Hector Abruna - Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

Professor: Hector Abruna

Department: Chemistry

College: Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

Rating # 1

Overview:

• Course: CHEM2090
• Grade Received: B+
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Brutal class. Barely teaches and loves to ramble. Read your textbook, redo sapling problems, and go to Cara's problem solving sessions - all infinitely more helpful than he was. I skipped lecture but be warned 10% of tests is stuff from lecture. Speaking of tests, impossibly difficult. Too many hard questions with not enough time. Averages are 50%

Rating # 2

Overview:

• Course: CHEM2090
• Grade Received: B+
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

By far the hardest class Ive ever taken. I only got a B+ in this class because I sacrificed all of my time for working out and going out to study for chem. The mean was around 50% on both prelims. Hector ridiculed students for not knowing answers in lecture. Even worse is that the class was 75% AP Chem students who already learned the material

Rating # 3

Overview:

• Course: CHEM2090
• Grade Received: Not sure yet
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

He might be a good researcher, but he's a terrible lecturer (his lectures are unintelligible). There are some cool demos that he does in class but some of them can be thrown in the exams. Tests are just ridiculously hard; do the problem sets posted on blackboard, they do help a lot.

Rating # 4

Overview:

• Course: CHEM2090
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Lectures often consist of very cursory glances at topics, while tests go very in-depth to the same topics, and often include material that is not written on the slides/notes. Exam means are around 50%, so be ready for extremely hard tests. Best if you can teach yourself well. To succeed, you must put in tons of time out of class.

Rating # 5

Overview:

• Course: CHEM2090
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

He teaches straight from the textbook, which means you can pretty much do all the readings on your own and still make it. That said, the exams are really difficult with low averages(the first prelim was a raw 56). Also, if you're not going to pay attention in lecture, don't wear a shirt that stands out or he'll call on you.

Rating # 6

Overview:

• Course: CHEM2090
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

He's hilarious in the sense that the amount of chemistry you learn from him is hilarious. He's a great guy, definitely fun to talk to, but if you're not interested in chemistry, you're not going to pay attention. You can get away with just going to AEWs. Beware of wearing shirts that stand out.

Rating # 7

Overview:

• Course: CHEM2090
• Grade Received: F
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

He started off the first lecture saying "This class is going to be curved to a B-," and it turned out to be true. My friend and I got a 57 on the first prelim. Chem 2090 was more like me teaching myself rather than learning from Prof. Abruna. SKIP CHEM 2090

Rating # 8

Overview:

• Course: CHEM2090
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Brutal lectures, he just runs through material and goes topic to topic making no sense.

Rating # 9

Overview:

• Course: CHEM2070
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Please explain everything, don't just read the power point.

Rating # 10

Overview:

• Course: CHEM2090
• Grade Received: B+
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

His lecture slides were paragraphs he copied from the textbook and Wikipedia. He spent the lecture mumbling these paragraphs to the class. I highly recommend taking the AEW for this course because it was my most useful resource for preparing for his extremely difficult exams. The exams were random, rarely reflecting the lecture/textbook content.

Rating # 11

Overview:

• Course: CHEM2090
• Grade Received: WD
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

First day of class, he said "This class is curved to a B-. Lots of it is boring. I don't care about you since there's 500 of you in here. Let's get this over with." Lectures were useless, prelims were impossibly hard and irrelevant to the homework given, and it wasn't a reasonable expectation for anyone to do well.

Rating # 12

Overview:

• Course: CHEM2090
• Grade Received: Not sure yet
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

This class was absolutely awful. Lecture is a joke as he just reads of straight from the slides which come straight from the textbook. Homework is every week at least and doable if u read the textbook. Then you walk into the prelim and get absolutely murdered. Half the prelim was on a topic he said is irrelevant. Go figure. Means were 60 and 50.

Rating # 13

Overview:

• Course: CHEM2090
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

He reads off the slides, so lecture is barely useful. He does cool demos during class sometimes. The exams are ridiculously difficult in comparison to what lecture and homework would lead you to believe.

Rating # 14

Overview:

• Course: CHEM2090
• Grade Received: Not sure yet
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Lectures are a joke. You learn nothing that will actually show up on the exams. The homework can be difficult at times but yet still won't prepare you for the prelims. Prelims are impossible, expect to see material you've never seen before and to not have the time or ability to finish the test. He takes great pride and joy in watching you struggle.

Rating # 15

Overview:

• Course: CHEM2090
• Grade Received: Not sure yet
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Do not take Chem 2090 it is the worst class I have ever taken. Lectures are a complete waste of time as the prelims are stupidly hard and you won't be able to do most of the problems on the prelim. Dude went to China while we had prelim that no one finished or had a clue what they were doing. So if you hate yourself take chem 2090.

Rating # 16

Overview:

• Course: CHEM2090
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Does very few problems in class--the ones he does are a joke. Homework can be difficult for this reason. Prelims are torture: most people don't finish a large portion of it and there will be many intense problems that he has never taught you how to do. TAKE THE AEW! Reading the textbook is a waste of time, just do harder problems from each chapter.

Rating # 17

Overview:

• Course: CHEM2090
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

He's a funny prof who tries to keep lecture interesting by mentioning real-world applications of Chem. But lecture material is not useful for prelims, which were fairly hard. He is incredibly helpful during office hours. HW can be tough, but helps the most for exam prep. Class isn't difficult overall as long as you make sure you understand the HW.

Rating # 18

Overview:

• Course: CHEM2090
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

A nice and funny professor. Prelims imo were pretty hard but some people did really well on them so its possible to do well. Lectures are posted online so you dont have to go (the textbook is better sometimes). Homework helped the most in studying.

Rating # 19

Overview:

• Course: CHEM2070
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

This class is a good chunk of work. Studying is absolutely necessary, so I recommend making sure you know the material inside and out by the time the homework is due (every Friday). It's very easy to mess up a test big time, but the curves do help. Class is a joke, I barely went, so you can do just fine if you learn from the book.

Rating # 20

Overview:

• Course: CHEM2070
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Has an accent and can be hard to understand but did not seem like a huge problem. He's a fun lecturer- throws candy to students during class. Pretty easy and straightforward, as long as you do the homework problems and practice. Should not be a problem for students who have taken AP Chem.