Couch, Vernon  

Missed the first day, went to the second day. Went to the midterm. Went to the Final. Three days of class total. I got a B, easy. This kind of shit gives our school a bad name.

This guy is not as bad as everyone has said. He knows how to convey the material adequately. It does look like he doesn't want to be there but the midterms and quizzes were not that bad either. Doing the suggested problems helped a lot. During lab, he was not as bad as everyone said but he was a stickler about some things. Lastly, the final is the same as the other 124 classes because of the department. Average was a 66% but he curves. Overall, not a bad teacher.

a bit temperamental at times, doesn't handle simple or clarifying questions too well. sometimes makes you feel kinda silly about asking questions. he is a VERY knowledgeable professor and i enjoyed his class.

Dr.Couch is a great choice for Chemistry, his lectures are long and detailed which I beleive are good for chem cause if its boring, it might as well be clear. Everyday in lecture was just 50 minutes of notes. There are four quizzes, which are rather tough due to time constraints, and 3 tests which are more fair. The final was common and not tough at all. I did some of the homework and just studied my notes for tests and got a B. The class has a small workload which is also nice. Finally, Dr.Couch isn't a grouch or anything, but his personality isn't exactly welcoming, which may shun you away from office hours, but he does help you there!

Knows his stuff, teaches very well, has mood swings over periods of 1 month. One month cool and helpful, next month cold and mean. Grading is consistent tho.

I'm a 3rd quarter freshman, and Couch is by far the worst professor I've ever had at Cal Poly. He refuses to clarify topics. He is arrogant, and quick to anger. I took him because i read reviews on here saying, "He'll be mean sometimes and great other times." And I'm a people person, so I thought he'd warm up to me. I was wrong. The whole quarter I've never seen him crack a smile. I agree with the comment on here that says "He kicks puppies for a hobby." Oh, and he also says "Mmkay" after EVERY SENTENCE like Mr Mackey from South Park. Lectures are torture.

Dr. Couch is an interesting one. He looks like a cross between Walter White from Breaking Bad and Louis C.K. That being said, he comes off as rather condescending when answering student questions, but he definitely knows his stuff, and he's teaches A LOT. It was an hour of lecture where we just copied notes off the computer screens, and then an hour of lab, with rather extensive lab reports. Quizzes every Friday, and three midterms and a final which was a bit frustrating. Like I said, he knows his stuff, but make sure you put in the time to read the chapters, the problems on his site aren't too helpful though, so don't bother. In general, good professor, a bit critical at times.

Very short with students and temperamental. He should have been on the cast of Mean Girls.

Couch is the worst teacher I have ever had. Very condescending, lectures make no sense, unfair quizes and so on... Probably kills puppies and watches torcher porn. Vernon, if you are reading this I just want to let you know I peed in your coffee.

this teacher is horrible, dont take him, first of all, he has material on his quizzes that he doenst even cover. in lecture the stuff he covers doesn't correlate to his syllabus or chapter in the book that he says he is teaching he has this attitude that hes better than you and always says 'right' after everything he says like he expects you to know everything. on a quiz when he put on the projector some formulas that were size 8 font, some kid asked if he could write it on the board because anyone past the first row couldn't see it, so to be an @$$hole he writes it as big as the board is and asks if the kid can see it now... then he got pissed off when pretty much the entire class got up to go see it. he thinks he is a kindergarten teacher, in lab if you touch any of the material or goggles he will stop class and yell at you saying he never said you could touch anything... overall he is a horrible teacher, he doesnt seem to care. take anyone else, anyone!

Try to avoid! Horrible instructor that seems to know very little about what he is talking about. Whenever he is asked a question on the material he goes off on a tangent that has nothing to do with the question asked. During quizzes and tests he leaves the projector on with useful equations and the periodic table, but this does NOTHING because no one is able to see it in the lecture hall. This leaves everyone left to walk up and down the aisles constantly to see information that he could easily print out on a sheet. This is a horrible test-taking environment and it is hard to focus and finish the tests in time because of this. DON'T TAKE HIM!

