1.9
Quality4.0
Difficulty17%
Would Retake101
Reviews17%
Would Retake
101
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
7
4
5
3
8
2
29
1
52
What Students Say
“You have to go to every single lecture”
CHEM105 - 1.0 rating“Did I learn some basics to chemistry”
CHEM105 - 2.0 ratingClass Info
Attendance Mandatory
80%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.67 avg changeRatings by Course
CHEM106
1.9
(8)CHEM105
1.9
(93)Difficulty by Course
CHEM106
4.3
CHEM105
4.0
Reviews (101)
Professor is a decent person, but is really hard to follow in class, crams material, and homework often has material that hasn't been covered.
The homework does little to help with understanding concepts; online homework penalizes inaccurate attempts at problems. The class is set up to prevent using efficient mathematical methods - It's like returning to middle school math class. However, overall, she wasn't too bad.
Overall, okay professor if you are focused in class. She does read off slides all class, which can be sometimes hard to follow. You will probably need to use outside resources like YouTube and Khan Academy to understand the material for the tests.
Class is hard to follow and much easier to learn if you teach yourself on the homework. Sadly, attendance is required at the lectures which is annoying as they are unhelpful. She seems like a very nice person, just hard to break down the material
The concepts taught in this course arent necessarily difficult to understand, just the professor makes them hard to follow. The homework is usually due the same day you learn the material in lecture. Making it hard for people with full schedules, especially when office hours are limited to one hour.
You have to go to every single lecture. Then that same night you have to do the homework which is on a website with a very poor ui thats hard to use. On top of all of that you have to go to your weekly labs which has a completely different set of skills and materials that isnt even taught in lectures.
Ontop of attendance being mandatory, you are also rewquired to answer questions in class. Meaning you will be punished if you dont understand the material all the way. Labs are on a completely different schedule than the rest of class, using material from units ahead of whats being taught. Take honors chem if you can to avoid this class.
No clue why everyone is rating her so low. I've had really bad chemistry professors in the past, and this one is decent. She formulates her words well during lectures. Be prepared though to pay attention during class to answer the online questions. I think the worse part of this class is the lab. Exam wasn't bad was multiple choice, no notes.
The class is difficult, but that's just chemistry lol. Dr. Fennimore seems very kind and explains things concisely. Her help sessions aid immensely in comprehension, and while the workload can be a little heavy, it does help in buffering out any poor exam grades; plus the class is weighed differently than most (an 87% is still an A-).
Solid chemistry professor, but nothing remarkable, use the office hours and CLC when you can. You can do pretty badly on the tests and still get a decent grade in the class. (70% on midterm and i have an A). Homework platform kinda sucks, it doesn't give helpful feedback and has problems not yet teached. Lab is fun if you have friends in class.
Not a big fan at all of how she deals with exam prep. The study posted for exam 2 which was the hardest exam, was only a formula sheet we get on the exam, and the sections, 7.1 7.2 7.3 ETC. No practice problems prepared, no old exams, not even a list of topics, just the numbers. Very hard to study for.
Only took this class for my minor.. even Physics 3 was easier to understand than how chem is taught here.
Please pick any other professor
This class is literally the death of me. tell me why the first exam average was a 67%. teacher isnt good, material is even worse. the labs are awful, even my TA admitted it. nobody likes this class, not even my super smart friends. also the homework program she uses is awful and does not help me learn.
She really is a nice person. However, she provides absolutely zero study preparation at all, only the entire list of chapters we covered. Yes, this is a weed out course, but there is no reason for it to purposely be made difficult. I got invited to the honors section and have failed the last two exams (60 & 50); I think that's telling of the class.
Lectures are quick and vague, making it hard to understand concepts and understand class examples. She only posts the blank lecture slides, so you can't take notes ahead of time, but she goes so quickly that it is almost impossible to take notes during class and actually process what you're righting down at any capacity.
Be prepared to do a lot of homework and write/type quickly during lectures. She only posts blank slides, but writes to quickly during lecture so you won't be able to keep up. For test you are expected to know content taught literally the day before the test. If you take her get ready to memorize stuff that should be given on the test.
Either know chemistry prior or figure it out on your own
Thank god for TAs. Get prepared for the worse semester of your life where you teach yourself. If you've never taken chem before do not take her. The lectures are basically useless but attendance is mandatory it sucks. You can do great in everything but your grade drops after every test. Skip a semester to avoid taking her.
