2.0
Quality3.8
Difficulty25%
Would Retake102
Reviews25%
Would Retake
102
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
102 total ratings5
18
4
6
3
2
2
9
1
67
What Students Say
“I have been in her office 3 three times”
1A03 - 1.0 rating“Avoid, thank me later”
CHEM1A03 - 1.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
50%
Textbook Required
0%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.98 avg changeRatings by Course
1AO3
2.5
(2)CHEM1A03
2.2
(30)CHEM1AA3
2.0
(39)1AA3
2.0
(9)1A03
1.9
(17)Difficulty by Course
1E03
4.5
CHEM1AA3
4.1
CHEM1AO3
4.0
1AO3
4.0
1AA3
3.8
Reviews (101)
Worst prof I've ever had in my life. Rude and inconsiderate. Thinks she's hip but really needs to stop talking. 20/10 would not recommend. Doesn't even know what she's teaching and tells you to YouTube it instead.
The course in general isn't very good. She isn't terrible at teaching, but she makes a lot of mistakes. For any students taking the course, READ THE TEXTBOOK.
I did not have her as my prof, but had her as the course coordinator. I have been in her office 3 three times. In two out of three her behaviour was so rude... I talked really polite, but her responses were really rude. Also, as a course coordinator she does not help in mistakes that has been made on marking. Rudest I have ever seen in university.
I thought Dr. Davis was a great prof for Chem 1A03. She can seem a little intimidating, but if you talk to her in person, she is really helpful and kind. Contrary to what the last people said, she's really smart and knows what she's doing, she just makes mistakes sometimes. Don't feel like you need to switch your section to avoid her.
Dr. Davis was a poor professor. She regularly made mistakes, even when performing simple questions, and I felt that my time attending chemistry lectures with her was completely wasted. She always tried to use slang and create chemistry-themed demonstrations in a failed attempt to make herself or the course seem more enjoyable.
I had Dr. Davis as my instructor for Chem 1A03. The course itself is mostly a review from grade 12. The lectures were not very useful as they dealt with mostly applications of chemistry as opposed to the actual concepts. She makes mistakes sometimes when solving questions but I think she was still a good instructor and does care about her students.
She was the best prof i've ever had at university; i learned a lot in the class. She makes every class interesting, and has great slides
She's my favorite prof. Davis makes every class fun. All of the in-class demonstrations are exciting and insightful. Her consistent use of the popping balloons with fire demonstration was truly a sight to behold. The material was very easy to learn and understand, and the course itself requires not a lot of effort to do very well.
I can really say that Dr. Davis is one of my favorite professors here at McMaster. She's always making interesting jokes and comments in class and really gives some insight into the subject matter. She's always happy to help as well.
extremely rude professor. You could be the nicest most polite person in this world and she will treat you like a joke. Terrible at answering questions and has a lot of attitude.
Dr. Davis doesn't seem to be very enthusiastic about the material she teaches. She doesn't have a sense of passion that inspires you to learn. She's also very inconsiderate with any concerns with regards to lab or lab work. I do not recommend taking her classes...
Dr Davis is my favorite professor. Shes so nice and her lectures are good. Ive seen so many people call her rude and mean on this website and I dont understand why because shes one of the nicest professors in mcmaster. If chem is hard for you or if you dont like her personally its not her fault and you dont have to call her names.
Took the course in Winter 2017. I love Dr. Davis! She may seem intimidating at first but she's very friendly and approachable. She really made sure the class understood all the concepts behind orgo in detail and you can tell how passionate she is about Chemistry. The course was very well organized. Would definitely take a course with her again 3
Linda Davis is my worst professor this term. She is extremely disorganized and very bad at time-management. She spends 40/50 minutes of class going off on tangents and then decides to "teach" for the last ten minutes of class. If you want to ask her a question, her attitude will definitely prevent you from doing so. Switch into Emslie or Greenberg.
Man she's the nicest. She is very approachable and caring and her lectures are A+. She made my first year chem so easy for me. She's an amazing human being. When I found her page on this website I was expecting her to be very rude and horrible but trust me she is the opposite.
Dr. Davis was one of the best professors I had this year, her lectures are very relaxed and interesting and she seems super approachable! Dont know why so many people have a grudge against her, just do your work and attend lecture and your good.
These negative ratings are bull. She's a total sweetheart, and if you ever need her help with anything, she'll do her best to assist you while showing that she really cares. Her lectures are entertaining, and when she makes mistakes (like any other prof does), she immediately fixes them. She's laid back and chill, but she's passionate about chem.
