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Kiste, Alan

Cumulative GPA: 1.77/4.00 with 31 evaluations
Presents Material Clearly: 1.97
Recognizes Student Difficulties: 1.74

Chemistry and Biochemistry Department, Cal Poly, SLO
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CHEM 127 Freshman Grade Earned: N/A Required (Major) 12:19 am, Jun 19, 2013 Report Evaluation		Kiste was very difficult to understand basic concepts through his confusing lectures. In lab you would not simply answer your questions. Yes he made you think to find the answer, but when truly stuck he was not help. His exams are all write in answers. He is a difficult teacher. This HARD CLASS, you really want a good professor. I do like his grading curve. He considers a 65% a "C" and does the calculations of the class therefore to give A's, B's, D's and F's. Good luck with Kiste. You'll be working hard for that "C".

CHEM 127 Sophomore Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 3:15 am, May 17, 2013 Report Evaluation		sucks really avoid unless u want to spend 20 hrs a week preparing for his class

CHEM 129 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 8:51 am, May 7, 2013 Report Evaluation		I don't understand why he has such bad rating! Honestly I read these before I took his class and was freaking out but he's not bad at all. He is a very good lecturer and explains everything very well. He also holds his own study sessions, that he runs, for his students which is helpful. He post all his old tests online for you to look at which are usually the same questions as the one he gives you just with different numbers or chemicals. If you have him, don't panic! I think he is a great teacher.

CHEM 128 Sophomore Grade Earned: C Required (Major) 10:14 am, Mar 19, 2013 Report Evaluation		His tests have absolutely nothing to do with what he talks about in class and going to class doesn't even help because he doesn't cover any of the material or problems that are on the tests. His tests are confusing and do not directly ask the question and he includes huge chemical structure pictures to confuse the students. Would not recommend him at all... way easier and straight forward chem teachers out there.

CHEM 128 Freshman Grade Earned: N/A Required (Support) 4:36 pm, Mar 16, 2013 Report Evaluation		I think I'm going to get a low B or high C in this class. I am not failing, and I think that I would have gotten the same grade in any 128 class. However, Dr. Kiste is literally the worst teacher I have had in my life so far. His tests are adequately described by my predeceasing evaluators, but one thing they didn't mention was "midterm evaluations". After each midterm, we are asked to evaluate Dr. Kiste, but I say don't bother. His interpretations of the evals are much too holistic, and he made this stupid word diagram thing that was supposed to highlight our concerns with NO CONTEXT where the most mentioned word is large and the least mentioned word is small. The saddest part is, his research is "student success in chemistry". Also, he makes these minuscule boxes for your answers, so if you are like me, and need space to work, chances are that you will make a mistake by skipping steps to make your work fit or having to recopy all your work from the back of the page. There are a lot of things I want to say about Dr. Kiste, but I'm going to save my breath and simply say DO NOT TAKE HIM. Not just avoid. LIterally, don't do it. It's better to skip out than to go through what everyone goes through in this class, which is a lowering of self worth and failure. I will say this though, he did make himself available if you stop by his office during non-designated hours.

CHEM 128 Junior Grade Earned: C Required (Major) 1:50 pm, Feb 27, 2013 Report Evaluation		REALLY BAD! I'm not going to talk about the subject material because its similar to Chem127 material which is a pre-req for Chem 128 and comes from the same textbook. I will however say that this professor's main fault was that he would not answer questions or help me and my fellow students. He made tests and quizzes insanely hard and unpredictable as well as degraded us if we were to ever ask questions. He is organized and appears to be knowledgeable but this is not all that is required to be a good teacher. He needs to care more about the students and help students prepare for what they will face on his examinations.

CHEM 127 Freshman Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 8:22 pm, Feb 15, 2013 Report Evaluation		I've had Kiste for Chem 127 and 128, but i will not be taking him for 129. Kiste is a reasonable guy and a good lecturer. Overall i really like Kiste, he's fair and tells you exactly what he expects from you. However, he is very hard. He has high expectations for what you need to do to prepare for his midterms, which are difficult. His grading system is sometimes confusing but in general is fair. If you're up for the challenge i recommend Kiste. However, if you're just chasing a good grade or you don't have much interest in Chemistry, i recommend you take someone easier. The worst part of Kiste's class was the fact that it was only offered at 7:00am, which is why i'm taking another professor for 129



