3.0
Quality3.8
Difficulty47%
Would Retake97
Reviews47%
Would Retake
97
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
30
4
11
3
11
2
14
1
31
What Students Say
“Not enough space to say how much I loathed this class”
CHEM161 - 1.0 rating“Professor Romine seems that he would have been a great teacher in person”
CHEM161 - 1.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
15%
Textbook Required
0%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.51 avg changeRatings by Course
CHEM741
5.0
(1)CRN60019
5.0
(1)CHEM272CHEM273
4.8
(5)CHEM162
3.6
(8)CHEM272
3.4
(10)Difficulty by Course
CRN60019
5.0
CHEM100
4.5
CHEM272
4.4
CHEM741
4.0
CHEM272CHEM273
3.8
Reviews (97)
I never had a professor who really cares about their students the way Dr. Romine does. OChem is a difficult class but he goes above and beyond to help his students pass his course by being available through email and office, making videos, and giving tips. He tells you what kind of questions will be on the exam so you know what is to be expected.
I don't think 350 characters is enough to describe how Professor Romine is an absolute gem. Professor Romine is such a great professor that makes Organic Chemistry enjoyable; something past professors at UH Manoa could not achieve. I have never met any professor who genuinely cares. Why are you still reading this? Hurry up and take his class!
Dr. Romine is easy going & approachable. He also cares for his students. His slides are the most important study resource. Read them, understand them and ask yourself why certain mechanism/reaction works but not the others. Read textbooks definitely, but use textbooks as a reference to understand his slides. Work hard and you will get a good grade
Covers mostly unimportant content in lectures. Goes over theory in lecture, but doesn't spend enough time covering the most important aspects of Ochem. I payed big money to take this class, and he used majority of class time trying to fix his mic (could barely hear him) and spent half the time talking about his wife (and still ended lecture early)
Apparently over the summer was his first time teaching (ever??) so I don't want to bash him because he is a nice guy. However, I only learned through reading the book and going through his lecture slides (which were comprised mostly of scans of the textbook anyway). He talks very quietly but just sit in the front of the room if that bothers you.
I am just taking ochem to fill up elective course. He's lecture does not explain anything. If you are serious about pass MCAT dont take his class. people can litterary get away without understanding anything on the exam and still get C and pass.
Dr. Romine is the best organic chemistry professor ever! There is no words to describe how awesome of a professor he is. He is very helpful in office hours and offers points for correction. He is also very inspirational and gets you to strive for the better, Thank you!
An excellent academic, lecturer, and person. His homework and exams were all very reasonable and his ability to effectively teach difficult course content is admirable to say the least. Very respectful and he is always happy to speak with students. Very approachable and knowledgeable. Highly recommended.
With no doubt, Dr. Romine does an amazing job explaining his lectures. He breaks it down to much more simpler concepts. His lectures are very straight to the point. If you do your homework and actually listen to his lectures, you will indeed pass. He also tends to relate Organic Chemistry to his life during lectures which are inspirational.
No grade on curve. Drop lowest midter but Each midterm, the class avergae btw 60-63 percent, which is C. Exams so hard and tricky. Wileyplus HWs are so tuff and it requires extra money to buy Chegg to get help on HW. Lectures really are no helpful. No imformative lecture cedio. Dont take him.
By the way, he does grade with a curve. A C in any other class is a B in his. Great instructor, easy to follow along in lectures. He's very passionate about chemistry, which makes it enjoyable. To pass the class you should watch his videos, read the book, do the homework, and the optional problems. I'm taking Chem 273 with him too.
Dr. Romine strives to make you understand organic chemistry and leaves many opportunities for you to gain a greater understanding. This summer session was a little different where we had a TA review certain topics before an exam which is really helpful. Organic Chemistry 2 is definitely a little harder, but doable if you put in time for learning.