Amazing chemistry teacher! Really improved from last semester it seems. The 2018 exam was a gift blessed from the soft kisses of angels
Makes exams hard, okay at explaining. Yells alot at lab TA's
Best first year prof at Mac dont let anyone tell you different. ��
I loved the lecture on the chemical compounds found in chili peppers. Chili peppers are my favourite snack
Linda was the Lab Coordinator for Chem1A03 and she was incredibly rude and condescending on many occasions - power trip. She required students to speak to her when they MSAFed a test (against university policy). Many people found her unapproachable. For someone who has a PhD in chem, she seemed very unhappy to be there. Avoid, thank me later.
Decent at explaining things but is unorganized and goes off topic a lot during lecture so she is forced to rush things. Gives no time for iClicker qs and tests are mostly fair but there are always 1-3 really hard unfair questions. Some days she is really nice other days she is really rude as well
She needs to change her teaching style. She gives a rather superficial explanation of content within the lecture, and I usually only go to her class for iclickers and then attend other chem prof's lectures. Also she can be rude sometimes, not sure if its on purpose but it makes her super unapproachable. Went for help twice and never again.
I think all the first years this year were so ungrateful, yes they cant punlish past exam answers but they were nice enough to create a shared google doc where everyone could post solutions. I personally think Linda Davis is a savage and its funny, why I like going to class. Keep teaching just the way you are ;)
Not a lot of what she taught was reflected in the exam. She doesn't explain well either. Iclickers are too easy. But pro tip: If you have her, skip her lectures and go to greenberg's lectures or switch out. If you want to do well, study from the textbook and modules, and do all the past test/papers, and if you really have to then do prep101.
If you have a chance to take CHEM1A03 online, please do it. This course is 10x harder than what all of my friends at other universities (IN THE SAME PROGRAM, life sci at u of t, u of waterloo, etc) are taking. The fall 2018 exam was also NOT a good representation of the course and was an inaccurate representation of my skills learnt in CHEM1A03.
Speaking as someone who did well on the Chem1A03 midterms and has a good understanding of chemistry, I found that the final exam was made far more difficult than it needed to be. The exam was also far harder than the past exams that I've seen (even the ones made earlier than 2014). Personally, I found that she had an unapproachable vibe.
Very unapproachable and made the final exam way harder than the midterms and other questions presented throughout the year. Her attitude was very unfriendly.
Heard back things about her going into this course, but the transition from in person to online due to the pandemic showed that shes more concerned with punishing students than helping them do well. I really hope she uses the feedback she receives to be more understanding in the future.
Claims to care about students but then belittles them when they ask for help or makes insanely difficult tests and exams that are designed to make you fail. Running a course with a repeatedly low average isnt impressive, it just suggests that the course needs some major re working.
Worst prof ever. She really does not care if students do well or not and decides to completely change the format of the final a week before the exam. Very inconsiderate and unapproachable. If u have the choice, never take chem when she is in charge. I do not have enough words to express how much I hate this lady.
She doesnt care about her students at all.
Id give a 0 rating if I could
I had heard bad things about her going in, and unfortunately they were confirmed. She doesnt care about or address the concerns of her students when directly spoken to. She is difficult to approach for help, and made the exam much harder than need be. Take chem with anyone else if you can.
Rude, condescending in person. Inconsiderate of students. Decided to completely change the exam format a week before the exam, with no previous practice exams in the same format. Not sure why this was necessary given we are in the midst of a global pandemic with other things to worry about than first year chemistry.
Its pretty simple, a pandemic wasnt enough for her to realize her unnecessarily difficult exams *might* not be a great choice for such a stressful time. Changes the exam outline a week before the exam and creates a burner Reddit to talk to students outside official communication lines. Her choices during this time are not respectable.
Does not care about the students at all! She makes me want to go outside in the middle of a pandemic ffs to get the virus. Instead of trying to help students and their mental health, she redesigned the exam to make it harder. She can't take criticism either and got triggered to the point where she went on Mac's reddit to defend herself. Worst prof
horrible and very rude. extremely inconsiderate. changed entire exam outline one week before the exam, even during a pandemic. her entire attitude and behaviour should be unacceptable and students should have the resources to file complaints to higher positions.
praying for next year's science students. at least we had last semester without her
Every time I have contacted her or heard of someone contacting her, she has been extremely rude, unhelpful and unprofessional in her exchanges with students. On top of that, she changed our entire exam structure one week before the exam, during the COVID-19 pandemic (where we are all struggling to stay on top of our learning in the first place).
Horrible course coordinator. Constantly on a power trip. Does not care about students and wants to see them fail. Quizzes are unfair. Changes the layout of the exam a week before, and completely inconsiderate during COVID-19 pandemic. Also creates burner accounts on reddit to argue with students and constantly makes snide, unprofessional remarks.