CHEM 129 Junior Grade Earned: B Elective 9:45 pm, Aug 26, 2012 Report Evaluation		Worst teacher I've ever had at poly! First off, I'm a student who normally gets A's/ B+'s in chemistry, and I got a B in the class. I'm slightly disappointed, but I seriously went through hell for that B. Being in his class made me want to give up and quit school because he is that discouraging. First day of class, he talks about his grading system and criticisms for two hours. What a waste of time. I was thinking to myself that his past students were wimps or something but all his criticism are true to the bone. 1. His teaching style is not straight forward as he claims it to be. His theory is that if he teaches the dirt basics, than we can figure out the extremely complicated problems on our own. WRONG. I'm the type of student that needs to practice problems that look just the the test ones. He loves to throw curve balls at you so watch out. His "you can do it" problems look nothing like the test, and they're not even his. He borrowed them from Seth Bush. 2. He thinks that if you learn 50% of the material than that shouldn't be a failing grade. If you learn 50% of his material that you deserve a big high 5 because his shit is hard. I'd rather be given straight-forward work that is possible and learn 90% of it than learn 50% of something impossible, but that's my personal preference. 3. As I said, he admits to all his criticisms, but he blames his students and does not blame himself. Yeah, I'll admit there are students that do things wrong, maybe I'm one of them, but to ALWAYS blame the students and NEVER blame himself is just arrogant. He's extremely stubborn about his teaching style and will not change his ways no matter what anyone says. I think the only way to fix him is to get rid of him. This is his first year here and hopefully his last. 4. On our 2nd midterm, he said our class midterm was a 60% except nobody got in the 90's, one in the 80's, 3 in the 70's, 3 in the 60's, 4 in the 50's, 3 in the 40's and 6 got under 30%. So.. 30% of students got under 30%. If everyone got a score that ended in 9, than the highest possible average would have been 57%. I know that's not true especially since two of my friends were in the 20's. He is a lier. I believe a teacher's job is to teach the material in a straight forward manner, to answer legitimate questions even if they are from sassy students, to give practice problems that resemble test problems, and to encourage his students. In my opinion he did none of those things. I really appreciate you(audience) for taking the time to read this review or else my efforts wouldn't be for a good cause. The only thing I liked was when he repeats a phrase 3 or 4 times in a row. Most of the time I found it funny.

CHEM 128 Sophomore Grade Earned: C Required (Major) 9:56 pm, Jun 20, 2012 Report Evaluation		If you want to understand everything that is wrong with Cal Poly and its overly enabled student commentators, read the messages below. Why do students think they know better about education and pedagogy than professors? Basically, if you do badly, blame the professor, but if you do well, its because you are awesome. This place is really going down the shit hole.

CHEM 129 Freshman Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 11:22 pm, Jun 16, 2012 Report Evaluation		Some people should learn how to spell before posting reviews. Retarted isn't a word. It also sort of takes away from your emphasis of how much of a "fucking idiot" and "terrible teacher" Dr. Kiste apparently is. I wish that reviews such as yours were banned for this website. If you care about anything, you'd care about maintaining the reputation of our school (by not slandering its professors or coming on this website and mindlessly cursing), because it'll be the only thing you'll have after graduating from CP, if you can even manage that. If you that he was the worst teacher you've ever had, at least leave some constructive criticism/advice for upcoming students - not just a rant!

CHEM 129 Freshman Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 5:31 pm, Jun 9, 2012 Report Evaluation		out of my first 3 quarters at cal poly (with at least 4 classes each quarter) kiste is by far the worst professor ive had. im a biochem major so i think its imperative that i actually learn chemistry but i didnt learn jack shit in his class all quarter. his class consists of 2 midtems, a final, our lab grade, and the cumulative ACS exam that was worth 10% of our grade. firstly his tests: they were ridiculously complicated. it would be understandable if he gave us questions that were more in depth than the concepts that we had learned in class but often times he had questions that he had never even mentioned in lecture. Secondly lab: he would lecture for over a fucking hour at the beginning of lab so we rarely ever got out before 3 hours. sometimes we even went over 3 hours and people would be late to other classes. the ACS exam was the only rational and fair test we took all year and he didnt even grade it on the standard scale, instead he used his own retarted grading method. for every midterm and final the average was under 60 percent so he basically just bumped everyones grade up a few letters and claims his student are earning As and Bs when really everyone is failing cause hes not teaching shit. at first i didnt think he was that bad but eventually going to his lectures was the low part of my week and i didnt even go all the time cause he lectured about complete bullshit. he literally read lines from a star wars script and pretended it was sorta related to chemistry. kiste is a FUCKING IDIOT and a TERRIBLE teacher. the only reason i got a B was because i taught myself everything and learned it from other teachers and students. do not take him if you have any other options. if you dont, im so sorry :(

