2.9
Quality4.5
Difficulty21%
Would Retake100
Reviews21%
Would Retake
100
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
100 total ratings5
31
4
11
3
14
2
9
1
34
What Students Say
“Horrible Professor and will do everything in his power to prevent students from succeeding”
2P20 - 1.0 rating“If you don't believe in the power of prayer, stay away from this course”
BIOL2P20 - 4.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
90%
Textbook Required
75%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-1.48 avg changeRatings by Course
220221
5.0
(1)ORGCHEM
5.0
(1)CHEM221
5.0
(1)CHEM220221
5.0
(1)CHEMYR2
5.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
220221
5.0
ORGO2P2021
5.0
ORGN
5.0
2P202P21ORGO
5.0
ORGANICCHEM
5.0
Reviews (99)
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Zelisko is a GOD!!
It's hard to succeed when someone's suck a pretentious, stuck up, jerk. Who would have thought? only at Brock! hahahaha! Now I know why no one does their masters here.
lectures are clear and as interesting as they can be, but he expects waaaaay too much from his students. if you are willing to forego things like sleeping bathing and eating, you might just do well, otherwise, avoid any course taught by him like the plague.
-Tests on material not covered in class/book. -Gives no time to finish exam and look it over. -Doesn't care about his students. -Loves seeing the majority of the class fail. -Good teacher, but his tests will make you wish you were dead! -Students are scared of him for these reasons. -Take these course elsewhere!
He is a very nice guy but he does like to see ppl failing! I am doing alright on the other courses and orgn is the only thing killing me now!
A class with Paul is like a day at boot camp. But he's really a much nicer guy than the ratings make him out to be. Just has no mercy XD
He is ridiculous, he teaches no relevant material and whoever says he is good is prob the one under his desk for her marks, cause he not suited to be a teacher. thats all that needs to be said about him. He is an incompetant teacher who simply is not made out for the job.....heads up 75 % people failed his last exam
Horrible! Despite having a "chemical education" for trying to help students learn organic chemistry better, he is not a good teacher! To young and not experienced in teaching... Just because he just got his Dr. doesn't mean he should treat us the way he does. An yes its true that close to 75% of the class failed his latest midterm. JERK!
This child needs to be fired. Exams are hell and shows no sympothy even when whole class fails. Instead yells at us...Paul, your not funny and your class makes us cry.
wondering how many ppl will be in 221 if he doesnt bell curve the class!
Dr. Zelisko is a premier professor and makes organic chem more like orgasmic chem. It's my favorite class bar none, I'd fail it on purpose so I could sit in again next year.
Dr. Zelisko is a really tough prof. But if you're willing to ask for help he will go the extra mile to make sure you understand the material. His class is far from easy, he has standards but isn't going to lower them for anybody. Obviously the people who wrote the other comments don't attend office hours.
HE teaches organic chem, and the course is hard. Both of them are. But he is probably the most helpful prof I've had at this university. If you ever need help with something his door is always open no matter what he's doing.
Hardest courses I've ever taken. Best professor to teach it. EVER. It's not a course for the whiny kids. You have to work, hard. The only professor that will make you learn how to truely understand the concepts.
I have NEVER come across a prof that is so super helpful, patient and friendly! Ogro is THE most conceptually challenging course you will ever take as a B.Sc student... Paul's door is always open and if it wasnt, I would have failed.
The most helpful professor I have ever met. Makes you enjoy organic chemistry. He loves teaching and enjoys helping students. his door is open all day for help
Does not give students the marks they deserve.
what a jerk!
I liked organic before i was in your class!!
took it at brock and at mac again. not surprisingly, he sucked at both locations. the guy obviously hates life and makes students suffer for it.
Paul is the most helpful prof I have ever had. He remembers that part of his job is to teach! Not just research!!! Keep it up!! :)
Zelisko is a very organized professor. His notes are very easy to follow and understand, however his exams are killer! No matter how much you study the notes you cannot do very well on the exams! He is a very inteligent and helpful professor but sticks to principals and is not very flexible! It's just a touch cours!
