Cichowski, Robert  

A nice guy but not the greatest teacher. You learn a lot about experiments to do with a fifth grade class for when you are a teacher, which is good, but doesn't help for the tests. Read the book, and learn from it because you will not learn anything from his lectures. He wastes time and makes you memorize stupid diagrams. I missed class about once a week (esp on Fridays from 3-4) and taught myself from the book and did fine. Not the greatest class but LS majors have to take it and he is your only option.

I really didn't enjoy this class. He focused on diagrams of telephones and power plants and catalytic converters (KNOW THOSE!!! MEMORIZE THEM!!!) but we didn't even START balancing equations or learning about bonds until the NINTH WEEK... I'm not kidding. He thinks we're all stupid.... he uses the word "nametags" instead of "units" for THE WHOLE QUARTER. The man is pretty ditzy about answering questions... he's the bumbling sort. If you have a choice between a term paper and the KIT project, do the project. It's a good experience for teachers and pretty simple... his confusing way of explaining things is what makes it harder than it should be. This guy was our only option for this required class, so there ya go. But, if there's an alternative, I would suggest it.

This guy needs to be fired. now. He does not teach any material, he shows you dumb commercials from DOW chemical for a few minutes, then proceeds to talk about nothing, and does 1 example problem from the entire chapter, with no prior explanation of what the example is, why he's doing it, or even where it came from. He is extremely unclear on everything, you either have to read and learn solely from the book, already know the material from AP chem, or cheat. I have yet to learn anything from him in lecture. His Poly rating should be no higher than 1.5, which isn't 0 because at least he's a nice guy, just can't teach @#$%.

this course was terrible in every aspect. not only is it a hard subject, but being expected to already know the first 5 chapters of the book for the diagnostics test the first week, combined with having a horrible instructor make it even worse. about 3/4 of the way through the quarter, he announced that there was only one student in the class who had an A.. and this is an engineering chem class. there were like 10 B's, a bunch of C's, 15 D's, and 5 F's. out of a class of 60. everyone else i've talked to who took 124 got A's and B's. During class he spends like the first 15 min going over what we're going to do that day and then shows us commercials for random semi-chem related companies. His lab write ups take forever if you want to do good on them, and they're only worth 10 pts, whereas the weekly quizzes are worth 30 pts. it's more useful to read the book then pay attention during lecture. the only redeeming factor for this teacher is that he is a nice enough guy, however at the end of the quarter he announced he was going to curve everyone's grade. ...1%. DO NOT TAKE CICHOWSKI.

Contrary to what the others say, Dr. Bob is not a bad professor. First of all, you have to understand that this is CHEM 124, and like other classes (or should be), you're suppose to be preparing outside of class. It even says on the syllabus that this is a fast paced class so you're being stupid if you just expect the material to be handed to you on a silver platter. I did my fair share of the work and earned an A. Whenever I did not understand something, Dr. Bob was prompt to respond via e-mail and office hours. He's very friendly and his little commercials in the beginning weren't all that bad. I mean, if you're going to complain about this class being crappy, you should go take Jones's class.

Professor Cichowski is a very genuine person. He will help you when you ask for it, otherwise he won't, simply because of the sheer number of students. His tests are fairly easy, but expect a few that you just simply cannot answer unless you've seen it a couple times. I say this, because there are a ton of material to be covered for each test. Since he doesn't expect the students to know everything, he'll always have an extra credit portion on the test. One thing to take note of, if you want the A; do well on the labs, especially the Excel Lab Report. Lastly, you don't have to read the textbook if you're not aiming for that A. He'll occasionally throw in a question directly from the textbook, but that's rare. The chapters I would recommend reading are Chapter 6,7,9 and 17. As for the other chapters, they can be fully understood through the PowerPoint lectures and handouts. Also, there's an online "work book" compiled by another professor. I did not look at through it at all; there were just too many handouts to consider the workbook as an additional source of help. I'm not sure how helpful he is during office hours, because I've never found the need to get that extra help. You can definitely ask him for help via email.

Dr. Bob was very difficult to learn from. The tests did not accurately reflect the amount of time we spent on any given topic during lecture, and for me personally the only time I learned anything was outside of class/from other students. During lecture he skims over every topic quickly (taking notes was extremely difficult/impossible). We also spent a full week learning about polymers (a week which could have been spent learning what was actually on the common 124 final). If you have no other choice he is by no means worst teacher at Cal Poly, but I would strongly encourage looking at alternatives.

Summary: Avoid, avoid, avoid. Other CHEM 124 teachers cover the material far better, more efficiently and you will just flat out learn more (Retsek and Neff are excellent alternatives). Note: Firstly I would like to preface this by saying Cichowski is a nice, honest, genuine guy. He isn't mean or vindictive and not the hardest grader. If you took AP Chem and did well on the AP test you might be fine in this class. If you are like me, you haven't taken chem since your junior year of high school, this review is written for you. Teaching Style: He teaches off of PowerPoints and videos. The PowerPoints are ones published by the maker of the book (which should inherently raise all forms of red flags). He uses very few concrete examples and goes through the PowerPoint far too quickly to ever take notes. He teaches more than will be on any given test, which is okay if you have enough time to thoroughly go over all other material (but with only 10 weeks there never is). He wants his students to learn and is (supposedly) halfway decent during office hours, but one cannot learn from office hours alone. The tests: Due to the lack of concrete examples in class, and the speed at which he goes through every topic, it is IMPOSSIBLE to know what will take main stage on the tests. There are no study guides, there are no practice tests, which is difficult to manage when the material is so dense. The class: You jump right in with the assumption that you KNOW the first 5 chapters of the book right off the bat, there is a diagnostic test on the Friday of week 1 that is graded and difficult. This is not an issue for Senior year chem students who likely remember how to do most things, but that's not who this review is written for. The Final: Its a common final. Going to other teachers review sessions is highly recommended, unless you don't want to know just how much better the alternatives are. Up to the last week and a half to two weeks of material is extra stuff (polymers, more complex organic chemistry) was not on the final (and a general waste of time, being that many people in this class are not in a chemistry related field *cough* computer engineering *cough*). Conclusion: Avoid if you want to (or have to) learn chem. If you think you already know chem be my guest and try your luck, but I don't recommend it. In my experience at review sessions Retsek and Neff are far, far better alternatives and I would at least personally recommend Retsek as she is the polar opposite of Cichowski in teaching style (learn by doing... concrete examples :D ).

I do not recommend Cichowski. His lectures were pointless because he read them straight off the powerpoint. His quizzes and tests are not too bad as long as you know the material. The labs are barely worth anything so do well on the quizzes and tests! The only lab you should really worry about is the excel one, because a bad grade basically guarantees below an A. If you take Cichowski, read the book at least 2 or 3 times. Do the workbook and worksheets he gives, and study tons. It's not impossible to do well in his class, but most people get a B. He is very helpful in office hours and will respond to emails promptly and he's helpful explaining things via email. Overall, this professor is a learn-it-yourself type, so the textbook will be your best friend.

Business majors: A degree for the intellectually impaired, HA HA.