The lecture were useless in this class, If attendance was not mandatory I would not have gone because the required book was more useful than the lectures. I am so glad TAs exist because if they did not; no one would have passed the class unless you have done chemistry prior to this class. If you can, skip the semester and take a different teacher.
that was awful
Mary was not the problem with Chem 105. This is a weed-out course and you must be ready to WORK HARD every day. It was extremely challenging and the exams were very stressful, but Mary always held help sessions and answered questions. Again, Mary Fennimore was NOT the problem with this course, Lab and all four exams were.
Little respect for students, 4 exams make up 50% of your grade, lab and lecture are very disjointed with labs covering content before it is introduced in lecture, runs through lecture examples so quickly that she sometimes makes mistakes and doesn't notice until the lecture is over.
This professor is not as bad as everyone claims, the course is just difficult. Admittedly, I don't like how she sets up the lectures (mostly reading off of slides) but if you are confused I would seriously recommend attending her help hours. She was very helpful and kind to me. Definitely read the textbook.
Fennimore was a nice person but the lectures were quite boring. The exam questions tended to be more complicated than the ones on the homework's/quizzes so felt unprepared during exams. Grade is very dependent on exam grades. Was difficult to follow along sometimes due to her moving quickly and not explaining but rather reading from slides.
Fennimore was a nice teacher, many people do not like her because of her teaching style which is filling in blank slides but I didn't find it too bad. She's nice and people tended to blame their bad grade on her teaching instead of them not studying enough or not going to her office hours. Course is just difficult, as expected.
This course is very poorly designed. Lectures are her reading off of slides, and she spends more time explaining how to do 2/2=1 than teaching chem concepts. She does not provide any study materials for exams (four exams); she just lists every course concept she has ever mentioned in a lecture. The average grade for each exam was about 56%.
This class feels very disjointed. Some of the earlier labs use concepts that haven't been covered in lecture yet, leaving students struggling. Midterm exams and the final are 45% of your grade and Mary's test prep is nonexistent, you will go into exams thinking you know the content and come out wondering why the class average was a failing grade.
The professor only teaches from slides and will make you learn material outside of lectures. Does not prepare you to be successful in this class.
Despite doing fine on all the exams, I don't feel that this class was really helped me. Did I learn some basics to chemistry? Sure, but we didn't spend enough time on specific topics to remember them beyond assignments and tests.
This was Dr. Fennimore's first semester teaching Chemistry at WSU. Lectures are fast, but all were recorded to watch back later. She was extremely respectful and helpful outside of lecture and sincere. People give her a hard time but she's doing her best to try and improve her teaching style. Students are mad they actually have to study for exams
This professor reads off disorganized slides she fills out in class, expecting students to copy. She focuses on basic math over key concepts, leaving students unprepared for exams. Terms for early labs weren't explained until mid-semester, causing confusion. I'd advise avoiding her unless absolutely necessary.
The lecture information and lab assignment topics were completely unrelated; if you wanted to understand what was happening, you had to dive into the textbooks.
The lectures where super boring and hard to pay attention in. The homework and lab where relatively easy, but the the exams killed me. Would avoid if possible
Very unforgiving, strict, millennial. It felt like she purposely made her course difficult because it was hard for her when she took it if that makes sense. Very bland and boring. Fell asleep in lectures many times.
She was very millennial, unforgiving, strict. She taught the class as if she was trying to punish the students. Also extremely boring, bland, slow. Fell asleep multiple times in lectures.
Being stoned helped me in this course
Class average on exams was 50% - 65%. Labs & homework carried my grade throughout the semester. Very notes heavy, & the homework helped make more sense of what were were doing in class. Only annoying part is that we would learn new material the day before tests and would be on the exam. Gave no study guide & just had to study notes/ homework
She is a bad teacher, spends too much time explaining the easy things and breezing right past the hard stuff. Makes you write all the labs by hand, the labs are written very poorly and do not explain what to do. She doesn't tell the TA's anything. She acts like coming to school to teach is the worst thing she's ever done and seems very bored
Genuinely the worst professor I've ever had the unfortunate experience of dealing with
DO NOT TAKE HER
While Dr. Fennimore seems like a very nice person she really gives no help to her students. The lectures are very slow and hardly focused on the important topics, but when asking for help she will not reply to emails, and her office hours are rarely at a time students can go. If you are a person who likes study guides for a test, she wont give it.
Really, really, really mid/boring/mind-numbing lectures. I learned more from doing the online homework. and by independently studying for exams.
One of her TA's failed one of my friends for submitting her lab reports in DOCX instead of PDF's on canvas.