Unfair grading, he uses WilyPlus as HW, but even though the systems has a lot of errors and he promised he will recover the errors later, but he didn't recover those at final saying that only few students have those errors. If you email him about HW errors, he definitely will yell out to you "don't email him about HW". and No CURVE on exams no EC
I love this professor, as much as he wants the students to learn, he cares for all of his students on an individual level. He believes anyone can understand basic to advanced chemistry and is a "No Student Left Behind" kind of professor which is very rare to find these days. It's best to as for help if needed, But he explains the lectures very well
I'm not going to bash Professor Romine; he's a swell guy on the whole. However, his class is a doe-eyed college freshman's worst nightmare. Not his fault of course, but the website he uses for homework is awful. He is passionate about his teachings and really wants you to learn, but 3 midterms is excessive for any class. Have fun teaching yourself!
Online class format is very bad. Students are all having a very hard time. Rude in emails regarding questions from the students.
Terrible at teaching, all he does is follow the online manual and lectures from macmillan achieve (awful for hw and tests). At least there's too many kids in the zoom for him to take attendance. Laggy tests on zoom leads to the impressive class average of 55%. He teaches like you already know chem which is ridiculous for an entry level chem class.
Romine's lectures are dry. Get ready to teach yourself because Romine is not much help, he has no study guides or anything before his test and recommends just reading and going over prev hw problems before taking his tests even tho the class has struggled to pass his test. The website he uses, Macmillan, takes 20% off each attempt which is hefty.
Professor Romine had terrible lectures over Zoom. All of his lecture slides were screenshots from the textbook, and he did not work through examples all that well. For exams, he had about 200 students share their screens over Zoom, which made the exam really laggy. For the homework and exams, he used WileyPLUS, which is super glitchy and laggy. Bad
Taking notes was difficult during lectures so I always had to do it before or after class. The exams would have been better if I knew what to study. In one of the exams, I focused on the chapter I didn't understand and then there wasn't even a question on it. I think this class would have been a lot easier in person.
Professor Romine seems that he would have been a great teacher in person. Unfortunately, because of the COVID situation and the shift to an online platform, his lectures are boring and dry, the homework system, Macmillan Achieve, is awfu, and the tests are extremely laggy as he has 200 students turning on their cameras and sharing their screens.
Jeffrey Romine is a stand up guy. His lectures sometimes do not explain the material as well as they should, but I would take Professor Romine for O chem over any of the other professors. You can tell that he really cares, and is a really friendly guy. Read the book when in doubt, all his lectures are directly out of the book!
The lectures are not helpful as he just does a copypasta from the textbook. You are better of reading the book and practicing on your own, instead of wasting your time with his dreadful, monotone, dialogue. The homework/tests/book was on WileyPlus.
Not enough space to say how much I loathed this class. Auto graded homework system which only takes specific answers, his lectures are just him reading the slides with little extra input. He is not very engaging and for exams requires students to turn on their cams and share their screens among 12 other requirements on his bullet point list. Avoid.
Very nice but very difficult.
One of my favorite chemistry professors at UHM.
Very straightforward. Some concepts require outside research and study, but Professor Romine lays a good base for the material.
Professor Romine is an amazing professor! He did a great job of making the material accessible and really cares about his students. It is very obvious that he wants his students to succeed not only in this class but in future chemistry classes. Highly recommend him as a professor and I will definitely take his classes in the future.
Professor Romine was definitely a one-of-a-kind professor. He explained the content of this course very well and even gave us examples during lecture to prepare for our homework assignments and three midterms. He really cares about his students and only wishes the best for them. Just study the homework problems and you should be alright.
I took chemistry 161 while classes were online because of the pandemic so my point of view might not be the same as those who took it in person. However I think Dr. Romine did an excellent job teaching the course. Homework was sometimes difficult but very similar to tests. Tests are curved and he drops your lowest one at the end of the semester
THIS IS A WARNING. If you want to pass chem with a good grade take the other teacher. I wish I had more words to describe how much I regret taking this class with him. He is extremely disrespectful when answering emails. He doesn't care if his students pass or not. He only takes from the textbook and almost 80% of your grade will be just tests.
Advice from summer 21 async. His Lectures summaries only. READ THE BOOK theres no other way. Have a study buddy as smart/smarter than you so yall can learn from each other, less anxiety. Email Romine ur questions, however simple/long bc he replies. Do lots of practice on rxns to familiarize. Doable over summer w/ lab but take off summer if can.
