2.3
Quality3.9
Difficulty12%
Would Retake86
Reviews12%
Would Retake
86
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
12
4
4
3
19
2
19
1
32
What Students Say
“He is a good person but a mid professor”
CHEM1147 - 2.0 rating“I would avoid taking honors if you can”
CHEM1147 - 1.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
2%
Textbook Required
22%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-1.55 avg changeRatings by Course
CHM128
4.0
(2)CHEM1137
4.0
(4)CHEM129
3.8
(4)CHEM1127
3.4
(7)CHEM1148
3.3
(3)Difficulty by Course
CHEM1147
4.6
CHEM1148
4.3
CHEM1127Q
4.0
CHEM1122
3.9
CHEM1127
3.9
Reviews (86)
Really funny guy, ten times better than Hurley!
he seems better able to teach harder material
Great teacher, tests are impossible because hurley makes them
It's a shame that such a humorous and cool individual has to be such a LOUSY instructor.
No Comments
Great teacher, actually seems to care that his students are able to do the work. Fairly accessable and in noway intimidating.
Funny and friendly to students, helpful in providing recs and having review sessions. Lecture is often confusing, and he could be a bit more organized, but the tests are easier than they could be based on the chapters in the book. Tries to give everyone the best grade possible, provides printable slides, and 2 practice exams for each big test!
I found his class to be very difficult. His exams are extremely long and generally cover quite a bit. He is a very nice person though.
Funny guy, sometimes when you ask questions he makes you feel dumb though. Tests are generally pretty hard, but his grading is fair, does not go by percentages. Some tests include stuff that he has never gone over in lecture.
Nice sense of humor, but goes over material quickly. Textbook reading is mandatory in order to understand material; the same applies to practice problems in the book for tests. Any attempts at questions will be rerouted to the textbook, so brush up on the reading!
If you are in honors be WARNED > His class is lethally difficult. He is a ncie a man and rather humorous but half the class was failing even after intensive study sessions. Materials aren't covered in text but in lecture. Sometimes exam questions aren't in the lecture or text. Tests are impossible.
A very nice guy. He tries really hard to make his class interesting, and is very funny. But you HAVE to read the book, as well as pay EXTRA attention in lectures!!! His class is HARD!!! He tries to grade fairly, but has high expectations. Know your stuff! And if you're in first year Honors Chem, be warned if you haven't had AP Chem!
If you did not take AP Chem in high school, this class will be very hard for you. It's hardly an intro. He just dives right in to really abstract, irrelevant concepts and doesn't do a good job explaining them. Result was half my class was failing. He did hold review sessions and is helpful during office hours. Just be forewarned: it will be hard!
No. Unprepared - slide shows are two textbook editions old. Not funny at all. Made a calculation error with my grade and admitted it but refused to change it. Confuses himself and doesn't know how to solve problems. THIS IS NOT INTRO CHEM. Do not take this class without having taken AP chem already; If you're signed up for it, switch to 1127 now.
Seery overall is a good teacher but since he is a chemist it is sometimes hard for him to put what he thinks in writing and does not realize if his students do not understand what he is teaching. He is a real easy going guy and I suggest going to his office hours. He is very understanding in situations and MAKE SURE YOU STAY ON TOP OF READING!!!!
Very hard, but if you want an A just do the home work and know youre stuff
Great teacher, loved taking his class and looking forward to taking his other classes. He is always available and makes topics fun and interesting. All around great guy and uses a lot of jokes. Take this class if you can!
Funny and really goes deeper into the material than the test does. He actually teaches you something. The textbook is very useful in this class. As long as you keep up with the readings and do problems you're all set for the exams. Also if you need to ,go see him for help. He is extremely clear and loves to help. He also is just pleasant to talk to
I had Prof. Seery for PChem I and II, and he was easily the most incompetent professor I've had in the chem dept. He barely knew the material as he was giving the lectures and often could not answer student questions on the practice exams the day before the exams. The only silver lining was that he was good about partial credit and curving.
Professor Seery gives clear explanations to all the questions and he responds emails pretty quick. No need to go to lectures though, if you did ALL of your assignments and did the blue questions on the book. You need to study hard but you can get an A. Grading is fair.
Not a good professor. Is not able to teach very well, which makes his lectures utterly useless. Also, somewhat rude and not very available for meetings/help outside of class.
He really shows you that he cares about you. He's willing to help if you need it. Great sense of humor, but I felt that the pace was fast. Tests are brutal.
