Professor Driessen is deceiving. I didn't think she was that bad for the first couple of weeks since she was usually smiling during class and doing interesting demonstrations however the second you need help she will not be helpful. She made me feel stupid for asking questions and is not willing to award points back no matter how right you may be.

Because of the rigid grading scale in this class, I was less than half a point from a higher letter grade but wasn't able to be bumped up. I think this grading scale was too focused on tests, and unfortunately my final grade did not reflect the amount that I learned over the course of the semester.

Ridiculous grading schemes that have nothing to do with how much you learned is the tip of the iceberg with this one. Avoid at all costs.

She is Terrible. I read this review before signing up for her class and didn't think much of it. However, I took her hybrid class and she is no help when you ask her questions she tells you're on your own, her online lectures are confusing and dry, I don't have enough character space to tell you how and she is and how you should not take her class

HORRIBLE class. She does ladder grading so you have to get 80% or above to get a D anything less you will automatically fail even if you do well on exams, which good luck. Hmwrk doesn't match test material. Her exam questions are choppy and unclear what it's even asking. Lines at office hours with people failing and she doesn't care one bit.

HORRIBLE CLASS. TERRIBLE GRADE SCHEME. QUESTIONS SOMETIMES ARE MISLEADING AND VERY VAGUE. DO NOT TAKE THIS COURSE IF YOU WANT A GOOD GRADE. She's very slow at responding emails, and even when she does, they are not helpful.

Aleks is the worst thing that has ever happened to me, it isn't even worth any credit and is NOTHING like the exams. She is no help, and she purposely doesn't tell you about the PAL sessions. she wants you to fail, TOTALLY a weed out course, she's a liar and she just wants your money. Can't even fire her cause she has tenure. DONT TAKE HER

She is quite honestly the meanest person (not just professor) Ive ever met. Worked hard in this class just to get a bad grade due to terrible online grading. She wont help you, she doesnt care about you. She has made me rethink going to this University. A chem professor that actually wants you to fail! She is terrible.

Michelle does not care about her students. Several of us repeatedly asked her to post reviews for the tests and she said she didn't have enough time and they were too much work to make. I emailed her asking to explain a conceptual question to me and she responded saying I should go to tutoring instead of asking her.

The formatting of this class is horrible. Your final grade depends solely on tests. Lectures were subpar and the online ALEKS homework is nothing like the tests. TAKE CHEM IN PERSON WITH A DIFFERENT PROF IF YOU CAN!! The margin of error allowed for answers on the online tests was tiny and there was no partial credit which tanked my grade.

I took chem 1015 in the summer while working three jobs to pay for school. if you dont get above a 90% average on ALEKS, she fails you. i ended up with a 89% average. she wouldnt bump me. test heavy and rude to students. told us she wouldnt answer emails about grades. i had a question about molecular shapes- she replied try to memorize them:)

Doesnt teach, learn from videos that are hours long online and sometimes the textbook(rarely used). She has questions that are harder than the practice, textbook, and videos. Can only miss two lectures(where we ONLY do practice problems in group), assigned group and tables. Very rude when asking for help or using office hours makes you feel stupid

Dr. D is terrible. She is rude, and walks away in the middle of answering questions. She obviously does not care about the success of her students, and makes no effort to help out in class. Her office hours are useless. Once I asked a question in class, she said "you should know how to do that," and walked away. If I could give a "0" I would.

Dr. Driessen is by far the worst professor I have had on this campus. She is extremely rude and "answers" questions in a passive aggressive and unhelpful way i.e. rolling her eyes and saying "look it up". Office hours are a complete joke. Even though this is a required course for many students, make sure you are NOT in any of her sections.

our lectures were online, which made it very difficult to understand the content. i usually had to go to outside resources to understand the material. the class was also very test heavy and our only other graded assignments were attendance and the aleks problems. the aleks often did not correlate with the exams and quizzes.

Most of this class is ALEKS and I spent 20 hours of ALEKS to get into this class and then 50 hours of ALEKS during the school year with the tests only being somewhat related to the material. Online lectures only will help you pass about half of the test. Try and get the online code without the book because you will not use the $190 book once.

- credit/no credit grading policy is just ridiculous especially for reports; a simple mistake can change a student's grade from an A to a B. Basically, there's no difference between a student who spends time and writes 10 pages report and just makes a mistake, and a student who does not bother writing at all - The rubric is too hard to understand.

Im gonna keep it real here. Dr. D is the worst professor on campus, the average test grades were a D level and below, this last tests average was a whopping 10.6/24. When I asked her through an email to help me with a question, she responded you should know that already and the hybrid lectures were a glorified study hall STAY CLEAR OF THIS CLASS

Driessen gives horrible lectures, making it very difficult to understand the material. She also doesn't give you much to work with to be able to practice and study. Overall, not a good professor and makes the class unbearable.