Warning: O-chem will be hard regardless of instructor. Dr. Romines lectures should be treated as reference material, that you can access at any time via YT. His exams are hard, but not impossible as they are similar to the HW. Easy C, Hard B, Extremely hard A. Dont fall behind! Read the textbook, do your HW, and drill practice problems!!
He mainly just reads off of slides that are a copy of the textbook. He's obviously very proud of his accomplishments like publishing a paper, good for you, but your students struggle to stay afloat in class and that's shameful. He needs to find better websites for homework, if he's going to make homework more than 10% of your grade. good luck
Ochem is going to be a challenging class no matter who the professor is. With that being said, I think he did a good job! Course was organized, no class the day before exam, and lowest exam score was dropped. What he expects from students is very reasonable. Best advice is to do practice problems!!!!!
Nice guy, but I could not tell you one thing about chemistry after this class. You can just read the slides he emails you the day before class instead of attending the lecture and get the same info. If you fail the midterms, you're effed. Tests formatted off the homework. Know how to do those and you'll be ok. My advice though? Pray. Good luck haha
Tons of topics at one time but he doesn't explain them well. Minimal info on the slides and if you ask a question he usually just restates what he said... not very helpful. Homework and tests have some questions that I thought were much harder than in-class stuff. I felt like I only passed because I took a gen chem class before at another school.
I genuinely do not know what I learned in this class. Everything felt like a blur because the professor restated things out of the textbook and made no further explanations. I struggled so hard in this class. oh and homework is graded off accuracy so even when youre trying to learn, you get marked down :)
Dr. Romine's course is very exam heavy, but he drops your lowest midterm! He's also very fair and impartial when it comes to the types of questions that appear on the exams. For the most part, if he didn't go over it in lecture, it won't be on the exam. Best way to study for exams is to redo the homework. Also, exams are open notes! Even the final!
I really enjoyed Professor Romine's chemistry 100 class. He explained a lot in details about the material we were learning in class so I could complete my homework on time and do well in my midterm and final exam. I would highly recommend his class and if you have any question just ask him and he would break it so you could understand it better.
Professor Romine clearly states his expectations. His grading scale is better than most class however, he does not curve. Most of your grade will depend on tests which are proctored when the class is offered online. If you put in the work you could probably get an A. He allows notes on the tests.
Dr. Romine's teaching style forces you to be more self-directed. He always posts his lecture slides, so you can refer to them at any time. However, most of class time is him reading directly from the slides and then he answers questions at the end. Be sure to read the textbook and complete your homework. Most of your grade consists of exams.
Lectures are him reading directly from slides. He does have a slightly adjusted grading system (regular C+ is instead a B-, a regular B- is a B, etc.) which is nice but he does not curve, ever. The homework is a bit of a headache (MacMillan) and reduces points for every wrong attempt. 82% of the overall grade is 4 exams.
Nice guy, but learning is entirely self-directed. Lectures are just him reading from the slides, but he does answer questions at the end. Read the textbook, and do the practice problems in the textbook (Macmillan). Re-do the homework to study for the tests.
His lectures are read directly off of slides, and I'm not entirely sure if any of his inputs cleared up any misunderstandings, as he just repeated what was on the slides. He uses Macmillan for homework, which is garbage, as he set it to take off 1/5 possible points you can earn per question if you get it wrong. He does drop the lowest exam though.
Professor Romine clearly knows the material well and is a very, very educated man. However, this does NOT translate well into teaching. The lectures are reading directly from the slides and the HW doesn't really mirror the lecture too well. Overall, a nice/smart dude, but comes off as very blunt and uncaring. Also, he doesn't curve.
You're better off skipping lectures and learning from the textbook. And don't bother using the homework for studying, they won't help. It's nice that he drops the lowest midterm and curves, but the fact that I wasn't confident in getting a 50% on the final says a lot. One of the better chem professors, but that just shows how bad the department is.