I'm still angry about the midterm. By definition a 50% is supposed to represent a minimal sufficient knowledge of the course material. To get a 50% on his test you have to have highly developed critical thought towards the subject. Most students taking this are bio majors, not chem majors! He's the friendliest, most helpful sadist I've ever met.
A genuinely great guy. Also super hot!
- A Great Prof. that suffers because he teaches such a hard course, granted the midterms are impossible but its the material that makes it hard not P. Zizzle. A Genuinly nice guy who cares about his subject and is pretty funny.
NO COMMENT!
orgo is just a difficult subject in general and unless you're not taking a full course load, it's hard to dedicate enough time to it without your other classes struggling. Zelisko is a great prof tho and although his tests KILL me, he is always willing to help you out if you go to his office
Organic chemistry is a difficult subject to learn and you should expect to put a lot of work into it, but Zelisko is fair and he actually cares that his students learn and understand the subject.
He makes an impossible topic easier to swallow. Very helpful during office hours. Marks all the tests himself, so it's very fair. Uses metaphors a lot, which really helped me understand the information.
The Prof teaches the course year after year with the same lecture notes but with regular changes to the adopted textbook for some reason. The course demands you invest time. The Prof is known to regularly re-use tests so getting previous exams seems to be a pre-occupation for most students. The Prof is available to help outside of class.
A great prof, has a real interest in what he is teaching uses a lot of helpful metaphors. Conceptually a difficult class, and he does not go easy on you on midterms and exams, it requires a lot of practice. He is available to help and is happy to do so but not as available as some would like, he is a busy guy. Funny too makes the class bearable
He is a well organized professor but man,.. when it comes to his tests and exams... don't ask.. He expects you know every single tricky question but infact he only teaches very simple ones. He is friendly though. I wish he made the tests a little easier so that the class average could be a little up than 40% :S
Yoo guys, If you want you marks to go down from 90% to 68%, then take this course..Guaranteed that would work :D
He makes a relatively easy subject difficult. Chemistry was my favourite subject before taking this course. Now I hate it. It's not like I didn't understands his lectures, in fact I did very well on both midterms. The final exam was not relevant to chemistry at all. I pulled up many allnighters before the final, still failed it.
His lectures are easy to follow and he uses good analogies to help explain some subjects. Labs are difficult to do but they certainly help to boost your mark in his course up. Exams are killer! Questions on exams are more difficult than any examples used in lecture or the textbook. He marks all exams himself so dont expect to get extra marks.
I find organic chemistry fairly easy, his lectures are clear and easy to follow. However, when it comes to midterms and final exam, only a handful of students manage to get good marks; those who have previous years tests. I worked hard, still earned a bad mark. This is why I think my evaluation was not fair at all.
VERY, VERY difficult material to comprehend. This course will bring down your average, which is unfortunate. Zelisko is a exceptional prof, clear, helpful, funny, interesting, and a great person. Try your best is all I can say. Good luck future students.
2P21 is slightly easier than 2P20, still a very hard course though. Zelisko is an amazing prof and truly does his best in lectures. Lots of respect for this man! Warning: you may end up in the lab for 9+ hrs. a week depending on how your experiments go, haha.
hes not bad
The lectures are not bad but the course itself is just ridiculous, the only reason my average dropped significantly , if you are in co-op and this is your major..think again..
Such a great professor! Explains things very well in class by explaining why the mechanism goes the way it does, and is enthusiastic. He really wants you to succeed and has a lot of office hours to meet up with students! Class isn't too hard as long as you understand (not memorize) and do textbook problems! Half the tests are text problems!!
Dr. Zelisko is an amazing professor. The most important things to do well in this class is to come to class and really listen and take notes and to be able to think and problem solve during tests. My interest in the subject greatly increased due to this course and even though many people said it would drop my average it did not at all!
