3.3
Quality2.2
Difficulty67%
Would Retake91
Reviews67%
Would Retake
91
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
45
4
4
3
7
2
21
1
14
What Students Say
“Seley-Radtke as an acceptable instructor”
CHEM352 - 2.0 rating“This course needs significant revision in both content and execution”
CHEM453 - 2.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
33%
Textbook Required
86%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.25 avg changeRatings by Course
455
5.0
(1)490
5.0
(2)351L
5.0
(1)CHEM351352
5.0
(1)HON300
5.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
ORGO352
5.0
455
4.0
CHEM499
4.0
490
3.5
HON300
3.0
Reviews (91)
First of all, she's beautiful and lovely not only form the appearance but also from her intelligence and kindness. She makes everybody understand what is going on in chem lab, and she's the best teacher in my uncergraduate.
good professor, very approachable. got right to the point and class was over early every week. make sure to study hard for lecture quizzes and the final and you will be ok.
No Comments
She is very helpful and makes the class interesting. Dr. Seley projects her interests in Biomedicinal chem throughout the course. She provides review sheets before each exam and if you study from them you're doing fine. She also requires 1 presentation on a drug which makes the course very interesting. I recommend everyone to take a class with her.
Hops from topic to topic, not too clear explanation, not too good lecture notes.
What a great professor!! She has a very relaxed teaching approach and always hints what is going to be on the exams, which end up being cake if u put some studying in.
Excellent professor. Clear, concise, and, most important, reasonable. You will not fall asleep in her lecture, unlike other professors.She doesn't, however, have past exams to review or any real office hours, but she is definitely the prof to get.
Excellent teacher! Very intersted in students' success. Brags about her success rate and not how many fail her class. Will help you understand better no matter how many times you go see her. Very excited about her research.
A lot of bubble and too easy exams. No comparison to the exams of other professors who teach this course. I am repeating this course for a better grade, and I don't have to study a bit to make an A with this professor.
Agree with the previous rating. She is too bubbly and boastful. Not as great as she thinks she is. Her exam is a joke!
Very easy exams--she makes them that way on purpose. However, material is not glossed over. She does not normally say "But you don't need to know that," as so often happened in 101/102. She hand grades tests (no scantrons), and has them back within one or two lectures.I am glad such an interesting subject was not turned into a weed-out class.
She teaches only the easy part from the text. Not challenging enough. I can do just as well without attending any class since her exams are very easy. I wish I had her the first time I took this course since I did not have repeat it two more times! Too bad I don't have to take 352 since I am a biology major. I may still take it just for the heck!
Great professor! Very helpful, very approachable.Will try her BEST to help. Apparently other ratings are taking it for the 2nd, 3rd time! It's about time something sank in! Orgo is not hard, other students had me scared, just a lot of mechanisms to remember so organization is key for this and 352 (more reactions and mechanisms). See her,she'll help
I did not have to go to class to make an A in this class! She ignored me when I tried to ask her a question. I am also not sure why people always tell me that Orgo is so hard. Chem 101 and 102 were definitely 10 times harder than Chem 351! May be I should take other professors to find out how hard orgo really is although that could be fatal.
This class was not easy, and who ever wrote that it was easy is insane. I got a C... barely and i was really considering retaking the class. I am being as realistic as possible to help out the people reading this. I got B's in both Chem 111 and chem 112 and I got a C in this class... but i also put in a lot more time... with only 9 credits total.
She spends more time boasting about herself than actually teaching! After the first lecture I really thought she was a great teacher, but after attending a few lectures I do not have the same opinion, and I am disappointed! My friends who took her for 351 tell me that she is too easy, although the person who rated her before me thinks otherwise.
DEFINITELY one of the best science teachers I have EVER had. Dr. Seley cares about her student's success and is more than willing to answer any question. Classes are intense and madatory to attend, but aslong as you pay attention, go to office hours, ask questions, and do the readings and problems, you'll do just fine. She's truly a caring teacher!
