I have genuinely never had such a waste of my time as the Chem 2AL lab. She makes you rewrite everything from the lab manual into your own notebook for no discernable reason. Just doesn't value my time as a student or that I don't need to do the same pedantic things a high schooler doing their first lab might.

CHEM 2AL is a waste of time. Pazos makes it unnecessarily difficult by not showing any leniency at all, saying that if you miss a single lab or exam due to any circumstances she'll withdraw you from the course. The labs themselves are not bad but depend heavily on your TA. Save yourself some trouble and finish the assignments as soon as possible.

Class sucked, so much busy work for no reason. Seemed very rude in emails, and curved lab sections down based on the scores of other lab sections which makes no sense if you just had a smart group of students in your section that score well. Pray you get an easy TA, final had questions from procedures from the first weeks of the quarter.

DO NOT TAKE. so unnecessarily tedious, had to copy everything into a lab notebook and again online. essentially no info given abt the final and questions were set up to intentionally to trick you. class was down curved for no apparent reason, dropping many people a letter grade.

absolutely terrible grading post-final, snuck a downcurve on us that significantly dropped many students' grades. not a single rubric, gave zero information about the final, and her policy about lab attendance was extremely harsh at best. missing a lab for a valid reason is a grade killer. a good TA is critical for a good grade.

Do not take this class unless you absolutely have to for your major. For some reason there was a downcurve at the end and my A dropped to B+ (ALMOST A WHOLE LETTER GRADE). There was a clear guideline for what would be on the final and her email correspondences are very rude.

If I could I would never take a class with this professor ever again but I have her again for 2BL next quarter. Pazos was incredibly rude in emails and purposefully set up questions on the final to trick students. There was a major downcurve at the end of the quarter with little warning and many students including myself went from an A to a B.

expect your A in the class to be rounded down to a B because she feels like it.

Pazos requires students to keep a lab manual, lab notebook, and enter data on Labflow which all accomplish the same goal. No grading criteria whatsoever for lab reports. Gives 1 hr. for a final which probably requires 90 min. minimum. I earned a 91 in the course, she applied a curve which dropped me to an 87. Skip this prof if possible.

A grade was curved down to a B, hard test.

No grading criteria was applied to lab reports and you basically had to figure out your mistakes on your own. Emails sent were pretty aggressive and rude considering she never step foot in the labs. Finally gave no warning on the down curve of grades when grades were due which I will never understand the reason. Stay safe yall.

I'm still shocked on how inconsiderate this professor is.Even if something was organized wrong in our lab report points were still off.There no luck to do well unless u get everything right somehow in ur homework.She is the only professor that provides these labs at my university so there's no way out. Rude emails and down curve on class as well

The grading is very strict, and there are some assignments that are quite time-consuming. Take it seriously.

Curves down. Seems like she intentionally tries to make students' lives more miserable. This class is 2.5 credits but you will designate at least 5 hours outside of class to do the work. Quite awful.

When it comes to lab writeups you're on your own. This prof is a very harsh grader with very high expectations, but she doesn't tell you what those expectations are in the slightest. Things get worse in 2BL. If you can, take an equivalent course at community college just so you can skip this prof. Awful. This class makes me want to change my major.

went from a 96 to a 90. that's all u need to know.

The worst class I took. No one will tell you what position you are in the class before final grading, and even if you get a 97-98 for your lab assignments part, you might still get an A- or B+ after she adjusts the grade. If this class is not the pre-request for your major, DON'T TAKE IT! !Save your time and your grade!

This class genuinely is so hard. I am also in 2BL and it just gets worse. I do more work for my 5-unit classes than for this 2.5-unit class. You have to rewrite almost everything in the book with little to no guidance on how to do the assignment. I spend 6+ hours every lab report and 4+ hours every prelab. Also you will be curved down!

Very little guidance on how to do lab reports. Even the TA's are not fans of her. She will make the class extremely hard and then have the audacity to curve you down. I do more work for this class than any other and i still only got a b+ because she curved my a- down.

