2.4
Quality3.6
Difficulty31%
Would Retake93
Reviews31%
Would Retake
93
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
11
4
15
3
9
2
26
1
32
What Students Say
“Not personal, and doesn't care about her students success”
CH121122123 - 1.0 rating“She is absolutely the worst instructor I have ever had”
CH122 - 1.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
75%
Textbook Required
69%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Stable
-0.13 avg changeRatings by Course
CH121123
5.0
(1)CH233
5.0
(1)CHM122
4.0
(1)CH12X
3.0
(2)CH121
2.9
(26)Difficulty by Course
CHEM121
4.4
CHEM123
4.3
CHM122
4.0
CH221Z
4.0
CH122
3.9
Reviews (93)
Do NOT take this class with her. She is hard to follow and makes several mistakes during lecture and has to correct them via e-mail later that day. I worked very and barely managed to get a C. Switched professors for CH122 and I'm getting an A.
I took Chemistry 121 with her and it was the hardest class I have ever taken. I spent hours studying and going to study groups and only managed to get a low D. She is very hard to follow. She knows Chemistry she just can't teach it. I recommend not taking a class with her
Can't explain things when you ask her questions in lecture. Will make mistakes in lecture then email us later telling us she was wrong. Went to her office hours, waiting 30 minutes, asked her to do a conversion example and told me to ask her in class...worked hard and still didn't do good.
literally the worst teacher i have ever had, couldnt answer simple questions asked in class, and lectures in no way related to tests
I took chem 121 with Drapela and got an A then decided to try Weiss. Bad mistake. She makes many mistakes in class then has to email every one about what she taught us wrong which makes things confusing come test taking time. Switched back to Drapela for 123, got 100% on the first midterm. I recommend him over her
She has a weird accent, and tries to teach the class her way. The exams have no prior teaching from her. She always stands around and tells us to do problems that we have never learned. I do not recommend taking any classes with her.
Worst teacher I've ever had. Test questions are not relevant to what she teaches. She makes a lot of mistakes during lecture. Don't take this class with her. You will understand it better and receive a better grade with a different professor.
Unapproachable and doesn't prepare students well for tests. Seems nervous during lectures. She didn't give a study guide or a notecard for any exams. Reviews during class were usually not helpful.
I took Weiss for 121 last fall and it was the worst experience I had ever had in a class. It is obvious she is inexperienced. However, this time around for 123 I will say, while not the greatest instructor I gave ever had, she has greatly improved and test questions were relevant to material taught in class.
I've had far worse professors than Paula - she's very awkward and nervous and her lectures aren't always clear, but her tests are straightforward and easy if you study the course objectives and do the practice exams.
Overall she is very easy to understand, goes over plenty of practice problems in class, and her tests are easy as long as you study.
Take the class from Drapela. He knows what he is talking about and he knows how to teach.
She was a good professor easy to follow and was very helpful when you went into office hours.
Very clear on what is expected of students. Great at teaching material and making it make sense. I would recommend taking chemistry with Paula
I'm not good at chem and she did not help. I thought she was very poor at teaching it. Uses a chalk board and not many visuals. I would NEVER take a class from her again.
Taking this chemistry course from Paula was a joke. For CH121 she was okay, then I took from Drapela, then back to her for CH123. She never posts anything but her slide outlines online and only does examples of problems and never explains the actual problems to us. She is a terrible teacher and has no confidence teaching.
She is the worst professor Ive ever had. Don't ever take her class. She does not explain things and has completely random things on the exams that she has never talked about. She is just a horrible teacher and I absolutely hate every second I have to be in her class.
Shes very clear about what she expects of her students, does plenty of example problems, and the tests are identical to practice tests. She is a great teacher and I found this series to be an easy A each term. I would highly recommend paula :)
Unless you are already confident with chemistry, don't take it with her. She only (kinda) explains the "what", but never the "how" which is what you need in these classes. Less confusing to just read the book than to try and follow her train of thought.
