Illingworth, Melissa  

She's not the most interesting lecturer, but she's very sweet and tries to help students when she can.

Let's just start this off by saying the average on the final was a 68%. I think that is perfect evidence to showcase how poorly this teacher's ability was to effectively present the material so students actually understood what they were learning. The material on quizzes and test was much more difficult than any of the practice material. There were only a couple of homework assignments, online work through sapling, labs (your lowest score out of 9 is dropped), and quizzes (lowest score out of 6 is dropped). I would recommend taking this class with any other teacher because she overall was pretty terrible.

Professor Illingworth is such a sweet person. She genuinely tries so hard to get the students involved in learning, to help with course material, and to help us succeed with studying tips and other helpful information. I think that the reputation that she has on PolyLearn is extremely unfair, because if you WANT to get a good grade and you are willing to put in the EFFORT, it is extremely possible to get the grade that you deserve. Chemistry is a very hard subject, but she slows down the subject and allows you to learn in segments so that you can grasp each concept individually. She has class time where you can ask for help, and the students that utilized this were able to succeed. The test material is harder than the practice problems, but that is because the problems are for practice and the test is for mastery. Overall, Illingworth is a great professor and I would highly recommend her. My biggest tip is to ask questions when you need clarification, and don't be afraid to admit that you don't understand something. She is very approachable and she will help you as much as she can.

Dr. I was a very sweet person, but her class was a bit of a struggle because it was dull and the information was not always presented clearly. The material was mind-numbingly easy at first, and then got very difficult all at once. It had an easy homework load and easy quizzes, but the final was much more difficult than we were prepared for, and most of the points I was able to get were thanks to what I remembered from chemistry four years ago in high school. However, Dr. I is always willing to help you one-on-one and she is very approachable and sweet. Plus, her lecture slides are on PolyLearn. Be prepared to watch lots of YouTube tutorials on the material, but if you have to take this class from Illingworth, it's not the end of the world; she is honestly not too bad.

She does not deserve these bad polyratings. She always made sure to teach, is very sweet, and provides more than enough practice problems and examples for us to study from. Her exams reflect coursework, so if you study you should do fine. The one thing that was bothersome was that she treated us as if we were in high school, but that is tolerable, especially since she was a good professor. P.S. the labs are super fun in this class

Probably the worst if not ones of the worst professors I have had thus far! She kinda knows what she is talking about, however makes a lot of mistakes on the board, and when asked questions responds with "hahahaha I will have to look it up and get back to you"... Frankly very un impressed. I don't think she is qualified to teach at the Preschool Learning Center on campus let alone teach college students who have ANY common or even the slightest knowledge about chemistry. She will take what you already know and rephrase it so that you have absolutely no idea what her point it. I would highly recommend not taking this class over having Illingworth as a teacher... DON'T DO IT!!

AWFUL. JUST AWFUL. All I can say is thank god I saved my high school chemistry notes. Illingworth must know some chemistry, seeing how she has a PhD in it, but she is entirely incapable of teaching other people. You know a prof is bad when they constantly forget that they didn't teach the class something that they quiz you on. Huh I wonder why 90% the class got that valence electron problem wrong. OH YEAH, you didn't say more than a sentence about valence electrons before the quiz. Just do yourself a favor and don't take her class.

I have no doubt that Dr I is very well versed in biochemistry and is fully qualified to teach CHEM 124, but let's be real, she presents material terribly and makes me seriously doubt my love for the topic of chemistry. She gives weekly quizzes as you could expect from most chem professors and posts all of her lecture powerpoints on PolyLearn which is unfortunately the only plus to this class. Her quizzes are relatively easy if you follow the material well, but most of what we talked about in class is review from high school chem. Bottom line, if you have another option, take it, because Dr I will drain your energy and desire to learn so at the end of the quarter you will be dreading to go to class. And sure you'll do well in class if you can survive the dead vibe, but you will not be prepared for chem 125.

SHE IS TERRIBLE!! She gives you notes and you think you'll understand it, then she gives you practice problems that you have no idea how to do based off of the notes, and then she doesn't even go over them so you have no idea if you did them right. The TA is saving my life he tells me how to do everything or else I would be completely failing

Weekly quizzes, not too hard. Lectures are extremely dry and almost impossible to follow, but they're saved online which is nice. Barely any "HW", but be prepared to spend hours outside of class finishing labs that nobody knows how to do. I feel like she knows her stuff...but she gets stage fright or something trying to explain it, and does horribly. TA saved all our asses, and AP Chem is the only reason I have an A. If you're in her class and you've taken AP Chem, don't listen to how she does problems IT WILL ONLY CONFUSE YOU, just try to remember how you did them a couple years ago.