I spent about 4 hours on every report and 3 hours on each pre-lab assignment every week. No matter how hard you work, she curves down your final score. I dropped from an A- to a B+. It's the hardest course I've ever take and the worst professor I've ever met.

2AL and 2BL are pretty difficult and a big waste of time. Stephanie Pazos does not care about helping students learn and is simply on a power trip. She does everything in her power to make these classes as discouraging as possible. 2BL makes me cry several times a week.

No clear instructions and grading criteria. Spend so much time working on assignment and report. She does not want students to achieve good grade and learn. I never wore my seatbelt while driving to this class because l wanted to die before making it to her class.

Honestly 2AL was the most straightforward lab I have ever taken. All of the concepts learned were pretty easy to understand, and my TA was super chill. But, Stephanie dropped my grade 5% to make it so the class average was a, 86% instead of being closer to an A. This was absolutely unfair and something that wasn't even mentioned in the syllabus.

Worst professor I have ever taken. Doesn't care about students -- all she does care about is having a certain average, whether it's by curving down or telling the TA's they need a certain avg. (meaning it doesn't matter if you get everything right you will still get points taken off). She takes herself too seriously, like COME ON this is a lab...

if you took 2al and thought it was bad, well... 2bl gets much worse. the TAs in 2BL are required to grade really harshly and maintain a certain average that Dr.Pazos wants them to keep. overall, this class has been a complete waste of my time and I wish I could earn back all those hours ive wasted writing my lab reports.

Genuinely one of the worse profs I've ever had. Currently in 2BL rn because it's required but yeah she's awful. I attended her office hours because one of my lab reports went down my 5% and I wanted to know why. She said it was because the TA graded it wrong and that the class average was “too high”. Avoid at all costs

Be prepared to be rounded down. I've had her for both chem labs now, and got curved down 7% last quarter. Sends really passive aggressive emails, even signed last quarter's email off with "see most of you next quarter." Even though this course is pretty much unavoidable for a lot of majors, just brace yourself.

This is a 2.5 unit course but it takes up more time than my other classes combined. Not only is there an on average 3 hour lab every week but there's also videos, quizzes, prelab assignments, notebook prep, and doing the review questions and report from last week. I can expect to spend 8 hours or more on this class each week for only 2.5 units.

I've never had a course that punishes you for being smart until now. Breaking many perfect GPAs because of a down curve is insane. I have no clue how it is legal to take points off for no reason except to meet a lower class average. Literally no words, it's insane and jeopardizes people's chances of getting into competitive medical schools.

Professor will lower your overall grades at the end

I literally had a 91.6% in the class after the final and all grading. But there was a downward curve so I ended with a B+. My friend who got a 92.1% ended with an A. That's all I need to say. I would have taken that A- happily. Why downward curve a lab class that is barely any credit and all mostly pre med students.

Never seen her until the final, downcurved the entire class last quarter. Final felt ai generated and overall zero effort from her, the TAs do all the teaching, and you can tell even they don't like nor respect her. Genuinely lab is more difficult than the actual chemistry class at this school and in my opinion that should never be the case.

Just wow. Her final was nothing like what we've done in lab. I had to solve based on my knowledge from general chemistry lectures. Not allowing students to take the exam because they do not have a scientific calculator is insane. 4pm final the week before finals week is insane. Down curving the class is insane. She is horrible! Avoid at ALL costs.

This is the worst class I've ever taken, genuinely. Putting in 8+ hours a week for this class to end up with mediocre results is the most demotivating thing in the entire world. The atmosphere was toxic and stressful. Might be my TA but only received feedback for the first 3 labs by week 10. The final had material from last quarter with no warning.

Grades unfairly just to maintain a B average in the course. If I did the work to earn an A then I should get an A. The final is horrible and had barely anything to do with the labs we did this quarter. Mostly concepts from Chem 1B. Awful.

Terrible professor doesn't show up to her office hours.

Unclear grading criteria. Uses labflow which is riddled with types, horrible GUI, randomly deletes portions of the data input and lab report sections. Extremely passive-aggressive, changes office hours every other week, curves the whole lab class down arbitrarily, not nearly enough time is given for the extremely difficult final. Skip if possible.