Overall she is a pretty good teacher. I would not consider this class easy but it is very doable. The 1st test was pretty easy but the 4th test was very hard. Some people got in the single digits for there score and the average was around 50%. However, one test got dropped and there was a little bit of a curve at the end. She was very helpful!
Dr. Seley is the best chemistry teacher I've ever had. She is clear and concise and tries to help you in any way that she can. Her tests are not too easy, they are fair.
No doubt a great techer,helpful. Some students may think she is arrogant because you don't see people who LOVE their jobs. Bottom line-understanding Orgo concepts are not hard!Hardest part- keeping track of all the reactions that will come up . Make sure you don't through orgo 1 out of your head. You will take a standardized exam-end of Orgo 2!
An excellent professor! Take notes in class and Keep up with the material. Thats is very important. Things heat up towards the end of the course however so make sure you stay on top of things.
SHE TEACHES!!!!!! She actually uses the class time to teach you the material! You still need to read the book, but its a lot easier to understand when its described to you. Also her tests are all free response, no tricky mutiple choice questions. The only down side is there is no curve.
i friend of mine told me about her.....saying that she was a good teacher, but i have made the biggest mistake of my life. there is a NO curve!!!!! her test are free responses and very little points are given. i have learned more reading the book then going to her lectures. she makes it seem like she is a "great" teacher, but think again....
She is good with some students but aweful with others! I happened to be in the latter group. In my brief interaction with her, I found her extremely arrogant, boastful, and not too helpful at all. The morons who praise her must be nerds. They obviously don't know how she treats others. She would be a good tyrant empress! Thank god it is over!
The great equalizer between the horrible teachers and the good teachers. Dr. Seley is one of the few good ones. Tests you on the concepts that she lectures on without any trick questions to mess with you. Explains things clearly and succinctly and doesn't try to confuse you. Very passionate about teaching and easy to talk with.
Her class is hard, but its orgo 2. She is probably the easiest orgo 2 teacher you can have. her exams arent that bad and you can get partial credit, she also gives a lot of extra credit. YOU HAVE TO GO TO CLASS TO PASS THIS CLASS!!!! if you take good notes, go to class, and do lots of problems, you can easily pass this class
HORRIBLE!! the worst prof to have for chem. She is very partial towards some people. If she likes u, ur pretty much guaranteed an B and if doesn't like you, no amount of studying will help. She will just take off more points on ur free response. And there is no curve. AVOID HER AT ALL COSTS! Take Perks instead.
One of my favorite professors, she truely is a great teacher and extremely down to earth and reasonable. Her tests are fair and she wants her students to succed. I've never had a bad experience from her, so those who say she is horrible, I guess they were just bad students... cause if you want to learn, she is always there to help
I love her. Seley is fair and approachable. She always has a positive attitude and is encouraging. She follows the book, so if you miss class, its not a big deal. No attendence taken, although she gets to know her students. She sometimes grades hard, but she tells you what is expected up-front. One of the few professors that I will truely miss.
Dr. Seley is a mixed bag. She is good at teaching easy things but either skips or does not explain difficult material. She is also very bubbly and often talks a lot about self. I skipped many of the classes and still made an A by simply reading on my own. The course was not too challenging. It was mainly run like a history class.
I have heard she is a good teacher for CHEM 351. But she does not seem to have much interest in the lab course. I could hardly find her when I needed some help. She was kind of annoyed when I told her that. She was not too happy or helpful when I did manage to find her! Take Dr. Perks who my friends say as most helpful and dedicated in labs.
She spends more time talking about herself than about the class material! Fortunately, I had an excellent TA who could help me out every time I was in need. Take Dr. Perks instead. He has a good reputation for teaching organic labs.
Worst teacher ever!!! Avoid at all costs! She talks way too much about herself and can't seem to give a decent answer to simple questions.
Seley is a great professor, she explains the material very clearly, although a lot of memorization was required for orgo 2. She told us what she was expecting, no trickery on her tests. her tests were fair. she doesnt go in dept over most of the mechanism, but other then that i would choose her over any other orgo teacher, an A is in easy reach.