Really nice guy. He has lots of stories to tell while he lets you copy down the slides, it makes for a really interesting lecture. The course material and the course itself is intimidating, but Dr. Zelisko is very nice and approachable
Nightmare. Lecture was dry and confusing. While the professor seemed interested in the material, the delivery did not transfer this interest to students. If you want to do well become one with your textbook
GREAT PROFESSOR!!
Very tough exams. It seems like he doesn't realize that when everyone does bad on a testassignment, it might have something to do with his teachingthe clarity of the content. If you work hard enough and only focus on organic chem (and do every single textbook question), you can do okay.
Everyone complains how its a hard course, but if you change the way you study, you'll do great (he even mentions this in the class). You need to understand the concepts, not memorize. The textbook and practice question are the best help. The only downside is you need to dedicate a lot of time to the class.
God Bless
Really enthusiast educator but ridiculous on tests. Very unrealistic expectation and if the class average is far below passing again and again, he never re-evaluates himself. Tough marker but is always there for help and very friendly as a teacher, and genuinely tries to make class easy to understand. None of this follows through on tests though
If you don't believe in the power of prayer, stay away from this course
Dr. Zelisko is a very nice professor. I really like going to his lectures since he's very enthusiastic about Chemistry and environment, etc.
I hope he will say what he expects from students. In the assignments, you don't know how much you'll get on a quesion. If you think the question was "easy" marks.. well.. Think again. Also I observe he actually expects his students to know what he wants without him telling it. He's really nice and all but.. :'(
Great professor. Knows his stuff in and out; he is a tough grader but this is compensated for by the low difficulty of the midterms and final. Helpful, clear and to the point, don't let the cloud of rumours surrounding organic chemistry fool you. Its not hard.
He was a decent professor. What I did not like was that he would test you on stuff he did not teach you, yet was in the textbook. Very nice guy, but can be a little sneaky.
The dude two comments below me is deluded, only 30 people of 180 got above a 70 on the second mid-term. Do ALL the textbook questions for sure. He does help you very well, but alot of the time he is not in his office, or is with a grad student for an extended period of time, making him unavailable.
Helpful if you see him outside of class for assistance, but lectures are dry and he expects students to learn most content from the textbook instead of teaching it in class. Tests are a nightmare and majority of the class always fails. Blames students a lot for not understanding his teachings instead of adjusting his teaching so students understand
I took CHEM 1p20 with this prof. I don't like the way he teaches. he expects you to learn about 90% of the material (that he will test you on) on your own. Does simple example in lecture but assigns are 20X harder. And he makes you rewrite the whole procedure in your lab notebook as you do the lab. Too much unnecessary work. sacrifice 20 hr/week
Great prof, great guy. The tests will be some of the hardest you've ever written, but they're designed for you to demonstrate that you can think critically about orgo and not just memorize. Attend all the lectures, but don't skip on the textbook. If you don't understand something, he's in his office almost every day, which is refreshing at Brock.
He's an awesome professor that really wants to see you do well as long as you're willing to put the work into it. This course contains a lot of content that you need to read the textbook to expand what was talked about in lecture. The course load is high but the prof will do his best to help you in every way possible as long as you talk to him!
textbook is ur best friend, lectures are useless, clicker qs are hard and irrelevant to course content and exams but you gotta marry your textbook. exams are horrifying bc he picks the dumbest textbook qs but labs n assignments will bring your mark up. final is bRUTAL
Dr. Zelisko is definitely controversial, if you do not go to class and listen you will get behind Trying to use memorization in this class will be a bad time. Go to class and copy down his examples. Re-write them and practice similar questions with different substrates on a white board. Practice...A lot. It would be nice if he posted lecture notes.
Horrible Professor and will do everything in his power to prevent students from succeeding
Dr. Zelisko is by far the best professor I have ever had. He has gone above and beyond to put aside the time to help me one on one with subject matter. The course is very challenging and he knows that; he goes out of his way to email students who are struggling and offers guidance and assistance with course material. He deserves to be acknowledged.