TERRIBLE! Don't take him if you know what is good for you! He doesn't know anything and he gets mad at every little thing in class. You can't even ask him to write something more clearly on the board

TERRIBLE TEACHER. He's a jerk and doesn't teach you what you need to know. I honestly don't know how he got his job.

Noooooo!!!

Couch is an impersonal jerk. Whenever someone asks a question during class, he replies very vaguely. He seems to know his material decently well, but cannot really effectively communicate it to the rest of the class. His midterms and quizzes are usually too long, which means many people aren't able to finish them. He expects you to do every single problem from the book (yes, all 100 or so of them.) He treats his class as if it is the only class you are taking.

If you like a teacher who gets everything from the book, and you also like teachers who dont give you enough time for tests, then this guy would be great for you. For every other sane person out there, avoid this guy.

Worst teacher ever!! First of all his labs and lectures don't go parallel. Secondly he finished chapter 17 thermodynamics in one lecture and that too the lecture before the midterm! He expects us to do ALL the problems at the end of the book which is usually around 100!! His lectures sometimes feel like he is yelling at us! He sucks at everything! He is such a *insert bad word* during the lab....doesn't let anyone touch the lab instruments UNLESS EVERYONE HAS GOGGLES ON....you'll hear that plenty of times....

This is one of the worst teachers I have had. He does not know how to teach. He doesn't give enough time for us to do the suggested problem, which for each chapter are 100 atleast. He doesn't go over different examples in class and expects us to know every way of solving different problems for the exam. I strongly suggest that no one should take him.

If you value your sanity and your cumulative GPA, you will avoid this professor at all costs.

Couch is a new teacher here at Poly and I took him because I wanted to get CHEM 125 out of the way but I wish I had waited another quarter to get a better professor. He was a bad lecturer. His lectures were very conceptual and qualitative but his tests and quizzes were almost all quantitative and mathematical. Quizzes weren't bad but the Midterms were ridiculously hard. The Final was pretty hard but I studied my ass off for it and did well. In the end he curved the class and I somehow miraculously ended up with an A. So I guess that was nice of him but it didn't make up for the fact that he did not do a great job at actually teaching the material. He was pretty helpful in office hours so go to office hours all the time! And take the SWS course that goes with chem 125 you wont regret it.

Couch was just bad. He was an awkward public speaker in front of his own students, constantly pacing back and forth and hardly ever seeing students' hands raised because he never looks up at those he is teaching! He assigns 100+ problems for every chapter, (every one) and hardly covers anything relevant in lecture, just proving equations. Quizzes are okay, but midterms and the final were pretty damn hard because you basically have to teach yourself. Then, in lab, he is anal about everything, just adding to the whole experience. All in all, the only good thing was that he curved the final grade (Amen!). I would not recommend him!

I'm actually pretty surprised at some of the evaluations from this quarter. I thought Couch was a pretty decent teacher. He presents the material pretty well. Goes over conceptual things better than he does examples. Sometimes he doesn't have time to do examples for certain things but if you look in the book there are examples that are easy to learn from. He was pretty helpful and nice in lab, but graded the labs a little bit to strictly in my opinion. Quizzes were pretty easy and I would have done better if I spent time on the class throughout the quarter instead of just before exams. The tests were pretty easy with the exception of the second midterm. I'm not sure he really thought about the factor of time at all when he made the test haha. The final was exactly like the midterms, just like he said. Personally, I'd take him again if I had to take Chem 125 again.

