Jones, Ian  

Jones is definitely intelligent. But unfortunately, he doesn\'t appear to want his student to succeed. Our class had a failing average all quarter, but finally the department head stepped in and he ended up curving the grades. I was praying for a c, and was shocked to get a b. He doesn\'t teach or test this class like it is CHEM 111. I probably could\'ve taken 127 and had an easier time. He has a bad attitude and his lectures aren\'t helpful. The homework he gives and the practice problems he does are nothing like the tests or quizzes. If you take this class, be prepared to focus all of your energy on it. Go to office hours. Do study groups. Do EVERY problem in the back of the book for each chapter plus make up your own. This class is a lot of work, and the professor is mainly to blame. I\'m sorry, but avoid Jones at all costs if you can.

ok, you can see the stick shoved up this guy's butt when he gives a lecture. Looks for all opportunities to make you fail. AVOID AT ALL COSTS!

First and foremost, I have to acknowledge that Dr. Jones is incredibly knowledgeable in his field. With that being said however, Dr. Jones is a TERRIBLE teacher. He is very unprofessional. He comes to class looking as if he woke up with a hangover from the night before. He uses profanity in his lectures and expects everyone to know everything about Chemistry. My entire class had a failing average, and yet he had the audacity to say that it was obviously the students' faults for not knowing the material. His tests were nothing like the material we covered. They were MUCH harder. They were simply over and above anything that should have been covered in a Chem 111 class. Dr. Jones was sometimes rude to students and conducted himself in a manner that was an incredibly poor reflection on his department, as well as on Cal Poly. I would recommend avoiding this instructor at all costs.

DO NOT TAKE THIS PROFESSOR. If he is the only professor that's left when you have to register for classes, either wait until next quarter to take another chemistry professor, or wait list a different professor. His class is not an easy class. He does not have an organized agenda of the lecture. He recaps on the material that we could easily just read in the book. He does rarely clarifies the points that the class has questions on from the book. When he does clarify points, he immaturely acts as if he has to go the extra mile to help us. He really does not make you feel good about chemistry. HOWEVER, he does have a syllabus with the exam dates, so as long as you don't lose it, you will know exactly when the tests are. He has quizes about every week or so. STUDY FOR THEM. IF YOU MUST TAKE JONES THEN DON'T EXPECT TO GET AN A OR B ON THE QUIZZES OR TESTS BY JUST READING THE BOOK ONCE...It seemed like the only time he was willing to help us was once we completely failed a test.

I had Dr.Jones fall quarter, and this was his first quarter teaching Ever. I started off the quarter with a 40%, and worked my up to an A. He's not that bad, if you show him you are doing the work and go to office hours, he will acknowledge this, and it will show in your final grade.

complete asshole. makes the class harder than it should be. for our tests he gave us material that was never in the book/included in lectures. he cares more about making you feel like an idiot rather than helping you understand whats going on in his class. i dreaded this class everyday bc he was such an arrogant asshole. the only good thing about ian was his lab--pretty easy.

You just gotta let this man call you "princess" and you get an 'A'!

Unprofessional, incredibly inept at conveying material, and was obviously unaccustomed to teaching. Unless you went to office hours, help was sporadic and rarely helpful. Came across as a jerk during class and occasionally used profanity. Lectures were rushed through in no depth and the curriculum was not followed as indicated in the syllabus, with several subjects being glanced over or completely omitted. For a strong engineering and science, school, he does not reflect that caliber of learning and teaching that students should expect from their teachers. While he's obviously strong in his field (O-Chem) and knows basic chemistry, he's terrible at communicating it. Avoid him.

He doesn't really lecture, he didn't know how to do most of the labs, and is a jerk to top if off. His quizzes and tests are random as heck, and a lot harder than the tests I've seen from other chem124 classes. Jones' grading is inconsistent and so is his attitude. At office hours he's marginally helpful, but sometimes it seems like he wants you out of there as soon as possible. With that being said, if you do end up taking one of his classes, go to office hours as often as possible...they will be the easiest way to ensure you do decent in the class (even the smartest kid in our class was always there). The one easy part of this class would probably be the labs and lab reports; once you know what he wants in the reports, you should score a 20/20 no problem (and if you have any doubts...office hours!). After getting to know the class a little more he does become a little bit nicer, but not enough to save your grade if you are already failing. Overall, he might be someone that you'd like to get a drink with if you want to spend a night complaining and insulting other people, but really, he's a horrible teacher. I have never in my life blamed a teacher for me not learning...until I met this man.

Dr. Jones may be competent in his field of Chemistry, but expects PH'D WORK FROM ANYONE IN HIS CLASS. He is a very difficult individual to understand when he gives out a lecture. I have no doubt he would be an excellent professor teaching upper classes for seniors, but I doubt he has any skill in teaching CHEM 124. He is relatively new and just barely got his doctorate from Arizona over 2 years ago. He is more of a chemist at heart than a professor, as I remember him saying to half the students who failed his first midterms that if they were engineers, they should give up because he doesn't want them to build anything he uses. He is therefore very rude sometimes but kinder in his office hours, and ONLY STUDENTS MAJORING IN CHEMISTRY SHOULD ATTEMPT TO TAKE HIS CLASSES!!!