The most inconsiderate professor at the UMN. So cold and rude in her emails when asking for clarity. Even with the pandemic, she did not care about her students. Please take another professor is you have a chance.

The content of the class was not that difficult, but the lecture videos would only go cover it at a surface level. The only things that get graded are the tests, which consisted of the hardest problems from each chapter that didn't correlate to the homework or what was taught. Get a good study group and do practice problems to pass this class.

worst professor ive ever had. she is rude and inconsiderate, and does answer emails. the grade book is 100% tests, which are insanely difficult. the amount of time it takes to teach yourself the material is astronomical. her lecture videos are pretty much worthless. take anyone else if you can

This class is near impossible to get a good grade. The tests are 24 points, but only 12 questions and no partial credit, either right or wrong. Worst part, is that she is not accommodating at all. Corona kicked us all of campus, we still had an exam 4 days later, average was so low and curve did not change. I love chem, hated this course.

I never had a professor that was so rude and blatantly not care about your circumstances, especially at a time like this. She literally wrote that she will delete emails if they are asking for extra credit or raising grades. Everybody reading this, learn from my mistake and take chem with a different professor

Absolutely horrible professor. She is not understanding and expects perfection. She claims she will help and then that goes away when you dont do well. She is rude and said that she will delete emails asking for help or a boost in grade cause her exams were so hard. Dont take her

I wouldn't recommend her; she's very rude and will not understand your situation at all.

Dr. Driessen is by far the worst professor I have ever had. She has no understanding or sympathy for students and their life. She makes it very hard to pass. She would not excuse a test due to my grandma's funeral. She says things in emails then says a different thing in a later email and fail you. Her videos/homework are nothing like the tests.

The class itself isn't super hard if you have some time to put into learning the content. Michelle on the other hand just kind of sucks. If you try and email this woman, you will 100% not get the response you want. She doesn't really care about her students at all, and will let you know. For 1062 specifically, beware of her exams on Chps. 18 & 19.

I'm in the asynchronous chem 1061. Our grade is 100% base off of exams that don't offer partial credit for most problems. The textbook teaches one way, ALEKS teaches another, her lectures teach another. If you put the work in it's not insanely hard; however, she doesn't do her job as a teacher to make learning easier.

Lectures are decent, but the online exams are extremely difficult with no partial credit. Graded only by 6 exams and 1 final - there is absolutely no buffer to your grade. I would not take her if I had the option.

Honestly one of the worst professors Ive ever had. Sick with Covid and didnt bother but chew me out for asking her for an extension. I had Massari for lecture, but he was too lazy and made it a glorified study hall. Yeah. Dont take Chem 1061 online. Ive never gotten a grade this low in my life. Also Aleks and her lectures do nothing.

Dr. D is a nice person, but I don't think teaching is her best. The HW was not on the lectures, and the tests didn't have the HW on it. Aleks is the HW website, horrible 0/10, each week I would spend 8+ hours just on HW outside of studying and class. This class is really hard for an intro class when most of the time is spent doing HW

I would not take her class again. Doing homework on ALEKS is awful. ALEKS barely relates with what's going on in the class, and it's also very time consuming. Driessen is very strict and not the best at answering questions. Whenever I email her about a specific question, she always tells me to refer to the syllabus or some other place. UNHELPFUL!

I really disliked taking this class with Professor Driessen. I was enrolled in her asynchronous class. She provided lecture videos that you could watch for each exam, but they didn't seem to go into the same depth that the exam questions did. I found that in order to do well on the exams, I had to use practice tests from another professor's class.

Chem 1061 is easily the worst class I have taken. Other classes received practice tests to help them prepare. At most, we got lecture videos which only covered the bare bones of the material. If you don't go back and read the textbook and spend several hours doing practice problems then you probably wont pass. And ALEKS doesn't help with anything.

The exams are full of questions that you won't have seen before, even after using the textbook and doing all the homework. The only thing in the gradebook is the exams, so if you do poorly on one, you may go down an entire grade. Have questions? don't even think about asking her, you won't get an answer from her. She does not prepare you at all.

The class was only graded based on what you got on the tests even though the majority of the time was spent doing weekly ALEKS homework, reading the textbook, and lectures. In order to even be considered for a grade you needed to get at least 90% on the ALEKS homework. It was unclear what to study for tests and Driessen gave little to no support.

Her exams were extremely difficult and often times included content which was briefly mentioned in lecture. There was lots of homework which wasnt even graded but required to pass the class. Overall, take another professor unless you want to cry after every exam.

