2.9
Quality4.2
Difficulty40%
Would Retake93
Reviews40%
Would Retake
93
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
18
4
20
3
21
2
18
1
16
What Students Say
“a lot of effort does not translate into a good grade”
030105 - 3.0 rating“Her tests are very difficult, sometimes unfair”
CHEM101 - 3.0 ratingClass Info
Attendance Mandatory
100%
Textbook Required
81%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Improving
+0.47 avg changeRatings by Course
CHEMLAB105
5.0
(1)LAB101
5.0
(2)030106
5.0
(1)CHLAB105
4.3
(3)105
4.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
CHEM05
5.0
LAB1
5.0
LAB105
5.0
030105
5.0
CHEMISTRYLABI
5.0
Reviews (93)
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Chem lab is the Devil. Pasternack's OK, tho'.
This woman is a donkey. She shows up once in a while and makes the TA's do all the work. 6+ hours/week of work for 1 credit?!?
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No Comments
Too much work and she is not nice at all
makes lab more difficult then it should be
Very helpful and informed. Her chief duty being the compilation of the lab manual and she does a good job of it. Would like to see more of her in the lab though.
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she's a total ****. fair grader though (really the TA- and the help given by him/her- is what your grade hangs on)
Chem lab is the most work for 1 credit hour i have done in my 3 years at JHU...
The class is so much work for just a single credit! she rarely appears in lab and if she does, it's never with a smile on her face. The questions and lab reports are complicated and explanations are never given properly!
Chem lab sucks. Never hand in your lab for a regrade, it's almost 100% guaranteed to come back to you with a lower grade. Pasternack is generally not that helpful.
She's kind of unpleasant, but I think she grades fairly. I mean, she gives a median of a B. That's generous. Regrades are kind of iffy, but I've gotten points back on one or two. My main gripe is that on WebCT she never actually answers your questions, but basically says "figure it out for yourself, genius." That's kind of annoying.
she is quite helpful and understanding, although a bit strict. WebCT questions are answered with a question but it helps you think about it in your own. I am not a science major but I think Chem lab, while a lot of work, is moore fun than the intro chem lectures(030.105/030.106)
she is so bitter and does not clearly answer questions.
Completely useless. She never explains anything well, takes off points for any excuse (things like color of graph not being right shade, and things beyond your control). Worst work-to-credit ratio ever.
I concur
I think i dislike the course more than the professor. she was incredibly helpful when i was having problems with the registrar. However, she's a real pain when it comes to grading. Having a good knowledge of chem and being able to use the equipment does not equal a good grade in her lab - that shouldn't be.
Always tries to help students out as much as she can without spoon-feeding us the information. There's something due almost every week, but it's not a lot of work (usually just an online quiz). Worksheets are more than fair since she tells us exactly what's going to be on them. Pretty easy course as long as you're willing to put in some effort.
She wasn't a horrible professor, but the class was a lot of work. She was approachable, but I wouldn't go as far as saying she was friendly. At times, she was a bit rude to a few of the studesnt and some of the TAs. There were also mistakes in the Online Homework which caused some students to lose points. Ultimately, this class depends on the TAs.
Pasternack is absolutely obsessive. It doesn't matter to her if you learn the concepts, just know your sig figs. And be prepared to lose points for stapling your lab report crookedly. Oh, and she sits by her computer til all hours of the night monitoring webCT... it's slightly creepy.
The class is not particularly difficult, but there's a lot of busiwork. The lab reports take a long time- don't save them for the day they are due because they always take longer than expected! And to everyone complaining that it's only 1 credit- that just means that Chem Lab affects your GPA less than your other classes!
one of the most unhelpful, unfriendly professors ive ever encountered.
I don't think the class should be more credits; it should be less work. so many all nighters pulled for this class. she's not horrible. she let me and my friend off the hook with certain things. know your sigfigs! they will come and bite you in the ass if you don't. i got so many points off for error analysis. so, er, figure out how you screw up
Unreasonable.
She's rather strict about everything, and makes lab reports a pain to complete - I ended up doing more work for my 1 credit chem lab than for any of my other 3 or 4 credit courses
She is an austere woman who demands meticulous attention to detail and critical thinking. A female with a doctorate degree was certainly a rarity back when she was pusuring it and she has my respecy. Like any woman of science, she may not seem so jolly, but that is just to preserve her credibility in an area so dominated by men.
The sole reason why I stopped the pre-med track. Way too intense and all she cares about is if you have the correct number of significant figures. This semester, on one of the lab reports the TA assigned grades were "too high" so she regraded them all. Goodluck with this.