Extremely rude and unprofessional. Makes an announcement for students not to "rage-quit" in an already stressful time.
Linda Davis is a fine prof, I do not get why some people are so mad at her. The course can be challenging at times, but its chem, that shouldnt be a shock. If you put enough work in, youll get a solid mark. Yes, she can be a bit sarcastic online, but who cares? Anyway I cried in her office one time and she was cool about it so. TLDR 7.5/10 prof
Great prof, dont listen to the whiny pre-med kids who don't know how to study.
She is one of the best chem profs with a great sense of humor. The people writing terrible reviews about her are just mad and cant take responsibility for their own mediocrity. Glad she stands up for herself and does what is right for academic integrity.
I had Dr. Davis as a professor twice and she was pretty nice and approachable. She has fun lectures and genuinely cares about her students. How is finding the answer in the choices different from typing it inside a box??? You have to solve the problems anyway so just type your answer.
Doesnt know how to be considerate during a pandemic. Worst course coordinator. Do not take the course if shes one of the profs.
You would think having a kid and mat leave makes someone care about a childs future a bit more :/
Horrible prof. Inconsiderate and rude. Chem itself is somewhat easy to understand but she purposefully makes it a horrible experience
I would expect an educated professor to be more understanding of the greater about of stress that students may be in due to the current pandemic situation. Changing the format of an exam with no opportunities to practice with the new format is making an already stressful situation even more stressful and is not a fair assessment of our abilities.
If you plan to pursue a career related to chemistry, Linda davis will quickly change your mind
I feel like she isn't happy with her life so she takes it out on undergraduate students by being ridiculously rude and mean.
I would give her a 0/5 if I could
I dont know whats worse, Linda davis or covid-19
She does not seem to care about her students at all and only tries to make the situation more difficult than it already is for many students.
In my first year, she saved me when the box of HCl spilled all over my shoes/the floor during my very first lab of university. Linda was very understanding when I went to apologize and cry in her office afterwards. She puts a lot of work into making sure TAs are available to help students through the labs, and outside of labs as well. Great lady!
already stressed from corona and she decided to abuse us through the online chem final, made questions besides multiple choice and now my mental health is non-existance
Horrible. Extremely mean and unfair. If she doesn't get fired then I have lost all respect for McMaster.
NO UNDERSTANDING AT ALL .
Dr. Davis is fine. Her evaluations are fair and she gives us multiple chances to succeed. The whole exam format change fiasco was blown way out of proportion; all the pre-meds in Life and Health Science spent more time complaining than studying. The content was mostly high school review, and if you have a passion for chemistry, its an easy A.
As a course coordinator, it is her discretion how evaluations run, and there will always be students who will be unhappy. Her job is not to give into every students wishes. However, you would expect a certain level of professionalism and support that is truly lacking from her conduct.
Rudest prof I had to deal with. I don't really care nor have I really bothered looking into all the drama she started on Reddit but even if it wasn't for that she is just plain rude and an awful prof
Hands down the least understanding proff I have met.
Thanks linda for saying that the exams are delivered through avenue in the OUTLINE and changing it to proctored exam a week before! Thank you so much for your understanding and caring. You are 10/10. Please proceed to stress us more during this pandemic!
I literally feel defeated. Am taking my second class with her as course coordinator and I knew she was problematic but I had to take this class. Lacks compassion
Rude.
She doesn't trust her students at all. You would think she would have a little more compassion for students during the pandemic
Does not care at all about technical issues students are facing during covid. Internet down during midterm? suck it up.
blue screened twice during the midterm due to proctoring software not allowed to rewrite not flexible for those with bad computers
She was bad and won't take feedback or student input . Contentwide she was not terrible but not great
Speak to 99% of McMaster students and you'll get the same answer; nobody liked her course. 99% of my 1A03 class this year was learned through Khan Academy due to lazy, scripted robotic online 'lectures'. Will not accommodate for students needs at all; even if there's no reason not to. Made me want to switch universities and programs altogether.
She is the meanest prof I've ever met. She legit told us she isn't responsible for teaching us, and we gotta learn by ourselves. She doesn't care about the students at all.
I do not believe I have learnt a single ounce of chemistry. I received a high mark in this class, hated every second of it, and forgot everything immediately after the exam. Dr. Davis although I'm sure quite nice, can come off uncaring about the students and difficult to communicate with. You do not learn, all you do is get good at MC questions.
Does the absolute minimum as a human being. Course content itself wasn't bad, but her way of running things completely lacks empathy, especially during a pandemic. Students' mental states are all over the place right now, and telling them that their problems aren't her problems certainly aren't helping that.