This class is a 'plug #s into a calculator' chemistry class. His lectures are extremely boring but they do help. 2 exams, 1 final. The questions are like the homework problems. Nothing bad and nothing good about this professor. He is a solid choice if this class is just to meet a GE req.
Very hands off instructor. Feels like a self taught course. The grade is made up on 2 mid term exams, a final and online homework with no extra credit or interactive assignments. He reads off his lecture slides and each student is on their own for homework and learning from the textbook.
This was one of the most impactful courses I've taken. Dr. Romine was accessible (office hrs daily) & even helped me develop a good study plan for his course. If you pay attention during lectures & do the homework/readings, you'll do great. He cares and often includes anecdotes that helped me gain a further appreciation for the field of chemistry.
Professor Romine clearly knows the material he teaches. In lectures he uses his slides and they are quite challenging to understand especially if you do not have prior knowledge. However, he was always willing to answer my questions after class If you show effort and willingness to learn, then he is more than happy to help.
Dr. Romine is a very knowledgable professor with background in the subject he teaches. His teaching style takes some getting used to, but once you get a feel for it you will do well. Material itself is difficult so you need to put in the work in order to get a good grade, and his tests are written to make sure you deserve it. The textbook helps.
Dr. Romine is very knowledgable on the subject. He also posts the lecture slides before class which is really useful when it comes to taking notes. Ochem is a difficult topic but I felt like Dr. Romine really wanted us to succeed. It's very possible to pass if you put in the effort, but to get a good grade you'll have to put in a lot of extra work.
Dr. Romine has a lot of experience with working in the field of organic chemistry, so he is very knowledgeable. Its a hard class, but if you put in the effort, you'll do well. Dr. Romine is also available if you need help/want to review tests. He tells you what/how you need to study for his class.
Be prepared to teach yourself all of chemistry. While he does provide slides during his lectures, he is so quiet you can't hear a word he says. Even if you did hear him, he just reads off of the slides, adding virtually nothing of value. He will go over very basic concepts on the lecture slides, but the homework will be much more difficult.
Absolutely amazing literature teacher, the best I have ever had. He is amazing at reading off his slides but he has to work on his public speaking as he is difficult to understand even with a microphone. He might be a nice and smart man but that does not mean he is a good educator. Lectures are fast paced and unintelligible, you are on your own.
Get ready to do homework for 3-6 hours per assignment with no instruction. UH Jeff as their poster-boy for chemistry. He reads one-size-fits-all PowerPoints that'll bore you to death. Zero engagement. 350 students per class, no one dares ask a question. Most people are trying to struggle though the HW during lectures. He is a nice guy though
He just reads of the slides and expects the audience to understand. Not engaging at all.
The professor is passionate about the subject, however, he is nearly impossible to hear even if you're sitting in the front row. He also just reads off the slides pretty much. If you don't already have a strong background in chemistry, you would need to either read the textbook regularly or get tutored in order to get good grades.
He is a very nice guy but not a great professor. You can raise your hand but he won't answer your questions. The exams are pretty rough, the class average for the most recent exam was 62% which isn't even passing. Personally would say this is a teach-yourself class.
Romine's lectures are not at all helpful for completing the homework, nor are they helpful in preparing for exams. He has three exams, the highest two of which are counted towards your grade- excluding the final. He said it was normal that a vast majority of the class failed the midterms, and overall it was more of a self-taught chemistry course.
Romine is a good man but horrible teacher. People will tell you that a grade of a C is normal for a chemistry class but I don't believe that it should be this bad for a Gen class. So unless you can teach yourself the entire course from a useless textbook and barely applicable homework assignments, go for another professor.
He seems to take pride in the fact that majority of his class tends to fail. He always does the bare minimum (just reading off the slides; doesn't avidly encourage students to see his office hours; barely responds to emails). Chemistry is all ready a really hard course and Romine makes it just as hard to learn the material. Completely self taught.