She is tough and expects a lot, but she clearly cares a lot about her students and does everything she can to make the material accessible. Put in the work and you'll get a lot out of this course.
On my last lab, we couldn't finish the experiment because of equipment malfunction; she gave me some old data to use so that I wouldn't lose excessive points on the worksheets. There is a ton of help, just don't start the work the day before, ask questions, and you can most definitely get an A. She tells you what's on the sheets anyway!
Before coming to this class, I heard a lot about how unreasonable she was; this turned out to be untrue. She does expect a lot, but she gives a ton of help on webct, and the tests are really easy. Biggest tip: start the homework early and go to the help sessions if you have questions. Also, know sigfigs.
She can come off as mean and hard but she can also be really nice and helpful and takes a great interest in your grades and wants you to do well and informs you when you are not doing well. However, she's the toughest chem lab teacher around.
This is one hard class. It was my scariest one...I dreaded chem lab but as soon I as got the hang of it, i ended up gettin an A in the class and I'm not that smart. You can get an A without knowing much chem, which is kinda bad since the point is to learn chem...anyway, just prepare thoroghly, get help from other students, and you will be FINE.
Cares alot about the students, but obsessed with significant figures and error discussions, which no chemist ever needs (ask them). There is no chemistry learning dimension, it's all procedural and mundane. She can be a great teacher, but needs to relaxe first. Do your homework ahead of time, it takes ages.
She is helpful on WebCT but many of her answers are vague, "figure it out," or "I've already answered this." A TA couldn't answer one of my questions and Pasternack snapped at me when I tried to go to office hours. Go to the TA help sessions, ask specific questions about your sig figs, and be prepared to lose a lot of points on error analysis.
"Time consuming lab reports" Be prepared to pay attention to minuscule details when doing homeworks
She is without a doubt the worst teacher I have ever had. Not a thing done in that class tests your knowledge of chemistry. It appears that she gets some kind of sick pleasure off of roasting kids for having the wrong number of significant figures, and too much white space on their graphs. When she broke her leg, the class applauded.
Dr. Pasternack is one of the best teachers at JHU. She takes an intense interest in her students' success and rewards hard work and proficiency. It's easy to criticize when unhappy with one's grade. Just because she's not handing out A's doesn't make her the devil -- in fact, quite the contrary. I learned more from her class than any other at JHU.
Do not ask questions and TAs are clueless!
she's really strict and has been known to yell at kids for not following the guidelines to a tee. lab write-ups can be difficult but her midterms are easy.
I have no problem with her personality because I really didnt get to see much of it. The class is pretty big - no individual attention really. Her lab reports are hard bc she marks down for anything, if you ask for a regrade it's never worth it (shell find a way to mark u down). Sig figs become hell. Lecture is useless.
Dr. Pasternack is a great teacher, but her class is difficult and takes up a lot of time. Many students misconstrue her strictness in both grading and ethics as a personality issue. It's not easy to get an A, but if you take the time and put in the effort, it's definitely not impossible.
This class is extremely difficult and the workload is not comparable to the credits offered. You can interpret Louise's attitude in two ways. The first is a cutthroat professor who just wants you to fail, the second is a devoted teacher who marks lab reports and tests hard so that you can find your mistakes and learn from them. SIG FIGS ARE KEY.
Expects you to know that she does which is unreasonable since she only teaches a lab course.
Way to much work for a 1 credit class. She expects you to know things you haven't learned yet and know it well enough to write a ridiculously detailed lab report on stuff she has not taught us.
Awful! Do not ask for a regrade EVER as she will lower your grade for no good reason. When you inquire about this she will threaten to mark down much further. Spent more time on this class than any 3 credit class. Learned a lot but every encounter with her leaves me feeling lousy.
you learn so much although it is an extremely difficult class. it should be like 3 credits.
Precision is key in this class. Sig Figs are annoying and so are the lab reports. Very challenging but stimulating course.
She's a great teacher. If you actually talk to her, she's super nice! Most students think she's the devil because, yes this class is quite challenging, but if you apply yourself and work at it, it's not all that bad. Just be careful and tedious. Her strictness is justified...I mean we are learning responsible techniques for dealing with chemicals!
She has a bad reputation because she's very particular abt certain things, & if you don't do things her way your grade suffers. As a person & during lecture I found she was very approachable & helpful when I had questions. She needs to be less anal about some things, but she does have to be a little picky to teach freshmen correct lab technique.