You could ask this woman why you got a question wrong on the test when you were pretty sure 2 + 2 4 and she'd go on a whole tangent straight out of Lucy (2014) about how 2 + 2 doesn't actually equal anything because math is a human construct is nothing is real and you're question will never get properly answered. Worst prof I've ever had

Had her back in 2018 and still think back to how horrible she was as a professor. Usually when a professor is bad, it's simply because they're a bad teacher, but still a good person. Driessen is one of the few STEM professors that is simultaneously a bad professor and a bad person. Someone literally was crying in her class (in 2018) and she laughed

Michelle Driessen is the worst. Don't take her class. She is not helpful and her grading scale is terrible. Even if you correct a mistake she makes on a test she still won't give you points back! Her, ALEKS, and the textbook all say different things and when you use what she told you to do and get the question wrong she still doesn't give points!

Worst prof I've had at the U of M. Graded by 6 exams (5 regular and 1 final) that are worth 24 points (12 questions) and 1 final worth 30. And by this horrible homework system- ALEKs you need a 90% to pass the class regardless of what you get on tests. Terrible person, doesn't care that we are in a pandemic, no accommodations. DONT TAKE THIS CLASS!

Heartless. Absolutely heartless. She doesnt care if your parents just died. She will only offer you a 24 hr extension and make you prove that they died. If you dont have the proof she asks for youre straight out of luck. She barely teaches and makes it impossible to acheive even if you're trying as hard as you can. She doesn'tcare about any student

She is a terrible professor, teaching a class is a chore for her. She is also never accessible outside of class and won't even bother to help you if you don't figure out a time that works for HER. She could honestly care less about her students. Just save yourself the headache and don't take it. I can't believe the U has professors like her.

Unfortunately, I do think that this class is only tailored towards students who are already inclined to succeed in a difficult chemistry/math course. For those of us who spend hours studying and doing homework etc. that hard work is not reflected. The exams are select all that apply and cover a lot of material not addressed in lecture.

System used Aleks is HORRIBLE. Personally, I had to drop so I could retake because I wasn't prepared. The only grades that matter are exams and Aleks which needs 90 percent completion before the end of the term. I would not recommend to my worst enemy, it is targeted towards students who already excel at chem with no room for beginners in chem

Michelle is unwilling to be helpful, and understanding. The class she has set up is fundamentally flawed and the use of ALEKS chemistry is a ridiculous excuse for not wanting to properly set up a class with assignments that have meaning.

The entire grade is based off of 6 mid term assignments and 1 final exam. Homework is still required for the class in order for your test grade to even count. in other words if you don't do your homework you receive a 0. The homework questions have nothing to do with what is on the test and don't prepare you at all. Have fun retaking!

Amount of work needed to succeed is ridiculous. ALEKS can be time consuming and isn't even factored into your grade. Exams would cover material that wasn't touched on during the lecture videos. She has no compassion for the effort and time that you put into the class if you reach out for help. Would have been better if I didn't have to teach myself

She makes you fend for yourself & is the MOST unhelpful professor. Your grade is based solely on 6 midterms and a final exam, which one bad score drops your grade drastically. ALEKS isn't relevant or helpful practice and isn't even factored into your overall grade despite the large amount of time it takes, but you can't pass without completing it.

Being a freshman, I was not expecting to have so much independence required of me. I thought since it was an intro to chemistry, there would be a lot more help and guidance, but I was wrong. The lectures were only on the class activities and she never allowed us to work on ALEKS in class. The amount of ALEKS topics required is ridiculous as well.

Aleks was super time-consuming but also didn't offer any practice since the problems weren't anything similar to the exam problems. Lecture videos were okay. Do the textbook problems and don't mess up too early or you won't get anything higher than a C.

terrible. she is my lab professor for chem 1017. anything below 74% is failing.

Entire grade is based off of exam scores. Homework and in-class activities, of which there are a LOT, count for nothing and are poor preparation for the tests. Disagreeable and unhelpful by email and in-person. Claims it's not a weed-out class but oh, it definitely is. If you want to succeed, do the textbook problems. TAKE AT YOUR OWN RISK

I think she actually enjoys putting students down, not really sure why she's a professor at a university at all unless she has a personal vendetta. She's miserable and will make your life miserable too

Her PHD stands for pretty huge disappointment

If you want to hate your life, take this class. If you want to be miserable, take this class. If you want to rethink your existence, take this class. Ive never felt more uncared for in my life and the amount of tears I have shed due to this class is unreal. Grade is based off 5 midterms and a final. If you can avoid this course I suggest doing so.

Do not take this online class. I don't know if Professor Driessen is a good in-person professor or not, but her online lectures are very boring and time consuming. Additionally, you definitely need to read the book to do well in the class. ALEKS homework doesn't count towards your final grade and feels useless. This is a weed out class, don't take.

Your entire grade is based off six exams and a final, but if you don't do the aleks you fail. Aleks takes hours each week and is nothing like the exams. She is not helpful and respond rudely to emails.

The professor is basically a phantom, she was never in lab and the TA's ran the show. The assignments are graded by c/nc and you need credit on a certain number of assignments to get a certain grade, so comb through the syllabus. The chem department is so inflexible about absences, you really can't miss class for any reason.