This professor seems nice but does not know how to teach properly. I needed extra help during office hours and she did not show on multiple occasions, while also making the test material completely different than the homework and quizzes. Do not reccomend.
Fennimore's teaching style is very uninteresting and easy to forget. It was not engaging at all and consisted of her mostly reading off slides. It felt like the material that she went over in class was very vague compared to the significantally harder exams that she gave. Exams had material that were briefly mentioned in lecture
The thing is chem is just hard in general. Prof Fennimore knows she's teaching a weed out and tries to help her students when she can but when you have over 500 of them, it's obviously gonna be hard. all the chem Profs at this uni are all lowkey bad but if i had to pick between any of them, i'd choose fennimore
Maybe the problem might be you? It's important to be introspection about what challenges you in college and this class serves as a reminder of your commitment. She paces the lectures well and is always able to give supplemental materials to re-engage with content. Chemistry conceptually can be difficult, she is amazing. Do the work and go to class
Class was boring, didn't really ever connect to the labs in the class and was confused the entire time
She just reads off a PowerPoint for the lecture with incredibly simple examples that she shows every single step of excluding any that would actually help you understand the chemistry behind it, just the basic algebra and arithmetic. the content is easy but get ready to learn it all from the book don't ask questions she will not answer them well
Some professor get the bad end of college culture, this class is predominantly taken by freshman who have yet to figure out their own work ethic. This class has a few moving parts, nothing that is bad about this course can be directly pointed at Dr. Fennimore. It's a hard subject and you can't expect to be given the answer every time--it's school.
Her lectures were not the best, she did give us a blank copy of her lectures so that we could fill it out as the class was in session. "Reviews" were never done and she always teaches up until the test and doesn't provide a study guide with specific topics or examples. All of them just had every topic that we had covered.
Dr. Fennimore is kind and open to questions after lecture and during office hours. She writes on blank slides during lecture and provides the slides (blank) in Canvas. The exams are hard and require more studying than I expected going in. The homework level is nice. Keep track of formulas because if you get stuck in homework they are hard to find.
She's not the worst professor ever but certainly no better than ok. I believe there is so many more things she could be doing to be more engaging. The course itself at WSU just sucks so that doesn't help. But she teaches up to exams and reviews aren't that helpful. Lectures are boring and read off slide. I wish there was another professor option.
Had her for two semesters and got an A both times (studied 6-8 hours for exams). Read the textbook and you will be fine. The lectures are dry and it's hard to learn concepts since not enough context is given. Bad work ethic is only part of it, the lectures don't set you up for success. If attendance wasn't mandatory I would've taught myself.
All lectures are filled in PowerPoints, also she goes very fast through lectures so good luck writing in class and do not even try to write with a notebook you won't be able to write fast enough. Does iClickers in class for attendance those are not that bad. Exams are terrible, study guide is not specific at all so have fun.
Did really well on labs & homework but tests are very hard and often overwhelming. Im usually an A / B student & ended this class with a C. Lectures are long & went only for free participation points grade. Test questions are all similar to each other & are hard to differentiate what equation to use unless you study/ practice problems 15+ hours.
She is a very poor teacher. She reads the lecture slides to us, only shows problems that allow her to do shortcuts (never shows one that need the long equation), and test questions have so much similarity it's difficult to interpret what you need to do for it. Avoid at all cost!
She seems cool and all but she has by far been the worst teacher, professor and everything above in my 20 years of living. I have even done courses with Cambridge University, WITH THE BRITS, and even THEY were better graders and teachers than her. If you have the choice between someone else and her, please pick someone else.
She seems really nice, but she is not a great professor for those who are not skilled in Chemistry. I'm not joking, I had her at 8AM and I would literally fall asleep. I typically get good grades, but it was IMPOSSIBLE to study for her exams. No study guide for exams and she teaches up until the day of exam. Try to avoid. I had to retake the class.
Two separate occasions she didn't show up to office hours with no explanation. Lectures are boring and not helpful at all she hardly explains things other than reading her slides and acts annoyed to answer questions. She doesn't really give study guides and the average exam grades were typically ~50%-60%. A lot of homework and teaching yourself.
Doesn't have any passion for the subject she teaches. EXTREMELY EXTREMELY BORING lectures, it's like listening to c3PO tell me what an atom is like dawg.