I've heard many rumors before taking Dr.Pasternack's class about how horrible of a person she is. However, I've found out that this class is great(difficult of course), and Dr.Pasternack is an amazing person as well. Very approachable during office hours, and very helpful with problems I had with lab reports. You can get a lot out of this class.
The amount of work she assigned was disproportionate to the number of credits her class is worth. Chem Lab is a one-credit class. She gives work like it's a four-credit class. I spent the majority of my time on her assignments. Totally not worth it. Her lectures are useless.
Pasternack cares more about whether you have the correct sigfigs than if you actually know what you're doing. Don't expect to get an A unless you spend 10+ hours going over everything from having an inch of white space on a graph to whether your sigfigs are right. Get used to having points taken off for no reason.
Dr. Pasternack is a great professor. The rumors about the workload is true - worth WAY more than one credit. But it's not her fault. Dean of academics requires the course to be only one credit because they don't allow freshman to overload, and making it 2 or 3 credits will do that. Take this class seriously, and you can get a lot out of it.
A very hard class. Lots of work for 1 credit. Be prepared to do more than you expect. It doesn't really need a professor, just follow the guidebook created
This class is clearly harder than a typical one-credit class, but because she's a hard grader, you shouldn't WANT it to count for more than 1 credit. Rumors that Pasternack is a horrible person are not true, she just designed this annoying course. She makes a big deal about sig figs.
Bottom line, her grading style is not fair. She makes way too big a deal out of sig figs, and the her discussion questions are not applicable to our level. There's a problem when a TA says "Why would she expect you to know that?" while looking at a grading rubric. Oftentimes, the amount of effort you put in is not reflected in your grade.
Much more work than expected for a one-credit course. The grading is difficult and very nit-picky, but if you put in the time and effort it's very possible to get an A. The TAs are generally very helpful with the lab worksheets.
She is a nice person outside of lab although when sometimes asking her a question she could seem mean. She expects too much, and she is a real stickler on sigfigs, which I heard you dont have to worry about in anything else chem related at Hopkins. Didn't find the help room that useful. I didnt get why lab grades were so low with the TA's help.
Your grade in this class does NOT reflect your knowledge of chemistry, but rather the amount of time you wasted poring over your calculations to find sig fig errors. The workload of this 1 credit class is equal to that of a 3 or 4 credit class, and all of that work is busy work. It's the only lab class with midterms. By far worst prof Ive ever had.
She's very to the point and doesn't like dealing with any deviations. People mistake her for being mean but she's really just trying to make the course run as smoothly as possible since it's so large. Tests are pretty easy and so are the labs but the post labs are hard.
By far the absolute worst professor I had during college. Don't approach her under and circumstances unless you like rudeness. Ask the TA's
Pasternack is the rudest, least caring human being I have ever encountered. She made it nearly impossible to succeed. I learned absolutely nothing except for pointless sig fig calculations. It is absolutely ridiculous that this course is only worth 1 credit; it was more work than all my other classes combined.
Dr. Pasternack is very misunderstood. She acknowledges that the class is difficult, and she wants to prepare students well for more advanced labs later. She has even tried to make the course more fair by increasing the credits awarded to 2 (but the administration won't let her because it will push to many students over the credit/semester limit).
She is fair to a fault and a stickler for sig figs but she really wants everyone to succeed in the clas
Dr. Pasternack is a nice woman one on one sometimes, but she can come off very rude making it hard to discuss issues pertaining to concepts and grades. Her tests are very difficult, sometimes unfair. It doesn't seem like she's worried about the students.
she disliked me very much. she gave me -1's randomly on assignments.
Her post labs have made me consider dropping out all together. The directions are unclear. To be honest I could go on for days.
This is the worst class I have taken. She makes this course more difficult than it has to be. She is moody and the post labs are extremely tedious and confusing.
Post labs are extremely difficult and time consuming. Tests are way more difficult than expected.
She is rude. She grades things unfairly. Students learn nothing yet are expected to make calculations based on the information WE DIDN'T learn. Her post labs require that you deal with the most unforgiving and unhelpful website ever. Chem21 is the devil. I'm so frustrated and angry that I'm reduced to writing a poor review on a website.
She made Chem lab hard for no reason, its only worth one credit! It was harder than Chem class itself. Going to office hours she was a little bit nicer but she really only told me what I did wrong, which I could clearly see from my exam grade. In lab she was pretty mean.