His lectures were drawn out, and a waste of time. I was better off spending the time on ALEKS than going to his lecture.
Very confusing lectures, not very organized, and didn't help understand the material very well. Pretty much relied on ALEKS to teach myself the material.
You need to do all the homework, do well in discussion and lab in order to get a decent grade in this class. Professor Seery knows a lot about chemistry, but his teaching methods aren't amazing.
This class is hard, you need to attend lectures and discussions in order to pass. Prof Seery didn't make any of the power-points and taught in a confusing, unorganized manner. You can tell he knows a lot about chemistry, just not a lot about teaching general chemistry. He's nice, but I don't recommend him
Dr. Seery is a terrible lecturer. The lecture material was disorganized, he rarely explained his thought process of how he worked through homework and practice exam problems, and he didn't attempt to connect any of the coursework to study an overall theme (i.e. spectroscopy or quantum chemistry). Practice exams and in class problems were helpful.
Reading slides, especially when they just have equations, is not "Teaching"
Doesn't teach, really just reads whats on the slides then asks "You guys get it?". Moves very quickly and is kind of condensing when asked to slow down or review. To be fair, he is on top of posting and keeping his Blackboard page up to date, just not a good lecturer.
Seery doesn't always explain things very well in lecture, but his office hours are very useful if you're struggling. For me personally, the way he teaches is better than how my high school chem teacher taught things. Go to the three hour review sessions he holds because he goes over the practice exam, which is really similar to the actual exam.
thomas seedy doesn't have a clue about what he is teaching. Lectures are pointless, he reads off the slides and does not explain anything. Going to class is a waste of time. Exams are long and sometimes include information we did not cover. it is easy to get a decent grade if you do the homework and go to lab but the man is a terrible teacher.
Seery doesn't know anything more than you do; he just reads off the slides. His homework is all messed up and a joke. Exams are exactly what you'd expect but you won't finish it in the period. Don't waste time on them! Do all the homework & labs; they help your grade a lot. He's a smart guy but he is a v bad teacher (he makes simple things difficul
He reads directly off the slides so you are better off just teaching yourself and not going to lecture. Exam review sessions are him just going over the answers to the sample exams with no explaining, he is not good at answering questions during office hours
Show up to lecture and take good notes. Dr. Seery's lecture are not detailed in explanations of having to do a problem. In order to do well, you mist also teach yourself, along with getting extra help. Dr. Seery only reads off the slides. Although he is a great person, his teaching style is not the best for an intro level course.
Professor Seery was a nice guy and tried to joke around a lot. The class really isnt that hard but the exams are way to long for the 50 minutes that you have to take them. Do the homework and all the labs and study for the final and you should be fine. He gives sample exams which are pretty close to what the actual exam will be.
You'd better be ready to teach yourself. This man has no idea what he's talking about, never mind that fact that he's blatantly rude to students.
He really tried. Do lots of practice questions from the HW and the sample exams he posts. Lectures are kind of useless, he rambles and doesn't really get to the point. He can be rude and dismissive if he's in a bad mood. Class isn't that hard if you rely on your own studying, not his teaching. Exams are problem-based, so practice a lot.
Dr. Seery was mostly lecture heavy, but he did provide excellent problems and solutions He also gave out actually study guides that were almost identical to the test itself. There was a quite a bit of homework but he would set a date in advance so you have plenty of time to do it. Time yourself for the tests because time goes by fast.
I took this class Fall 2019. Definitely rely on your TA to understand concepts and how to solve problems. The exams are not horrible, but time goes by fast. Make sure you are familiar with how to solve all the problems on his practice exams. His lectures are eh, he tries to be funny. His grading criteria at the end of the semester is fair.
Professor Seery is a great professor, but the problem with him for me is the fact that when he lectures instead of explaining more, he allows the lecture to do the talking. If you don't understand it though, he is willing to help, and I guess that's ok.