Dr. Seley simply glosses over reaction mechanisms, which puts extra pressure on memorization without understanding. She is a far cry from Dr. Smith who spent an awful lot of time explaining things in 351. She is a lot easier than Dr. Smith if you simply want to memorize things without knowing.
excellent prof. she makes org. chem extremely easy. easy A
Dr.Seley is very disorganized in teaching of the spectrum reports, which is a very big part of the course. She changes up how much certain things are worth on a whim during class. Her tests are pretty fair, and would be easy if only she taught the material clearly. You can easily do better for an Orgo II professor.
If u hate this professor, it's your own fault.I hated organic until I found her and since then ive taken 3 classes with her.She presents hard facts in an easy,understandable way.If you study,you will definitely get an A.Gives assignments & extra credits on exams to help with the grade.Awesome professor.If i could take all my class with her,i would
Take her for lab, not lecture. Orgo covers a lot of material, and Seley has no idea what to teach. Rambles in class from topic to topic and is not clear at all. If you want to understand Orgo you will have to do it by yourself in her class.
I took her for organic and she was a lot easier to understand than the other orgo professors I have had. She lets you know what you are expected to know in class so its fair game on exams. She wants everyone to do well, so it's easier to approach her for anything- lecture material, graduate school etc. Good teacher!
I was not impressed. Dr. Seley-Radtke gives a false impression of being far better than what she really is! I did not like her teaching style nor her tests, which I thought were too easy and unchallenging. If you are serious about learning orgo, I would not recommend her!
She was quite easy, but I did not learn in this class anything more than what I had already learned in 351/352.
The course needs a better organization and structure. I am not sure what I am learning in this course!
I absolutely love this class! One of the best seminars I have taken for the Honors College. Discussions are interesting and topics are current.
She's awesome! She has actual experience in the policy side of science, and our discussions are always very informative and fun! She has you write a couple papers and give some presentations, and if you're pretty smart you'll do well. She's really approachable too if you need help.
so-so..!! Not taught at the 400 level!
Amazing professor! I'm not saying that because she gives a load of Extra Credit, but because she made Organic Chemistry I bearable. Make sure you attend EVERY lecture, visit her office hours, and practice, and you should be fine! Effort is what gives you the A!
I had taken this course with a different professor last year. I retook this course for improving my grade, which I certainly did. But, to be honest, that is only because Dr. Seley has much lower standards and shows an ample generosity of extra credits than the other professor. Compared to the other professor, I would rate her mediocre at best!
No structure whatsoever while teaching. Wasted 1/3 of the semester doing presentations that students didn't pay attention to. Didn't use textbook at all but insisted on the class buying the latest edition. Had to take the final on the last day of class because she was going away and she didn't even grade part of it. The worst prof I ever had, EVER.
Dr. Seley is one of the most dedicated and hard working professors on this campus. I took 3 class with her and all were fantastic. straight forward with material, extremely fair and helpful with lecture notes and supplements and study guides and reviews. hard work pays off. Wish I got this much out of ever class I took, Take her for anything!
Works extremely hard to make sure students suceed, learn the material, and aren't bored to death by it. Very straight forward and helpful with clear class notes, lectures, supplements, and review sheets. Doesn't trick you on exams. Class is very engaging, fun, and flies by. Wont regret any class she teaches (I had her for 3 and loved them all)
Definitely one of the best professors I've had, not just for this class, but for 2 others in the past. Those that are complaining - definitely didn't even try and as a result probably didn't do well. All in all, EXCELLENT PROFESSOR!
Dr. Seley makes clear what is important and tests you on what she says she will. The short answer format ensures you actually learned what was important, and she is a fair grader. Although presentations took up a large portion of the class, that was because the class was larger than usual. I expect to use what I learned during my career.
A very helpful and nice professor. Clearly explains the material and gives fair exams that make you think. The material did seem a bit rushed, but the section was large with group presentations, so the rushing was understandable. I would recommend her to any upper-level undergrad.
Probably one of the more interesting courses taught by a great professor. All discussions =interesting. She clearly explain what she expects you to know for an exam, and what important concepts to understand and apply. Whenever ever you need help, she would always help you. I'd like to thank you for our talk, great semester,and I signed up for 450.
