Professor
Louis-Serge Bouchard
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2021 - I was afraid to take this class with Professor Bouchard due to negative past reviews. However, I did not pickup on any rudeness at all. He seems to be a pretty nice person from what I could see. Online, this class was very manageable. All of the homework and tests are given on a website called OWL. Professor Bouchard set homework to the hardest level (level 4). Midterms and the final were set from levels 1-3, so they were much easier than the homework. You can do very well on tests if you do the homework, learn the formatting of the questions, and learn how to use OWL. There are a few programs in OWL that can be confusing to use at first so make sure to know how to use them before the tests. Bouchard does not lecture. Instead he treats class like "office hours," which I personally disliked. I often skipped class and never felt like I was missing out on anything important. He made prerecorded lectures but I found that they were too repetitive with the textbook so I did not watch them. You do get points for attending discussion however. The way I learned in this class was very simple. I read all of the assigned textbook chapters and took notes. Then I filled in any gaps in my knowledge by watching videos on Youtube and taking more notes. The content is not difficult in my opinion. The most difficult topic for me was the quantum mechanics section but it was manageable and there honestly was not much use for the complex formulas on the tests. If you want to test your knowledge in the class do the end of chapter problems in the textbook. They are more complex and difficult. I don't think this is necessary, but a good option if you have some extra time.
Winter 2021 - I was afraid to take this class with Professor Bouchard due to negative past reviews. However, I did not pickup on any rudeness at all. He seems to be a pretty nice person from what I could see. Online, this class was very manageable. All of the homework and tests are given on a website called OWL. Professor Bouchard set homework to the hardest level (level 4). Midterms and the final were set from levels 1-3, so they were much easier than the homework. You can do very well on tests if you do the homework, learn the formatting of the questions, and learn how to use OWL. There are a few programs in OWL that can be confusing to use at first so make sure to know how to use them before the tests. Bouchard does not lecture. Instead he treats class like "office hours," which I personally disliked. I often skipped class and never felt like I was missing out on anything important. He made prerecorded lectures but I found that they were too repetitive with the textbook so I did not watch them. You do get points for attending discussion however. The way I learned in this class was very simple. I read all of the assigned textbook chapters and took notes. Then I filled in any gaps in my knowledge by watching videos on Youtube and taking more notes. The content is not difficult in my opinion. The most difficult topic for me was the quantum mechanics section but it was manageable and there honestly was not much use for the complex formulas on the tests. If you want to test your knowledge in the class do the end of chapter problems in the textbook. They are more complex and difficult. I don't think this is necessary, but a good option if you have some extra time.
Most Helpful Review
He teaches the hardest class I've ever taken, but also the best class. The material he teaches is well above the standard general chemistry level (more on the order of graduate level), but he makes it all very understandable. Furthermore, he writes you a fantastic textbook of lecture notes (and does NOT charge you for it). Perhaps the best thing about his class is his teaching style, there are no hand-wavey explanations. Everything is derived, so it makes sense. He is very nice in office hours and answers all questions very fully. tl;dr: if you can put in a lot of work it's the best class available.
He teaches the hardest class I've ever taken, but also the best class. The material he teaches is well above the standard general chemistry level (more on the order of graduate level), but he makes it all very understandable. Furthermore, he writes you a fantastic textbook of lecture notes (and does NOT charge you for it). Perhaps the best thing about his class is his teaching style, there are no hand-wavey explanations. Everything is derived, so it makes sense. He is very nice in office hours and answers all questions very fully. tl;dr: if you can put in a lot of work it's the best class available.