She explains the basic idea well by just doing examples all class, but the homework is much harder. My friend emailed her asking to do some more challenging problems in class so we could understand the homework better and she more or less said no. Luckily the tests are about as difficult as the in-class problems and way easier than the homework.
Emphasizes the least significant things while barely covering the main concepts. Does a lot of example problems, but does not explain why we are doing certain equations. As the term progressed, introduced information way too fast and did not fully explain everything. Do not take!!
She is a great teacher, she holds her office hours in the mole hole when things get rough. she reminds you of her availability vi blackboard. She is clear. all in all, on of the better professors I have had. Don't believe the hype!
This class was pretty straight forward. Just go to the lectures and the review sessions and you'll do fine. Btw, it doesn't matter who teaches the class, the homework is hard and isn't fully covered in lecture.
I had Paula Weiss for an entire year for the 100-level Chemistry series and she was an average professor. Straight forward and helpful, but not very fun or engaging. The homework can be difficult, but the tests are pretty easy if you go to class and take good notes.
I thought she was extremely helpful and clear in explaining everything. She was also a very nice instructor!
Very nice and easy to understand. I felt that she could have made the class a little more fun. She seemed to read directly off of the notes and didn't like to sway from them when there were questions.
The class is hard, but she makes it easy to understand because of her organized notes. She is incredibly boring, though. And you have to buy an insanely expensive book that you never use just to get the homework access code.
I thought Paul was very helpful and takes the time to help you through difficult problems. She is also in the Mole Hole to help students with homework. The homework is very difficult but the tests were pretty straight forward. Practice tests are very similar to the real tests. Go to lecture, take notes, and do the homework and you'll be fine.
Personally, I did not like her teaching skills. I went to her office hours to talk about my grade and she was no helpful at all. She told me everything I already knew. Homework is ridiculous and her lectures are extremely boring. She was helpful when she was in the mole hole but other than that she was not helpful. Her tests were fairly easy.
I went into this class terrified cause I thought I'd be terrible at Chemistry. Paula made it really easy to understand inc comparison to the book. If you attend all the classes and take good notes, the tests are really easy. She also provides study guides that if you make sure to go over, the multiple choice parts of the tests are easy to ace.
I love her teach skill. she awesome and her test is defiantly easy but anyway you have to study hared.
A teaching style that was not up my alley. If you find chemistry fun and are highly internally motivated and like to figure things out on your own; take this class. For all others, Mind-numbingly boring lectures, that she puts no effort into making fun. Tons of busy work and calculations. The mastering chemistry is just awful.
May as well have taken this class online. She does not give lectures, unbelievably, and is surely the laziest professor I've ever met. Plan to teach yourself, do hours of busy work each day, and beg for help as you struggle on your own to figure this out. How she is allowed to not lecture is beyond my understanding.
She is absolutely the worst instructor I have ever had. Avoid taking any classes from her if at all possible. She's unavailable and doesn't even bother to lecture. I could have taken this class online and had the same responsibility to teach myself. AVOID HER.
Paula is a great lecturer that keeps her lectures both interesting and helpful for the overall knowledge of chemistry and class material. Being in her lectures you can tell that she spends a lot of time preparing her lecture material and is always apt to answer questions as they arise.
Lectures were bad. She made no effort to make it the slightest entertaining. She expected you to go over the material twice and understand it partially before you went to lecture. Then at lecture, all she would do is review problems - not teach. Very frustrating. MASTERING CHEMISTRY IS THE BANE OF MY EXISTENCE. Don't take her if chem isn't for you.
I was lucky enough to have Myles for ch 121. He normally only teaches ochem. Then I got her for 122. It was a while back, but I clearly remember sitting in lecture and thinking "I don't even know what questions to ask to make this make sense to me." Ch 121 with Myles was easy. This was just unnecessarily difficult. Her explanations made no sense.
Professor Weiss was great. You have to want to pass and she expects you to read what she assigns before class. She goes over it in class and actually incorporates what was read into examples step-by-step. She makes sure everyone knows her mole hole hours and is very encouraging. Some of her demonstrations are cool too.