Really helpfull professor! Ready to help anytime you go to her office.
One of the best professors on campus! Provides a clear explanation of what is going to be on the exam and very friendly. Highly recommend!
Also CHEM 300, CHEM 450: Having taken three courses with Dr. Seley, I can say she's the best chemistry professor. She's wonderful at explaining the concepts. She is very clear about exactly what she expects you to know for the exam. Also, if you ever need help she's always more than happy to help!
I also took two courses from her. Yes, she is very clear on what to expect in the exam and what to study for. But that is precisely the problem with this professor. She is too easy and teaches only easy things. Whenever I had an argument with my friend who took some other professor over organic subject, I always came out a loser knowing not much
Crystal clear about what she wants from you, excellent review sheets and thorough lectures but they are available online. She mostly tests from her lectures rather than book material. A large part of the class is spent on student presentations (about the entire final third). You have no excuse not to succeed.
The course did not cover even half as much materials as described under course description in the UMBC course catalog. It was disappointing. Although I earned an A grade (no complaints), I still may retake this course in UMB downtown in the Fall. The class was not nearly as good as I believed it would be after the first couple of lectures.
Professor simply glossed over many important aspects of MedChem. She was neither too helpful nor was she receptive to any valid comments or criticisms.
Dr. Seley-Radtke is an exceptional Professor. I'm at a bit of a loss reading the other comments regarding this course. I found the subject matter interesting and the difficulty appropriate for a combined section. She was always on time, answered all e-mails within 10 minutes of sending! Grading was fair as was she! She greatly contributed to my ed
Course lacks in-depth treatment typical of most senior undergraduate and graduate courses I took at UMBC and elsewhere. There is ample information, but not enough critical thinking and intellectual exercises to qualify for a senior or graduate course. Rigorous in-class discussions and/or challenging homework assignments may spice-up this course
I would rate Dr. Seley-Radtke as an acceptable instructor. She does, however, have a little tendency for self-promotion at times, but that in no way is disruptive to the overall learning process. She is an enthusiastic professor.
This course needs significant revision in both content and execution. The instructor spent inordinate time in explaining easy things, but rushed through most important aspects of nucleic acid chemistry. Student presentations did not add much as I saw many dozing off during class. There was no active student participation nor was it enforced.
The worst chemistry course I have taken at UMBC!
I found this course to be interesting and relevant. Dr. Seley-Radtke is dedicated to her students and passionate about the subject. Presentations at the end of the semester facilitated the leap of book knowledge to real-world application in current technology. I benefited immensely and would recommend this course and Professor to anyone.
I really enjoyed this class with Dr. Seley, it was both challenging and beneficial. Dr. Seley is very straight forward with her expectations and she doesn't try to trick you. I really enjoyed the end of class presentations as well as the research papers which allowed us as students to further learn by teaching our peers and researching a topic.
This class was one of the most rewarding I've taken at UMBC. We learned things from basic drug delivery to the mechanics of chemotherapy. She encourages students to approach her with questions and even set the class up with a group forum-style presentation section where she encourages the students to be creative. AMAZING class, highly recommended!
I had earlier taken another course with presentations where teacher started off with a smart question after each presentation that eventually led to lively participation by entire class. Here, there was no active participation by either the teacher or the students, and worst, many slept through the class. To me, it was a complete waste of time!
I thought CHEM 455 was a chemistry class, but it never felt like it. I was disappointed by the lack of chemistry. She rushed through all of the material to make time for a month of student presentations. I always thought the exams were super easy, but I got a B and a C on them. Thankfully she gives out a lot of extra credit. She's very nice.
This course should be listed as BIOL 455 since there was practically no chemistry! The instructor always seemed to be in a hurry. I did not gain much from this class. I already knew most of the biology stuff that was taught. In that regard, course as taught was only at the 200-300 level, not 400!
If you can memorize a bunch of chemical reactions without any need to understand, you will do well in this course. But if you are the kind of person who mechanistically analyzes to understand each step, then this is not the course for you!
