over material if you emailed her, exams were not tricky/she let you know what you needed to study for the exams Cons: She would frequently take a lot of time going over simple problems, demos were lackluster, lectures could be boring since they were the longer ones.
Very disorganized. She will start lecturing on the board then try to use her lecture slides after. Her lecture slides are not organized at all. She will talk about something then come back to it later. She is passionate about her research, she will go off on a tangent a lot, but she is not a good lecturer. Can show up late and not miss a thing.
One thing I do want to criticize her on is her usage of the blackboard. In a class of maybe 100-200 students who the vast majority sit too far from the blackboard is it that smart to use it? Her practice exams the midterms so if you can ace the practice exams you can ace the midterms
She was a TERRIBLE professor. She is SO scatterbrained and spends 20 minutes on simple things and briefly mentions hard topics. I taught myself everything by reading the textbook and doing practice problems. The homework doesn't help at all. She's rude when you meet with her. Her exams are just like her practice exams. Didn't curve the class alot.
She is very clear and I understood everything she said. She is willing to help you if you come to her office hours or email her. Her practice midterms are super close to the actual midterm. However, she is very scatterbrained jumping from one topic to another at times. Also, she really stresses the easy stuff and does not go over the hard problems.
Dr. Allen's teaching style did not click with me at all. Her lectures are painful to listen to, and she hardly ever works through sample problems in class. Chemistry courses should not be 90 minutes of pure lecturing. I prefer seeing problems worked out, step-by-step, on the blackboard. Her midterms are pretty difficult. Find another professor!!!
Prof. Allen is not a good teacher. She works out simple problems in class, taking up class time, but does not talk about anything remotely challenging. Lectures are boring and hard to sit through; she is not very approachable. While its true that the exams bare some resemblance to her practice material, it is not enough to make any difference.
Her lectures were very dry. She does not always know how the answer is obtained on her own tests and sometimes struggles to answer students questions in a different way than it was already explained.
If you got AP Credit, don't take 1210, go to 1220. Dr. Allen has poorly organized lectures and she only does easy practice problems in class. I'd recommend a different prof if you really want to learn, but if you get stuck with her, its not the end b/c she is pretty nice during office hours. There was a 2 or 3 point curve at the end of the class
Just because you can, doesnt mean you should teach.
Dr. Heather Allen is probably one of the worst professors I have ever come into contact with. She goes over negligible material in class. I would recommend skipping lecture and using that time to study. She does not know what shes talking about and I honestly cannot fathom the University that presented her with her doctorate.
Professor Allen is one of the worst professors I've had. I can tell that she is passionate about chemistry, but she has limited knowledge about 1220 and often does not know how to answer or explain exam questions. Lectures are dry and unhelpful. If you have her, you're better off skipping lecture to study or going to Dr. Fus's lecture instead.
Lots of people hate on Allen, but shes not that bad. The class is meant to be difficult and she does her part in teaching the material. If you want to do well you have to read the book outside of class and study a lot. Not her fault that Chem 1220 is hard.
I feel bad for giving her a bad review because she is genuinely a nice lady. I just think she could do a better job at lecturing. She is very dry and not engaging, but it could be worse. I skipped many classes and found it easy to catch up because she posted her slides online.
No matter which professor you have for chem 1220, it's going to be a hard class. Dr. Allen does a good job explaining the material, especially in office hours. She's very nice and willing to help students. If you want to do well in the class, read the textbook before lecture, and go to office hours after lecture.
Class Info
Attendance Mandatory
8%
Textbook Required
80%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.74 avg changeRatings by Course
CHE122
5.0
(1)CHEM211
5.0
(1)INVITEDTALK
4.0
(1)CHEM121
3.4
(8)CHEM122
2.8
(21)Difficulty by Course
CHEM211
5.0
CHEM1210
5.0
CHEMISTRY1220
4.5
CHEM122
3.8
122
3.8