DO THE STUDY GUIDE! This man is so funny and wholesome, his study guides are identical to the exams and he really cares about you and wants you to pass. Best Chem 1127 prof.
this class in general is tough, seery is not the best lecturer as he reads through slides fast and doesn't do out problems. he is very kind and genuine tho. for 1128, take advantage of all the professors slides, and find which ones work best for you
He spends lectures doing derivations, but he refers to PowerPoints, so there is a bit of a disconnect since he isn't actually doing the math in real time. His exams aren't bad because they are close to the practice exams, so if you don't mind not learning, you can just memorize. Mostly I just wish I was able to learn more from the class.
dropped this class after just one lecture. professor seery didn't teach or solve any problems at all and just scrolled through slides picking the topics he found interesting. he tries to be funny and charismatic and seems like a really nice person, but for actually teaching i would give him an F
All Seery does is read off of other peoples' slides super quickly (the slides are always posted online) and doesn't even complete practice problems. He's a decent guy but sometimes tries a little to hard with the chemistry puns. I had to learn all of the material on my own because it's impossible to learn from someone who just reads slides.
Worst lecturer. Tried to attend office hours multiple times just for him to never show up. Take Cady he will save you!!!
terrible all around
Literally awful. Does not even know what he is teaching.
professor seery is an angel sent down from heaven. get the mcquarrie textbook, practice the practice exams, and the actual exams are the same. seery is the goat. If bro hasnt retired yet, he is a must take! i never even did any homework. The class is basically just graded on exams, its great. I didnt learn much tho.
Never bothered to attend lecture since he just reads off of slides and barely completes the practice problems. Chapter slides would typically be 100+ slides long but were filled with examples. If you don't mind teaching yourself everything, take this professor.
Class was alright, but this is key. The practice exams are THE SAME as the actual exams. I put 10 hour into this course the entire semester. Didn't go to lecture, never did the homework since his grading scheme doesn't penalize not doing it, and just reviewed the practice exams the night before and got it done. Seery's a cool dude too.
Assigned way too much work for a freshman UNIV. Class was "Apocalypse-Not", and he's a chem prof. Final project was a presentation that my group did on climate change apocalypse. He's a climate change denier! and had nothing good to say about it, despite our obvious hard work. Talks about nonsense most of the time. Boring. Take a different UNIV.
The biggest thing you should understand if you are going to take it with him is that his slides are way longer than other professors. This might be great for some but that means during lectures he's rushing to get through them, meaning he doesn't explain stuff fully, skips slides, and you can't do the examples or focus on learning the material.
An insanely rude professor. Literally resorted to watching online lectures of Cady - its the only reason why I could learn. His slides are too extensive and its just filler information atp. Take this course with ANYONE else, highly recommend Cadwell or Cady.
Would not recommend taking. Very nice guy but lectures are boring. Resorted to watching Cady's videos/taking notes on my own time based on his slides. Was still able to do good but basically taught myself all the material. Take Cady if you can, if not then take Caldwell.
He doesn't really teach properly, his concepts are all over the place and you basically just have to teach yourself
He is a good person but a mid professor. Be prepared to teach yourself about 80% of everything. Instead of doing out the practice problems, he would sometimes say "you can flip back to the slides to review and do this on your own time." This professor believes his class is the most important class (I quote). Got a 5 in AP Chem, but struggling here.
He only reads from slides and does not do any practice problems with the class. Basically, you have to teach yourself. It is much, much harder than regular gen chem. I would avoid taking honors if you can.
Dr. Seery made the lectures less boring and tried to connect with the class. It was a late class session, so not a lot of people attended lecture, and he got to know those of us who did. The exams really are not that difficult if you study the homework questions, SI slides, and practice problems.
save yourself.
If you're looking to get honors credit, don't do honors chem with this guy. The exams are unnecessarily hard that even our TAs and the CHEMISTRY GRAD STUDENT tutors at the Q center couldn't help with certain questions on the practice exam. You're expected to know how to do calculus and a bit of multivariable in CHEMISTRY. Take at ur own risk.
I'm cramming in the library, it's the middle of the night and none of his slides make any sense save yourself DO NOT TAKE PROF SEERY FOR CHEM 1147. He makes this class so unnecessarily difficult that it's not even gen chem, there's multivariable calc and ochem and physical chem in this class despite none of them being prereqs or recommended prep.
I would rather be strung upside down by barbed wire and repeatedly dunked into a fireplace than take this class with him again. Tests are too long for the period and difficult. There's multi and orgo in this class. Homework is also one attempt, or you lose partial credit. I cried more over this class than when my grandpa was diagnosed with cancer.
Not the greatest professor, but he isn't the worst either. He do
Whoever says Derek Johnson is the worst professor at UConn needs to meet this guy. That one good comment is probably from him. If you're fine with physical chem and orgo being in your gen chem 1 exam, this is the guy for you.