HORRIBLE HORRIBLE!!!! The final was a bunch of questions that we've never once talked about in lab. She didn't even show up to the final and is always moving her office hours. I can't even explain how bad this final was. And don't even get me started with the down curve!! Don't takeeee!!!

Worst professor ever. Constantly changed or canceled office hours every week. Grading was harsh, inconsistent, and she down-curved the class. Final didn't match anything we studied (seemed like a punishment, not an actual test of our knowledge), and she didn't even show up to it. Zero support, zero professionalism. Avoid this class at all costs.

I will definitely transform to another school if she will be my instructor in my rest lab-courses.

I had a A going into the final and will be lucky to end the class with a B. Genuinely the worst professor. Final had hardly anything to do with the class, the formula sheet was entirely useless, and it was harder than a gen chem exam. If you can find anyway to get out of this course do it. Words cannot express how much we all hate her.

Only take lab if you have to, Stephanie is a generational terror. The final literally had question errors in it, I genuinely thought she just copy pasted stuff from ChatGPT. Empathy is definitely not Stephanies middle name, as she can have her family emergency's, but god forbid anybody else does. Leave this class with grace, before it's too late.

Pazos is beyond inconsiderate of students time or well being. We were require to do everything in a notebook and copy it over again online, and write full on essay discussions. Worst part is she has TA's maintain 86 average, so they take are forced to take away points for no reason. Final pulls on content we never learned. Class is downcurved.

Her final has no correlation to the class content and is made to fail students. She lacks respect and understanding towards students and does everything in her power to make the class difficult. The class is unfairly down curved and the final is impossible, as it does not relate to what was actually learned in the lab at all. Avoid at all costs.

The final was extremely difficult with many errors, typos, and repeated questions. Her grading policy is terrible, with downcurves and TAs told to grade harshly to make students feel worse about themselves. Very rude and aggressive in emails and when talking to students, hard to reach. AVOID.

Thankfully, I never interacted with her personally BUT my friends said their interactions were very rude. The final is not very relevant to the lab work. I only got an A because I worked my ahh off and got a 95 before the final, dropped to a 90 :(

Not prepared for the final at all and down curved to an A- when having a consistent A all year. Unrealistic expectations for a 2 unit class.

Stephanie Pazos is a terrible professor. She genuinely shows no respect for her students as human beings. On top of that, these labs are disorganized, and do not aide learning whatsoever. TAs are sweet and do everything they can despite her. Lab final was incredibly unfair. I hope she changes and becomes a better and more intelligent person.

There is a level of class that you'd hope be conveyed to students through their professors. But it appears in this lab series, having common decency around communication with students is out the window. Not only are the tests extremely tedious, but ludicrous guidelines are being added to the lab syllabus, almost to prevent students from succeeding.

She changed the grading rubric halfway through the quarter, and there is no way to predict your score based on grades you've received. Also, TAs were told to grade students down in order to get a lower class average because apparently the averages were “too high” last quarter.

This class was extremely hard to succeed in. It is clear she does NOT want her students to succeed. She curves down just because she can and adds questions to the final that have never been mentioned in the class nor has anything to do with any of the experiments. The TA's dislike her, the students dislike her and it does not go without reason.

Just completely rude and unkind. She doesn't care for anyone but herself. The worst class EVER.

Nightmare. I never once felt like the work I put into this lab would help my overall grade. Rubrics were changed halfway through quarter with zero communication. She tells TAs to make their average a B because anything else is "too high", so if you put in work to get an A, you can still get curved down a full letter grade. I felt helpless.

DO NOT TAKE HER. IM LITERALLY GONNA WRITE AN EMAIL TO THE CHEM DEPARTMENT ABOUT THE ERRORS ON THE FINAL. IF YOU CANT WRITE A FINAL CORRECTLY, HOW THE HELL ARE WE EXPECTED TO TAKE IT. LITERALLY DIDNT EVEN PROOF READ THE QUESTIONS. THERE WAS A REPEAT QUESTION. THATS SUCH AN OBVIOUS MISTAKE HOW CAN YOU MISS THAT. ALSO DOES NOT CARE ABOUT DSP STUDENTS

How is an A supposed to be attainable when every TA is told to make their average a B, so they just find things to take points off for, but then the class gets curved down so on top of that you also lose like 5% of your grade? Only way to beat the down curve is going into the final with 100% which is impossible because THE AVERAGE HAS TO BE A B.

