Reviews of professor Michael McCarthy

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 3.0/5
His grading is pretty clear: the lab reports, homework assignments, exams, and chem activities. You do use online websites for the homework as well as for the exams. During lectures, you get into groups and do activities in a workbook that is turned in by one member of the group. I also took chem 1b with McCarthy.

Rating: 1.0/5, difficulty: 1.0/5
This is a masters level course but I did not learn masters level material. Might as well have just read the text book myself. Don't bother going to meet with McCarthy unless you feel like hearing someone talk about nothing until you make up an excuse to leave. I'm only taking more classes because it is free for me.

Rating: 2.0/5, difficulty: 5.0/5
seldom lectures. lots of homework. poor grading system.

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 4.0/5
Professor McCarthy made it clear how to succeed in your assignments. he provided detailed grading rubrics and great examples of what he's looking for in your assignments, and he would give great feedback. You can probably pass the class without trying but to get a good grade, you will have to put in some work.

Rating: 4.0/5, difficulty: 3.0/5
He believes exams should not be a big part of your grade so for exams even if you fail, your grade will not drop like crazy. He also isn't a harsh grader unless it's the lab reports. As long as you complete the assignments, you'll be fine. He does not lecture, he has you do chem activities with a group and turn them in by the end of the day.

Rating: 2.0/5, difficulty: 3.0/5
Dr. McCarthy is a very average teacher. His lectures are dull, and I genuinely haven't learned much from the course. He is a nice guy, and clearly cares about his students, but his quizzes are poorly written, and the tests are very subjective.

Rating: 1.0/5, difficulty: 5.0/5
If your debating taking this course, please don't. Most of the material you'll "learn" is from Knewton Alta and it doesn't properly teach you the material. If you do badly on a test, there's no extra credit, and that's your final grade.

Rating: 1.0/5, difficulty: 5.0/5
Does not lecture or teach, uses a workbook and groups for students to self teach. Seldom offers guidance that is helpful on any graded assignments. Uses online sites to "teach" for him, but are just graded assignments that are unrelated to class. Grading is inconsistent, unaware of material assigned, arbitrary point deductions.

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 4.0/5
If you come to lecture and lab prepared, you won't have any problems doing well.  If you need clarification on any of the concepts, he is more than willing to answer questions.  Extremely helpful and approachable.

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 3.0/5
One of my best classes I've ever taken. People complain because they don't want to do the POGIL or OLI but as long as you put in the normal amount of work you will pass. He will answer questions as long as you show that you actually tried and have a clear point at which you got confused with the process.  :)