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2018 - If you are taking this course with Professor Bouchard, this is what you should expect: Professor: - does not motivate yet strongly discourage learning in class. Through the course of this semester, he has been adamant in his way of teaching, rejecting any challenges raised by the students and got irritated easily, responding “If you do not believe in X concept, you should not do science”. - does not answer student’s questions after class; give only overly general responses or merely “you should know this”. - scares students in class, constantly claiming that he is not afraid to fail seniors. - fails to retreat students’ equally; have preference over some selected group of students; always treat these students with patience while ignoring or occasionally castigating other less preferred students. A concrete example is that, whenever I get answers to questions he raises wrong in class, Prof. Bouchard consistently used discouraging words like “Wrong” and “No” and did not let me continue answering the question, whereas he treats other student with much more patience, using words like “try harder” or “thinker deeper” while waiting for their answers. Such disparity in treatment directly impacted my passion for this class and discouraged me from participating in class discussion or engage in intellectual thinking. TA: - highly unfamiliar with the course material, could not help with students’ lab report or questions related to class material - demonstrate unprofessionalism in grading: carelessly glance over students’ lab report carefully and do not assign grades based on a uniform standard; fail to respond to students’ re-grading request when points are unfairly deducted But Professor Bouchard's notes are very clear and the course will indeed improve your Matlab skill and stats to a great extent. Even though the average score of the test is around or below 30/100 and the first lab report grade is also 30/100, I received satisfactory scores for this class. If you study really hard your hard work will pay off.
Spring 2018 - If you are taking this course with Professor Bouchard, this is what you should expect: Professor: - does not motivate yet strongly discourage learning in class. Through the course of this semester, he has been adamant in his way of teaching, rejecting any challenges raised by the students and got irritated easily, responding “If you do not believe in X concept, you should not do science”. - does not answer student’s questions after class; give only overly general responses or merely “you should know this”. - scares students in class, constantly claiming that he is not afraid to fail seniors. - fails to retreat students’ equally; have preference over some selected group of students; always treat these students with patience while ignoring or occasionally castigating other less preferred students. A concrete example is that, whenever I get answers to questions he raises wrong in class, Prof. Bouchard consistently used discouraging words like “Wrong” and “No” and did not let me continue answering the question, whereas he treats other student with much more patience, using words like “try harder” or “thinker deeper” while waiting for their answers. Such disparity in treatment directly impacted my passion for this class and discouraged me from participating in class discussion or engage in intellectual thinking. TA: - highly unfamiliar with the course material, could not help with students’ lab report or questions related to class material - demonstrate unprofessionalism in grading: carelessly glance over students’ lab report carefully and do not assign grades based on a uniform standard; fail to respond to students’ re-grading request when points are unfairly deducted But Professor Bouchard's notes are very clear and the course will indeed improve your Matlab skill and stats to a great extent. Even though the average score of the test is around or below 30/100 and the first lab report grade is also 30/100, I received satisfactory scores for this class. If you study really hard your hard work will pay off.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2020 - I think finally the time has come to write the review for this class. CHEM 114H is very different from CHEM 114 such that you are required to complete an independent, term-long project instead of writing regular lab reports. This process can be extremely complicated and life-draining if you do not know what you're doing. I got an incomplete, an extension to the incomplete, a lapsed F, and another extension to the incomplete before I finally got my letter grade, completed in Winter 2022. I would describe the whole story was a "wild journey", to say the least. Anyway, the professor can be a little flakey and blunt, but at the end of the day, he is truly patient, caring, and forgiving inside the mind. I cannot really recommend anyone to take this class especially if you are unprepared, but at the end of the day, Professor Bouchard was truly my life saver.
Fall 2020 - I think finally the time has come to write the review for this class. CHEM 114H is very different from CHEM 114 such that you are required to complete an independent, term-long project instead of writing regular lab reports. This process can be extremely complicated and life-draining if you do not know what you're doing. I got an incomplete, an extension to the incomplete, a lapsed F, and another extension to the incomplete before I finally got my letter grade, completed in Winter 2022. I would describe the whole story was a "wild journey", to say the least. Anyway, the professor can be a little flakey and blunt, but at the end of the day, he is truly patient, caring, and forgiving inside the mind. I cannot really recommend anyone to take this class especially if you are unprepared, but at the end of the day, Professor Bouchard was truly my life saver.
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