Her homework is actually bad; she penalizes you for wrong answers, but gives unlimited attempts. Not at all conducive to a firm understanding of content. Likes to mark down students so that their grades aren't 100%
I have disability accommodations requiring me to email her when I need an extension. It would be useful if she actually answered her emails. If you are disabled and have to take this class, take it when she IS NOT the professor. The only good thing is that she records the word-for-word book repeat lectures.
I would honestly rather sniff paint than attend one of her (fill in the blank) lectures. She doesn't know how to answer questions and all of the lectures are just PowerPoint slides where you _______ with her. She just reads off the guided notes and does not know how to teach anything.
I've been a 4.0 student my entire life, and honestly, Mary wasn't terrible. She's just boring and very monotone, and it feels like she doesn't have any passion for chemistry. Just be prepared actually to put in effort. The grade doesn't come easily, so I wouldn't recommend taking her class unless you're willing to work for it.
Professor Fennimore seems very nice, but her lectures are very monotone and hard to engage in. I took Chem 105 at 8 am and with her fill in the blank lectures, staying awake was often difficult. In addition, if you struggle at all at Chemistry, this class can be very difficult as you will basically have to teach yourself from the notes.
Fennimore is a respectful person who seems enthusiastic about their career. That being said, her teaching style could use a full revamp from top to bottom. If you genuinely believe you can learn from a professor that speaks in the same flat tone and only teaches in fill in the blank style notes, then take this class. If you're normal, avoid her.
Professor is difficult to work with and is inconsistent.
Hardest class
It's hard to stay engaged because she speaks in a monotone voice and relies on fill-in-the-blank notes. She usually speaks so slowly when doing the notes that I tend to tune out her voice before she even finishes a sentence. I don't feel like I learn much from lectures and usually have to reteach myself the material through YouTube videos.
Just so difficult to actually pay attention to what she's saying during lecture. About halfway through the semester I stopped going to lecture entirely and just watched them at 2x speed at home. If you struggle with chemistry as well then this will be even worse.
The fill in the blank notes are not helping anybody. I understand the class topics better when watching The Organic Chemistry Tutor than when I attend her lectures. That is literally the best advice I have for someone wanting to take this course. The exams are pretty tough, but the homework and the labs are easy. Just be prepared to study a lot.
Cake class, if you have two braincells and can rub them together you can get an A easily.
Are we all crashing out before midterms. but anyways I would say that chemistry is already a difficult subject, so that plus the fact that her teaching style isn't the greatest makes class a little hard. You'll most likely need to review a lot on your own.
Homework and labwork are easy but they feel tedious since there's still lectures 3 days a week and then the weekly lab on top of that. For exams, just brush up on basic algebra, they're more math based later in the semester. My main issue with this class is just that the teaching style sucks! Prof makes things extremely hard to follow.
Same feedback as everyone else. If you take this class you WILL have to study outside of class hours and teach yourself the info, there's no getting around it tbh. There are practice problems in the textbook that you can work with that do help you prepare for exams though. Homework is pretty short. Exams are rough... and labs make me want to jump.
She does not really teach you at all. I could've taught the class without knowing any of the material. She reads from guided notes and writes it down and explains some concepts here and there. I pretty quickly stopped going to lectures because she records them and it's far more bearable to hear her voice at 1.75x speed.
I did not find the lectures engaging at all. The format of watching the instructor read off guided notes and answer a few problems made lectures feel much, much longer.
This is by far the worst professor you will ever have at WSU. She doesn't care about the students at all and doesn't prepare you for the tests. Her lectures are incredibly boring and you get no help from her. If you like your GPA don't take her class the majority of people don't like her.
punishes you for getting homework wrong, which when you get unlimited attempt, sucks. lectures are incredibly boring, tests are unfair and really difficult. She loves to use trick question on exams. Seems nice, but if you ask her a question outside of class, is incredibly rude. No makeups for in-class quizzes even if you literarily cannot be there.
Dr. Fennimore does not care about students or teaching at all. Exam grade averages are routinely under 65% and she does nothing to address this. She does not change her teaching style, and she expects everyone to be as knowledgeable as grad students and does not take feedback. If possible, take this class with someone else.
Very boring and simple lectures and brutal if you have her in the morning. Her homework system is set up poorly, penalizing you for trying despite giving you unlimited attempts. This system encourages a lot of cheating in the class. The tests are also harsh too with every question impacting your grade. You can tell she is a new teacher in college.
i waited til the end of the semester to rate her to try and give her some grace but no this class genuinely sucks. literally do not take this course bruh.
