CAN NOT TEACH! if you want to understand what he's talkin about tape the lectures and go back...thats the only way....text is not gonna help u pass the class you need to fully understand what he's talking about and trying to explain which is hard!

confusing, hard to understand....I believe I know less on this subject for having taken his class.

This man is crazy. When I took him tests consists of only 5 questions all essay...and may I remind you, it's SCIENCE. NOT FREAKING COMPOSITON CLASS.

The WORST professor I have EVER taken- hands down. This man has little rhyme or reason to his daily lectures. he jumps around a lot, is VERY unorganized, and wastes time on the most mundane details. Chai is AWFUL, period.

Horrible at explaining material. Tests are do not match the level of the course.

I dont think he does anything to facilitate learing. I dont think he knows how to properly design test so that they accurately test your knowledge. I have been through enough to know when they do this...and this ain't it. He really shouldnt teach.

Well he may not test on rote memorization and true he may test on concepts......but then there is the fact that he doesnt teach concepts either! I think he should just hand out the tests in the first week and get it over with. It would be the same.

He is disorganized and downright incoherent. It wouldnt be so bad if he would go more from the book. I don't think his tests are relevant to anything mentioned in class.

The material is interesting, but the teacher does not focuss or organize it. The test come from out of nowhere

Worst teacher I ever had. I had him back in 1999 and I can't believe he is still teaching. I actually changed majors after his class from Molecular/Micro to Chemistry. If I had to do it all over again, I would not at all. He has cost me my chance into Medical School and hundreds of thousands $$

One of the reasons not to come to UCF. Quality and consistency vary wildy among the professors. He should not be allowed to teach.

The worst professor I've ever had!!! No help at all, and we could barely understand him!

Lectures are inconsistent and often, not relevant to the material in the book or the test. Many test questions have answers that are not found in the notes, lecture or text and yes I attended every single class. Test answers are often ambiguous in nature and you can get marked off points even if you understand the ideas,but not his way of thinking

Dr. chai should not come here and rate himself. He is a horrible teacher....he should not be allowed to poison the minds of students with his "instruction" of molecular bio. You will unlearn stuff in this class.

The material is really not difficult to understand, there is just a lot of it. His twisted take on the material and his baffling "teaching" style make this course much harder than it should be. You would learn more with just the book.

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He is horribly ineffective as a professor. UCF has no standards and apparently doesnt care about quality of instruction as evidenced by the fact that this clown is teaching. He should be deported.

The worst professor that I have ever had. He doesn't know what he is doing. I firmly believe that you "unlearn" in this class. His "teaching" does much more harm than good. He rips tests questions from the subject GRE as he is too lazy/unintelligent to come up with his own.

I would not recommed this teacher. He makes up test questions from stuff he never covered in class so even if you study very hard, like I'm doing, you won't get a good grade. He has very bad grammar so a lot of his test questions make no sense at all; he cannot pronounce the word "synthesis" and he won't respond to your e-mails.

The worst class ever. He should not be allowed teach. He thinks he is right about everything and "corrects" your misconceptions from the book, other teachers, nobel prize winners ect.. His test questions come out of nowhere, class attendance is not necessary and wont help you do well. This class makes the entire semester suck! Biochem is easier.

He is a terrible professor. Case closed. I recieved an A in the class but I was entirely self-taught. Luckily the book is good and there are plenty of resources out there to help. This should be an online class with standardized tests. This would allow the department to completely remove the "chai element" as it is simply counterproductive.

I have never seen someone obfuscate a subject as thoroughly as he does. It makes me wonder if he really knows what he is talking about. As one professor told me, if they can't teach it they really don't know it themselves.

I think that last comment was written BY the professor. I'm sorry, but giving a test with the majority of the material on it never being discussed or told you were responsible for is just wrong! Wouldn't 190 students failing a test out of 250 give someone a clue... and the dept. director refuses to look into the issue!!! Chai even admitted that!

I have NO clue how to do well in this class. The people I know that are doing well are literally geniuses or have taken genetics one and two. Good luck, take someone else if there is any way possible. I have studied the book, lectures, internet, still have failed every test.

The worst Professor ever. He is a sadist.Enjoys testing on material never covered in class or in the book. 75% of the class is failing for no reason of theirs. Can someone do anything about this?

horrible professor-- i am currently a senior in M&M and have never had a C, and when i faced Chai at the beginning of the semester i thought that it could be a course that you could self teach yourself the material-- but its not-- I have never been so lost in how to study for a course-- and im not a sole example, most of the calss is failing-- RUN!

This so called "teacher" should have been fired years ago. He tests on things you cant study for. I go to every lecture, read the notes, relisten to the lectures, and read the book and got an F on the test. Some of the people that got Bs on the test didnt come to class AT ALL before the test. It is a mystery as to how he still has a job!!! DONT TAK

He is not a teacher to EVER take! He is horrible. I don't know what he talked about at all, he just talks in circles. He started the first day by asking "what is molecular biology and how does it relate to life?" and only did two slides. He thinks he is such a brilliant expert, but honestly an expert would know how to teach students. AVOID TAKING!!

I would def have to agree with the poster who said that a change of major would be a good idea. The quality of Chai's instruction is an accurate reflection of the M&M dept. If you are thinking of majoring in M&M here, don't, run, major in something where you can find a job when you graduate.

