Noyes, James  

This is one of those professors that makes you wonder how he got a job. He doesn't answer any questions with a full answer and when it comes to giving notes, he just sits at his computer and lectures the same crap out of the book. If it were not for the labs and quizzes, attending class is pointless.

Incredibly boring, moderately difficult tests/quizzes, easy lab reports. Professor Noyes might mean well but it was impossible to tell with his monotone teaching style. He appears knowledgeable but has an incredibly slow pace in terms of lecture and his handwriting is close to Arabic (its horrid). His lab handouts did emphasize the right information and his tests and quizzes were fair. But sadly I was often put to sleep in class (literally) and learned most of the material reading the textbook. The TAs graded like Nazis too, that was VERY annoying.

If he were to show a little more enthusiasm towards the material, I think the class might be ok. However, he just reads straight out of the book and does not know what helps students to learn. Avoid him, but if you have to take him, its not the end of the world. Just give him a chance instead of showing disrespect to him like most students do.

This instructor did a poor job delivering the course material. His lectures were vague, but the textbook really did a good job covering the material he glazed over. He seemed unsure of what was going on and did not make past exams available to study from or even look over. I feel as though the grade I received did not match my comprehension of the class. I really think CHEM 124 has a lot of interesting subjects and I recommend choosing a different instructor to maximize your experience.

Dr. Noyes plain can't teach. He lectures by writing (with terrible handwriting) on a screen, and we stare at our computer screens reading his godawful writing in a vain hope to gain some semblance of knowledge for sometimes up to two hours. He'll sometimes try to talk or say something helpful while writing, but he never says something that makes sense. I've learned more by searching course concepts on Wikipedia before tests than by trying to pay attention in class. He'll introduce concepts, then 30 minutes later realize he made a mistake and taught it the wrong way, but only make a passing note of his mistake. He'll also introduce a concept, say we won't be tested on it, and then not only test us on that concept, but use questions we have absolutely no idea how to solve, and then tell us he won't give us any sort of curve because a couple people in the class (who probably already knew most concepts) got the questions right. The average on his last midterm was a D, in a 100-level course that shouldn't be that difficult. I have no idea how he still has a job here. If you value your tuition money and knowledge, don't take him. Even his TAs hate him.

Dr. Noyes is in no way a capable teacher. His lectures are horrendous. They consist of a whole of disorganized diagrams and abbreviations given to you random , and usually it's up to the student to determine how they can be applied to anything. He write on his board 90% of the time and can't speak while doing so, when he does speak, he can't finish a sentence. He isn't able to answer questions or clarify something if a student finds it unclear. He usually just repeats what he has already said or written. I honestly learned the vast majority of the material from the book or online resources. The only good part of the class is that it isn't too hard. I didn't take Chem in high school and got by with a solid C, however I don't have a great understanding of many of the concepts and it will probably come back to bite me in Chem 125. tldr: Someone needs to define the word "teach" to Dr. Noyes

All these ratings are true! But this would be a funny dare to take his class.

Professor Noyes is smart, but that's pretty much all he has going for him. He speaks incredibly meekly and monotonously. He makes mistakes frequently when presenting material, but is incredibly unclear when he goes back to "fix" them. His lecture is just a scattered regurgitation of the textbook; all he does is recite it but manage to make it less easy to understand. Every other word from his mouth when he lectures is "um." He does not curve any parts of his class, even though the average on the last midterms was a 68 in our class. He'll also never answer a question clearly. For some reason, he cannot understand what someone is asking him to save his life. You'll probably get an answer to an entirely different question if you ask one, or just no answer at all. I got an A in the class because a lot of the material was review for me, but I saw everyone around me struggle to learn anything in lecture. Not to mention, the class setup is bad too. The fact that he teaches into a screen rather than to the students just makes it that much harder to get anything from his awkward lecturing. I often found myself giving up on paying attention to him within the first 5 minutes of lecture every time. Also, labs are worth 20% of your grade, the same as the final, which is pretty stupid. I noticed at several times through the quarter that the class universally disliked him, and often laughed when he did something stupid. Basically, if you absolutely NEED chem, you can take him. But you should either already know most of it, or expect to learn it all yourself. He's that terrible.

I really wanted to write a review because I feel like there's a lot of bandwagon to talk about how much James Noyes sucks as a professor. While he's definitely not the best professor you'll ever have, he doesn't deserve a rating below 1 out of 4. Here's the facts on him. This was his first quarter teaching at Cal Poly. He came in a little rough. His lecturing can be boring as his voice is monotonous and he always sounds unsure of everything (lots of uhhhhhs), and his handwriting on the lectures looks like chinese, but he does present material fairly well. Plus, the textbook for the class is written really well and he always posts what sections to read, so i never had trouble learning material. His tests and quizzes are extremely fair, anyone who makes an effort to learn and studies the smallest amount should be passing them with As and Bs. Any issues on grades were the fault of the TAs, who were the loosest butthole graders I've ever met. But the professor himself is decent with grades. Aside from all that, Dr. Noyes is clearly an extremely smart guy and he's decently nice too. Every time i asked for help he would help until i understood. One time i asked about something in class and he didn't know the answer, and he actually emailed me it later with a full explanation. I've never had a professor do that. Also, he worked with me a lot when i needed to move my final time, which was extremely helpful. All in all he's a mediocre professor but hes a smart and good guy and you shouldn't have trouble getting a good grade in his class.