From my in-person experience with Dr. Linda Davis, she has shown to be a very nice and professional individual.
Very Bad prof. inconsiderate and worst course coordinator.
Ill be honest, the course is fine, but she is a bad prof lol
chem at Mac is the worst thing to ever happen to humanity
Ummm. Avoid chemistry at Mac if you can - probably the hardest classes offered. This chem class was way harder than my physics and calculus classes. You have to teach the majority of it to yourself - the online learning modules were useless. Beware - most of this class is math.
Terrible online, but is very kind and accessible in an in-person environment take the online class rankings with a grain of salt
As the lab coordinator for CHEM1E03, I found Linda to be very brash, cold, and uninspiring. She neither fosters a healthy learning environment nor instills an enduring love for Chemistry in her students. I recall walking into her office and being met with immediate indifference and rudeness, even when asking a simple favour (like borrowing a pen).
Course content was fine. Is rude and will degrade students in front of others :(
If you can't help kids when they need it then what is the point of your job? She will humiliate you in front of other students, make you feel dumb when you come to her for help, give you sarcastic remarks like "You better stay here and actually understand because if you leave this lab Linda Davis won't be there to help you during your test". What.
not the best at teaching
Absolutely poor, completely disgraceful
Joke of a professional who only comes in for the paycheck. No regard for your education whatsoever and WILL leave you in the dark. Others have walked your “to be” path so that you can RUN. Don't come anywhere near this person.
Disappointed at how university as prestigious as McMaster would hire such an incompetent professor. Things need to change immediately
NO NO NO……. Just… No… SAVE YOURSELVES AND DO NOT SHOW YOUR HEAD AT HER CLASS…. This class is literally torture. I plead you do anything else with the time you have.
How are supposed to like learning if people like professor Linda are the ones running the clown show????? Someone please let the dean know about her shenanigans. This CANNOT go on any longer
The only reason I put hilarious is to highlight how big of a joke she is when it comes to her teaching. You'll end up going home more clueless than before (you'll be questioning if bonds are being a thing anymore)
PSA: Avoid Chem at here at ALL costs (don't be paying for getting harassed for asking a question in class)
Let the world know: DO NOT ATTEND THIS CLASS. Better of learning what you need to in 5 seasons of breaking bad than going to her class. Absolutely shocking prof who shouldn't be anywhere near other students who are trying their best to make a name for themselves only to be pushed down by this ridiculous excuse of a professor. Stricter action needed
Future student PSA: Whatever you do, even if your life is on the line, DO NOT ATTEND a class with professor Linda Davis. Ask around and you'll thank me for your life later.
horrible, rude, mean to students
Genuinely the only course coordinator that cares by the amount of practice posted for A03/AA3 out of all first year science departments. Take the comments with a grain of salt, because she has only ever been helpful in terms of lab and technical difficulties. She is accessible for office hours, and implementing her feedback pays off for the course.
shemade me feel not good enough for a introductory chem course. She rudely started having a conversation about my emails i have been having with her (had questions about spring course), in the emails she was quite rude, saying i had outrageous questions. she called me irresponsible, and did not understand my reasonings from where i was coming from.
She was incredibly rude when i dropped by to ask a question and follow up on an email. Although it wasn't in our booked time she let me talk with her and then rudely dismissed me and called it an inappropriate time to speak. GENUINELY SO RUDE, CAN'T EXPLAIN ANYTHING FOR HER LIFE.
She was inconsiderate as a course coordinator. I had to late withdraw from Chem 1A03 because I was hospitalized and I was already in Chem 1AA3 but she made me withdraw from chem 1AA3 too and didnt even bother to ask me to explain my situation and consider it she just doesnt care at all. Now I have to retake both courses which is great thanks
Dr. Davis is very knowledgeable and can explain topics really well for those of all different levels. She answers questions well without falling behind and prepares you well for midterms and tests.
I took Chem 1A03 in the spring and only saw her around a couple of times. She took attendance for my third lab and she was talking to one of my friends beside me in the lab and I thought she was quite nice. Plus the amount of practice she provides on Stemble is incredibly helpful! Better and more than any other course I've taken here.
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
50%
Textbook Required
0%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.98 avg changeRatings by Course
1AO3
2.5
(2)CHEM1A03
2.2
(30)CHEM1AA3
2.0
(39)1AA3
2.0
(9)1A03
1.9
(17)Difficulty by Course
1E03
4.5
CHEM1AA3
4.1
CHEM1AO3
4.0
1AO3
4.0
1AA3
3.8