This was Professor I's first quarter here and teaching in general. She definitely struggled at the beginning of the year teaching because there was obvious stage fright and hesitation. Yes the lectures were dry, but as the quarter progressed so did she by explaining things better to the class and addressing it with a sense of humor. I took AP in High School and didn't understand some of the subject areas that became clear here in her class. Dr I truly wants all of her students to succeed and she puts in the time and effort for each student. So yes, her first quarter was a struggle, but she's gotten a lot better and I would recommend her at the point she is now.

Dr. I does not present the material in a comprehensive way. The weekly labs are relatively straight forward to complete in class, but the analysis questions for each lab are confusing and she does not provide any help during office hours.

If you can't 100% teach yourself chemistry, do not take this class. Any material she has presented that was new to me, I had to painstakingly look up online and watch tutorials on because she doesn't explain anything well. I thought I was taking her class to learn, not to teach myself an entire course. Apparently I thought wrong.

Dr.I seemed to be struggling in the beginning but once we got into the quarter she seemed more comfortable with teaching. Yes at times it is a bit difficult to follow along in lecture, but she does her best to explain it to you individually (along with the TA). She is willing to put the time to help students (in class & office hours). She gives study guides for each midterm and final which are extremely helpful and usually just like the exam. Also she gives a heads up on what the material is on the weekly quiz which is really helpful. If you go to office hours she is really willing to help! Not surprised with these ratings b/c of the rocky start but she has really improved and really wants all her students to pass! Overall, not a difficult class.

Illingworth prefers if you call her Dr. I. After suffering through her boring lectures, mistake riddled quizzes, and confusing instructions for ten weeks I can say with full confidence the I stands for incompetence. While she is a first time teacher, Dr. I's teaching skills showed very little improvement over the course of the quarter. The subject matter isn't too difficult, but she will make it as hard as possible for you to understand it, and any questions asked will be answered with "I'm not sure, give me a second," followed by her googling your question and supplying you with the first yahoo answer that pops up. Her constant mistakes would be fine if she ever showed willingness to admit them and amend them, however, she has little sympathy for her students' complaints. She also greatly under-prepared our class for the common final relative to other teachers. I would avoid Dr. I unless you already have extensive knowledge of chemistry and a lot of patience.

She's a reasonably nice person, but she just doesn't understand how to be a good professor. I'm a biochem major and I love chem but I hated going to her class because her lectures sucked to sit through. I heard students asking her questions that I knew the answer to but she didn't and couldn't help students out effectively. If you don't like chem very much, DO NOT take her class. I didn't learn anything from her but I was able to get by using knowledge from previous classes.

Dr. I presented the material in an extremely clear and precise way. Sometimes it felt like she took a little too long to explain simple concepts but overall I found the class to be pretty easy with minimal work put into it.

PhD in reading the departments powerpoints to you

Do not take her class. She is terrible at explaining the material, and teaches the class like it is at a high school level. All she does during class is read off the powerpoint and often has no idea how to answer students questions. Avoid taking this class unless you plan on teaching yourself all the new material anyway.

I do not recommend Dr. I as a professor. She has very little understanding on how to run a class and is very poor at explaining chemistry concepts. She rarely answers students questions and often appears to not understand the concepts herself very well. She is a very nice person, but a horrible teacher. Her tests were also usually littered with mistakes. Avoid her at all costs.

By far the worst instructor I have ever had. The course material is relatively easy, but she is in no way qualified to teach the material. I found myself using my knowledge from high school chem to correct mistakes she made in lecture at least once a class. Apart from there being mistakes in her lectures, all quizzes, and even the midterms, contained many mistakes, and she quite often had to recollect our quizzes and regrade them after they had been returned. Don't expect her to help you on questions in class either, because she will respond by saying "I'll have to check that" or "let me get back to you on that" making it obvious she doesn't know the material herself.

Incapable of explaining the material well despite the relatively easy level of difficulty. Ability to answer students' questions is nonexistent. Pop quizzes at least once a week. Have to teach yourself the material after since it was so poorly explained during the lecture. Avoid taking Illingworth.

Negatives: Although Illingworth is a first year professor, her complete and utter lack of competence is inexcusable. Her presentation of the department's standard powerpoints are dry and unengaging. At points it is painfully clear that she does not understand the material she is teaching on, especially when you ask her for help. You are better of going to the TA's if you have any serious questions. Positives: That being said, as of Winter 2016 the homework load is completely manageable. There is no homework assigned other than the lab reports, and quizzes are manageable.