Lectures are not at all like the homework. As a non-science major just looking to get the credit, by far the hardest class I could have ever chosen. Do not recommend, you will have to teach yourself virtually everything. My science major roomate didn't even understand parts of my homework- and this is an intro class.
homework is retakable until you get 100% 4 exams, hard if you're good at chemistry don't worry, if you're not then good luck
Change professors, he won't teach you. I had bug problems with the homework and he did not care. He will not teach you anything, you can't hear him in class, and the homework will take you 3-5 hours. If the test is in person good luck because it's harder than hw questions. The class averages were 62% (D+). Just take another professor!!!
Lecutres were hard to hear, but he only read off of the slides. Homework takes hours and is nothing like the slides he teaches off of. In person tests are also incredibly hard; not enough time for the difficulty and amount of questions, nothing like the homework or slides. Textbook is hardly useful either.
Dr. Romine is a great chem teacher who cares about his students. He gives good and thorough lecture slides which significantly help on the homework and tests. He is available for help if you need it and is quick to respond to your emails. The homework prepares you for the tests and helps you to apply the concepts taught in the lectures.
Dr. Romine' class was one of the best courses I have taken, even though it will take a while, learning how to solve and understanding how to solve each problem in the homework's will help prepare you for the exams which count for most your grade but if you put in the time an A is definitely achievable!
Freshman year fall semester I took chem 161. I am an A student and barely passed the class with a C-. Lectures are where you learn all of the material and his voice can not project so if you are not in the first row you can not hear. I went to some office hours and I should have utilized that more. Super nice guy who loves to talk chemistry!
Could barely hear the professor from the back because his mic was muffled, so if your'e not sitting in the front... good luck. His class was test heavy so you have to go to the lectures to actually understand what you are doing. I was able to pass with a B- while using notes on his tests.
Overall, I think that Dr. Romine was an okay chemistry professor. He wasn't particularly amazing nor bad. I think it is difficult to be a "good" professor in a large lecture class because there are simply too many students to give enough attention to. Be prepared to study the lecture slides outside of class to do well on tests.
About as fun as you can make chemistry.
Dr.Romine is definitely a professor that knows his stuff. All his lecture presentations included pretty much all the important information you'd need to do the all homework and exams. He's very enthusiastic when talking about chemistry and is willing to answer questions inside and out of class.
Great teacher. He cares about his students and makes it difficult, but do-able. He made me want to teach chemistry and actually made me enjoy chemistry this semester.
Dr. Romine knows chemistry and is very passionate about the subject. The lectures go off slides and the textbook online is there to supplement his lectures to hone in skills on the topics. Homework can take some time to complete but it is nothing that is too much to handle. Dr. Romine is there for his students, you can earn an A, it'll take effort.
Lecture attendance is not mandatory, but I found it beneficial. Dr. Romine takes questions during lecture and clarifies further after lecture with additional info/videos. Notes were allowed during exams, which was extremely helpful. There was homework, but not too much. His teaching style worked for me. I put forth medium effort and got an A-.
Great teacher! I Always felt like he was willing and able to help me succeed inside and out of the classroom and always responded within a timely manner to emails! Only critique would be that he talks a bit quietly sometimes and in a big lecture it can be hard to hear. Other than that great teacher who I would highly recommend!
Dr. Romine was available to answer questions after class and during office hours. He certainly cares about his lectures and is very passionate about chemistry. The tests were reflective of the lecture and homework (which sometimes took 1-2 hours to complete). If you could do and understood the homework problems you would do well on the test.
Chemistry can be difficult, I myself struggled with a few concepts but Dr. Romine was there to help and it allowed me to earn an A-. The homework can be hard but will help you succeed on the exams. Dr. Romine is a true professional, most definitely would want him as a professor for a chemistry subject again.
Part of the homework was on the lecture slides. Class was pretty average, i just suck at chem but Romine is very self aware and I appreciated him doing summer for chemistry. Curves during summer classes, drops an exam during the semester classes. Also v sweet n kind!
Lecture halls are pointless to go to as u can barely hear him and he only reads whats on the slides which is just surface level information like formulas and doesn't actually explain what's going on in the equation. HW is nothing like what's taught in class. Worst part is the tests as u don't have enough time for the amount of work you have to do.
Took this course as online synchronous. He does rely on the slides a lot, so all of the information you need for the exams are posted on the course website. To prepare for the exams, I did the homework and the example problems. His expertise shines through whenever you ask questions about chemical theory.
