Where do I start?

Professor Kristopher Barr is, in a few words: dedicated, but flawed.

If you were looking for a chem class and you think you have some idea of chemistry, you will be lost–which is a shame, because he’s not a bad teacher, he’s actually quite knowledgeable and devoted to his field.

If you are a person who learns by following examples and expect questions similar to the practice/problem sets to be on the exam, you’re most likely out of luck.

I have to applaud Barr for actually being really nice and expecting his students to go above and beyond, but that leads into my main issue with his class: his expectations.

Barr prides himself on offering hours upon hours of resources, Office Hours with him or the TAs, review sessions, problem sets, readings, etc.

He’ll tell you that these aren’t graded–implying they aren’t necessary to succeed right? What he should really say is, ‘If you want even a sliver of chance of doing well in this course, you will attend, and you will complete this work.’

But I’ll be real with you here, I might not have done these things, which might explain my lack of understanding–but I’ve met people who have 10 times more understanding of this class than I will ever have, they did the readings, the unassigned problem sets, attended office hours, the whole shebang–and even they still aren’t sure what Barr is doing.

Another issue I have with Barr has to do with his exams. Our first midterm, was bad, but bad in the way you expect, like sure, I’m new to this class, it’s only the first midterm, I can do better on the next one, that’s what most of us were thinking, right?

Wrong.

While our the first midterm was online and open-note and book, fortunately, our class was the first of which Barr had taught partly in person, so we were blessed with the honor of being the first batch to take one of his exams in person. You might think, that’s not that bad, I’ve taken a midterm in-person before:

Nope.

It was just as bad. Not to mention, it was cumulative, instead of being open note and open book, we were allowed one A4 size sheet of paper for notes. Which, let me tell you, did not help at all.

A lot of other reviews mention how Barr was gracious enough to offer us another grading scheme, where he would drop one of our midterm scores if we attended at least 8 discussion and scored better on the final. Maybe that would be a Hail Mary, but considering how the midterms went, I’m not exactly banking on that option.

In the end, I think that while Barr is a great person and lecturer, he is a horrific exam writer, and I would not subject anyone who I hold dear the misfortune of taking his class.

TLDR: Professor Kristopher Barr is a good person that expects too much from his students, as reflected in the work he "suggests doing" and the exams he writes. Avoid this class in the near future, but hopefully over time he will improve.

I tried to like Barr, I really did. He tried to make it clear to us from the very beginning that he cares about us, but a lot of it feels pretty disingenuous when he's often unwilling to make compromises and doesn't curve his tests, even when half the class fails.
He's an alright lecturer, but the gap between the content he teaches us/gives us resources for and the content he tests us on makes a lot of the 8 hours per week studying he expects from us feel like a waste of time. He also requires that every student take the test at the same time in the evening PST, which means some international students end up taking it really late at night or early in the morning. He's a newer professor so I hope he improves in the future, but until then I really can't recommend Barr.

EDIT: After having taken the final, it's obvious Barr did take our criticisms to heart and made the test much more fair and straightforward. I feel a lot more optimistic about his future classes. We still had to take the test late into the evening, though...