As I sit in class wondering why the fuck she wants us to call her Dr. I, I begin to believe that she would even have to go check her book and other professors to get an actual answer to benefit us if I ask her. Just like she doesn't understand Chem she doesn't understand the concept of college and decides a pop quiz every day will benefit us. That being said she doesn't give shit for hw that you probably could not finish in class if you actually stick around. The seemingly endless two hour lectures (that could be finished in half an hour) seem to lull me to sleep between the unnecessarily long pauses for questions and laughing time for jokes that wouldn't even make a toddler smile (It'd probably make them cry) are as pointless as asking her questions because all she can do is read. If you want a low level teacher and low energy class that makes punching a baby seem like a viable option she's the one for you.

I'm pretty sure her pHD was bought off of Craigslist. The times I wasn't sleeping through her lecture I was cringing at the dead silence following painful jokes. The few times I stayed awake during lecture it was like watching a very slow train wreck that never seemed to end. I know high school sophomores who could explain there concepts better than "Dr." I. That being said she seems like she is trying but her complete incompetence makes me strongly recommend that she finds a new profession immediately

Dr. Illingworth is not as bad as everyone here says. while she isn't spectacular, she is very kind and tries as hard as she can. Her class is passable if you pay attention and do the shit you have to do. Her biggest issue is honestly the lack of confidence she has, which is understandable considering she's a first year teacher in front of 50+ judgmental college students. she wasn't great, but she tried, and I got a passing grade, and its possible for anyone who pays attention too.

She is not a good professor plain and simple. I recognize that this is her first year as a professor, but the utter lack of confidence she has in chemistry is astounding. You'd think for getting a PhD, she would be able to answer a question with something other than "I'll have to look into that" or just repeating what is on the powerpoint slide. I took AP chem in high school, so this class was a solid refresher. As a result, the class was stupid easy. If you have to take this professor, just be prepared to be bored out of your mind, or to teach yourself the material, since she won't teach it to you, just read off the powerpoint.

She really wasn't as bad as people are making her out to be. She was a boring lecturer, but if you paid attention and studied what she presented, you could get an A. She didn't throw any curveballs on tests or quizzes. She was also actively trying to be a better teacher. She was obviously uncomfortable with being in front of the class, but she was trying to be better. Don't avoid her like the plague, because she isn't. It might be a little bit more work than other professors, but she honestly was not that bad.

She's awkward but she covers all the topics well. She also loves to include Game of Thrones references in questions. Overall an effective professor if you are willing to show up and do the work.

She is not the most confident lecturer, and while lecture can be boring she does communicate all of the topics well. She is incredibly kind and her tests and quizzes all represent the material fairly.

She's a pretty good professor, it's her first quarter teaching so she was a little too lenient for my taste, but the class was pretty easy overall.

This teacher was absolutely horrible. Although she is a nice person, she cannot teach a class for the life of her and she is also one of the most unprofessional teachers I have met here at Cal Poly. Her lectures were full of holes and improper teaching; talking to other students with different chem teachers I learned simpler ways of solving problems from them. At one point a student asked a question and she replied with "I forgot how to do that, ask the lab assistant." Another time she made a point that w had to be really careful with a concept because it would be confusing...but then never explained the concept. I also scheduled an appointment with her to discuss my midterm, only to learn upon arrival that she forgot about our meeting and then sent me home because she was now busy, despite telling me she would be free at that time, thus wasting my time. Besides how bad her teaching is, the homework was decent and the labs were ok. She does cram all the labs all at once toward the end of the quarter because she didn't plan it out well; for my class we did 3 labs in the last week of the quarter. :) fun. If you just want to pass chem I would suggest take her, but if you want to learn something worthwhile, don't take her as a chem professor.

Weekly quizzes and reading quizzes. These quizzes aren't hard at all if you do the practice quizzes. What is hard are the midterms, I'd go to every review session and still couldn't get higher than a B. Overall, not a very good teacher: She reads her powerpoints, messes up example problems, and struggles to answer simple questions when asked. Try and get a different professor.

The most average professor I've ever had. She's not great, but there's nothing really bad to say about her. She lectures clearly. The only bad thing I'd say is that her midterms and final are definitely harder than her quizzes. It can be annoying to get A's on all quizzes then get 2 C's on midterms just because they are much harder than the quizzes, even though the material is the same.

