McDonald, Ashley Ringer  

Doctor McDonald is honestly the best Chem teacher I've ever had. She is super quirky and, shows that she really does love Chem. The class is relatively hard but getting an A is definitely possible. She works with you through homework problems and pre-labs in office hours and is SUPER helpful. I would recommend looking over the chapter before you go to class, her lectures are somewhat hard to follow sometimes but, she is happy to clarify anything. Tests and quizzes are relatively hard but she isn't going to trick you, it will be the material you covered and not some random thing she might have mentioned once in class. I would also recommend her for lab; she's just as helpful and will help you work through the experiment as many times as you need. I just love her, she is adorable!!!

Professor McDonald is probably one of the most annoying teachers I have ever had. She has the highest pitched voice I have ever heard and sitting through her 2 hour lectures twice a week is painful. Overall she teaches you the material but it is hard to listen cause of her voice.Her tests are easy if you study the material and do the homework, but if you don't your screwed. Its basic chem from high school so I wouldn't recommend this class unless you absolutely have to take it. If you do take it GET FRIEND AS YOUR LAB PROFESSOR.

TAKE HER!!! I wish all the Professors in Poly were like her. she is so enthusiast about chem that you can't get bored (I am a business major and she made me actually enjoy chem). She presents the material super clearly and the course organization is great in a way that you have 3 midterms and quizes every other week, so you stay on track for midterms by studying for quizes. Her tests are hard, but you should take the workshop and do the really helpfull practice problems she gives from the book and you will be good. Take her 50 mins lecture!! it goes by fast and she covers the material fast so you don't get bored. Watch the news for current chemistry news the week before a test since its always her extra credit on midterms. Also, time gets tight on midterm so have your polyatomic ions memorized really well because youll need them all quarter!! also don't hasitate to go to office hours because she loves to explain.

pretty descent teacher. I took ap chemistry in high school but didn't pass the test so I came into this class with pretty good knowledge of chemistry. But, any of the problems i did have understanding certain concepts from before i understand now. I would recommend this professor.

I failed this class, sure, but that's not why I'm writing this review. Ashley McDonald does not do a good job of teaching the class. She cracks dumb jokes and laughs at them herself, while no one else does. Referring to the students thoughts, she says "you guys are probably thinking.. 'but McDonald!.... you can't do blah blah blah'" and it gets really annoying after the 10th time. She tries to answer questions,but she only manages to help the people who understand the material anyway, and the rest of the class is left confused and struggling to figure it out on their own. Everything in the class is done in groups of 2, and whoever you sit next to on the second day of class is your lab partner for the rest of the quarter. Better hope you sit next to someone who knows what they are doing if you don't, because my lab partner and I were both lost the entire quarter. The one thing I noticed is that she is helpful during office hours, but you have to go in knowing what you're confused about and ask specific questions. The textbook is online, and I didn't use it much for the class, but there are homework problems and reading assignments that are never checked and the textbook is never mentioned unless it is after the midterm, where she says that several of the questions were pulled straight from the homework. Maybe I just didn't put enough effort in, but regardless, I did not think McDonald did a good job of presenting the material clearly and generally teaching the class. I wouldn't take her if I had the choice.

I honestly thought Dr. McDonald was great. She is super knowledgeable and good at explaining things in simple terms, and she always connects what you previously learned to what you learn now. There isn't a lot of time during lecture to ask questions and it can be kind of dry, but her office hours are very very helpful. She is willing to help, and go through as much things with you as you need. Yes, her tests can be hard, but pay attention in class and try and do the homework problems. They aren't mandatory, but can show up in the weekly quizzes and her tests. Don't be afraid to ask her if you need help, she's the sweetest.

McDonald really taught y'all how to do chemistry. Some of y'all are complainers, but McDonald made the unbearable 4 to 6 time slot on a Friday entertaining. She can recognize ya'lls difficulty pretty well, and her lectures are clear. It's sometimes hard to understand what she's asking on exams and refuses to clarify. She might not have a solid grasp of the written english chemistry language. Still, the one thing ya'll should take away from this class is the best places to eat in SLO.

Dr. McDonald is extremely good at what she does. She makes sure to demonstrate equations and work out problems during class, which really puts her students ahead of other students who take 124 with other professors. She starts every class with a recap of the class before and her lectures are always well timed, which means that she conveys all the information you need to know without having to rush. Her office hours were a welcome and helpful resource and she never assigned busy work. Although there were many practice problems that were helpful, the fact that they were optional made the workload very manageable.