At first, Barr was very kind and seemed empathetic to our situation. He seemed to really care about our success within the class and gave us the idea that he would be very accommodating especially considering we are in a pandemic and some kids are in international time zones. He gave a lot of resources and always told us we could email him if we felt like we had any difficulties and that we could work together to work smarter not harder. It not seems that was a lie to be brutally honest.
In the days prior to the first midterm a lot of students were confident and he made us even more confident by telling us that the homework would be harder than the test, mind you most students got full credit which means >80% of the work is correct, and that most of the problems would come from the problems sets and lecture. When the actual test day came and the test was distributed there was a lot of confusion. Mainly in the fact that he gave verbal corrections to the typos on his test, which is extremely problematic because some people tuned him out in order to spend as much time on the test as possible, but points were still docked and he never specifically explained what he actually wanted us to write down. It felt like we had to mind read, for example one question he stated that it would be mostly about backing up ur claim than calculations, but about half of the points went to your calculations. It feels like we always have to guess what exactly he wants but even when he does explain what he wants its not specific enough, it's too open to interpretation and a lot of points are lost. It felt really unfair that points were lost because of his mistakes. Also, he forced international students to take the midterm at the same time as everybody else. Some students were taking this test at ungodly hours and when this issue was raised, he essentially brushed it off and told us he empathizes with us.
When the scores came out it felt even worse because he put limits to regrades. He only allowed three regrades requests, if your request was denied then you were only down to two requests, one request for one question, he would not accept regrades for only one point, and you had to thoroughly explain why your regrade request was valid.It all sucked because we were forced to accept our low grades because we didn't want our regrade requests to be denied and therefore wasted. The one point rule was really annoying too because those point can easily add up but it seemed he cared more about the inconvenience it would do to him rather than making student scores right. All of his empathy really felt like a lie then because he was not accommodating at all. He even said that he recognized that the test was a little too long in the time frame we had, but still there was nothing to account or compensate for that.
After the first midterm, he assured us that the second midterm would be shorter, clearer, and better overall. This was also untrue. In fact the second midterm was far worse than the first one. He stated that this midterm would have four questions, it had five, the one topic that was thoroughly emphasized in lectures and office hours made up two questions, and there were more questions about biology than chemistry. Questions about mRNA, lipids, and the covid vaccine were part of the test. Things that were never mentioned in class, not even in a leisurely way. The questions were so convoluted and completely out of the scope of this class. He tried to make us apply our knowledge to the real world but it was not the time to try this. He also stated that the test took him 45 minutes to complete, even though he wrote the questions, and expected us to finish in 90 minutes. It was a really biased way to assess the difficulty of the test considering he wrote the questions, has a PHD, and never gave it to a TA or LA to asses the difficulty. It really sucks because as he says he empathizes with us, it feels he is the one thing stopping us from succeeding at this point. I feel like I was fighting my professor for information and clarity. Even during the exam a lot of questions were left unanswered/ answered way too late. It felt as if there was a hostility to asking questions and he even cut off questions for a time. There was no real way to study for this exam as half of it wasn't in any of our resources whatsoever. It was such a defeating feeling that all the time and other classes we pushed aside to study for this class was put to waste. Re-watching lectures, going to office hours, and doing practice problems was for nothing. None of the suggestions or accommodations we ask for are ever implemented despite being constantly told he wants to help us and always assigns us surveys to do. It is a constant uphill battle in this class and you never know what's next. The second midterm was just extremely unfair and illogical to give to students who, for some, have never seen this information before. It was like competing with Barr rather than working with him to succeed.
Another problem is that he doesn't give answers to problem sets. He expects you to go to office hours to get explanations, even though only 1-2 out of 10-15 questions are actually worked through. He says it because he doesn't want us to think there is only one way to do something and to really learn how to do problems ourselves, but it just feels like we're wandering in the dark hoping to land on the right answer. There is no direction as to whether or not we are on the right track at all. The office hours aren't even recorded, so there is no way to confirm a question, further disabling students getting answers to questions.
This class honestly feels like a trap. He tells us he empathizes with us, but doesn't accommodate or implement our suggestions. The tests had typos but points were taken off for following those typo's instructions. He tells us 4 questions next exam, gives us 5. Tells us the next test will be better, half the questions are biology based. Allowed us to ask questions for clarity during the test, cuts off asking questions, answers them too late, or has a hostile undertone. Tells us he wants us to succeed but restricts our regrade requests. Wants us to practice with the problem sets he gives us, but doesn't give us answer keys. Says one thing, does the opposite. It's just a very steep uphill battle with Barr even though he says he wants to help us, and it's so frustrating.

If you enjoy suffering then I suggest this class. He taught me pain, he taught me patience, but he didn't teach much chemistry that was applicable on the exams. Also the grade scale makes it impossible to actually calculate what your grade is based on scores.

Bad. Don't. Run

This class is exhausting, but it's worse when you're in the thick of it than when you get your final grade. After the midterms, you'll probably feel defeated, but the final is easier and the way tests are not weighted too much helps. This doesn't mean I don't have problems with this class. Barr is nice, but he will gaslight you sometimes and tell you that your problem is not a real concern. Also, if you do have a problem, whether it be personal, about the content, or grading errors, and you ask Barr or a TA about it, you may just get flat out ignored and that's frustrating. This class is also a LOT of reading, if you follow the suggested reading schedule, and it's really easy to fall behind. Also, GO TO TA OFFICE HOURS. Barr's office hours are packed, usually 30-50 people and sometimes up to 150 during midterm weeks and he usually only gets through 1-2 questions (he takes a long time to answer questions in office hours), but TA office hours only have like 5 people in them so you're much more likely to get your questions answered. Also another thing that annoyed me about this class is that Barr would tell you to your face that something had been graded and he was going to post scores later in the day, but then, the scores wouldn't be posted for four days. He did this throughout the quarter, and it's frustrating because I rather him just be up front and say he's behind on grading. Overall, it's really easy to be discouraged in this class, but just know that it may seem like you're doing worse than you actually are. For a lot of people, including myself, things turned out to be ok in the end (average was like a B+ which is actually good for a chem class) despite the years this class took off my life.