She is not as terrible as many say. She has the best intentions and is honestly so sweet. She may not seem as knowledgeable as other professors but she tries her best. Melissa explains concepts very nicely and clearly. I haven't been able to understand many things in chemistry for my entire life but she helped me to understand. She is awesome and is honestly a nice lady.

WORST CHEMISTRY PROFESSOR I'VE EVER HAD. She has no idea what she's doing along with a lot of the other chemistry teachers here (notice some have ratings of like 0.18). I have no idea how she managed to get a PhD in chemistry.

By far the worst professor I have had thus far. The homework load was manageable, lab reports weren't too unreasonable, but the quizzes and tests were insane. Many quizzes consisted of new material and problems with difficulty way above the class examples or any of the homework problems. When the whole class failed a quiz she told us that was her intention because she wants us to study harder. If you ask her for more practice problems or pointers on what to study, she refuses. There were multiple occasions when she taught a topic to the class incorrectly and had to go back and reteach it. I asked her to regrade half of my test and quizzes because I had the right answers that were marked wrong. I thought people on poly learn were just whining about her, now I understand. I would not recommend this professor to anyone.

Dr. Illingworth is a nice lady, but a very poor teacher. She is new, so you would think that there is some potential there, but there is absolutely none for her. She is just not made out to be a teacher. She is not confident in her teaching abilities or the class material, and that really shows. Many times, she taught the class the material incorrectly. When asking her questions, she is never sure of herself. Our LA explained the material better than her, and he was a Sophomore. Dr. Illingworth doesn't curve exams or the final either, which is ridiculous considering how poorly she teaches the material, and that the material is already pretty difficult. Speaking of the exams and final, she often put questions on there that we had never seen before. I went through every lecture slide she posted on PolyLearn and did every single practice problem we did in class, and I could not find examples of several of the problems on the exam/final in her slides. If you unfortunately get Dr. Illingworth for any CHEM class, my suggestion is to switch out, or go to office hours as much as you can, even though that may not even help.

She is such a nice, awkward lady, but I feel like I missed out on so much learning over the course of the quarter because she was disorganized, not particularly good at answering questions, and constantly getting things wrong in class, on homework, and even on exams. If you get her as a professor ALWAYS check your grades and go over your exams with her because she frequently makes mistakes and takes off points where she shouldn't (i.e. when she tells the class there were accidentally two right answers on an exam question but doesn't give back the points to students who got the right answer she counted as wrong). If you only have to take up to CHEM 125, you will probably be frustrated and unhappy, but you will make it through, but if you are moving on to 126, she won't prepare you AT ALL.

Illingworth is incredibly terrible. She is an awful public speaker and thus, her lecture material is disorganized and not helpful. The labs aren't too difficult, however many times she does not explain how to do the calculations, so you need to find that out on your own. The weekly quizzes aren't terrible, but they are incredibly comprehensive from that week's material, even if she didn't cover it for very long or that well. The exams are about half MC and half FRQ, but only 60 points; so each point on an exam is worth more than 1% on the exam which is really rough. Her grading system is out of very few points so it is difficult to score well in her class, so work diligently.

Melissa Illingworth was the most boring lecturer I've ever had. She can't answer a question to save her life and has no idea how to properly teach a class.

A lot of people say that she isn't a great professor for teaching the material, I don't really agree with this. I think she did a good job of presenting the material. Also her quizzes and tests were fair. I did take AP Chem in high school which made the class easier for me, but I know other people in my class that didn't have prior experience and did well also.

Illingworth is a young, new professor and it shows. She often doesn't give clear answers to student's questions and, if she does, she is rarely confident in the accuracy of it. At least once every lecture, she makes a huge mistake when explaining a concept and has to back track and start over (for example, she taught electron configuration backwards and actually had to use the following class period to reteach the same lecture). Her voice is quiet and she is clearly uncomfortable speaking in front of people. I am good at chemistry and its my favorite subject, however, I left every lecture confused and had to reteach myself everything. Really nice person, but unfortunately I don't think teaching is Illingworth's forte

I think she tries hard to be a good teacher but she is honestly clueless when it comes to chemistry. She will try to explain something and then realize she is wrong and have to re-explain everything. You will ask her a question and she just stares at you and has no clue how to answer the question. She is a nice person but every single student was better at chemistry than her.