SIG FIGS. If you don't know what they are, you will die, and even if you think you know what you are, your application of them on assignments, exams, and labs had better be golden because they're all that matters in this course. That being said, I learned a lot about laboratory procedures and enjoyed the various experiments!
Class made me feel like I was in elementary school. Petty grading and tons of work. However, online lectures were very helpful. Almost more helpful than chem lecture. My TA made this class bearable. Two tests. One was easy, one was hard. She's a stickler for procedure, but a nice person and willing to help if you need it.
This is the worst class you will take in your life. You will be a slave for an average grade. Pasternak can be nice but comes off as rude first. She does not lecture. You must be a chem genius to get anything above a C.
The two midterms don't allow any room for error and the post-lab calculationsessays are near impossible. Watch her lectures carefully before you attempt them. I've heard she's really helpful during office hours but due to conflicts with practices, I've never been able to reach her. Not at all understanding about athlete conflicts.
The labs the self are fine but our post lab assignments are tough especially the essay questions which are next to impossible to do well on due to the professors taking off points for not answering things that she didn't even ask about in the question. You're going to have to work your ass off for a decent grade
I'm being brutally honest here: 1. If you don't understand significant figures, good luck. 2. If you think lab is easy, think again. BTW, you most likely have to take this course, so good luck. 3. If you're going to ask her a question during office hours, be VERY specific. She can either be obnoxious or crystal clear, with no middle ground.
Biggest issue is her strict grading
a lot of effort does not translate into a good grade. you are expected to know material that is neither taught in lab or in actual chem class. the tests do not test on what you do and are more focused on sig figs than anything. this class is WAY more difficult than it should be
she's ok if you talk to her but she's not really around / doesn't affect much
The class is wayyy too much for one credit, so that's why it seems so hard. But Dr. Pasternack is a great person. She was super helpful anytime I went to see her, and we've had great convos.
It's a lot more work than my other 1-credit class, but it's still very valuable, and Pasternack is a good professor. She can seem a bit short in the lab sometimes, but as soon as she walks outside UTL 286, she's lovely. Aside from test regrades, she may be the only college professor ever to give points back on something. OBSESSED with sig figs.
Extremely condescending and unnecessarily obsessed with sig figs A grumpy professor No curve in the class The online program is a hassle Most TA's don't know what they're talking about
When people tell you Pasternack is a premed dream crusher, they are not kidding. The class is hard, but you don't need to be super smart to do well, you just need to do whatever you are told to do well. It's not even about being smart, it's about DOING EXACTLY WHAT'S SAID IN LAB MANUAL. And yes, nobody likes Pasternack.
You will work at least 5 hours a week on this class.
Really not a nice woman. Makes the class WAAAY harder than any one credit LAB class should be. I spent more time for this class than I did on the actual 3 credit chem lecture, and still got a worse grade.
She's a really nice person if you get to know her. She's always willing to work with you or explain stuff to her, just shoot her an email. I was scared of her at first, but after talking to her a few times, she has become a friendly face. She's also super wise.
Terribly unclear grading guidelines. Make sure you watch the prelab videos and READ THE PRELAB MANUAL as in lab worksheet questions are often from there. Go to TA review sessions/office hours when you're doing postlabs because those points add up and make sure you ace the prelabs. Midterms decide your grade so study hard for those. Pain of a class
People are so harsh on her on this site. I've had her for a few months how and she's honestly such a gem. Saw a kid walk in 50 minutes late the midterm and she took time out of her day to give him a space to take it later with no grade deduction. Her feedback on assignments is super helpful, nice, and clear. Such a sweet lady and a great teacher.
She is a super nice lady. I think that her class is a little unfair, as it's the same amount of work as a 2-3 credit course for only 1 credit. But I don't really think that's her fault, as she's doing what the school wants her to. And rumor has it she even tried to change the credits as well. The labs help with general chemistry.
Heavy workload for a 1-credit course ( I spend as much time if not more than my other 3-credit classes). Post-labs are extremely long and tedious and may take hours to complete. Grading is done by TAs, but still pretty tough, especially when it comes to short response questions. Rarely get out of class early.
Class Info
Attendance Mandatory
100%
Textbook Required
81%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Improving
+0.47 avg changeRatings by Course
CHEMLAB105
5.0
(1)LAB101
5.0
(2)030106
5.0
(1)CHLAB105
4.3
(3)105
4.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
CHEM05
5.0
LAB1
5.0
LAB105
5.0
030105
5.0
CHEMISTRYLABI
5.0