Dr. Weiss is really nice, and I thought that her class was set up really well! The lectures were odd, with it just being practice of the topics we were covering, but I liked that. I am not the best at chemistry, but I have done fairly well in this class! Would take a class with her again!
Paula is the worst professor I have ever had. She does not teach, she gives examples in class and tells you how to do it instead of teaching so you can learn. She is not helpful whatsoever and is very unreasonable when it comes to grading in recitation and on the midterms as well.
Paula has proven to be a very challenging teacher. If you take this class with her, except to spend around 15 hours a week on chemistry. You definitely need to be able to be great at scheduling and sticking to it. There is a curve at the end of the class! As long as you're willing to put in the work, you'll be able to pass.
OSU's chemistry professors parent's all that great, but Paula is definitely the best out of all of them. Her lectures only include practice problems, so it's definitely an acquired learning style. DON'T SKIP RECITATION OR LAB. She provides you with a lot of helpful resources - use them and you should do fairly well!!
PAULA DOES NOT TEACH all she does in lecture is give mini quizzes & doesn't explain them. She expects you to automatically get the material, and if chem doesn't come naturally to you, then get ready to struggle. AVOID HER because she is definitely the worst professor I've had so far (confusing, does not explain and grades things ridiculously hard).
I have taken Paula for both CHEM 121 and 122. I have never put so much effort towards a class, spending countless hours studying each week and on top of that, had to teach myself the material to receive a bad grade. She is an awful teacher and quite literally does not teach. I would not recommend taking this teacher if you can avoid it.
The only good thing I can say about this class is the Paula is a nice person. Some professors have switched to a flipped classroom to improve the learning environment, but Paula has done so to do absolutely no work for the class. She literally tells you to read the book and then just does a couple example problems in class. Take it online instead.
Paula is, by far, the most unclear and unhelpful teacher I have ever had. Your only chance to learn in this class is online watching the videos that the other OSU professors make. Lecture is pointless and Paula does nothing to help the students learn. I would not recommend her as a professor to anyone, for any class in the 100 series for chemistry.
Paula is very unhelpful. Her Lectures are just practice problems on the board. She doesn't work with you for rescheduling exams for any reason. She doesn't budge on due dates and she is very inattentive during her office hours in the mole hole.
Not a good professor. She is the worst I've ever had. does not teach at all in lectures and grades really hard on test. I had to drop the class thats how bad it was.
Paula is by far the worst professor I've had at Oregon State. Lecture is strictly practice problems, she doesn't actually teach you anything. The midterms and finals are tough and you basically have to teach yourself through the entire series. She doesn't know how to handle a 100+ student lecture, if you can, take Chem with anyone but Paula.
Not personal, and doesn't care about her students success. Lack of sympathy for her students, and grades test hard. For example if you answer 2/3 of a question correct she's been known to give you 0%.
Paula doesn't teach. She just hands out worksheets and gives you the entire class to do them then when she goes over it doesnt even give you the answer. The tests and quizzes are super hard not to mention the 50+ problems due every sunday. You really need to study every day to understand this class.
I found that the lectures were useless, they contributed nothing to my learning and attending felt like a waste of time. Most of the class is taught via pre recorded videos, reading the textbook, and mastering chemistry.
She lectures maybe 15 minutes out of the 1hr 20 min class period, and just hands out worksheets nobody understands. When she does lecture, she hardly teaches and expects we know things that we do not. Make sure you are paying attention to the syllubus. because you will have things due that are never mentioned in class.
Do not take chemistry with this professor! I read the rate my professors an thought I could do it but they were all correct in there responses! She does not teach anything all! All she does is hand you a worksheet for class. Honestly I don't know how oregon state allows her as a professor very disappointed !!!
Moves on while knowing topic isnt understood, does not thoroughly explain topics and assumes certain topics are understood rather than explaining.
You have to teach yourself chemistry with Paula. I spent so much time on this class I neglected my other ones. She made chem 121 feel like a part time job. Going to lecture is pointless, thank god I had a good recitation teacher. If you take this class you will have to put in A LOT of effort to do well.