This class had me in a constant state of confusion. You will hardly be given any material that will help you. Instead, you will constantly be placed into a group setting where the rest of the students are also unsure of their answers. The big emphasis on group work in the class is a bit excessive. Chemistry is a subject that most people struggle in and there are better ways to help students improve, rather than grouping together unsure students, sharing unsure answers... to “grow.” Perhaps I've missed something in all this, and I consider myself unfortunate if I have missed the message, but that idea doesn't quite make sense to me. To instill a growth mindset into students does not require depriving them of certain materials. Every student has different study habits. If students choose to use answer keys as a “crutch”, that is their decision. It’s not fair to deprive those who use certain materials for their benefit and instill confidence in their work, at the cost of other students.

Professor Barr is a very charismatic individual and while I did appreciate his great enthusiasm over the subject, this did not help me with my learning experience in the class, or my grade. Empathy is of no use and means nothing if someone is not actively trying to better a situation... to show that they really do empathize.

Aside from answer keys however, I don’t understand the point in teaching specific material only to test students on something far above that which has been taught. I find this to be an unfair evaluation of our understanding of all that we have learned since we can’t even apply or present our knowledge in such matters. Students are left feeling as though they are unable to show professor Barr what they have really learned if they are being tested on material that is unrelated to the course, especially for those who are not even chemistry majors. When you can answer all other practice questions outside of the exams, there’s something wrong with the exams, not the student. There’s much simpler ways to test students on their understanding of the material instead of writing a web of questions to answer from… questions strictly pertaining to general chemistry 102 would be a start.

This is not to say that introductory courses shouldn’t be difficult or challenging. But when a classroom full of students are openly complaining to a professor about things that aren’t working, only to be told they are being heard (despite no changes being made to accommodate these concerns) it starts to feel like the students aren’t learning, and the professor doesn’t care for the students to know what he expects of us.

Do yourself a favor and just don't take Barr if you have the option to.

just no..most everyone started off liking Barr a lot, especially coming from 20A with Felker; the lectures started off fairly clear and upbeat and reasonably paced. things went downhill pretty fast after that though, he refused to give out answers keys to problem /hw sets even after they were due, so everyone including TAs were confused about how he wanted things answered. then the first midterm hit and we all died a little inside, but remained vaguely optimistic, but after the second midterm we realized that Barr takes pride in writing creative questions that are ~technically~ based on what we learned in class, but only after you get past the bio/stats/wildly confusing wording background info which is painful because he doesn't curve tests or the class. given, exams are worth slightly less and you can drop your lowest midterm for your final if you do better on that, but it's really not that useful when you consider how bad his tests are. also the textbook reading is both heavy and almost totally useless, and the lectures got increasingly rushed as the quarter went on. he will also ruin the words empathy, flavor, and growth mindset for you forever
tldr// exams don't reflect the lecture content, you wiLL be confused a lot, generally a very emotionally taxing class

I took this class Winter 2021 which was virtual and I believe his first quarter teaching. I thought he was very nice at first. He seemed very caring and genuine. Turns out that was all fake and his class is tough af.
His lectures aren't that bad but pretty fast paced. He assigns problem sets that are optional. Homework is assigned every few weeks and is a few questions from the last problem sets. The issue I have is that he doesn't give answers to the problem sets, which really made it hard to be motivated to do those problem sets, since you don't know if your answer is right. The class asked him to provide answers and he said he wouldn't because "we wouldn't collaborate with each other" if he provided answers.
The homework also must be done as a group of 3, with all 3 people working together on the same assignment. My group was great and very helpful, but this could definitely be a big problem if one of us was international, or if one person just didn't want to work together.
He said that the test would be easier than the homework many times, but it was much much harder. He made up scenarios that don't exist and asked us questions on those scenarios. I do have to give him credit for designing these problems, but it was super tough. On top of that, he required that we all be on zoom during the midterm (we could have our cameras off thankfully) and he made changes to the midterm while it was happening. But how he did this was by sharing his screen of a google sides where he just wrote a sentence with the change. He didn't announce it or anything, so if you never looked at the zoom, you were just screwed for that question. He also made the midterms a two hour block with no alternate times at all. This screwed over some international students and his solution was to empathize with us and do nothing.
Overall, I would definitely not reccommend this class to anyone. He is super fake, and says "I empathize" about 100 times but doesn't care at all. Maybe he will improve in the future, since he was new, but I would not take Barr if possible.