He is a professor who will tell you that you just asked a stupid question and make you feel like the stupidest person in the world. What a horrible, horrible professor. His homework is pretty much to do every problem in the back of the book and expect to not see any of it on his exams. He makes up irrelevant chemistry questions on his exams with the most unbelievable answer that will make you believe it can not be right when it actually is.

He's nice to the ladies. Anyways...

There is much controversy about this guy. First off, he will make you crack up in class. He has a sarcastic type of humor and during lectures makes silly jokes. Teaching wise, he is not that good at explaining thing in depth until you get to the organic chemistry stuff, which he loves. He was a very harsh grader in the beginning of the year but he chilled out by the end. There's no surprises on his tests but they can be tricky. Several times he has ended class early on Friday because he wanted to go home early. Beware though, he is pretty young and can blend in with the students when everyone first walks into lab. There were several times when we talked about him and he was right behind us but he is pretty cool about it. Don't stress too much if you get Jones, just study the class notes and do the suggested problems because the sometimes takes them for his exams

This guy is actually fairly funny with his dry humor and sarcasm, but he's also kind of an a-hole with it. I honestly failed this class because I didn't get my book right away (shipping/money issues a little) and was kind of lazy, then realized I couldn't pass the class so I stopped going the last few weeks. Bad decision, I know, but I really like my Chem teacher this Quarter, Dr. Anariba, because he presents the material so much better in terms of lecture notes and in class problems that we go over. I also hadn't had chemistry in quite a while, nor quite the full year poly requires(two trimesters). Sorry to any of my lab partners last quarter if I made you do extra work. (team freeman?). you were all cool. this was the first class I failed in my life and hopefully only.

He's a loser. Incompetent whore (and that's an understatement).

If you couldn't figure it out by reading any of the other posts, then here it is: this guy is an a-hole and also a bad teacher. If you have the opportunity to take any other teacher, i guarantee you that you will be better off. That being said, if you have a crappy priority, and this guy is all that is left, then fine go ahead. Just know ahead of time that he is not very pleasant.

YOU'RE ON THE PHONE WITH YOUR GIRLFRIEND SHE'S UPSET. SHE'S GOING OFF ABOUT SOMETHING THAT YOU SAID. CAUSE SHE DOESN''T GET YOUR HUMOR LIKE I DO.

Wow. Dr. Jones might be a competent researcher, I don't know. I do know that he doesn't seem genuinely interested in being an instructor. He also does NOT seem to understand that when the class average is a 66, IT IS A REFLECTION ON HIM AND HIS INABILITY TO TEACH, or maybe his inability to match the test material to what he is teaching. On the test last week, the average was 66.58. The median was 70. So, HALF of the class scored a D+ or below. Maybe this is normal at a community college, but presumably, the average student in that class had high school chemistry AND had to have scored at LEAST in the top 10% of students in the country on SAT and ACT tests to be admitted to CP, so it's not exactly a class full of slackers. This is a Chemistry I class--it's supposed to be an introduction. This should not be a weed out class, but that is exactly what it is turning out to be. The lab teacher is astonished. The average on the first test was 70.58, so this is apparently a pattern. I have to believe the administration is going to do something about this, but until that happens, you are better off waiting for a higher rotation than taking Jones for your first chem class.

He is VERY sassy! But he is incredibly smart and if you go to class and pay attention it is not difficult at all. He does let you know you have asked a stupid question, but most of the time it is because it was a REALLY STUPID QUESTION! Overall, if you are not good at catching onto things very quickly then I wouldn't suggest this teacher. But personally I enjoyed his class and I loved that he didn't spend time on worthless crap and busy work. He was very straight forward. It is DEFINITELY possible to get a good grade in this class. You just gotta deal with his attitude! He is a good guy though, and he will really help you if you go to office hours! So if you aren't an idiot looking for an easy A, then I recommend his class.

Firstly, Jones is not the right professor for you if you do not like attending class and are intimidated by seeking out professors in office hours. Exams can be challenging both in content and in time constraints. He is obviously very competent in his feild, so at times he just assumes that students have prior knowledge on key subjects, even if that is not the case, so it is important to ASK QUESTIONS, even if he makes you feel a little uneasy. He can come across as arrogant at first, but his personality definatly grows on you throughout the quarter once you take his comments less personally/literally. He is intimidating, but very helpful in office hours if you can stand to stay in there longer than 5 minutes.

what you have to understand about Jones is that he is not much more mature than his students. That's probably the reason people are ragging on him so bad. Some of the comments below complain he uses profanity (I don't have a problem with it) but I am SURE they do as well, so if anything we SHOULD be able to relate to him more than other professors.... but there is still something blocking the learning because the class average was a D. oh well, that's life. all I know is that I hate chemistry.