I cannot express how much I dread this course. For 2.5 units be prepared to work for 8+ hours each week. U can't do a bad job on assignments either, with the smallest mistake a TA will mark u off bc pazos needs to maintain an average. The final was horrible, pazos made it to constantly try to trip u up and way too hard for a lab.

Summing this up in 350 characters: 1) Everytime I've talked to her she's been rude and snotty even the TAs don't like her 2) Forces TAs to round to a B average which they say you could get even with a perfect report 3)Worth 2.5 credits but requires 3x the amount of work 4)Writes trick, irrelevant, or incomplete questions on final 5)So much more

makes a 2.5 unit class unreasonably hard with an insane amount of homework. final was not about anything we learned in class and will likely get downcurved too.

Extremely unfair, does not care about her students at all. Says that the average needs to be an 86 no matter what and makes TAs take off points to maintain that average. Obviously she also had to make the final almost impossible and didn't cover material we learned this quarter - 20 questions with complex calculations in an hour. Wow no thank you

My notecard was stuffed with every possible thing that could be asked on that final and I used it on 4 of the 20 questions… I think she should spend less time maintaining a ridiculously low average for a lab class and more time on herself so that she can be kind to her students and TAs

For a professor that does not do anything to do with the class except make the final and determine grades, she does a lot of damage. Going into the final for this class I had a strong A, and even after the horrible final she somehow created I maintained this A. Little did I know Stephanie Pazos was evil and would downcurve me to a B.

Curved my grade down from a 92.7% to a 86%. I reached out to her expressing my confusion and how I believed it was unfair because I had a 98% in the class before I bombed the impossible final. She insulted me and threatened to lower my grade even more. I came her to respectfully, but stern and all I received was disrespect from her.

Horrible professor, only one who I've seen use a curve down method to actually hurt student's grades. Final doesn't consist of any information from the class, basically a very difficult gen chem class. Makes TA's grade homework very harshly, and no one, I mean no one, has said anything good about her ever.

absolutely the worst professor I've ever had. asked her a question during lab and she said "I don't know I haven't done this lab".

Stephanie is the very antithesis to what a teacher is suppose to be. She revels in the failures of her own students and is makes futile the hard work and effort of intelligent students in the spirit of her own vanity. Unable to communicate w/out being passive aggressive and overall has a primary desire to make students as unsuccessful as possible.

1. For a 2.5 unit course the amount of time spent on the class was ridiculous. 2. She forces TAs to have a low class average and constantly changes rubric for reports without warning. 3. Final did not align with class content. 4. DOWNWARD CURVE. She wants her students to fail.

pazos is the first teacher i've had that punishes students for doing well. worked so hard to get a 97 in that class just for her to curve me down a million percent

never again pazos.

I had to drop this class first week because I couldn't attend the first lab due to a family emergency. This professor was not empathetic to my situation at all, in fact she came across as very rude about it :(

Had pazos for 2al and 2bl. Genuinely one of the most evil professors here at ucsb, her downward curve and impossible final was just horrific and unfair. She clearly wants her students to have a worst grade in order to seem like shes a tough professor and as a power trip. AVOID IF YOU CAN

If you care about your mental health, avoid this class and professor at all costs.

So rude and not empathetic at all. She is allowed to have her family emergency's but not us. Did not give us a study guide as she said the course would have prepared us for the final but then had so many questions of stuff we've never done. TA was so sweet and helpful tho the only reason why I think I did ok in the class.

If there is any other lab professor take gen chem lab with them. Negative curves her course and instructs TAs to take off points no matter how good the written sections are. She is rude to her students doesnt help at all for prepping for the final.

