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Heying, Michael

Cumulative GPA: 2.93/4.00 with 14 evaluations
Presents Material Clearly: 3.07
Recognizes Student Difficulties: 2.93

Chemistry and Biochemistry Department, Cal Poly, SLO
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CHEM 124 Freshman Grade Earned: D Required (Support) 1:00 pm, Apr 26, 2013 Report Evaluation		If you want to take an easy class, or just want to get over it...don't ever take him! But if you are pursuing a chemistry major or something like that, he is a good teacher. His tests are so hard, and grades them harshly too... I never understood him, maybe he is not just the professor that is compatible with me..

CHEM 124 Sophomore Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 4:53 pm, Mar 28, 2013 Report Evaluation		Heying was a really great teacher. The homework in the class is not graded, but CRUCIAL to do if you want to understand the material. He also gives out worksheets every week or so that have about 5-8 problems on them that reinforce the material in class that week, and then he posts the solutions to them online a few days later. Both the homework and the worksheets are extremely necessary to do and understand in order to do well in the class. That being said, he is a really cool guy. I had him for both lecture and lab, and he almost always plays fun music in class and cracks jokes every now and then. The midterms and quizes (he drops your lowest quiz score) are very reasonable if you do the "suggested" homework well, and the worksheets. The final on the other hand is different. The midterms are a mixture of multiple choice, short answer, and free response, where as the final is a common final that all the chem 124 teachers give. It is 50 multiple choice questions, and is very different from the midterms. However, I got a D on both the final and on one of the midterms and still ended with a solid B in the class, so he does do some "weighing" at the end of the quarter. I would definitely recommend this teacher. He's a great guy, helpful in office hours, and is a really good teacher.

CHEM 124 Freshman Grade Earned: D Required (Support) 7:54 pm, Mar 20, 2013 Report Evaluation		Chemistry, in general, is not an easy class. Don't take it lightly. You should expect to spend at least 12 hours of studying outside of class if you want to do well. Dr. Heying is the best of all the chemistry teachers. He is really organized and returns things in a timely matter. He is a great teacher, and he makes awkward yet funny jokes throughout lecture. He made me enjoy taking chemistry. He is really helpful during office hours and he makes sure that you understand a concept. So make sure you take advantage of it. He genuinely wants you to do well.

CHEM 124 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 3:59 pm, Feb 27, 2013 Report Evaluation		Dr. Heying was a great professor. He was always helpful during office hours and his lectures are very clear. Class schedule went: Break week, Friday quiz, Friday exam. None of the tests were terribly hard, nor was the final. I'm taking him again.

CHEM 124 Senior Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 1:00 pm, Dec 14, 2012 Report Evaluation		Overall, I'd recommend taking this class with Heying. His tests/quizzes are straightforward and come directly from lecture material and he doesn't put in any material that we haven't gone over. The class is fast paced, with a guaranteed quiz or test almost every week (3 tests/4 quizzes) so make sure to attend every class. Almost forgot, no homework! But he does give out worksheets before each test/quiz, do them! The problems are very similar to the questions given out on the test/quiz. I got by with <2 hrs of studying per week (just before each test/quiz) since I had other classes to focus on, but it shouldn't be hard to get an A in this class if you put in the time and/or form a study group. My least favorite part of this course was the lab section, the lab reports were graded viciously by the TAs, they care about lab report format as much as a professional organization would (ain't no one got time for that).

CHEM 124 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 9:10 am, Dec 7, 2012 Report Evaluation		Heying is a good professor and a good teacher. He doesn't make his class easy though. But if you keep up with the material, everything he teaches will help you and you can get a good grade. The midterms are pretty time pressured, and they contain true/false, multiple choice, short answer, and free response. Heying tests you on EVERYTHING so you need to make sure you know the material well. You will learn a lot in the class, but it's not an easy A. Although not easy, he's an amazing teacher that's also very entertaining with his movie quote references, cracking jokes, and playing his pandora station.

CHEM 128 Sophomore Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 6:06 pm, Mar 18, 2012 Report Evaluation		Professory Heying is one of the better lab teachers I have had. He's attentive and genuinely wants you to do well. If you ask him a question, he'll answer it in a way that makes it easy to understand. His lab quizzes are easy if you pay attention to his lecture at the beginning of the labs. Overall, good teacher. I recommend him.



CHEM 124 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 6:52 pm, Mar 1, 2012 Report Evaluation		Dr. Heying is a nice guy and a decent teacher. I had already taken chemistry in high school so I tended to zone out in class frequently, but still did OK in the class. His random non-sequitors are the best part of class. He knows his stuff and explains his material clearly, even if in a not very exciting way, although he does make it entertaining now and then. If you visit with him in office hours with questions he tends to only have one way of explaining things though -- if that doesn't work for you, you could be in trouble. Overall I enjoyed his class though.