I am so sorry for you if you are strapped with Driessen as a professor. Don't take her advice/ pay attention to lectures, and don't study off of ALEKS. Use the text book and outside resources. She is a misery

Being an intro class this course is unnecessarily difficult. Be ready to spend countless hours doing the homework just fail the test. Also attendance is mandatory even though you literally do nothing in class. I heavily relied on YouTube videos to help me better understand the content because the videos were so outdated.

during a pandemic will fail you if you miss more than one class. Excuses for a valid absence is only illness related and you need to SEND PROOF to get the excused absence. Will require you to go to class even if you were exposed to covid. guidelines for mandatory attendance is harsh and unreasonable with current times

THIS CLASS IS HORRIBLE!!!! PLEASE IF YOU CARE ABOUT YOUR MENTAL HEALTH DON'T TAKE THIS CLASS. She is condescending, does not care about her students and is overall not a good teacher. The lecture videos barely go in depth on the content, but the exam are very in depth and challenging. Every person I know who took this teacher withdrew!

If you can take this with ANYONE else do it. You will end up having one of the worst semesters ever. She doesn't care about any of her students, and it seems she gets pleasure from watching her students fail. Worst professor at the UofM hands down

She is not great, I have taken her twice now and she is just kind of rude. She does not really seem to care about her students, she wants proof for everything even if it something you have explicitly said you do not feel comfortable sharing. She tends to forget that we are actual humans.

Michelle Driessen was one of the worst professors I've had. I took the online version of this class and videos from like 6 years ago were the only content provided. Driessen was extremely accommodating during a family emergency. If you have the ability to take this class with anyone else, do it.

Her lectures are ok, but book problems and in person activities are necessary to do well on the midterms. On her tests she will put problems to trick you and isn't very good at helping students or explaining any problems you have questions on either.

Taken this class 2 times now and it's awful. Her lectures and HW are cake compared to tests which just trick you. Class average on tests for my class was 14/20 for the majority of the midterms. She's rude and doesn't care about your feelings. Find a different professor if you want to keep your sanity or take the class at a nearby community college.

does not lecture in person anymore- strictly online lectures. unhelpful during in person class. Old TA of hers- agrees she sets students up for failure. weekly homework, and biweekly exams USING PROCTERO or whatever ( no retakes) yet no teaching.

The WORST professor at the University of Minnesota. DO NOT TAKE HER! If you absolutely need chem 1, wait until spring semester and take it with Kenneth Leopold who is an absolute angel. Driessen does not care about your physical or mental health, so forget about emailing her about anything because SHE DOES NOT CARE. She WILL set you up for failure

Lab was a 3 hour long torture. The entire chemistry department at the U is corrupt but Michelle Driessen being the head of the chemistry department pretty much sums up why its so bad. Be prepared for extremely long lab reports and 4 in class lab assignments per day. Also be prepared for teaching yourself everything since TAs cant answer questions.

Don't listen to any of the "positive" ratings on here. It's probably Driessen herself trying to up her ratings because anyone who took her class knows what type of professor she is. Take it with someone else of take it at another school and save your mental health because this professor is draining.

I've never cried more about a class until chemistry 1061. UMN babes, rethink your chemistry department :)

weird structure of the chem lab that only she believes is right

TERRIBLE! Worst professor ever, I recommend you take all chemistry lectures and labs through a different professor.

Worst instructions! Oh wait, she doesn't teach.

Her lectures are often unhelpful and very boring. She says that she wants everyone to be able to get an A because it is gen chem but this is not the case. The tests are difficult and she gives unhelpful guidelines for preparing for the tests. Very knowledgeable, but a bad professor.

Avoid at all possible costs, you can reach out for help and she will not help, preparing for exams is virtually impossible.

I will be honest, do not expect any help or guidance face-to-face. I took her hybrid class, which is an online class but group work once a week. She doesn't directly teach you only with her online lecture videos (which are old and boring) It is also very hard to reach her outside of her office hours. You are basically teaching yourself.

Michelle Driessen's hybrid chemistry class was one of the worst classes I've ever had the displeasure of taking. She wants you to read the textbook, do the aleks and also watch her useless long lecture videos. The class is suoer hard to pass with a good grade, unless you dedicate your entire free time to it. The class is also all exam points.

I would say avoid this professor but that's close to impossible. Just like everyone else said, this class is brutal. I put so much effort into this class and still got a B.

Not a very understanding professor.

Grading criteria for lab makes absolutely no sense. Grades everything as credit/no credit; if you miss one tiny detail on a lab report, you don't get credit. Makes lab WAY too complicated. Labs could not be more unclear; I was always left scratching my head in confusion. Also, she's extremely intimidating; I'm not comfortable asking her for help.