CHEM 127 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 10:04 am, May 16, 2012 Report Evaluation		I don't understand why Dr. Kiste has such a low rating. He is the nicest professor I have ever had! Almost all other professors seem to scare me when I ask questions but Dr. Kiste is alllways there to help you and makes me feel not scared to ask questions. (I usually never ask questions in class exept his) Yes the average to his tests are in the 60 percent range, once for chem 127 even in the 40 percent range BBBUUUUTTT he makes the average be the C+/B- range!!!!!!!!! So, if I got an average (60%) on a test that's average was (60%), I would get a C+/B- grade in class! Take Kiste, I would take him again. His ties are awesome too.

CHEM 129 Freshman Grade Earned: N/A Required (Support) 9:43 am, May 14, 2012 Report Evaluation		Dr. Kiste really emphasizes mastery in Chemistry, as he give extremely difficult exams. His problems go far beyond the concepts in the book and it will catch you off guard. If you want to pass, you would need to go to his office hours and the three other study resources he recommends because he cannot fit all the material in lecture. I spent most of my time studying for this class and hired a tutor, and I am probably going to fail. I'm a grown man, and after his tests I'd want to cry. So if you got the gut to take him, prepare yourself and make sure you have a strong handle on concepts from Chem127&128. On a positive note, he is a funny, young, nice guy overall.



CHEM 128 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 10:28 pm, May 10, 2012 Report Evaluation		Kiste is AWESOME. He got a bad rep when he first came to Cal Poly because he says he doesn't curve tests and everyone thought they failed the class when actually he does accommodate the scores and most people really get B's. If you study and LISTEN IN LECTURE this is not a hard class. He tells you exactly what is on every test and does example problems and is really helpful. Also his outfits are amazing. And he's really funny and makes silly chemistry jokes. TAKE KISTE HE IS NOT BAD and since he has a bad rep his classes don't fill up as fast but he's still a good teacher...

CHEM 127 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 5:06 pm, May 9, 2012 Report Evaluation		Dr. Kiste wrote really hard tests and quizzes if you were not prepared but if you are ready to do the problems and want to learn he is a very good teacher and very helpful in office hours.

CHEM 127 Freshman Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 3:17 pm, May 9, 2012 Report Evaluation		Doesn't know how to teach general Chemistry. I worked my ass off and he still didn't test us on what he taught us. If you can avoid him, DON'T TAKE HIM!!

CHEM 127 Freshman Grade Earned: F Required (Support) 5:23 pm, May 8, 2012 Report Evaluation		by all means try to avoid him, he really can't teach, and whats on the test is NEVER mentioned in lecture, labs u have to complete a prefab no problem, just he deducts points like crazy and theres a quiz on every lab before u do the lab that are ridiculously hard. if YOU HAVE TO then maybe but if possible avoid!!!

CHEM 127 Freshman Grade Earned: C Required (Major) 11:24 am, May 6, 2012 Report Evaluation		He's very unclear in teaching the concepts. I wouldn't suggest him to teach the basics for chem 127-129. But he's a lot more helpful in office hours which is what I should have done earlier. His tests are weird too. They're not from the book practice problems and he doesn't really prepare you for his midterms and final. I don't know how I got a C, but I don't I would end up failing the class because the class average was a 60 percent for the first two midterm exams. Horrible! I heard he's good at teaching O-chem though.

CHEM 128 Sophomore Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 12:19 pm, Mar 20, 2012 Report Evaluation		dr kiste recently came to poly from UMich, and this was his first quarter teaching 128. from the first day he is very clear about his grading and that although his exam averages are typically in the mid-60s (although my class average was slightly higher), he adjusts the grading at the end of the quarter to suit that average, so getting a C or D on exams does not mean you are stuck with that grade in the class. he is not an unfair grader! chemistry is a difficult subject, and kiste tests to make sure you understand CONCEPTS,not just to see if you know how to solve a standard textbook problem. he does post his past 127 tests (and will now have Winter 2012 exams to post for 128) on his polylearn so you can see the style of questions he asks. his exams are based on real-world applications of what we learn but if you kept up with each chapter the exams are extremely fair. given the small amount of lecture time we have, he does an EXCELLENT job presenting the major points and i only had to brush up with textbook reading. he tells you that the textbook is fair game for exams but he focuses his tests on lecture(DONT SKIP IT!). he is very intelligent and genuinely enthusiastic about chemistry. he wants students to be successful!!! he invites us constantly to stop by his office, and presents several other resources to facilitate our learning (recitation, tutoring from the chemistry fraternity,etc). chem is difficult, and kiste treats this class like a college class that requires effort and leaves you responsible for your own learning but i ended the quarter feeling like i understand the concepts instead of just learning then enough to fake it throught the quarter. i am NOT a chemistry whiz. i got a C in 127 with a different professor, but thanks to Kiste's professional and clear teaching style and the availability of outside resources and practice problems, i was able to get a B in 128. i also like that he teaches his own labs because it adds cohesiveness between lecture and lab. the one thing i will say is that his lab quizzes can be difficult if we havent totally covered the topic in lecture but i failed 8/10 lab quizzes and i still did ok because my good lab report scores buffered those lost points. his lab reports are due at the end of lab which i really like because you dont have to think about it for the following week and you can get help from him. it is a rigorous course but if youre willing to put in the effort, kiste is awesome. very funny and genuinely cares about his students. i don't know why he gets such poor polyratings!