CHEM 124 Freshman Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 5:17 pm, Feb 27, 2012 Report Evaluation		If you want to coast by without any effort, this is not the class to take. Heying makes his class difficult, but you will actually learn a few things about chemsitry throughout the quarter. He assigns a fair amount of homework and in-class work. If you keep up with the class and consistantly attend lecture, his quizzes and exams are doable, but very difficult overall. Heying is a nice and fair professor, and is consistantly awkwardly funny throughout his lectures. If you want to learn, take Heying.

CHEM 128 Sophomore Grade Earned: N/A Required (Support) 3:28 am, Feb 27, 2012 Report Evaluation		I took this class as a required support class (as I'm sure most people do) and I HIGHLY recommend taking any other professor you can for this class. He might be good at teaching engineering chem but for the genchem series, do yourself a favor and avoid Heying.

CHEM 124 Freshman Grade Earned: C Required (Support) 8:39 pm, Dec 29, 2011 Report Evaluation		Honestly, this class was quite difficult to balance with my other classes such as Calc. 3. I would recommend not taking Prof. Heying's class lightly as class material goes by pretty fast. I would say on average the grade most people got was a B. My understandable yet disappointment of a grade was a combination of adjusting to my first new college schedule(I had my Calc. 3 class that started at 7:00 a.m and this was right after) and poor scores on quizzes and midterms. The homework load(medium) consists of pre-lab write ups, lab-write ups, optional book assignments as well as optional online worksheets. For the benefit of those who are or will take him, I am going to summarize his class into 3 sections and how you should handle them: Lectures, Labs and Quizzes/Midterms. Dr. Heying's lectures are pretty boring, simply because he teaches by writing on a device that then displays it onto a computer screen in front of you and you sit looking at that for an hour or two. He then tries to liven it up with random movie segments to which have no effect since his volume for the videos are so freaking low that no one gets the references. My advice is to read up on the chapters beforehand which is usually posted on the "Chemweb" website so you'll understand what the heck he's talking about in class. The labs are pretty easy, just make sure you write your pre-labs thoroughly and you should be fine. Lab-write-ups are the only reason I didn't fall below than I should have. I aced every single lab report. What annoyed me most was how the T.A's would dock of 1/2 or a full point and keep you from getting a perfect score because they didn't like how your title sounded or your axis was switched than how they wanted it, even if the data still made sense. There is no avoidance to this irksome grading system. My advice, during the lab is to ask T.A's or another group for advice if you're not sure of a certain part in the procedure, just don't rely on them too much. I also recommend that you try to get your lab report as perfect as you can as it will act as a support in your grade in case you don't do well on the quizzes, which happened to me... There are in total 5 quizzes and 3 midterms. This determines whether you get an A,B or C really... (If you get a D in this class, you really aren't trying.) The quizzes are hand-written meaning you have to write in the blanks. They aren't multiple choice like the other Chemistry classes...lucky bastards. The first part of his quizzes are 5 true/false questions followed by 3-5 written responses you have to answer by sentences or by drawing diagrams.Although sounding simple enough, one wrong answer will almost immediately you drop your quiz score a letter grade. My advice is to study for the True/False questions through your lecture notes and by reading the textbook. To study for for the written questions, DO THE OPTIONAL WORKSHEET PROBLEMS, the questions will be some variant of the worksheet problems. The midterm has some multiple choice and is basically the same process except you study your past quizzes as well. He is helpful and friendly during office hours, even if he comes off as a little arrogant and condescending during class. Go to them when he briefly goes over a complex idea in class and you need help clarifying what he meant. I think he is an O.K teacher for a subject that people just don't like. Again, do not take this class lightly.

CHEM 124 Sophomore Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 11:13 am, Dec 14, 2011 Report Evaluation		Heying is a good professor, considering how bad most of the Chem department is. His class is pretty hard, but you can still do pretty well in the class. His lectures are pretty good, and he gives a lot of the information that will be important for the quizzes, tests and the finals. Overall I think he is one of the best teachers in the Chem department, and from what I've heard he is definitely better for 124 than 125.

CHEM 125 Freshman Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 7:25 pm, Sep 6, 2011 Report Evaluation		Dr. Heying is a very good teacher. But he takes off rediculous points for correctness on his tests and quizzes. I was teaching things to my friends and leading study groups, but I still got a B for rediculous things. By the end of the quarter, I just gave up and bombed the final. He's a nice guy but hes super nitpicky and he just irked me. Really good teacher tho. Weekly quizzes and two midterms, weekly lab reports not too bad



CHEM 124 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 9:08 pm, Mar 12, 2011 Report Evaluation		Dr. Michael Heying is awesome. His class is challenging, but it is totally possible to get a good grade. His lectures are extremely informative and organized. His tests and quizzes are very straight forward and follow the material that was covered in lecture. He has a very dry sense of humor, but once you catch onto his jokes, the class becomes much more enjoyable. Moral of the story: TAKE HIS COURSE. If available, take an accompanying workshop- it will really help. ps. Make sure you take Michael Heying's class and not Melanie Heying's class. Although they're related, he clearly received the family's good-professor genes.

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