Terrible professor. Her grading policies are wack. Don't take her

for both online/in person: all exams are multiple choice-points off for wrong answers. you pass the class if you get 90% on ALEKS hw. you fail otherwise. your grade depends only on exam scores. retakes: 67% of additional points added onto original score. for example: 12/24 1st time, 16/24 2nd time, final= 14.7/24

She is very strict with grading! I remember when I went to her online only office hours it was difficult to get help and she was passive aggressive when helping me. I wish I didn't take this class. The group I had to work with was bad as well. Her video lectures are long old. The notes weren't helpful either. Take a different professor if you can.

Not a writing intensive class but lab reports are very heavily graded compared to PHYS 1301W

DO NOT TAKE THIS PROFESSOR FOR ANY CHEM CLASSES! 60% of the grade is based on the exams, and every assignment and lecture videos are 10%. Make sure you are reviewing the reused lecture videos in order to take these ridiculous heavy weighted exams.

She is friendly, strict, and isn't accommodating whatsoever. She expects a lot out of you and this class will take up a good amount of your time. Class averages on exams that you have every other week usually range from F's to D's. She doesn't care. You either do things her way or you do nothing. Good luck, you are on your own.

This class is terrible. It claims its one credit, but I put in more time and was more stressed about this class than my honors four-credit classes. My friend emailed Drissen telling her that she might be late to lab due to testing accommodations. Drissen responded that if she wants to succeed in this class, she can't use accommodations.

If you get assigned to this professor switch out of the class. She thinks she's god and does not teach or help one bit. She does not give her students any benefit of doubt and is averse to giving helpful feedback. Her test and grading formats are also horrible.

This is the lowest grade I have ever received in my life. The only grades are on tests, and the tests are full of only tiny details that was in a video for 2 seconds. The worst experience in a class I've ever had

Does not answer questions and does not actually lecture. She reuses someone else's lecture videos and the tests occasionally contradict what is said in the lecture videos. Written questions on the tests are also graded incredibly strictly, as in you don't mention one thing and get no credit. 0/10 would not recommend.

Awful professor. Definitely would not take it again.

You better be ready to learn all of the material by yourself, as all of her "lectures" are pre recorded and done very poorly, somehow even worse than the textbook. Will also be tested on subjects not covered in class or on lectures at all. Probably the worst professor I've ever had.

Awful professor that does not show any caring or helpful attributes. No rubrics or guidelines for any homework or tests are given, so it is impossible to learn from your mistakes as you do not know them. The curriculum was changed this semester and it is failing a ton of students.

All or nothing grading system is ineffective and makes students only focus on their mistakes, rather than their strengths. Extremely discouraging-- seems to take pride in failing students. TAs were unhelpful and often didn't know the answer to basic questions regarding lab procedures.

She makes it very hard to get an A by not curving tests and by not teaching well in lectures. The amount that receives an A does not fit a standard curve. I know she fails a lot of people too. You have to teach yourself with help from your tablemates in the lecture. She will answer questions when asked, but that is about the only way she helps.

Good luck

Terrible. She didn't ever teach, we watched Peltons lecture videos and were expected to learn from those.

Inflexible, sets you up for failure. Unreasonable amount of work for a 1000-level course. Avoid at all costs. ALEKS is a nightmare, Saturday deadline makes everything harder. Extremely strict grader on exams. Rude, passive aggressive, and unhelpful. Course is set up as though it is the only class you're taking, and demands a majority of your time.

The course material itself isn't too complex and is taught pretty generally, but this course is graded in a way that requires you to put in lots of work for even a B (high school grading percentages). The lectures are not useful except for making friends and study groups. The professors also did not prepare students well for tests. DO YOUR ALEKS!

The once-a-week in-person lecture wasn't a lecture, it was group work which isn't helpful unless someone in the group already took chem. She didnt answer questions in class, the videos we used to teach ourselves outside of class arent even her videos. Tests are online and written questions need to be concise. Dont expect credit on those questions.

Driessen doesn't teach any of the online course, it's just videos from Pelton and worksheets. The content itself isn't awful, but she makes little to no effort to accommodate students. The ALEKS is the most useful tool provided, and any worksheets were graded just on completion. She also tends to be passive-aggressive over email.

No help whatsoever. Felt like I taught the entire course to myself. Was hostile and not empathetic whatsoever.

She never taught during class. She walked around and refused to actually answer questions. I learned the content by myself at home by doing homework. She also told me to shush after I asked why I did not have partial credit for a question that I had half right.

The topics covered in 1061 are not super hard, Prof. Driessen inflates the difficulty of these topics by having a horrible course structure and refusing to teach. She refuses to provide sample answers for her homework and her exams are in-depth and go far beyond what her lectures cover. There is also no curve for a D- average in this course.

Get ready to teach yourself everything. Michelle is a low rate teacher. I took the class online, and 0% of the course was actually taught by her. Assignments are graded on completion, and you have no idea if you're doing anything right. Then, she follows these up with exams which are significantly more in depth than anything you've seen in class.