Lectures notes aren't really related to tutorials and tests, best bet is to read textbook like no tomorrow. Labs are an easy A, which makes up for half the class failing the tests. Final exam is not what you would expect. He's a really nice guy but very tough grader. Makes it harder than it has to be. Invest a lot of time into practicing to succeed
I learned nothing from his lectures. He just tells stories and explains how the story applies to a concept, BUT DOESN'T EXPLAIN THE CONCEPT. I had to teach the entire course material to myself via the textbook. However, he is available everyday of the week in his office hours and he is helpful in answering question, but you need to know what to ask
The questions on the midterms this year weren't even stuff we went into huge detail. There was a benzoin condensation on the midterm and final and we literally covered it for 30 seconds in class.
He is a great prof in terms of personality. He is very outgoing and enthusiastic when it comes to lectures. If you put in the time after class, he will answer any questions you have. This class is a lot of work, with lectures, tutorials and labs but if you pay attention and memorize, you should pass (not necessarily with a high mark)
During COVID, when several students are trying to adapt to the changes in learning style and cope with new, unforeseen challenges, Zelisko seemed very intent to set his students up for failure. Charged $50 each to 100+ students for lab fees despite being online. He wast understanding when students explained there were marking error.
He went out of his way to make people do bad, I think only 8 people passes, great time.
Worst teacher I've ever had
I have many things I would like to say. But as much as I want to question this mans ability to teach, test fairly, or recognize he can't do either, I have to blame the department as a whole. After everything he does, the school will just let him get away with it.
This professor, while a pretty nice guy, is not teacher material. While he is clearly quite enthusiastic about what he does, whether unintentional or not makes the class so hard for his students. We dealt with mechanisms on the final the likes of which I've never seen, and I read through the whole textbook and did all the questions!
Zelisko runs a very tough course but is always willing to help students so they are successful. You have to put in the time and the effort but he will help you if you have any questions or need to review concepts outside of class time. He really wants you to learn and understand
Final Exams are much harder than midterms. It is a tough subject at all schools. Zelisko does his best to make a tough subject approachable. Use his office hours, relied on talking to him to get a feel for how to do things. This rating also applies for CHEM2P21 as well which is the follow up course to 2P20
Paul is very passionate about the work he does and you can tell. He definitely knows his stuff. However the test material is eons beyond anything you will ever see in class. Orgo is already a hard course, and Paul makes it even harder. Do textbook problems to pass this class. Spend an ungodly amount of time practicing mechanisms to get a good grade
a lot of things you can say about dr zelisko but to keep it short, expect to see low class averages, become victim to his inability to adapt to online learning, and feel robbed because he tries his best to make you unable to pass.. it's also funny how the positive reviews on here seem oddly related... and I pray for anyone who takes 2p20
I genuinely dont know how I even passed this course seeing that the prof provided little to no guidance during the lectures and the final exam was 27 pages of ridiculousness. Dr. Zelisko is passionate about organic chemistry but fails to realize we are very new at it. I really did not enjoy the last 2 semesters.
CHEM 2P21 was easier than 2P20 but Zelisko really needs to adopt a fair marking scheme or give challenging review questions if he doesn't intend on teaching but reading from the textbook. Organic chem is a hard course in general but Zelisko makes it worse. He aims for a 30% mean on midterms and exams so take the course at your own risk!
The fact that I passed this class was a miracle. Absolutely ridiculous teaching, he's a crazy person trying to fail anyone if you need to take Orgo chem I highly suggest you do it somewhere else and transfer the credit. Most of the text questions are from the end of chapter textbook questions but he doesn't even teach half this stuff. WORST PROF!
I hated this class with every inch of my body won't be passing because prof. zelisko likes to give out 30's on the finals but hey atleast he made me realise I don't wanna pursue chemistry in the future so thank you for that.
