[CHEM 0103]
General Chemistry I

Rate This Class

Professor: Sontum

Value of Course / Overall Score

Not Much (13%
Average (34.8%)
Valuable (52.2%)

Material

Friendly (54.5%)
Average (31.8%)
Competitive (13.6%)

Class Atmosphere

Boring (43.5%)
Average (52.2%)
Fascinating (4.3%)

Prep Time Needed

1-2hr (22.7%)
3-5hr (40.9%)
6-8hr (22.7%)
9-11hr (9.1%)
12+ hr (4.5%)

Grade Weighting

Harder (45.5%)
Average (4.5%)
Easier (50%)

Adequate Assistance

Yes (95.5%)
No (4.5%)

Would Recommend Class

Yes (45.5%)
No (54.5%)

Evaluation Comments for Sontum

  1. No Comment
  2. No Comment
  3. I feel that Professor Sontum's teaching style only works for select people, particularly the people who already have a very comfortable understanding of chemistry. My biggest problem with his teaching style is that he does not put himself into the mindset of someone first learning chemistry and so he does not understand where we might be confused. The course itself is very interesting and practical, but I'm not so sure about Professor Sontum..
  4. Easily the worst teacher I've had at Midd. Tests are completely different than both lectures and the book. My best advice: don't take chemistry if he's teaching it. Just wait. You won't learn anything. And if you HAVE to take him, just give up on going to class. Terrible teacher.
  5. Most boring lectures I have ever sat through.
  6. Professor Sontum is a really great guy who just wants you to learn chemistry. At times, the material may seem over intro-level, and the tests are difficult compared to other 103 exams with different professors, but Sontum is always available to help and grades on an absolute grade scale, understanding that his class is more difficult.
  7. Great man, awful class. Awful. Should not have taught intro students. Luckily, he is retiring...you'll never know...
  8. If you can take chem 103 with a different prof do it.
  9. I had taken AP Chemistry in 10th grade, so a lot of the material was review to me. Even though I had seen much of the material, I still had trouble understanding some of Sontum's lectures. I loved the man; he truly seems to adore chemistry and his students. However, he seems much better suited to a higher level chemistry class. The man is brilliant and does not seem to pick up on the areas in which new chemistry students get confused. Even then, most of his lectures are understandable, and he trys to make them more exciting than your usual science lecture. Be prepared for difficult tests. Class averages were usually in the 70s with some people getting 20s. Despite the difficulty, his tests are completely possible, and he has a generous grade-assignment scale and opportunities to redeem points on the final. Also, Kathy is amazing in lab. You couldn't ask for a more patient and informed intro. chemistry lab professor. If you pay attention in lab, it can boost your grade.
  10. Chemistry 103 with Professor Sontum was the most frustrating class I have ever taken, and I am not one to rate a class badly just because I did poorly in it. Sontum is a very nice man, but he made lectures and tests more complicated than they needed to be. His notes are confusing and he goes on tangents that are unrelated to the course. I had to learn everything from the textbook and problem set answer key because Sontum confused ideas and concepts that I understood in high school chemistry. Sontum is very smart, but he should be teaching a higher level course, not introductory chemistry. Additionally, he assumes that everyone knows as much about chemistry as he does, and kind of makes you feel stupid for asking questions during exams. He doesn?t understand how students with a limited background in chemistry might be confused with the concepts he presents in lecture. My exam grades absolutely DID NOT reflect the amount of work that I put into the class. No matter how much I studied, it did not make a difference in the end. If it wasn?t for Kathy Jewett as the lab instructor, the course would be unbearable. She is the nicest person I have met at Middlebury College, and is always willing to help with lab reports after class or during her office hours.
  11. Sontum's lectures and tests go far beyond what is covered in the text which really complicates things.
  12. It is obvious from day one that Sontum and Jewett are a born team. Prof. Jewett is awesome and so helpful on labs... if you stay after to work on them after the lab she will help you until you are done. Prof. Sontum's lectures can definitely be interpreted in many ways depending on your energy level/sleep deprivation/whether you ate breakfast, etc: stagnant, bland, informative, and even exciting. Some days the 8:00 lectures are hard to stay awake for, but most days you blow something up and that wakes you up! But he definitely knows his stuff cold. Even if you call him up on the phone he can answer questions off the top of his head. Both Sontum and Jewett are extremely helpful and available for questions outside of class and lab. I would recommend him, chemistry on the whole can be a kind of dry subject, but they do a great job making the material interesting.