First time took class in person, freshmen year. Struggled, went to prof for guidance on what to do better on next exams and get grades up. Tells me to drop the class. I cried and dropped. Exams? Good Luck. ALEKS? time, blood, sweat, tears, wasted. Canvas HWs? tedious repeats, same as canvas worksheets. Almost writing intensive but chemistry remix.

Michelle (and really the chem department) at the U is terrible. The lecture is work time on worksheets, no lecture is given. The homework is repetitive and overassigned. Aleks takes tens of hours, and the tests are so complex to what you "learned." Michelle doesn't even teach and if you try to contact her she is no help/passive-aggressive. AVOID!!

She doesn't teach at all, she just asks us to watch lecture recordings and give us in-class problems to work on. The platform for homework was awful.

My best advice is to take chemistry at a community college during summer. The chemistry department at the U is absolutely awful

She just walks about doing nothing, refuses to teach. “Lecture” is students talking through worksheets teaching each other for hybrid 1061. The material isn't challenging, but you will do all the work yourself. Driessen makes her exams harder than they need to be. Manageable if your semester has no ALEKS, drop otherwise. Cold and disinterested.

Driessen doesn't teach in her lecture, and exams don't match the course content. Lab grading structure is nuts, everything is pass/fail. TAs will openly tell students the intention of the course is to teach you to embrace failure, so you will constantly be set up to fail. Driessen is a disgrace to UMN. Avoid at all costs. Go to a CC for gen chem

She made me hate chemistry. Really condescending in office hours and emails. Online homework system had errors all the time, would gaslight me when I told her issues, she would say no credit will be given, then send an email 3 days later that those questions were thrown out bc other ppl had problems. The videos aren't even her lecturing! She does 0

Driessen wanted to help but really failed on that aspect. I felt like she never really answered any of my questions, and left me more confused than anything. Tests were extremely difficult and there was a significant amount of homework, so much that it felt very overwhelming. If you can take 1062 with someone else, please do so.

Professor is very strict.

This professor rarely takes even the worst personal circumstances into consideration. I had reached out in concerns with mental health and was completely dismissed resulting into ignoring treatment due to her saying I wouldn't pass if I went into get help that would result in absences. She doesn't care about tech issues, family issues, etc.

The entire course setup is counteractive to student learning. ALL assignments from the week were due on Saturday night, and midterm quizzes were open from 4 p.m. on Thursday to 4 p.m. on Friday. The fact that her students are in college and expected to meet these mid-weekend deadlines should say enough about her thoughtfulness as a teacher.

This professor was not accommodating or understanding. She did not understand that students had other mandatory obligations outside class. With some of those mandatory obligations being military-related, it is against the law to take points away from the students if they cannot make a class, which does not respect University policy.

Michelle is very tough and is not understanding at all.

Driessen has 0 involvement in the class, her TA's do everything. The grading scale makes no sense, every assignment is either a 0% or a 100%. She was very rude in the 2 emails she sent students, and was not present in labs at any point. Class is obviously passable but prof makes it hell. Don't take driessen.

Do not recommend

Doesn't give any assistance with questions about the material, grades hard, and just uses old lecture videos.

You will likely never actually meet Driessen, because she has her TA's doing ALL of the work. The grading in this course are ridiculous – if you do all of the lab work in class with your group (which is easy as long as you have a good TA), your grade will be entirely determined by how well you write insanely long lab reports with minimal feedback.

Class has a lot of technical issues that wouldn't be resolved in time. Basically self-studied the whole course and exams are very difficult to get points on.

You won't pass the class if you miss any of the lab, such as lab 1065

Get ready to teach yourself. All content is given through videos while Driessen doesn't say a word all class. Homework is graded through completion and no feedback is given so you don't even know if you're doing the work right or not. Even with the copious amounts of homework she gives, none of it is in depth enough to help you on tests.

Took the once-a-week class—mostly video-based, which made it hard to stay engaged. Easy to pass, but tough to score high overall. I got 100% on assignments, but the tests brought my grade down. If possible, consider taking it at a community college for a smoother experience.

Took the once-a-week class, mostly video-based, which made it hard to stay engaged. Easy to pass, but tough to score high overall. I got 100% on assignments, but the tests brought my grade down. If possible, consider taking it at a community college for a smoother experience.

Took the once-a-week class, with the teaching being a series of low-quality videos recorded by another teacher, which made it hard to stay engaged. Easy to pass, but tough to score high overall. I got 100% on assignments, but the tests brought my grade down. If possible, consider taking it at a community college for a smoother experience.

If I could give her class a 0, I would. I'm only 5 weeks in, and I've never been more unmotivated to do chem. "Lectures" are just work time for the assignments, so she honestly doesn't do much of anything besides talking about the assignments you already did. If you get her, either switch out ASAP or be prepared to learn the course by yourself.

