Wilkinson, Steven  

Although Dr. Wilkinson is a nice guy, his teaching style is not great. Lecture and lab material did not match up with what was on quizzes and midterms. He doe not thoroughly explain examples or concepts in class. The only significant positive is that he is flexible and understanding on grading if you communicate with him

I thought he offered a lot of support with quizzes and tests with practice problems and making himself available for office hours. Like some of the other reviews I did get bored in his class at times because of the slow pace of the lectures. He cared a lot about the success of the class. Another perk is that he doesn't do the common final, which I heard is ridiculously hard

Dr. Wilkinson is a very smart guy and he is friendly, he just doesn't really know how to teach. The TAs were the same. I felt confused leaving the classroom some of the time.

Good prof! He was clear and provided all material in an understandable way. His office hours are also very helpful. It is not a mistake to take this professor.

Wilkinson is one of the most boring lecturer I've taken here. His pace is very slow and his powerpoint slides are often less helpful than just reading the text. He isn't very good at explaining material and makes a lot of mistakes on practice problems, as well as a few typos on every test. I wouldn't recommend Wilkinson but if you get him you'll be alright. His class isn't too hard. Do a lot of practice problems from the book and you'll be alright.

He's a super nice professor, but he has a hard time conveying information. I highly, highly recommend that you take the workshop that goes along with this class if you wanna pass! Unfortunately, his classes are boring. There isn't any homework, only quizzes and midterms. His midterms cover a lot of information about the labs, so make sure you understand the labs. Other than that, he's extremely friendly and genuinely wants you to succeed, but if you've never taken chemistry, it's a difficult class. (I've never taken chemistry in hs, and I would have failed without the workshop. If you took AP chem and got a 4/5, you should find his class easy.)

Wilkinson is a great guy, but has some trouble conveying the material clearly. His lecture's were very monotone and it was hard to stay awake. On any given day half of the class would be on the verge of falling asleep.

Dr. Wilkinson is really nice and he's very smart. He's a good teacher, but a hard one. His practices aren't very much like the tests or quizzes. Go to his office hours, that really helps. Pay attention and read the book/ get help when you need to and you'll be fine.

Professor Wilkinson is a good guy. I just have to get that out of the way first because he is a really poor teacher. All the material he presents is unclear, which is especially unfortunate because he is really trying to present it well he just doesn't totally understand the material himself. Don't take his class. He makes a logical subject matter completely incomprehensible. Worst class I've taken at cal poly

He is such a great guy. Kind hearted and really sweet. It's hard to dislike him because he really does care about his students, more so than 75% of the teachers at cal poly. The problem is that he can't explain material clearly. He is intelligent and knows the information, he just can't teach. As much as I hate saying that because he is passionate about his job, it's true. Id love to see him work out some kinks because he would be an amazing professor one day. As for taking the class, I don't see why not. It's not the end of the world if you get him. Hes a cool guy, very understanding. Also curves like a mofo.

He's ok but not much room to mess up on anything

Professor Wilkinson is such a nice guy and he genuinely tries to make the material fun and exciting for the students. He really cares about his students and even though he isnt a great lecturer i would still recommend taking his class because hes such a cool and nice guy

Wilkinson is super upstanding guy. Really friendly and approachable so ask him questions (he used to give me the answers to things on labs). His class is challenging so he tries his best to make it really transparent ( practice problems every week). My other complaint is that he does not use poly learn so that really hurt my grade because I could not estimate how well I needed to do on labs, midterms and the final. The quizzes are way more difficult than they have to be but the midterms and finals are manageable. Just do the practice problems to study and complete them every week. Overall, Wilkinson is an awesome professor

Wilkinson was a really good professor for this course. I felt he explained everything in a clear way and on his exams he didn't throw many trick questions or try to throw you off. He was also very helpful with answering questions and giving guidance during labs. Overall I think he really cares about his student's success and I would definitely take this professor again.