Absolutely NO direction on the test, then the graders rip away marks left right and center because you have no idea what the question means. It was ridiculously unfair, a lot of the tests I got the correct final answers and would still fail because my mechanism was not EXACTLY the same as the answer key. But he doesn't teach the style he wants!
Awful teacher
Absolutely terrible. Not sure how this prof is still allowed to teach this class. Hardest class ive ever been through, not because of material, but because the prof cant teach. Teaches bare min. and expects the most on the tests. Impossible to communicate with over email. Class and prof have designed to fail
The worst and hardest class I have ever taken. Have to put many hours into homework and practice questions. Definitely did not like any aspects of the course even the labs.
Worst prof ever, sets his students up to fail. If you have the option to take the class at another school, do it.
High energy, good lectures, but they don't really prepare you for the tests. Best bet is to do all the work and be ready to attend lectures as a spectator and not a note taker. Read the textbook, take good notes and do the textbook problems and you should be fine. Nice guy but teaches tough material. Be ready to work.
Zelisko is appalling. His up tight rear end has not let students have the light of day. Does not care if u practically die in a hole and are mentally suffering. Oops oh well pay more money and take my course again. He wants to fail you on purpose and takes pride in it. Super disgusting. So if you want mental abuse you've come to the right place.
Honestly he's a horrible person and the fact that he can dictate your future they way he does is beyond scary and mortifying. He makes the course so difficult for you and when you need his help he tries his best to avoid you. If you have mental health concerns Zelisko will just make them worse until they torture you out of his course, Never again.
made me drop out of chem & I couldn't get my money back :(
The fact that the chemistry department lets the course continue on this downward fall and do nothing to stop him, shows they have no consideration for their students, and is worse than zeliskos teaching ability. Zelisko and the department do not care for their students at all and would rather see you mentally decline than pass this class
find it funny how for every bad review theres a 5 star review and they are all about the same. dont get confused, Zelisko will ruin your love for chemistry and run your mental health into the ground with your grade. be ready to read the textbook wordforword to understand anything. tests, tutorials and the final will be nothing you see in lectures.
As a student who traditionally receives 80s and 90s in my science program, I received a low 50 in this course. Lectures are useless other than participation grades, but you'll definitely need those easy marks so don't skip lecture. Read ALL of the assigned textbook chapters. The easy examples given in lecture are nothing compared to the tests.
I had Dr. Zelisko in the spring 2P20 course and wow what a great professor! Zelisko was very personable and comedic and made 3-hour Organic Chemistry lectures fun. I will recommend studying the material a lot as it is very crucial for the exam, take advantage of TAs they are super helpful when reviewing material. Overall, I enjoyed this class!
doesn't provide lecture notes. in class pop quiz marked questions
So horrible, dont take orgo if you value your mental health that is not an exaggeration. Very lecture heavy, doesn't teach well, he teaches the basics of a topic and then tests you on the hardest questions on that same topic expecting you to know it. Students in his class fight to get 50s and the final was 23 pages of things we barely knew.
Horrible lecturer, gives you A in class and B in the tests. Allocated huge marks to little mistakes, making it almost impossible to score high or even good. Would NOT recommend, class average was always below 50% in all tests.
Tough class, but stay on top of the textbook and don't skip lectures. Though the material is dense, using unstuckstudy alongside other study resources can really help prep for the challenging exams.
In the first few weeks of class, you're going to think all these reviews are lying. They are not. Zelisko is not a nice man, he will drop 95% of the classes gpa. His tests are brutal, and not even based off the stuff taught in class. The whole class is the textbook. Read THE WHOLE TEXTBOOK and you'll be okay.
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
90%
Textbook Required
75%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-1.48 avg changeRatings by Course
220221
5.0
(1)ORGCHEM
5.0
(1)CHEM221
5.0
(1)CHEM220221
5.0
(1)CHEMYR2
5.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
220221
5.0
ORGO2P2021
5.0
ORGN
5.0
2P202P21ORGO
5.0
ORGANICCHEM
5.0