AVOID taking chemistry here is you can! I had to fight tooth and nail for my grade. Emailing the professor was FRUSTRATING, she was often unhelpful and dismissive. I genuinely thought I improved this semester, but I ended up with the exact same grade. Save yourself the stress and take this class elsewhere if possible!!!

I would rather take remedial tap dancing lessons for a millennia than take Driessen again. Terrible style of teaching, and when asked questions, often times just rephrases the question back to you and expects you to figure it out.

Avoid if you can. Heard in person isn't much better. Curriculum is old and doesn't support learning. Had multiple friends take this after taking AP chem and still struggled. Get ready to self study.

This professor teaches nothing. Lectures are only time to work on watching online lecture videos and doing worksheets. Test averages are usually around 60%. If you're good at learning on your own, this class will be okay for you- otherwise, I do not recommend it. Very disappointing foundation for chem as a pre- med student with a long way to go.

If you end up taking this class with this professor, I'd recommend turning to religion or a higher power. The exams will have you wondering who you were in a past life to deserve this. She doesn't teach, there's so much unnecessary homework, the exams are nothing like the material you learn and there's no way to know what the exam is about AT ALL.

This professor is astonishingly unhelpful. They don't teach—AI does, and poorly. Tests cover material never taught, lectures are confusing and pointless, and grading is mostly by TAs. The AI itself makes errors, leaving students lost, frustrated, and utterly unsupported.

Yo... this class is not it, avoid it. If you have to, get a different professor. "Lectures" is code for work time, and she goes over stuff that isn't even necessary. Tests tend to be every other week (60% avg), and the material isn't even the same as the homework. AI grades everything, and it's super confusing. Everyone I know dreads this class.

All I can say is Michelle Driessen is everything wrong with modern academia. She feigns innovation behind her disgustingly lazy behavior as a professor. Everything in this class is taught and graded by an AI module. I truly wish for future students that the University fires her before more people waste their tuition, time, and effort on her course

Absolute trash. I'm currently taking engineering classes and have already passed both Physics classes above B. Her lectures shouldn't even be called lectures (Do not go). The HW is graded by an AI, and she is the Head of the Chem Department, but couldn't even follow a textbook properly. The textbook is not provided, so self-study is impossible.

Class this semester is easy peasy lemon squeezy. Jk good luck if you ever take her. It's doable, but get ready to teach yourself and if you haven't taken chemistry in a long time Goodluck.

Crazy insane homework volume, especially compared to other introductory chem courses at the U (most of all 1071)

Do not take her class. She is such an awful teacher I don't know who gave her permission to teach. She will not let you get away with missing one lab even if you're sick without documentation.

Do not take her classes if you have a disability. She is incredibly unaccommodating and ableist. The exams are on Honorlock, which is proctored by ai. Be prepared to argue with the ai proctor, it does not care about your DRC accommodations. She is overly reliant on AI, actively puts disabled students at a disadvantage, and shouldn't be a professor

Her lectures are the worst ever, they aren't even real lectures, students just finish a specific worksheet every class and that's all. She does not go through any actual knowledge content. The homework and class work are completely online and graded by AI, and the content covered in exams does not always appear in these work.

Do not take this professor; she is very unhelpful, and the course is unnecessarily hard. Even when I completed all the material and studied a lot, tests were still very hard to get a good grade o,n and I felt information was missing from the lecture.

This may be the worst class here. "Lectures" are online and are short videos that add up to no more than 1 hour of content exposure per week. Worksheets and homework are busy work that is graded by AI with incorrect feedback. Exams are 15 points so any little error will tank your grade. Going to lecture is about as useless as Driessen is.

i would rather circumvent the earth on foot than take chemistry with her

Driessen lives up to her rating. She doesn't lecture, the lec times are just for self-study. You will teach yourself the entire course. The lab has no correlation to what is being learned in lec and is graded by TAs-pray you get a good TA. Lab is credit/no credit system and lec is graded with AI. Don't take this class unless you absolutely have to.

Every lecture she will have everyone do the homework in class that is graded by ai. Lecture is completely useless, you will not be taught anything, it is basically homework time on stuff that had never been lectured because there is no real lecture. The homework system sometimes will mark your answers wrong because of a typo due to AI grading.

Her reputation's correct. Lectures are completely useless. They're self-study time for the weekly homework, there's no ACTUAL lecture. And all those homework assignments are online and graded by AI which tries and fails to give useful feedback. The lab is barely related to what the weekly work entails. If you can avoid this class or prof, do it.

This class made me hate chemistry. Driessen doesn't lecture ever.... the class is a joke. It's all on you to learn the content.

Worst professor I have ever taken. "Lectures" involve sitting in lecture hall doing worksheets. You must self-teach based on 7 year old videos not recorded by her. All homework is AI graded. Exams are nothing like the homework or learning and have a 60% average. No curve is provided, professor is unforgiving and uncaring. Pray for a diff professor.