I took Dr. Wilkinson for Survey of Biochemistry and had him both for Lab and Lecture. He is a very down to Earth guy who knows his stuff and always greeted us warmly at the beginning of class by asking us how we were doing and how our weekends were. He has notes that he will write off of during lecture and will give out very helpful worksheets for each of the topics that he lectures on. My only reservation about his teaching beliefs includes his decision to not post answers to a majority of the practice worksheets. He posts some answer keys but does not post all, which I believe would have been beneficial to our class. The class itself is very loaded with material so be ready to take a lot of notes during lecture. He structures his lecture with a few quizzes during the quarter (not every week) and 2 midterms and the final. I found office hours to be very helpful and I recommend going to his office hours whenever you need help! Sections of the material are very detailed and he is very good at sitting down and re-explaining any parts that you are confused on. He did always seem very busy during the quarter so getting back graded material was sometimes delayed for the later lab classes. Other than that I did not have a problems with this professor!

Dr. Wilkinson was a great instructor!! He explains the material well and is very patient with questions. His powerpoints are vague so its important to go to class to write down his notes! Quiz questions were directly from his lectures and tests were along the same lines. He posts weekly homework that isn't graded but is helpful for the quizzes (uses questions just like the homework on his quizzes). Same goes for lab. Overall a great teacher, especially for someone who usually struggles with these types of classes. I probably would've failed biochem if I took it with a different instructor.

The lecture consisted of 1 midterm and a final along with 4 quizzes. Then the lab has a few quizzes as well and a lab final. So you basically get tested every week so stay on top of things. There is weekly homework posted that you do not turn in but it was helpful and a good review of the material. The answers are typically not posted though so go to office hour or ask in class if you are confused. There is a lot of information but if you are a biology major you will have heard a lot of the material in the intro bio series and genetics. By the way if you are scared to take this because you think its like Ochem (like I was) don't be! There is not much Ochem, it more like biology and general chemistry. Dr. Wilkinson makes sure to completely answers any student questions and is good at explaining things, I would recommend taking him for BioChem.

Dr. Wilkinson is a super relaxed, chill guy. The lectures are straight forward, he writes everything important on the board. He never asked material that he had not given us during lecture, so don't worry about an extra random question. There were 4 quizzes and a midterm, none of which seemed terribly difficult or unfair. He is also a nice lab instructor (I found the lab quizzes a little more difficult, and wish I would've studied a bit more for them). Overall a very easy-going and down to earth guy who presents things pretty simply (as he should in a survey class).

Dr. Wilkinson is my favorite chemistry faculty member at Cal Poly. He is THE most empathetic and human instructor I've had so far at Poly. He regularly started class with asking us how our weekends/weeks were and reminded us to get outside and enjoy life or exercise in order to maintain our sanity. Having a teacher say this just confirms how sincerely he cares about his students' health and wellbeing. Dr. Wilkinson would always tell us about his experiences in grad school or working in industry and really kept us motivated for our future endeavors as well as amused by his shyness and sometimes silly way of memorizing facts. Dr. Wilkinson was always available in his office hours and more than willing to work with you through any problems you were having with the information. Dr. Wilkinson tests directly from his notes and recommends you supplement his notes from class with reading from the book, as well as explicitly stating what he expects you to memorize vs. understand. This was by far the most helpful advice from a teacher because this is EXACTLY how he tested us. Dr. Wilkinson regularly emphasized the importance of learning the "big picture" in addition to the little facts. This is so important in real-life application of topics learned in class. Dr. Wilkinson tested fairly based off of the information covered in class. Pretty much all of my classmates agreed that his tests were very fair, but also very long (12-15 pages for the midterm) and entirely comprehensive of the material covered. It is very easy to get a B or C on all of his assignments, but difficult to get an A because he is specific with what vocabulary he would like you to use in answers, so it was easy to get a lot of points taken off for little errors. Nevertheless, I would recommend Dr. Wilkinson to anyone taking CHEM 371 for a complete and in-depth understand of biochemistry and would LOVE to take another class with him.