Lacks ability to convey material in class. His tests are nearly impossible to finish if you are not a fast test taker. Extremely immature and pretentious at times. In office hours, if you do not have a "V", you will not receive much help. Pretty much, just AVOID him. Is he intellegent? Yes. Can he teach? Hell to the NO. I'm quite disappointed that Cal Poly hired such a pompous prick! ... Yep... umm...sooo... I digress... peace!

Class average on the 2nd test was 52%. Median was 55%. You should draw your own conclusions.

The fact that the class average was a 52 (see below comment) is sad because the test was easy. I mean seriously people. Everything on it was in our notes and considering he gave us the entire last problem beforehand and went over all the lewis dot structures, he basically gave us 50% of the test. Obviously half the class hasn't even tried to go through the questions at the back of the book and just expects to magically understand, and when they don't they blame it on Jones. If I thought the class average was a result of his teaching then I would say so, but I did fine on the test and I didn't even study that much beyond his lecture. Sure he is not the best teacher. He needs to work on reiterating the things that are new to us even though they are obvious to him. Which is why you must do the homework. But he is new. and is helpful in office hours. As for his attitude, if I had just gotten a PhD and then went to go teach General Chemistry 1 I would have the same attitude. And if you get past that, he is a pretty awesome guy. IF YOU WANT TO DO WELL, YOU CAN EASILY DO WELL. BUT IF YOU WANT TO SIT AROUND AND COMPLAIN AND NOT DO THE WORK, THEN DON'T TAKE HIM.

The highest score on the test was an 86 and the only other score in the 80 range was an 84. The difficulty in the test was not in the material but rather trying to get it all done with in the 50 minute time limit. Jones walked in and the first thing he said was "So, this test is probably on the longer side of do-able." What kind of teacher writes a test so kids can either not finish or barely finish it? Basically, I would agree that Jones is not the hardest teacher and it is clear he knows a lot about chemistry. But he is just a downright rude guy and he will make your life miserable for the whole quarter. Jones most frequent responses to questions are "Why don't you figure it out on your own?" or often times he won't say anything and will just sit there and laugh at you. If you take his class and put a decent amount of work in, you'll probably end passsing, but you'll absolutely hate the clas and have to put up with a pain in the ass professor.

What the poster below said is true. He did give us a lot more help about what was going to be on the test, but then he gave us a test we couldn't finish. I got 85% of the questions I finished correct, but I still failed the test. That's a new teacher kind of issue that you could cut him some slack for if he cut us some slack for not having time to finish the test with care. But nope; he refused to curve the grade. So, half the class failed. RUDE is an understatement. To those of you who are saying that we should kiss ass in his office to help our grade are probably right. But the fact that kissing ass will help is evidence of how unprofessional he is.

People who complain about his tests are complete morons.He tells the class specific questions that will be on the test, and he is extremely helpful during office hours. He is a sarcastic man, but that is just a personality, if you really need help you need to be mature and serious and he will take you as such. If you are a little baby who cant take him acting smarter than you (which he is) and that attitude scares you away from asking questions and getting a better grade than you should just go home and live with your mommy. We are in college now, quit whining and being intimidated by someone who gets paid to answer your questions. Other than that he is great, there is no required busy work, so you can focus your studying on what you dont know. Also he offered an absurd amount of extra credit to raise the grades of the lazy students who were too dumb to write down what he specifically told us would be on each test.

I honestly have no idea what you people are talking about the lowest grade i recieved on a mid term was an 86. this class is an easy A and people just need to grow up. Dr. J is the shit

This guy is one where I would go to the bar and grab a beer with him in the future. Man he is hilarious, but he definitely cannot teach. If anything he is at his best during office hours so make sure you take advantage of those!! If your a girl, kiss his ass and he will love you. If your a guy, you really have to kiss his ass and maybe he will like you. Other than that good luck with him. I for one did like him, just wished I had someone better to teach me the material.

Okay, here is the deal: Jones was a new professor at Poly this year; it was his first year teaching General Chemistry so of course there are going to be many bumps in the road. I had him for 127 Winter quarter this year, and I have him again this quarter for 128. In 127, he was still figuring out things that did/did not work for him as a teacher, but as the quarter progressed, his ability to convey the material as well as his attitude improved significantly. The point is that he was trying. If you understand his analogies, they really are helpful and pretty funny too. A lot of his reviews on PolyRatings are from earlier in the year before things started turning around, so do not be intimidated. So far, 128 is going really well for a lot of students. The homework problems are much more relevant to the tests, and the tests themselves are much more managable length-wise. If you are registering for Fall quarter and have the opportunity to take Jones as a professor, I highly recommend going for it. He is extremely helpful and willing to work with students in office hours, and he makes lab and lecture very enjoyable with his humor (he will definitely make you laugh). He is also pretty young, so he can relate to students easily. As long as you put in some time to do the work (it is not an easy class in the first place) you should have a great experience.

Not a terrible professor, but certainly not a good one. He enjoys making his students feel dumb. However, it is possible to do well in the class.

If I was your boyfriend, I'd never let you go. Keep in YOU IN AIFJAOPFJSAPFOJASPFOJ

What else is there to say? Fine person, nothing interesting. Class was meh... Blah, blah, blah... Fine person.