You have to learn the concepts before the class and her TA do most of the teaching
If I could tell anyone taking her class I would change! She is no help and the content is very difficult. Seriously get ready to teach yourself college level chemistry! If you cannot change read your textbook and do the concept questions before recitations on Thursday or Wednesday for the quizzes! GOOD LUCK YOU WILL NEED IT!!
I like her as a person. She is very helpful when you need it. However the lectures are kinda moote.... Most of the work is done is recitation, but overall I would very much recommend her.
Do not take this class with this professor. Her lectures are THE WORST. You are given a work sheet and expected to work through it during the class period. Homework every week and pre class assignments due before EVERY class. The only thing that is going to save me is my Lab grade because my TA actually teaches the material.
Paula doesn't seem to care at all about her students understanding of the topic. You are handed a worksheet at the beginning of a lecture and she doesn't really explain how to do anything on it. However, if you do the reading and teach yourself, the tests aren't super difficult. I taught myself everything in this class though she was no help.
Class is literally showing up for participation points on learning catalytics and working through a worksheet given before class. The learning catalytics is based off the worksheet and she doesn't teach. Class is not "lecture" but more of learn on your own and then come to class to apply what you learned.
I went from CH 23x series to CH 123 due to change of major in hopes that it would be easier, let me tell you, it was NOT. Class is literally showing up for participation points & working on a worksheet given before class, lecture is useless & you basically teach yourself the material. The CH23x series was much easier, I wish I had stayed in CH 233.
Find a different professor! She's very unclear and tends to make problems and lot harder/more confusing than they need to be. She will give you problems and expect for you to work on them in class. She'll rarely work through them with you completely and expects you to know information that you don't. This is a class where you need a great TA.
Paula. She was the best teacher Ive ever had. She gave off the best vibes on campus and inspired me to be a chemist and living a lifestyle of science and good vibes. God bless.
I took a 3 week course over the summer: 2 hours of lecture each day where the first hour was a powerpoint presentation & the next hour were group worksheets and discussion. She explains things well and is a perfectly reasonable professor. I really hate chemistry, but she is definitely among the best professors that teach lower division chem.
She is a great teacher! She accepts and explains questions thoroughly and give example and practice problems before each class which really help! But she will be on maternity leave half was through next term. But the sub is supposed to be just as good!
Paula was a fine teacher for chemistry. There was reading (most people didn't do it and were fine) and homework outside of class and then in class she would work through a worksheet. The tests are about what you would expect, if you can do the homework and the in class problems you will do fine on the test. Do the work and you'll be fine.
Paula is an awesome person but a lot of the work is done in recitations. All in-class worksheets are done individually but we had the option to work as partners or in groups. Her TA's were a bit more helpful than she was about answering questions during class. She was available outside of class and offered a lot of helpful resources to pass.
I took this as an Ecampus course and I really liked the online format. It was easy to follow and there was a lot of material they give to help you understand the learning material. I would take her again for chemistry.
The CH 12x classes are pretty standard, so the material will not change much with the different professors. The classes are super straightforward. Paula is a great instructor, gives good feedback, and is always ready to answer questions. She is also willing to work with you if you need to extend due dates, or take exams early. Great teacher! 10/10
The only problem I had with this class was the professor not answering questions correctly. On several occasions in the online forum, students complained about getting questions wrong due to being given the wrong equations to solve them. Most of the labs are easy, but the ones with Xcel are hard to do and not given great instruction.
A good teacher that provides a significant amount of learning materials. There is a lot of homework, but with the right learning materials, it's a breeze.
Online CH123 was very forgiving. 6 attempts per homework question, 2 tries per quiz (with walkthrough videos after first attempt). Biweekly assessments instead of midterm/finals. Quick responder, gives multiple free extensions throughout term. Plenty of live help hours to assist in online labs or homework. Weekly E.C. opportunities!