  13. I am genuinely confused by the extremely enthusiastic comment above. I had the equivalent of about 1.5 years of chem in high school, so I knew all of the material already. Steve's lectures, however, still managed to confuse me and make me feel like I didn't know anything. It can essentially be a teach-yourself course... If you do the reading, the homework, and especially the practice exams, you'll be set. I pretty much regret going to lecture, because the people who didn't learned just as much as the people who did. Basically, this is a fine course; it teaches you what you need to know, and thats about it. Plus, lab with Kathy is great -- I'm very happy to know and get to work with her! So if you have the opportunity to test out of this course or take it with another prof, I'd strongly suggest it. If not, its not a big deal. Just don't expect much.
  14. Fairly good course. I took normal high school chem and AP physics, so the first 2/3 of the course wasn't exactly new stuff at all. At the end, once he begins to discuss electron orbitals, that is very important information. I feel that he could have spent less time on the computational chemistry and much more time on the back end of the course. Pretty boring lectures, but he has a wry sense of humor which sometimes comes out. Labs are generally pretty interesting and Jewett is very helpful. It's a standard science course, nothing special about it.
  15. Sontum isn't the most enthralling lecturer you'll run across at Middlebury, but he makes alot of other science professors look pretty dull. I'm a physics major and the way that Sontum ties in alot of Physics to the chemistry we're studying really appealed to me. That said, some of the physics he introduces is so far beyond the scope of an introductory class that I almost didn't believe he was doing it. Homework isn't required, but it can give you "bonus points". Also, his "redemption policy" of getting back points on midterms depending on how you do on the final is a gift. In short you get a great deal out of this class, he dosen't skimp on material but it you still have time to breathe. Take
  16. Steve is a nice guy, but he is extremely boring and his lectures made no sense and were really confusing. I had already taken AP Chem in high school and I had no idea what he was talking about half the time. And his tests are hard, even if you think the material is easy, the test will be really hard to do well on. If i were taking chem103 id take it with a different prof!
  17. Sontum was the best science professor I have had in my academic career, and that included 4 years of prep school. He made a subject I originally hated facinating enough that not only am I taking another chem course, I'm thinking about majoring in it. His grading was more than fair and reasonable, he encouraged us to go for an A, and his tests made such an objective easily attainable. His lectures were facinating, and his discussion sections more so, and he was exceptionally easy to approach. Every class involved something blowing up or catching fire, for which I am very grateful, given that otherwise no one could have stayed awake at that hour of the morning. And above all, he's just a nice guy. Take any class with him, you'll love it.
  18. It is obvious from day one that Sontum and Jewett are a born team. Prof. Jewett as a lab professor was the most patient and helpful faculty member I've encountered at Middlebury thusfar. Prof. Sontum's lectures can be interpreted in many ways depending on your energy level/sleep deprivation/whether you ate breakfast, etc: stagnant, bland, informative, and even exciting. It's all based upon the material and whatever he decides to blow up that day! Both are extremely helpful and available for questions outside of class and lab. Oh yeah, and watch out for kinks in the experiments.
  19. Steve's lectures were boring and quite confusing. It seemed he was on a higher level of thinking than us, the students. Lab with Kathy Jewett is wonderful though! She really wants you to succeed and helps you get there.
  20. Steve is a great guy, but he should definitely teach a higher level course. Most of my friends just gave up and stopped coming to lectures because they were too confusing!
  21. Intro to Chem is one of those classes where you learn a ton (even if sometimes the material is a bit dry...). Steve is a great guy, he's really down to earth, flexible, friendly, and approachable. Unfortunately, I'm not a morning person, and the 8:00 classes were sometimes hard to get up for! But Chem I was definitely a worthwhile course.
  22. Lectures were horrible; I ended up not going to the last 4 weeks of class. I found the material to be fairly easy and his redemption points at the end of the year made it almost impossible to do poorly.
  23. No Comment

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