Am I passing the class? Yes. Would I recommend this class? No. You could not pay me to ever relive this class again. Not even for a million bucks. If you are planning to take this professor (I'm not even trying to be a hater, like literally I'm saying this for your own sake), DON'T. - homework sucks - teaching sucks - long labs - hard exams
Aye bruh ts professore genuinely one of the worst ones that came out of whatever century she was born in. Her lecture's don't correlate with the homework/lab/exams AT ALL. Meaning that for exams, all the studying was done with the online textbook or dcksucking your TA. the class average for fall 2025 semester's 3 midterm exams were a 60%. A 60%!!,
She is genuinely one of the worst professors I've ever had. Fennimore doesn't explain jack sh*t and expects everyone to just know and understand whatever she writes in those goddamn guided notes (which also don't explain anything). I seriously suggest taking a lower level chem class with ANY OTHER PROFESSOR. If you HAVE to take her, good fking luck
TS IS SO AHH 💔💔💔 literally the class of doom and despair
If you have anything bad to say don't say it. In college you learn to learn by yourself she goes over everything you need to know and if very flexible. She's super sweet and honestly just like any other teacher I've had. She posts the lectures and attaches a textbook she gives you everything you need to do well.
Tbh I hated this class and would rate it a 1/5, but to be fair, she DID cover all the required material. The problem is that her teaching style is so bad and ineffective that nothing really sticks, so everyone ends up having to relearn the content to themselves. You shouldn't have to pay for a class only to go home and reteach yourself everything.
The lectures are monotonous and soulless. She never clearly answers any questions asked in class. Any passion I had for chemistry was killed due to her lectures. The tests are always confusing and all have failing or near-failing grades, and the teacher does nothing to address the struggles of her students. DONT take this class for your own good.
Her lectures literally do nothing to prepare you for the exams or assignments, you will learn everything on your own, otherwise you will fail. The exams never correlate well with the material covered in class. The labs aren't fun, but if you do well on them it will definitely help your grade. I don't wish her as a professor on anyone.
The worst teacher I've had in college, I'm a junior. She shows up like it's a chore, and her lectures are not informative and boring. She gets problems wrong in lecture. Class averages for tests are normally failing grades, below 60%. Don't take it if you can. Brace yourself for a long semester if you have to take this class.
before starting the final i asked my meta raybans to facetime albert einstein and i got caught so thats the only reason i have an A- nevertheless, this class is annoying as a mechanical engineering major. homework penalties promote cheating, lectures are best at 2x speed online, and handwriting lab procedures every week sucks the soul out of me.
If you have to take this class, I suggest taking chem 103 first if you aren't math savvy or didn't take chem in highschool. She does not explain any context behind problems and assumes you will figure it out/know it already. The second midterm exam is mostly math so buckle up, it'll most likely tank your grade. Try to get A's on all papers to pass.
Honestly you going to have to teach yourself or go to a ta for help, teacher was not as helpful. She gets answers wrong when teaching and her note taking are very long. Doesn't show exactly how you get to these answers. Do your best in lab it can some how help but it also might not even help if you do all assignments it's confusing. Good luck!
Just awful. I maintained an A the entire semester and got screwed over so badly on the final. She is rude and not responsive to students. Acts like teaching is a chore and the way she talks is tiring. I recommend learning on your own and using old exams found online to study bc her reviews aren't anything like the actual exam. Good luck
Just not a whole lot of passion coming from her. The material wasn't too difficult for me at least, but many topics weren't explained very well and I usually got a passive-aggressive vibe from her when answering student's questions. Nonetheless if you've taken a chemistry class in high school, I wouldn't be too worried about failing.
I really liked this professor. She had clear note templates for following along with the lectures that made following along and paying attention very easy. As the semester went of the exams got more and more difficult with relatively low averages and there was quite a bit of homework but the assignments were fairly easy.
Tests were a lot more difficult than the basic examples that she gave in lecture. Very math based. Averages on all midterms and the final were usually around a 50%, and she does not care. Also said that she does not believe extra credit is needed. Seems to me that she is proud of the fact that her students perform poorly on exams. Avoid if you can
The classes consisted of content-heavy lectures, but she provided follow-along note templates with simple practice problems. The homework assignments were sometimes difficult and the average exam grades were relatively low. It is definitely better to speak with her after lecture or during her office hours, where she is more helpful and caring.
Class Info
Attendance Mandatory
80%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.67 avg changeRatings by Course
CHEM106
1.9
(8)CHEM105
1.9
(93)Difficulty by Course
CHEM106
4.3
CHEM105
4.0