Good News: I passed this class and I never have to take another Chem class again. Not so good news: Couch was kind of terrible teacher. He was confusing, disorganized, random, sarcastic and rude, inconsiderate, and paced awkwardly. He has some fillers that became VERY annoying by the end of the quarter. Lab consisted of confusion (on his, the TA's, and the students parts) and yelling. However, I was in office hours practically every week (and I'm sure he still didn't know my name by the end of the quarter) and he is pretty helpful one-on-one. I was able to get a few points back on tests and labs just by talking to him. The tests were fairly difficult, but the final had essentially the same questions as the midterms (study the hard problems). Partial credit was easy to get, even when I had no idea what I was doing. Overall, Couch is a good guy, not a great teacher, but if you're a good student and are willing to put in the work, get Chem over with ASAP.

Dr. Couch can convey the material in this class well. That is the only thing he does well. Straight up, he is an asshole. He clearly hates teaching, and I do not see how he ever became a teacher in the first place with such lack of social skills. He does not answer questions well, and he is obviously too smart to talk to any student. If you thought he was an asshole in lecture, just check out his lab sections. It appears that he has something very large stuck up his ass before every lab because I have never had such tight ass teacher. Definitely the worst teacher that I have had at Cal Poly. He should be fired.

I honestly believe that professor Couch kicks puppies as a hobby. He is the meanest teacher I have ever had. He will ridicule you if you ask a question. His quizzes are incredibly hard and he tries to find the topic he talked about the least. He gives you a 90 minute test in a one hour test period. His lectures are droll and go on and on. Thank god I never have to take chem again. If you have the option of jumping off a cliff and taking 125 from this man, take to the cliff.

If I had to say one thing about Dr. Couch, it would be concerning his condescending and terse manner in responding to students questions. This made it very hard to ask questions, knowing that you would be passive aggressively berated for such an 'obvious' question. Besides this, he was a okay. My grade mainly resulted from just sucking at chemistry

Ok lets be real now, he does make this class very easy if you take notes, pay attention to in-class examples, and ask questions. Asking questions in his class almost guaranteed a belittling tone in his response but thats the price of an A. I didn't try office hours suck up but I would guarantee that it would get you an A, especially if your a cute freshman pretending to be lost in the material. Whatever you do don't show him up in lecture or ask him to answer the question you asked instead of the question he thought of in response to the question like I did. He ignored me and didn't teach me the rest of the course (6 weeks). I had to get the material through the lab tech after the incident.

Literally the worst professor I have ever had the displeasure of dealing with

horrible teacher and you will be lucky if you can get through the quarter without him making you feel like a dumbass. Learned nothing from the class except that couch is more than just a dick he is a superdick.

Up until I had Dr. Couch, all of my professors at Cal Poly were nice, delightful people (at least to some extent) and I thought I had finally gotten away from the monotonous high school-esque teachers that held grudges against students and were there for paychecks instead of teaching the students. I'll admit he does know his stuff for the most part, but taking him is not worth it just by how much of an ass he is. This kid in our class didn't have a scientific calculator and tried using his TI83 and totally got grilled for like five minutes during our final. Also whenever I tried asking something he would come off as snarky and condescending. Lab reports were a pain in the ass also just by how long they were. With that said, pretty easy class if you apply yourself... but Couch is a straight up prick.

Dr. Couch does not seem to care about his students at all. Additionally, he often lectures for 3 hours straight; I cannot focus on the material for that long. I don't think CHEM 125 is the class he wants to be teaching. The only times he really seemed interested and engaged was when he was going off on his own tangent. He's absurdly strict and threatened to kick me out of class for having my phone out before he started lecturing. Class had not officially started since it wasn't 12:10 yet. Overall he is unreasonable and even mean. I would not recommend him to my friends.

Couch has obviously been teaching chemistry for years and really knows the subject well and will get you all the information you need for tests and quizzes. I strongly suggest just studying your thorough notes and skip the reading from the book to save you time and money. He is very stubborn in listening to why you think another answer could be correct EVEN if you're technically correct. Again, study every square inch of your notes. First midterm is easy. Second is harder and same with the final. His lectures are extremely dry and sometimes can be the full three hours. He treats it like you're going to be a future chemist instead of a ME or CE trying to get the class out of the way. He curves the final grade and drops your lowest quiz.