Alright, this was the best CHEM 124 section when I took it. Spoken to all my roommates who had no clue what they were doing, but came out with As (due to curves) in the end. I ended up with a C-. She will make sure you learn everything, but she is a ridiculously harsh grader. No one was prepared for that common final and she will refuse to curve, and little if at all. Your GPA will take a dip, but you will be prepared for future CHEM courses.

Please, do not do this to yourselves!

Teaching is very poor

Dr. McDonald is great at presenting the material clearly and making sure students understand. Her class can feel a bit repetitive at times, but in the end that helped me really remember and understand the materials needed. I would highly recommend taking extra practice worksheets and assigned book problems seriously, as the extra practice helped me a lot on more difficult quiz and exam questions. Overall I would recommend her for this class. She teaches well, grades fairly, and overall prepares you for future classes.

She has a super nasally, high pitched voice which is hard to bear during lecture. She is a pretty bad teacher too and I regret taking her class. She is condescending during her office hours and is a super harsh grader on tests. She also gives an unnecessarily hard common final. Labs are also pretty useless and waste of time but that's the same with any professor. Definitely would not recommend McDonald to anyone

The difficulty level of the quizzes is a lot higher than the level she teaches us in class. For the amount of questions and level of difficulty presented on the quizzes we did not have enough time on the quizzes. She explains information in a very confusing way, our own TA said so herself. One time in class she was boasting that she was proud of herself for making a quiz really hard for us. The class before our second midterm she was also bragging about how she was going to give us a very hard stoichiometry problem on it. Almost the whole class ended up doing worst on it than the previous midterm and the average grade on this midterm was >10% lower than the first one. The day we are going over it in class she gives us a speech about how her performance as a professor is dependent on how we are doing in the class. I find that very funny of her to say when she gives us unreasonably hard quizzes and makes the second midterm 10x harder than the first one. Also, in office hours and in general she is obnoxious and mostly unhelpful. I asked her if she had an answer key for the second midterm for one of the free response problems and she said come to class and I will tell you then. Then, when I come to class I see we are doing a pointless labpal activity instead of reviewing for the final. I scramble to ask her the question as I was finishing up this activity and she says go ask the TA for the answer. Then the TA, being very unhelpful as well said try to start the problem yourself then I will help you figure it out. If I don't understand the problem then I'm not gonna no where to start the damn problem either. The only nice thing she did is allow our final grade score to replace our lowest midterm score if we do better on the final than that lowest midterm. Although, she only ended up doing this as damage control after she realized she screwed everyone over after the second midterm. If you can do not choose to take her at all.

Professor McDonald is very passionate about the subject and enjoy teaching chemistry. However, her exams do not reflect the material taught in class. Her quizzes are not too bad, but do not let the quizzes determine how you are doing in the class. Most of the class is based off of the fact that you have a solid foundation in general chemistry because you learned it in high school. She is good at answering questions and is fairly approachable. I would not recommend her to those who do not have a solid background of chemistry from their previous years. Also, if you have a short attention span I do not recommend taking her 3 hours class that meets twice a week. Her voice could possibly give you a headache.

I absolutely loved being in Dr. McDonald's class. She is so much fun in lecture, even when we had it at 7AM. She made learning Chem easy and her help in lab was excellent. She may move a little fast for some, but if you study her notes, the book is not that necessary, unless this is the first Chem class you've ever taken. If it is, then get a study session and work hard. The homework problems were tedious and redundant, but all I did was take notes, do the homework, and review both again the night before the test and I did well.I definitely recommend taking her.

Probably one of the worst teachers I have had in my life. Yes, she knows what she is talking about. I understood the basics of the material; however, she brings these concepts to a much higher level on her tests without explaining how to do so. Our class' midterm average was a 58% and she railed us about how we didn't study enough (she didn't take any of the blame for her poor teaching skills). Whenever you ask her a question, she talks down to you condescendingly. In all honesty, I learned more from our TA than I did from McDonald. Try to avoid taking this class with this professor if you can.

McDonald is an instructor who knows a whole hell of a lot about chemistry and sometimes it became difficult for students in general chemistry to understand the terms she was using to explain the course material. That being said, she presented the material in a very clear and structured manner. She offered many examples, and welcomed questions on any subject. A very effective lecturer. During the lab portion of the class she was also extremely valuable in helping guide us to understand how and why we were getting specific results and even better didn't give us the answers, but rather helped guide us so that we would find the answer ourselves. Aside from that, her quizzes and tests were very difficult. You will NEED to study for the quizzes to do well in that area because if you don't put the time into getting good quiz scores, it will screw you over in the future. Same with her exams, they are pretty difficult and you will need to spend time to study and go to her office hours to understand the material. Also, don't skip class! She goes through a lot of material in one lecture, so you'll be super behind if you skip.