Driessen is a joke and I do not know how she is able to teach still. Lectures are just doing online worksheets that are graded by AI which she says she does so we can apply the topics we learn and ask questions, but there is not enough TAs so you end up just looking it up. Is not caring for student needs and is rude.

Just terrible.

extremely confusing grading scale that makes it impossible to succeed

If you're not religious, pick one and pray that you pass this class.

Driessen matches the harsh reviews: overwhelming weekly assignments, unhelpful lectures, tricky tests, minimal 10-min videos not by her, no curve, reliance on an inaccurate AI grading system, attendance dropped sharply. Extremely discouraging for a 1000-level course. Taking chemistry at a community college next semester. Avoid if possible.

Lab depends heavily on your TA and group. Two 10-page lab reports, strict weekly 3-hour attendance, and credit/no-credit grading. Missing any rubric section meant no credit. My TA was great, but 1065 lab content didn't match 1061. Effort felt unreasonable for 1 credit, and Driessen had no involvement.

She has a bad reputation and she lives up to it fully, Inaccurate AI supplements her teaching and feedback, lectures have little instruction, exam questions don't reflect the homework. I never blame professors for my troubles but her teaching is insulting and harmful; avoid like the plague I'm going to a different college to get my medical prereqs

I'd rather be subject to doing the one chip challenge everyday than take this class. That says a lot.

Driessen doesn't teach—lectures are just “work on Stemble” while LAs wander around. Stemble is awful, grading worse, and I talked to support more than her. Workload is chaotic: some weeks 2 hrs, others a lab, 29 assignments, and an exam. Totally self-taught. Be prepared for confusion, stress, and zero guidance.

AI grades our assignments (incorrectly sometimes), and lectures are nonexistent, merely a continuation of the modules we were working on out of class. There are no accommodations for anything; she expects our lives to revolve around this class. This department is one of the many contributing factors that led me to transfer out of this university.

like everyone else has already said, you will have to try to teach yourself everything. your lab won't be anything close to what you're supposed to be learning in lecture. but the best part is, there is no lecture. you'll sit in a lecture hall and do homework that was never taught to you that will be graded by ai. and ai will grade you wrong.

I had a 79.89% which is just short of the 80 cutoff for a B-. I emailed her asking if she is able to round up. Never replied.The following day, she sent an external email to all the students saying. “I will not respond to these messages as I take learning and the integrity of course grades seriously”. Which is very unprofessional and inconsiderate.

Worst prof of my life, if you u can take chem anywhere else please do so.

AI grades everything, the exams are taken with lockdown browsers, which is so strict I got paused so many times for moving, giving me stress. The assignments are too much yet not good enough to understand something better. You will have to teach things to yourself. I loved the lab, i think i learned more from the lab than the lecture.

Ever wanted a fully self-taught chemistry class? Congratulations, you found it. Lectures are just "work on the homework" with no actual teaching, and assignments are graded by Ai that's incorrect. You probably don't have another professor to choose from so if you're not religious pick one and pray for dear life.

This class was awful. The professor does not teach and relies completely on an online platform. Lectures are useless and the course is entirely self taught. All grading is done by AI with vague feedback. The professor is not helpful or accessible, and TAs were not helpful either. Avoid this class if you want real instruction.

The lectures are not lectures just "work on the homework with the people around you" time. The TAs and professor would float around and would give you very vague answers to your questions. All of the homework is AI graded but oftentimes the AI would be wrong so it made it impossible to learn anything properly. This professor made it so hard to care

This professor relies on AI to teach her students and will not give extra resources to help them better understand the material. The tests are ridiculous and will tank your grade if you are not careful.

Do not take chemistry with her if you can help it. She does not teach and everything is graded by Ai. We never once took notes in lecture because we were never given anything to take notes on. She made me question my worth as a student and there was a point where I seriously wondered if college was for me. Save yourself it is not worth the stress.

I didn't even take her this semester but I wanted to write another bad review. I don't think I'll ever have as bad of a professor as her. Was MIA every lecture for the entire semester and even though I got an A in ochem, her low quality class affected my understanding in upcoming ochem concepts. The chem department needs a rehaul, starting here

l would avoid this class and professor at all costs. I never had struggles with chemistry until this class. Professor is 0 help, the teaching style of this class is extremely poor. Paid for an online tutor and still ended with a D+. The “lectures” are worktime and you get no lecture from teachers or TAs, so there's no point in going.

Would not answer ANY questions and the “lectures” are not lectures. No teaching was done in class only personal work time… no point of the lectures when she isn't teaching or answering questions.

I don't understand how this professor is allowed to teach. All she does is throw AI at struggling students (Stemble) and refuse to help them. I would rather fly a plane blindfolded and upside down than take her class again.

Stemble, an online platform was used for all homework assignments. The A.I. went off of the feedback that the instructor inputted, yet there were many times that its feedback was incorrect. Then the student would have to email a "help line" to explain why they, in fact, should get credit for their response. There was no point in coming to lecture.