AWESOME
As a Bio major I have never felt like I was that great at chemistry, I took this class on a whim and never once did I regret it. Dr. Radtke honestly cares about her students and unlike many other professors she genuinely wants you to understand and succeed. She's hilarious and her class is lots of fun. Take a class with her, she's awesome!
Dr Seley is hands down the best professor I have had at UMBC. She makes every class interesting and is very approachable. You get so much out of her classes if you put something into them. This class really inhanced my abilities in organic synthesis, and if you are looking to do the same I highly recomend it.
I took two courses--Chem453 and Chem455--from Dr. Seley-Radtke while at UMBC. She was neither the worst nor the best instructor I had at UMBC. But she was quite lenient in giving out extra credits and A's and B's. I did not really care much for the in-class presentations.
It was an easy A, but honestly I dont think I gained much new from this course. Most material was repetition of low level biology courses I took at UMBC. A bit surprising that the course is offered at the 400-600 level instead of 200-300l. It was more an Information gathering exercise than in depth analysis typical of upper level courses
She's awesome
She is awesome to those whose main focus is to get good grades, but awful to others who want to get something more out of a class than just A grades. I happen to be in the latter category.
Initially I was quite impressed by her superfluous, ebullient lectures, but before long I realized that she is a "lot of Pomp but little substance"!
Dr. Seley is a wonderful mentor. She absolutely loves the subject matter of the course, and works hard to try to make it fun & relevant to areas other than just organic chemistry by bringing in guest speakers such as a lawyer for drug patents. She is very available outside of class & loves to help out students, whether with the course or with life.
For teaching a high level and tough topic, Dr. Radtke does a good job of teaching students the material. Hard to follow class with just powerpoint, but if you read the book and reference papers she sends out, it is doable. The class is by no means easy, BUT it is fair and she is a reasonable grader. 11/10 will take drug design with her.
If you want to learn "Organic Chemistry of Nucleic Acids" as the course title says, you will be very disappointed. It largely entailed Drug Design and other only distantly related topics with little chemistry, if any. After having taken a Drug Design course at UMB, which dealt with the topic at depth and breadth, this course appeared too shallow.
I took her intro to biomedicinal chemistry class and I really enjoyed it because she's actually really interested in the subject , and it's a very germane contemporary subject. Also, there are group projects with presentations in which you learn a lot about different pharmaceuticals which I thought was really fascinating. Take the class.
The course is titled as "Advanced Medicinal Chemistry" with a pre-requisite of "Introduction to Biomedicinal Chemistry (Chem 455)", which I took last year from the same professor. But so far, I found this course nothing but a rehash of Chem 455 with little if anything new! I practcally wasted my whole semester!
I joined Dr. Radtkes lab for undergrad research as part of CHEM499. Sadly, I was left alone to rot with absolutely no guidance or assistance. Any time she stepped into my lab, all I could hear was how great she was and what new award she had won. I could not wait to get out of that lab and join some other faculty group which really cared for me.
Advanced medicinal chemistry online with Dr. Seley-Radtke was a great experience. She's very friendly! The class was mainly discussion-based with students giving talks on papers of their choice and having an open discussion. We had to write summaries of each paper before class and answer questions about them. There was also a large final paper.
Awesome!!!! The best professor bar none. RMP deletes my postings each time but Im here to say that those who shed tears here do not rate this professor correctly. Chemistry is hard, take it or leave it, if you cant handle chemistry find another profession like animal husbandry or airplane repo. Professors can also post their own rating
If you think you're going to learn something in Adv. Med. Chem., you're wrong. Unless you like reading 6 articles every week, writing a review of two pages single spaced and 11 point font, and answering questions from classmates, this class is not for you.10 page paper single spaced, 18-20 minute presentation, and summaries is all you get from this
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
33%
Textbook Required
86%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.25 avg changeRatings by Course
455
5.0
(1)490
5.0
(2)351L
5.0
(1)CHEM351352
5.0
(1)HON300
5.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
ORGO352
5.0
455
4.0
CHEM499
4.0
490
3.5
HON300
3.0