CHEM 128 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 7:52 pm, Mar 12, 2012 Report Evaluation		I honestly don't know why everybody rates him so badly, at the beginning of the course he told us that the class average for most of his classes was around 60% yet our class average was around 78%. He is a great teacher just attend all of the lectures and you'll be fine. The questions on the finals are easy and you will not be tested on anything not covered in lecture.

CHEM 128 Freshman Grade Earned: N/A Required (Support) 1:01 pm, Mar 11, 2012 Report Evaluation		Dr. Kiste is a great prof. He does a great job at clarifying his student's difficulties. Make sure to see him in his office hours. He is never condescending and is always helpful. In regards to his exams, yes, they are difficult, but they are rewarding. Especially for those who study the actual concepts and enjoy science. His examples are always realistic and will help his students in the future. They aren't just plug n' chug isolated questions, they are multi-step questions that are usually from scientific journals or can be performed in a lab setting. It's a sigh of relief to take Dr. Kiste. He is a teacher that really understands the information and wants his students to be able to apply chemistry, not just memorize equations that can easily be googled. Props to Dr. Kiste.

CHEM 128 Sophomore Grade Earned: N/A Required (Major) 9:51 am, Feb 29, 2012 Report Evaluation		I have taken Kiste for CHEM 127 and 128 now. I genuinely like him as a person: I feel that he is nice, funny, down to earth, and has a genuine interest in his field of study. However, he is not that great of a teacher. He presents the material clearly enough, but his tests are way more in depth than he ever leads on. His 128 class consists of 2 midterms (200 points each), one final (300 points), and lab (200 points). His tests are very hard, the average this quarter came out to be around a 76% I believe. His normal test average is around a 65%, so I guess I had a smarter class. His labs are actually the best part of the class. The way his labs work are you have a quiz every week on the lab that you will be performing that day. Do the Pre-Lab before lab, and that is 5 easy points. The quiz is 10 points. And the actual lab is 15 points. Lab comes out to about 300 points total, but he scales that down to 200. Your lab report is due at the end of the three hour lab, but I've found I usually finish with an hour left. You can almost always do the questions for the lab report before going to lab, so all that is left to do is the lab itself, record your data, results, and a conclusion and turn everything is. I like this way much more than the typical "do the lab, turn it in before next weeks lab, and repeat" because I am finished with lab for the week after one day, instead of having to worry about finishing it outside of lab and turning it in before next weeks lab. Again, I really do like Kiste and am sad that I won't be taking him next quarter, but I feel that it will be more beneficial to my GPA to take Bush over Kiste. Sad to say it, but if you can, avoid Kiste.

CHEM 127 Sophomore Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 6:38 pm, Feb 26, 2012 Report Evaluation		Dr. Kiste is definitely a very intelligent chemist. He seems very passionate about the subject, and he was always very willing to answer my questions. I think he cares a lot about his students. However, I think his teaching style makes an already difficult class even more challenging. He teaches the basics and relies on the book to explain the rest to us, and learning an entire 12 chapters on your own can be very overwhelming. The only reason I got the grade I did was because I hired a private tutor twice a week and relied on other students who had taken AP Chem to help me out. I found it very difficult to make it through his midterms within the hour, and he tested on subjects that were only briefly covered in lectures and labs. Kiste included examples from organic chemistry and added extraneous information on his tests which only confused me more. He told us that we needed to do every problem in the back of the book in order to prepare for midterms and quizzes, which was honestly unrealistic and time consuming. He did provide chapter study guides with concepts and corresponding problems, but they were very limited and the problems were not very helpful. I think it would have been more helpful for his students if he gave us a list of problems, made his own study guides, or even posted lectures somewhere online. If you are okay with unorganized lectures and you are willing to do a lot of studying on your own/go to his office hours A LOT, you will do fine in his class. Otherwise I would suggest trying for someone else.