Used a mic, but talked so quietly you couldn't hear. Didn't teach material well and didn't teach what was needed to complete hw/tests. Class average test scores were iirc ~60% for the first test and then 34% for the second test (AFTER he added 10 pts to everyone's tests). I have not heard of a single person who passed with any grade above a C.
It's very difficult to understand him during lectures since he spoke super quietly. You have to sit in the front to understand him better. His lectures aren't mandatory and it's all from the textbook, but I would attend all of them if you want to attempt to understand chemistry. I had to spend a lot of time outside of class to understand chemistry.
Dr. Romine is very knowledgeable and passionate of Chemistry but I would not recommend taking a class with him. Lectures consist mostly of him reading directly off his lecture slides. I was able to pass with a B+ (curved), but learned more from watching YouTube videos and reading the textbook rather than his lectures. Weekly HW, 3 exams, and final.
Prof. Romine is a charismatic professor who loves Chemistry He can be very quiet with a mic on & tends to repeat whatever is shown on the slides. His teaching uses Macmillian HW Q and Lecture Notes. After every open note exam, the score came back the same day & allowed students to come & compare the answer key during his office hour. 9.5/10 :D
Even though he is more on the quiet side with a mic, Dr. Romine knows his stuff. All his slides were available for students to review and his exams are open note and based off hw and lectures. In addition, he lets you review your exam after to ask questions and offers assistance. As long as you put in the work, the class should be reasonable.
Dr. Romine is an ok professor. Exams matched the homework assigned, was open note, multiple choice, and graded very quickly. He was available after lectures to look over the exam key. Lectures can be very fast and it was difficult to understand him. Problems werent explained well so solving hw problems were self taught. Exam also often had typos.
He constantly mumbled during lectures and I couldn't hear him even in the front row. The thing that saved my grade was skipping lectures altogether and reading from the textbook to understand the homework. The homework would spontaneously have very difficult questions that even tutors struggled to understand. I would not recommend him.
Dr. Romine is a nice, smart, and passionate guy, no doubt. I just wish I could say positive things about his teaching! During lectures, he is not easy to hear and mumbles constantly. He also just reads off the slides and rambles a bit. The only reason I was able to get a good grade was because I skipped lectures and read the textbook on my own.
He's okay, I felt as if I was teaching myself most of the time. He is very quiet during lectures and his classmates tend to be loud so didn't attend much. He mainly just reads off slides, you could pass the class if you don't attend and teach yourself and stay dedicated.
Very nice professor who lets you go to office hours with any questions from exams. Attendance is not mandatory but his lectures closely align to exams so it would be helpful if you attend. I felt like he stayed on topic pretty well and lectures were easy to follow.
Professor Romine is a knowledgeable instructor, but his quiet demeanor and reliance on slides can make the class challenging. Staying engaged and using resources like the textbook and Unstuck ai are key to succeeding.
I'm a senior in computer science, and he was the worst professor I've had in my entire 4 years of college. He seems nice, however does not care about his students or helping them even if you go to office hours. He mumbled and when we told him we couldn't hear him, he did not care or change the microphone. I would recommend any other chem professor.
Took 161 & 162 with him after getting A's in chem at my previous school. His average exam scores were 40–60%. He reads off slides, doesn't teach or do examples, and is rude if you ask for help. Office hours weren't helpful. Would not take him again. Amy Fuller and Kumashiro are way better. Take them if you want to actually learn chemistry. - Senior
He's very quiet and isn't good at lecturing. I would recommend Jill Fuller, I've heard better things about her class and her average exam and hmwk scores are usually way higher than Romine's.
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
15%
Textbook Required
0%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.51 avg changeRatings by Course
CHEM741
5.0
(1)CRN60019
5.0
(1)CHEM272CHEM273
4.8
(5)CHEM162
3.6
(8)CHEM272
3.4
(10)Difficulty by Course
CRN60019
5.0
CHEM100
4.5
CHEM272
4.4
CHEM741
4.0
CHEM272CHEM273
3.8