You can read his notes and the text and get nowhere. This guy is terrible, he spends more time lecturing on how qualified he is and what papers he's published. Test avgs. never reached 60%. He teaches the correct mechanisms and functions in class but has theoretical cases he's made up with completely different answers. Test ?'s are paragraphs long

His exams are not reflective of how much you learn, just how well you learn to take tricky tests. You will not learn much in the class. The book is really good, unfortunately the tests are not even close to the book. :(

I figured people were just complaining because Molecular Bio is a difficult subject. No! They were right, he is impossible. Tests have nothing to do with what you know. The two people passing the exams he hailed as brilliant. How about they were just able to get his tricky testing antics, and actually had no clue what they were talking about.

I had Dr. Chai for one hour of PCB3522 and I did not learn anything. He stood in front of the class and asked students random questions, criticizing them if their answer wasn't worded perfectly. He didn't even open his slides or cover anything relevant. I cannot imagine taking an entire course with him, and advise against it if possible.

I believe that he was not effective at all as an instructor. His lectures were rambling and out of focus and the tests were only tangentially based on anything he covered. I would suggest that you avoid him if you expect that you should learn from your classes.

When a professor states that most of the class will not understand him, that should be a red flag. It means that the professor has a problem conveying the material, is aware of it, but does not care. As one professor told me, if they can't teach it, they don't know it.

Believe me when I say stay AWAY from this guy. This guy does not care about teaching. All he talked about was how rich he is and all his credentials. If you want to actually learn molecular biology, take anyone else. I'm not dumb, I got A's in micro, molec 2, physio, genetic, etc. you will the whole semester trying to pass the professor not class.

It shoud be clear from the majority of the reviews that the class is not taught in a conventional manner, that being that it is not taught at all. The instructor is obligated to teach and obviously is not interested in it or good at it. The enrollment numbers in his elective classes tell the story you need to know.

If he's not busy "curing cancer" he's giving awful lectures. Don't really know why he's teaching if he puts barely any effort into it. He gives 3 regular exams and a final, final can replace lowest test. Only true way to study is to go over practice exams. But if you have the opportunity, I'd switch professors or drop the course altogether.

Seriously, I don't know how this guy is still teaching. From the tests you take, only about 10% is what you actually learned in class. He'll make tests with wording that seems impossible. Averages were always a "D". His lectures are pretty dry. Avoid him at all costs!!!!!

Just to save you time, avoid him. Never in my all of my classes did I feel unprepared for a test than I did in this class. His test questions are usually paragraphs long and had to do with an out of the box experiment rather than the actual material you should be covering. By the end of each class, you got out and learned nothing.

DO NOT TAKE. EXAMS ARE STUPID HARD. He allows you to use the internet but it's essentially useless. Curves 5Q every exam (25Q) but even that has people failing. Going to class is useless, as he goes on rants /brags every other sentence, and you have no idea what he's talking about. Trust the previous reviews! SAVE YOUR GPA

Wish I listened to previous reviews. Awful professor, impossible to pass even with open notes. Professor is very arrogant and teaches that everything we learned is "wrong" and poorly attempts to teach the "truth"

Do not take this man. The whole class was failing and he just curved, but even with the curve we're all failing. His lectures are confusing, he goes on tangents and takes you in circles and never gets to the point. He doesn't give any test help other than his confusing book he wrote himself. Don't let the curve fool u, spare urself and ur gpa

The grade is based on only 3 exams and a final. Theres no practice tests, homework, or even TAs that can help you. Dr. Chai goes on awful tangents and likes to say a lot of molec bio is NOT true. He doesnt even provide lecture material so you have to buy his book, which is awfully worded like his lectures. Did not prepare me to go to molec bio 2

Professor Chai does not provide any class material to study besides the textbook he wrote which is TERRIBLE. The analogies in the book are harder to understand than the regular scientific terms. I would NOT recommend him at all. He often goes off topic and gets carried away which gets you screwed even if you do attend to lecture and read the book.

Do not take this class. I repeat do not take this class with Karl. It is going to drop your GPA, trust me. The book is just as confusing as his lectures and it is of no help in understanding the concepts. The people who do well bought a different book than the one in the syllabus. Take anyone else, I already took a hit in my GPA don't do what I did

I feel like if everyone stopped taking his class UCF would find a much better candidate to teach this course. He gets mad at students for asking questions during review office hours, you should know this?? He wrote his own textbook and its just as gibberish as his lectures. Do not take this class with him. Wait another semester for someone else

WORST PROFESSOR. DON'T TAKE HIM. I'VE NEVER IN MY ENTIRE LIFE HAD A "D" IN A CLASS AND THIS WAS THE FIRST TIME. I was about to withdraw from the class and I emailed him and tell him about it so he can help me and he said to not withdraw that I still have hopes to pass the class and that he was going to help me. HE DIDN'T DO ANYTHING. 0 RATING!

there are four exams each worth 20%, no assignments nor homeworks. his lectures are as confusing as his book. if i could go back in time, i would avoid him at all costs!

Don't take him. Only source of information is his lectures and the textbook that he wrote. There are no powerpoints, homeworks, or practice questions. Didn't even cover five chapters because his lectures have no structure and he talks about random stuff. Textbook just as bad. I can't fit everything wrong here lol. You wont be prepared for Molec 2.

One of the worst professors by far. Although he gives great curves it does nothing if you do not understand the material. Was lost the entire semester his lectures have no relevance to what you will need to know for the course. Very disappointed because I was looking forward to this class.

Do not take this professor under any circumstances