WORST PROFESSOR I HAVE EVER HAD. She can not teach the subject, because she does not understand the subject. I spent the entire quarter watching kahn academy videos, attempting to teach myself. She gives pop quizzes every week, but this quarter she forgot about them for a couple weeks so we had a pop quiz three class periods in a row. The large quizzes are unreasonably difficult. She does not curve, at all, under any circumstances. She also does not know how to help you on the labs, so don't bother asking her. If you HAVE to take her, direct any questions you have to the lab assistants. She frequently teaches things incorrectly and either ignores it or has to go back and redo it. Once, I asked her a question and she told me the wrong answer, and when I told her that I thought that was wrong she told me to just google it. Do not take her class under any circumstances. It's worth it to wait until another quarter when it's offered by someone else.

Dr. Illingworth does a great job for the material in the class. It is a difficult class for most people and I thought she did a great job of explaining the topics and of covering everything to give a background to those who haven't taken a chemistry class in several years

Honestly, I understand that in the past Professor I. did struggle to teach the subject and wasn't as organized. BUT during fall quarter of 2016 she stepped up her game big time. She had practice quizzes each week (that if you did them you do well on actual quizzes), she held an extra review session once a week out of her own time (non office hours) to help students understand stuff from that weeks lecture and also review material from previous weeks. I did all her practice quizzes and all her review sheets and it honestly paid off. Dr. I is one of the best professors ive had. She helped me understand the subject on such an amazing level that I feel very confident going into the rest of the chem series. If I have the option of taking her again, I will not hesitate to do so. Don't let her current ratings scare you, because like i said she stepped up her game, and one of the best professors in the chem department. Just do the practice quizzes and go to office hours if you have questions b/c she is VERY helpful.

Dr. I is one of the kindest professors and truly wants to help her students but that being said, she cannot teach the subject proficiently. She would consistently mess up on practice problems during class and on homework assignments. This made it hard to understand topics since she would make mistakes frequently. This class is somewhat difficult and in order to get a good grade you must be prepared to learn everything on your own time. In this course, youtube videos were the way that I learned the material. If you take this professor, be prepared to learn everything on your own. In conclusion, she is a very caring and smart but does not know how to properly teach.

Illingworth probably shouldn't be a teacher. She displays very low confidence in her own ability in class, poorly explains important topics, frequently makes mistakes, and usually fails to correct them. If you don't switch out, you will probably have to teach yourself most of the material.

It's obvious that Illingworth put in time to restructure the class over the summer. She now offers a massive amount of optional practice questions that are completely representative of the exams and quizzes. This is still a hard class - there's no getting around the fact that you need to do the optional practice problems before tests and quizzes to get a good grade. A hard truth that students taking the CHEM 100 series need to understand is that professors are going to start expecting you to learn things on your own and not rely entirely on lecture. That being said - Illingworth does explain every concept to the best of her ability in lecture. She gives ample time to write down notes. The concepts need a second or third pass to really be understood however. She knows this - she offers a review session for an hour every week and has more office hours than any other prof that I have. Study sessions and facilitated 1 unit classes are available for the course. It is entirely possible to pass and get a great grade, it's just up to you to do the work. Illingworth may not be the most confident professor to walk the halls of Cal Poly but she really does care about giving students the tools to succeed.

Dr. I is the best professor for Chem you can have. She is so sweet and understanding of the things life shows at you and answers all questions so well. She gives worksheets everyday and goes through them and tells you exactly what you need to know for every quiz and exam, and by exactly I mean she writes it down for you and gives you examples. Her office hours she really tries to explain what you don't understand. I had her at 7am and seriously didn't mind going because she always keeps you engaged and makes cute, nerdy references.....I LOVE DR. I!!!! I DON"T HAVE ONE BAD WORD ABOUT HER YOU'LL LOVE HER.

Honestly I don't know why Illingworth has such bad ratings... she is so easy. She goes way slower than most of the chem professors and gives a ton more materials for her student like practice worksheets and stuff. Everyone talks about how terrible chem 127 is but I found it pretty easy with Illingworth. I would definitely recommend her.

Dr. I was such a sweet woman. She loves Chemistry for sure, and I liked her better than my 127 teacher. However, she did have some trouble explaining concepts and when I would miss a question on a quiz that I though I understood, I would ask her and she could not give me clear feedback. She hosted weekly review session for us and posted problem sets which I found REALLY helpful because they prepared me for the quizzes. She does drop the lowest quiz and lab grade, but not curving the midterms bumped my grade down a bit. I would recommend her if you want an approachable teacher and feel like you have a basic understanding of Chemistry, but if you are feeling very lost from 127 and need her to help explain basic concepts to you, it might be a challenge. She puts in the time and tries her best, she is just young and that is both a curse and a blessing.

Prof cried today.... What a weirdo hahahah get a grip of your life.