I would suggest avoiding this professor if possible. She doesn't present the material in a very clear manner and fails to outline her expectations. She docks you pretty harshly in lab in your results are not identical to hers, and she doesn't give you any answers to her study guides so they are completely useless. Although she is nice, i am completely underwhelmed by her ability to teach. Take another professor if you want to do well and understand the material.

First off, she sincerely loves the subject and is enthusiastic about lecturing about it. On the other hand, her grading for all materials (labs reports and quizzes and lecture midterms) are rather harsh. I did take AP Chem and pass the test in high school, so the background does help you have an easier time studying, but I am still a student that has a great difficulty with the subject and this class does not become much easier or improve your understanding of the subject. You may feel that you are prepared by doing the optional text assignments and reviewing her notes before a test, but I feel that I could say for a handful of us who are at the same level of struggle and "studious-ness" still came out of the tests and quizzes rather sore about our scores. Her class averages for the midterms this quarter were in the high 60s and mid to low 70s percentile ranges. Outside of class, she always seemed in a rush to provide you an answer and not fully listen to your question which resulted in a longer time to reach an understanding on just a single problem. She doesn't curve individual midterm scores, but she says she curves your overall grade based on the class.

Pros 1. Reviews exams/quizzes in class after they are returned. 2. Provides extra time to take exams, when possible (our class was a one hour, but we had two hours for exams). Cons 1. Unrefined. She is not particularly smooth or in any manner graceful, which is fine unless you're already frustrated because you're trying (and most of the time failing) to learn pchem; it's already hard enough. 2. Disorganized. They were errors on our equation sheets, quizzes, and exams throughout the quarter, sometimes including missing information and equations. This was very confusing if you are already not sure what information/equation is needed for a problem. 3. Slow grading. We had two Matlab assignments due during the quarter, the first during week 4 or so and the other due week 10 (originally due will eight, but"we" ran behind on lecture). These grades, along with our Matlab test, we're not entered until the day off the final exam or, in the case of the 2nd assignment and the test, while we took the final. This was a huge problem; we all have other finals, and it helps to know where you stand going into finals week. 4. Communication. The way her questions are worded on her quizzes and exams takes some adjusting to. Unfortunately there is not a great way to describe this part; just be careful. The above cons aren't the worst thing in the world, but there is enough of them and there is really no redeeming value corresponding in the pros. While I admittedly didn't go to office hours much, her behaviour in class did not encourage me to do so. This likely lead to some of the above issues, but not all. I would not recommend her admin style, an integral part of the class.

Dr. McDonald is one of the most disrespectful professors I have had in my time at Cal Poly. She belittles students, and gives special treatment to the select few. Sure, she can present material well when she's not trying to do stand-up comedy performance, but her BLATANT disrespect towards students is just not acceptable. She assumes that we also somehow have a phD in physical chemistry, and makes us feel dumb for not understanding something that is so obvious to her. I can't believe she's a professor with the way she treats students. It is absolutely unacceptable.

Dr. McDonald has been one of my favorite chemistry professors. She makes learning pchem fun and is really dedicated to making sure the class understands the material. She took extra class time to go over confusing topics and switched all her office hours around to work with the class's schedule. She moved midterms when we were stressed and had an amazing final policy during COVID 19. My biggest tip would be to write EVERYTHING down during lecture. She doesn't use the white board as much as other professors but if you write down all her extra comments it is really helpful in studying. I really appreciated her as a professor and I don't believe her ratings on this site are very fair.

When I first saw Dr. McDonald's grade on here, I was pretty confused, because I've had her for 354 thought she's one of the best professors I've had at Poly. But I think I know where the disparity is coming from. Dr. McDonald is really smart, and is totally excellent at putting complicated things (quantum mechanics) in as plain a language as she can. However, Dr. McDonald is a rough as hell grader. I busted my ass in her lab, got A's on everything including several 20+ page lab reports, and then got so slaughtered on the final that I was bumped clear down to a B. The test was hard, the grading was hard, and the partial credit was thin. But I learned a hell of a lot, and now when I need help understanding something I always just show up at office hours whether I'm in her class or not.

First of all, I love pchem and my time in lecture with Dr Schoonver was awesome. With that said, my time in this class has been excruciating. What is the point of this course if not to obliterate students with facts/techniques that noen of will ever use? really waht is hte point?

he sure does like his women, wet!!