Reviews of professor Rachel O'Brien

Rating: 4.0/5, difficulty: 3.0/5
She is very passionate and interesting as a professor. Her lectures usually feel very long because it's packed with a lot of chemistry for 1 hour and 20 minutes, but she has video recordings which help a lot. She also has a study guide list before exams. If you just make sure you understand every bullet points on the list, you're dope good luck cuh

Rating: 4.0/5, difficulty: 4.0/5
I loved Prof. OBrien as my 8am chem lecture! She was super nice and available outside of class. However, she teaches high level chemistry classes, so sometimes she doesnt simplify concepts to an introductory level. If you dont have a strong high school chemistry background, it will be hard to fully understand concepts and keep up with material.

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 5.0/5
Instrumental analysis is one of the hardest classes to teach in the Chemistry Department. She pays close attention to detail, and is ruthless with small math errors; you have to be near perfect to get an A on her tests and homework. Honestly, I learned so much from this class and her office hours. Very accomplished, accessible, and interesting,

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 3.0/5
Professor O'Brien is amazing. She is the most understanding and flexible professor you will ever have. She loves what she teaches and deeply cares about her students. I wish I could take every chemistry class with her.

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 3.0/5
Professor O'Brien was great for Instrumental Analysis even online! You can tell she is very passionate and this shines through in her lectures (even over zoom). Her tests covered a lot of content but if you kept up in class you should be fine! Definitely take IA with her!

Rating: 2.0/5, difficulty: 5.0/5
While Professor O'Brien is a knowledgeable and nice individual, she is clearly used to teaching higher-level classes and assumes intro chem students to have prior knowledge on the topics covered when, for many, is simply not the case. The only people I know who did well are those who took AP Chem in high school. To those who didn't, good luck.

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 4.0/5
Professor O'Brien, given that this was her first-semester teaching IA, has done a fantastic job learning and adapting to teaching the course. An absolutely wonderful lecturer and person, she has managed to make an extremely dry subject a little more interesting. A caring professor who genuinely wants to see you succeed. IA is still hard though.

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 3.0/5
Professor O'Brien is a very sweet woman. I find it a superpower that she can be cheerful throughout a 1 hr 20 min long 8 am class while facing 100 or so sleepy college students. Great lectures too!

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 3.0/5
You get 2 notecards for 2 finals

Rating: 4.0/5, difficulty: 4.0/5
Professor O'Brien is a great person. I took the 8 am on T/Th and she made it very enjoyable. She was comical and it was fairly easy to sit through that class. Lectures were each day, but sometimes we ended early. Homework sets weren't too difficult and as long as you got a 75%, she would count it as a 100%. I would surely take her classes again!