Couch is an incredibly impersonal teacher and his lectures are really boring, but he is understanding about how hard chemistry can be and was really helpful in office hours and in curving the tests. His quizzes were all online and give you multiple attempts, which made getting 100% on them really easy. Everything on the tests are covered in lecture, and he usually focuses on bigger concepts and gives partial credit.

Couch is AWESOME!!!! I know some of these evaluations look bad but Couch must have read up on his evaluations and changed his teaching methods because he is great. Unlike many chemistry teachers, HE ACTUALLY TEACHES. Assigns about 20-40 problems per chapter and posts a practice midterm(s) and final for students to take before the exam. The practice exams are exactly what you can expect going into the test! Yes he is a bit of a stickler for the lab stuff but for good reason! His quizzes require that you know all equations you used in lab the week before. Just do the homework, make sure your lab reports are completed on time, study for about 20 minutes before each lab quiz, and do the practice exams he sends out BEFORE looking at the answer key to make sure you know the material and you're sure to get an A. And call me crazy but he reminds me of Seth Green.

Professor Couch is clear in his lectures, however, he expects you to know material from the textbook that he doesn't cover. Doing many (if not all) of the practice problems in the book and then going to office hours is extremely helpful. I failed the first midterm and he was very willing to work with me and help me. Although participation wasn't a part of the final grade, going to office hours paid off in several ways.

Horrible teacher. He has high expectations of his students but is lazy about his teaching style and quick to anger. Don't take him unless you have a very high tolerance for a rude teacher.

I honestly don't know why Couch's rating are so low. I had him fall quarter and he is way better then my current proffesor. His tests were more than fair and he is super helpful during office hours. I would take him again if i get the chance.

Couch was absolutely no help in helping advance my understandings of Chemistry. He has a VERY short fuse and got annoyed if too many students asked him questions. He expects everyone to understand concepts the first time he explains them, and is not willing to spend extra time with you to explain these concepts further. If chemistry is not your strong suit, avoid Couch; if it is, I still reccommend getting another professor.

Professor Remus Lupin.

Failed OCHEM last quarter with Dr.Carrol, absolutely killed it with Couch... Have close to an A going into the final. He'd hold review sessions right before all the tests that really helped. Would also assign homework before the tests that were basically the same exact problems. He wasn't trying to trick anyone.

Dr. Couch is an amazing person, his office door was always open and he was always willing to give a helping hand. He lectures very clearly and makes difficult material easy to understand, and if you dont understand just wait until after class or ask him in office hours and he will gladly answer any questions you have. He also offers review session before exams which are very useful! overall great instructor!!!!!!

Couch is a really great professor, but his class is pretty hard. Ochem is really difficult to teach and I thought his lectures were straightforward, relevant and interesting. Although he sometimes isn't very good at answering questions in lecture, he is great one on one in office hours and will explain any questions you have in depth. His tests are pretty hard, but he gives to a super comprehensive study guide that is practically identical to the test. Whatever you do, pay attention in lecture, literally every word is important. Only bad thing though is that the homework sometimes really doesn't help you learn most of his topics in lecture. Other than that, he is great in lecture and as a lab prof for this course

Couch is awesome. He teaches the material in a way that students can understand and the tests are designed for students to succeed. If you go to lecture, do the homework, and do the study guides you should be well prepared for the exams. He is also very fair and wants his students to do well.

A decent professor. Although his lectures are generally unhelpful (he never expalains in detail, just glosses through what is already written in the book) I would still recommend him because his tests and quizzes are surprisingly easy and reasonable. No lab quizzes are an added bonus as well.

Pretty awful professor, and a weird dude overall. He liked to throw up a bunch of stuff in the last 5 min of class and say "you're free to leave, buuuut you should know this stuff." He was a little better in lab but also a little meaner there too. Chem 312 is a hard course to begin with, definitely take the supplemental workshop with it and if you can; don't take Couch!