This professor is completely unacceptable. Trust me, you do not want to take any of Noyes classes unless he shapes up. This is his first year teaching so he may be a little rocky... Okay, he could be the rockiest rock you'll ever have to deal with. Dr. Noyes has no control over the classroom and no idea how to help students succeed in class. He means well, but he is incompetent in teaching. For example, during lab, my group was not supplied with the necessary lab materials to complete the lab. We brought this to Dr. Noyes' attention and he told us that "he would get on that" and never returned to our side of the room. My group had to use another's equipment which resulted in overcrowded lab space and poor results and consequently, a poor grade. His questions on tests are unfair and your success depends on your thinking and reasoning style. It is a complete waste of time attending lecture because he makes no sense while rambling on and on for 30 minutes on how to balance a chemical reaction. TL;DR: Dr. Noyes is really a nice guy, but could use a trip to see the Wizard of Oz and ask for a teaching brain. Avoid this professor, you can definitely find a better one. If you have him, I wish you luck and my best advice is to use the TA's and stand up for yourself in his office as Dr. Noyes is less likely to admit that he is wrong in front of the class.

i feel redundant in evaluating 'Dr.' Noyes. but seriously all i have to say is DO NOT take him for any class. he sucks and fails miserably in every aspect of teaching. He cant explain things, nor does he actually know what hes talking about. He scribbles on the smartpad where you cant even read it. I informed him that i would be missing class one friday where we had a quiz and he told me i could make it up when i came back. The following monday i asked about making it up and he said that i shouldve come in before the friday, even though i asked him that before!!! so he didnt let me make it up. Also i counted and he said,"so like a said before" 17 times in a one hour lecture.

worst. professor. ever.

Professor Noyes never answered a question fully. He will run around the answer and then move on without an answer given. He would give limited examples of things and he would say "I don't expect you to know this", but he wouldn't give us examples of things we should know. All of the material was read off of powerpoints and verbatim from the text. Homework was due, but he didn't actually read it. He didn't give out study guides and he wouldn't do a review. He would basically reread the titles of the chapters and say that is what we should study. He is honestly the worst lecture teacher I have had. I understand that organic chemistry is a difficult subject, but he made it so much harder. I got a B+ in lab if that shows any discrepancies in the teaching methods of my lab instructor vs. professor Noyes. One thing that really peeved the entire class was that he changed something on the syllabus the week before the final that impacted our grades. On his syllabus at the beginning of the quarter there were two options for your grade. The first option said that you could have 3 midterms and a final counted. The second option dropped 1 midterm and the final was multiplied by 1.5. He said that he would give each student the option that helped them the most. A week before finals he decided that he wasn't going to drop any midterms because "it would only help a few people". We were all outraged and even students who were doing well were upset even though it didn't affect them directly. This is the thing that put me over the edge for disliking this professor. Professor Noyes made organic chemistry harder than it already is, so if you are planning on taking CHEM 312 and you want to actually learn, I recommend finding a different professor who will work with you.

Probably the worst teacher I've ever had, no take that back, DEFINITELY the worst teacher. He has absolutely no idea how to teach. All he does is stand in front of the class, monotone, going over the same problem (which will be absolutely nothing like the problems on the test) for 15 minutes, when it should only take 5. The tests reflect nothing that you learn in class. The questions on the test are way more complicated, and he never explains how to do these, he only discusses the simplest, most basic problems. He has no idea how to teach or answer questions. I don't know if he's just mentally incapably of understanding or what but he didn't understand any question asked throughout the entire quarter. He would start some completely other question that he must have formed in his head because it never had to do with the question ever asked. Unless you are already amazing at O-Chem, Do whatever you can to NOT take him.

Noyes is a horrible teacher. It was a complete waste of time to go to class or even talk to him. I basically learned everything by doing the homework problems he assigned. His three exams aren't over the material covered in class, however he gives you the final exam questions a week before you have to take the final, but they are still incredibly difficult and we did not learn. He is confusing and socially awkward. DONT take him unless you are good at memorizing homework problems and awesome at chem labs.

Professor Noyes is the most UNQUALIFIED professor I've ever had. I have no clue how this guy got any sort of degree. He has no idea what he is talking about, ever. If you ask him questions, he doesn't even listen, and he responds with "um, what" every time. He also begins every sentence with "like i said..." even though he never gives us any sort of directions. He is clearly uneducated on how to work any of the machines we use, because he was never able to figure out how to fix our IR or NMR spectras. He also would never come prepared knowing what we were doing in lab, and had to look back in the lab manual to explain to us what to do. He straight up used another professor's lab syllabus, so nothing he ever had us do followed what the syllabus said. Everyone in the class would fail the quizzes, which clearly shows that he is doing something wrong, and yet he would blame the failure on us. I got A's and B's on every lab write up, amazingly, and on the last lab i got an F because he did not tell us that he was grading the lab based on our percent yield compared to the class average and yet, that is what he did. I asked him if I could come into his office hours during finals week and he was only there for a few hours on the one day I couldn't make it. DO NOT TAKE HIS CLASS....EVER

BOYCOTT!!!