Pazos is the worst. Every question anyone asks her gets an aggressive response that doesn't even give a clear answer. Everything is your fault.

Pazos does not want you to succeed, if you ask her a question expect a snarky response that blames you in some way and she WILL down curve your grade to make it seem like she is good at her job.

Worst prof ever! She makes her TA's take points off of assignments for no reason other than keeping the average down. She's always mad at girls for not meeting lab standards, but when a guy has his long hair down and all in his face she doesn't say a word. Don't even get me started on her exams, they are completely unrelated to the course content.

In an effort to lower the class average, TAs are instructed to artificially grade each student to a predetermined section average which results in seemingly randomized lab report grades that you can't do anything about because the rubric is unclear and ignored anyway. Pazos focuses more on lowering your grade than teaching you chem lab fundamentals

She WILL NOT prepare you for the final and offers NOTHING to feel prepared for it. When I asked the TA what can I do to prepare/study for the final my TA replied that they do not even know. We basically were left to survive in this class, literally. Avoid her at ALL COSTS.

I have never had a worse professor. TAs do all of the work and exams do not accurately reflect the material in the course. She is more concerned with artificially deflating grades than she is with ensuring her students actually learn the proper material.

bro shes actually buns. like downcurve, terrible final (stuff barely related), n everything inbetween

Tells TAs to take points off for every little thing possible in order to keep her class average low. Final has nothing to do with the lab, even though she said the lab would have prepared us. Makes chem lab a class that drops your GPA to make her appear like a better professor. She must be fired because she can NOT run a class.

I have actually never been so livid as recieving my final grade for this course. I have nothing good to say, I wish bad things on her

Pazos is lame. I have many rude things to say about her, but rather, I would just say that I'm disappointed. She can do better. She knows she can do better. Still, she does not. Hopefully she finds her calling and she realizes it is not in teaching. I am sorry Stephanie. I am sorry that someone hurt you.

Enforced B+ average makes the course grades feel arbitrary. Criteria in the course is not well laid out and students are often left guessing as to what to do on both lab reports and studying for the final. Feels as if the teacher wants students to get lower in the class and does not care about learning or the experimental process.

I HAVE A 92 RIGHT NOW! DONT YOU DARE CURVE IT DOWN!

worked so hard all quarter to have a high A in that class just to do meh on the final (which she didn't prepare us for at all) and probably get curved down 5%

If you were worried about the time that you have to put into doing work for gen chem or studying for other classes, just wait until this class. This class is 6-8+ hours pear week for a 2.5 unit course. You have weekly prelab quizzes, assignments, 3-4 hour labs and the lab reports with lengthy/confusing calculations and so much writing.

TAs actively don't like her and are forced to grade to a ridiculous pre-determined average by taking off points even if you get everything right. Sends passive aggressive emails. You're forced to write out every lab procedure, all data tables in your lab notebook which is so useless since it's already in the lab manual provided. My life was chem...

All in all, this class is not hard. The concepts are relatively simple and well explained in the lab manual. The problem of this course is Stephanie Pazos. I hesitate to call her a teacher, because she has yet to teach me anything. The expectations for lab discussions are unclear at best, and the rubric for said discussion changed halfway through.

Worst professor ever to teach anything ever, hope she gets fired.

Horrible…

She is one of the most unreasonable professors I have ever had. Downcurved the first gen chem lab and then gave a ridiculously difficult final in the second lab and did not curve. Don't take this class if you can avoid it.

Unclear expectations/rubrics for 2AL and first half of 2BL, harsh/inconsistent grading from TAs being forced to take points off anywhere and everywhere, lack of encouragement over email or in-person, overly rigid/punitive policies. Forced students to compete for grades & felt directly contrary to everything education is supposed to be about

Ts teacher straight ahh🌹🪫🪫

She is the devil amongst us

Not involved with the lab. She demeans students for performing subpar when she herself doesn't have a clear structure or grading system for the course. She covers up her lack of an organized curriculum by projecting bad grades and unfair grading standards onto the students. Half of the class is based on arbitrary writing rather than chemistry.