CHEM 127 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 3:41 pm, Feb 21, 2012 Report Evaluation		Know why I got an A in this class? Because I happened to do less horribly than 90% of the other students. My grade does not reflect my comprehension of chemistry or work ethic, it simply means I wasn't tricked by his obnoxious, abstract test questions as much as the poor freshmen. Kiste explicitly states that all the material from the textbook is fair game, but covers about 5% of it in lecture. As a result, his lectures are very slow and easy, tricking students into thinking they fully comprehend the complex topics. And the worst part is that Kiste himself doesn't even have a thorough comprehension. His in-class examples were plagued with errors in concepts as simple as unit conversions! and students had to correct him on a daily basis. His lectures were very poorly organized and absolutely did not reflect the difficulty of his tests. Fortunately the dean was more receptive to these critiques than Kiste, and forced him to provide us with study materials so we actually knew what we would be expected to know for the final. What a concept.

CHEM 127 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 12:04 am, Feb 10, 2012 Report Evaluation		You know why I got an A in Kiste's class? Because I did what he told us to do on day one. Yes, you need to do the reading (equivalent of about one chapter a week). Yes, you need to drag yourself to the lectures. And yes, you are responsible for keeping up with the material because there is no homework. But this is college, you gotta work. Kiste is usually in his office and always willing to help. He has methodical and organized way of teaching that is easy to adapt to. And the quizzes are very predictable because they are straight from the lectures. Chemistry is difficult, Kiste is not.



CHEM 127 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 2:51 am, Dec 23, 2011 Report Evaluation		Kiste... His tests are too hard and focused around tricking students. They are NOT straightforward. I studied a lot for this class, and I only got an A because I've taken chemistry at a JC over the summer. In studying for the final, I looked at previous tests from other Chen teachers... Wow. There's are more straightforward and fair. Also, in lab you are quizzed every week about things you haven't learned. Seriously... He's an average teacher who teaches well but tests poorly. Avoid if you can

CHEM 127 Freshman Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 1:29 pm, Dec 19, 2011 Report Evaluation		I went to every lecture, read every chapter, took extensive notes and still failed the 2 midterms, along with almost everyone else in the class. He covered the main topics of chemistry well, and from all my studying I felt like I personally learned a lot, but his tests are horribly difficult and there is not enough time to complete them in the hour we had. I don't recommend taking if you have a choice, and if you don't, plan on putting in a lot of hours of studying.

CHEM 127 Freshman Grade Earned: C Required (Support) 12:16 pm, Dec 14, 2011 Report Evaluation		This professor was horrible. Do not take him. His testing material is impossible to answer and that resulted in a low average for the majority of the class.

CHEM 127 Sophomore Grade Earned: C Required (Support) 9:39 am, Dec 13, 2011 Report Evaluation		Lecture was filled with meaningless information that was not on the test. The average for the weekly quizzes ranged from week to week. The average for the midterm was extremely low, and blamed the class for the low average. He also refused to tell us what our grade was throughout the course claiming it was not "curved". While he is helpful during office hours, his exam question are impossible for an hour class, or general chemistry class. Having a strong chemistry class is essential, even it is a general chemistry course.

CHEM 127 Freshman Grade Earned: D Required (Support) 9:08 pm, Dec 7, 2011 Report Evaluation		Going to lecture is extremely important for this class. Kiste is a very friendly person and his lectures are helpful in understanding the material. HOWEVER, his tests are extremely difficult. 60% average on the first test, 65% average on the second. He makes the questions way too difficult for an introductory chemistry class. Take this class if you're willing to do a TON of studying because mastery, not just understanding, of the topics is what you'll need to succeed on the tests.

CHEM 127 Freshman Grade Earned: N/A Required (Major) 9:37 am, Nov 29, 2011 Report Evaluation		Avoid this professor at all costs! He is new to Cal Poly and has a terrible teaching style. He teaches the most simple things during lecture and then his tests are near impossible. The class average on both of our midterms was an F, with the highest grade being a C-. I asked a fourth year chemistry major to do some of the problems from my midterm and she couldn't even answer them. He doesn't help during office hours and will never tell you if your answer to a problem is correct. He's all around just a terrible professor.

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