She's passionate about chemistry, but takes students behavior extremely personal. She's currently in charge of the Gen chem series and did make a lot of good changes. Who you take this class from really doesn't matter, I credit all of my success in this series to taking AP Chem in hs not the actual teaching
Paula made a lot of good changes to the CH 23x series as the new head of the chemistry department. It doesn't matter whose lecture you take, but Paula was super helpful in explaining concepts during the lecture time. She does make it a point for everyone to be on task during class. Just be respectful and quiet while she lectures!
Paula is a good professor; she explains the material well and is really helpful when you have questions. I think she's the new head of the gen chem program and she's made a lot of really good changes. However, you HAVE to stay for the entire class, even if you finish the worksheet early. She will also only speak when the class is quiet.
horrible at teaching but if you study using outside sources you can pass the class fine. don't fall behind in learning things, it's a fast-paced class and she gives you nothing valuable as a professor. In class she just makes you do a packet with little to no guidance. Workload is fine.
She's no Denis Drolet or Daniel Myles but she's way better than Margie Haak and Jun Li. I'd recommend taking CH23x with a different instructor but she's not the worst either. Just be prepared to do a lot of work outside of class and be prepared to do your own research and studying for any questions you may have.
One of the worst professors I have taken a class from. She does not teach anything so get ready to learn by yourself. Almost everything that was learned was from videos that were 10 years ago.
Paula was one of the worst teachers that I have ever had. Most of the work she gives is awful and she gives little guidance. I would not recommend.
Paula never taught anything in class. I had to learn a lot of the content by myself and watched videos outside of class. She was not very helpful when I would ask questions, good luck :)!!
She consistently was rude and passive aggressive to me, constantly trying to make me look dumb, and took off points for no reason despite me doing the attendance questions and getting them right. She seemed insecure around her own knowledge near me and treated me differently because of it.
Did not learn a single thing from her, but did get by just fine with watching the videos and teaching everything to myself.
Below average teacher and TopHat for attendance. If you've taken AP Chem it'll be alright, but if you don't know any of the basics you'll definitely have to teach yourself since she doesn't. Videos are given on Canvas and I highly recommend using the Organic Chemistry Teacher on YouTube to help you since she won't. LAs and flashcards are helpful.
Difficult course but very achievable with reasonable effort. This was the first chem class I've ever taken; It really just takes a couple weeks to get used to the homework and you're fine.
She spends at most 3 minutes of the 80 minute lecture actually teaching. Additionally Pearson is a hellscape of a website that every chem 23x professor uses, but it's still nonetheless terrible.
Worst professor in the Chemistry department, she doesn't attempt to teach. When she does lecture she skips steps and refuses to elaborate, the only reason to attend class with her as a lecturer is to get TopHat points. Good luck teaching yourself.
Paula was pretty decent in my opinion. The class in general relies on you working on the materials outside of class. Paula doesn't go super in depth in additional lecturing but was super kind. I found her helpful when answering questions but again participation and LAs will really make or break the class.
She was fine, the gen chem series is so uniform across professors there's not a huge difference between all of them. I did appreciate how she took time to go over the worksheet problems that students had the most trouble with at the end of class.
She won't teach you much in lecture, leaves it up to you to learn. She also gets mad when people don't listen, which can be annoying in a 150+ person lecture. Be ready to learn from youtube videos.
The lecture instructions were nonexistent. She went over molar mass again in-depth week 7... WEEK 7. The lecture felt contradictory, and as someone who passed the AP Chem test in hs and has always been good at the subject, saying this class was horrible is saying something.
Lectures were brief and not engaging at all. Did not really feel like she enjoyed teaching the course and left most of the "teaching" to the LAs. We had a substitute several times this semester and I learned from him far better than Professor Weiss. Be prepared to visit the Mole Hole or teach yourself via YouTube if you take this course.
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
75%
Textbook Required
69%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Stable
-0.13 avg changeRatings by Course
CH121123
5.0
(1)CH233
5.0
(1)CHM122
4.0
(1)CH12X
3.0
(2)CH121
2.9
(26)Difficulty by Course
CHEM121
4.4
CHEM123
4.3
CHM122
4.0
CH221Z
4.0
CH122
3.9