If he's here then who's running hell
This professor was so bad that I actually started a whole new praying ritual for each exam named after him and changed religions about five times so that I would be able to pass this exam somehow. I am atheist by the way.
This class legit makes me want to check myself into a mental hospital. The amount of times I've studied for this class just to get absolutely destroyed by the exams is insane. Please, for the love of god, do NOT TAKE THIS CLASS WITH HIM. The exams are so crazy it's like I'm reading another language.
he is from hell. do NOT take chem 1147 with seery unless u want to be emotionally and mentally harassed for a whole semester by this man. nothing will help. no real teaching and passive aggression is NOT something u want. do me a favor and save urself. believe the reviews and DONT DO IT. worst prof ever.
no comment.
We had to read some dense articles at times for hw but he said to just skim and write a paragraph or two and then he gave an 100%. It's not too bad for a UNIV, he mostly talks the entire time and asks some questions during as well. It's not the most exciting class but it's not too bad.
I couldn't be lobotomized into taking this class again.
Assigned too much work for a Univ class. Lots of reading (told us to skim it) and a 40-minute group presentation at the end of the semester. Talked most of the class and made a few weird comments. You will survive if you take his class, but 100 percent switch out of it if you can or you're going to be stuck doing more work than you should be.
I prayed to be hit by a yellow line bus everytime I walked to this class. Don't do this to yourself.
He is by no means a bad person, but his teaching style does not resonate with his students. He operates under the assumption that we all have his level of education, so he is pretty bad at answering questions. However, with that being said that class is hard, but not impossible. Would recommend for engineering majors, not pre meds tho.
This class is so difficult that during the final exam review, a few of the TA's answers for the practice exam in office hours didn't even match the professor's solutions in lecture (both are supposed to grade our finals). Bro how am I supposed to know who's right??? Do yourself a favor and find a professor who doesn't have exams this difficult.
My roommate walked into the room to find my violently shaking and curled up into a ball underneath my bed covered in blood, sweat, and tears. When she asked me what was wrong, I only had one response: THOMAS SEERY, THOMAS SEERY. She asked what she could do, my eyes welled with tears and I said "free me from the shackles of CHEM 1147".
This is the worst professor on campus. THIS IS NOT GEN CHEM! He's horrible, his slides aren't his, and he went through 3000 slides in 2 weeks. Honestly if your in honors and pre-med say goodbye to your GPA. His exams are 8-9 questions and are once again NOT GEN CHEM; They are a mix of OCHEM, PCHEM, and Thermo. Save yourself. Lab is worth ONLY 20%.
Everyone should take this class. It is truly exceptional. I found nothing more fulfilling than attending each session and completing the refreshingly short, intellectually undemanding exams. I enjoyed it immensely. Please don't let anyone influence your opinion about this class, especially not me.
bad. so bad. don't do this to yourself. he's not even a bad person he just sucks at teaching and the exams are just horrible. learn from our mistakes. don't do this to yourself.
i came into this class ignoring all the previous reviews thinking it couldnt be that bad. but when i tell you this man will make you question your worth and existence, i am not kidding. i was a straight A, 4.0 student until i took this class. it will really destroy your confidence and self-esteem. extremely unfair grader and super inconsiderate.
Pls if you're reading this Thomas seery curve our final grades like 3-4% that's all I need please it's all I've ever wanted please please please I would appreciate it forever and never forget it please sincerely please I need it that's all I need I'm serious like please please please actually
Bro curved my grade this class may be hard but at least bro has a heart 🙏
Omg god bless this man thank you so much. Oh my god. Still a difficult class but oh my god may you prosper for the rest of your life.
this class consumed all my free time & sanity - get your honors credits through another course, chem 1147 (which is NOT just gen chem, but also physical & organic & gen chem all in one semester) was simply not worth it.
By some miracle, I my grade curved to a B- (low standards yes and it did in fact ruin my gpa, but its better than what it could have been). Seery may be an extremely intelligent chemist however with that he has higher expectations and will include P-chem and orgo on exams. TAs and grad students struggle to help us with our work and tests as well.
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
2%
Textbook Required
22%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-1.55 avg changeRatings by Course
CHM128
4.0
(2)CHEM1137
4.0
(4)CHEM129
3.8
(4)CHEM1127
3.4
(7)CHEM1148
3.3
(3)Difficulty by Course
CHEM1147
4.6
CHEM1148
4.3
CHEM1127Q
4.0
CHEM1122
3.9
CHEM1127
3.9