Erker, Jay  

AVOID. NEEDS TO BE FIRED. AWFUL TEACHER. "Dr." Erker is an a**hole. He is a terrible teacher and if it weren't for the three student helpers in the class everyone would have an F. He realized the class did bad on a quiz so he decided to keep giving quizzes every class until we stopped failing them but he never would go over them or teach us what we were doing wrong so the quizzes continued to be F's. Then he would teach new material and never make sure we understood the old material so all of our grades started plummeting. Super rude man. Screamed at a student that walked in our class to deliver a message. Continued to yell at him to get out at the top of his lungs. He doesn't explain well and he gets mad in class when he asks a question and no one answers because no one knows the answer.

He never showed us how to actually do anything. First off, he used his Chem 127 lecture slides the whole entire quarter until the last day he changed the name on the slides, but not the actual slides. This made the class very confusing because you never knew exactly what you needed to know and what slides to ignore. He rambled about on and on unnecessary stuff and then would say "Oh, but you don't need to know that for the test". Next, he would post a good amount of examples, but he never one posted the answers to them or showed how to do them so we as students never knew if we were doing them correct. Finally, he is the WORST teacher with his emails, I sent him multiple emails throughout the quarter and did not get a single response which is funny because his response to everything is, "shoot me an email and I'll take care of it." 10/10 would never recommend him as a teacher. I only got an A in the class because of the Student Assistant.

The most confusing, unclear class I have ever taken. Whenever we took a quiz and failed, he would never go over what we did wrong or how to do the problem. Lectures were unclear and he used Chem 127 slides for the whole quarter. Things he told us we did not have to know appeared on quizzes and the midterm. Impossible to succeed in this class unless you actually understood Chem before taking this course.

For anyone taking this class that isn't a science major or have a PhD in chemistry: you will hate your entire quarter. I transferred into this course and loved it. Then I had day two. I sat at a table of seven drop dead gorgeous girls and I still dreaded going to this class. He gave us practice problems that he never posted the answers to, so I had no idea if I was doing them correctly and when I asked him if my work looked correct, he responded with "I don't know...probably." How in the hell am I supposed to learn if he gives us practice problems that he doesn't even know the answers to. On top of that, he gave us countless quizzes to fail and when we failed them, he gave us MORE QUIZZES WITHOUT EXPLAINING THEM. I went into this class with a basic understanding of chemistry–I took it in high school and aced it. However, I am pretty sure this class lessened the amount of chemistry I knew. I knew stoichiometry like the back of my hand in high school but when taking this class , it was beyond difficult and I failed the majority of the stoichiometry quizzes of the same difficulty as my high school course. I would like to think of myself as a pretty smart guy but there was no way in hell that I could have done well in this class strictly because of the horrific teaching abilities he had. If you choose to take this class, transfer immediately because he is absolutely horrible teacher and will ruin your quarter.

This guy is great. Definitely knows his stuff, and is very helpful in office hours

Jay is super enthusiastic in class, yet he still bores me because it doesn't make him a good teacher. Chemistry is not hard, but he finds a way to teach it in such a way that makes it challenging. He is super disorganized in his lectures and talks way too much. He uses PowerPoint slides with a ton of information that is usually not helpful at all. Sure, he is a nice guy but he is an awful professor. If you want to struggle more than necessary for a class, take him.

same exact experience as the guy above me^

Dr. Erker is not nearly as bad as this site makes him seem. He is great at keeping an enthusiastic, energetic attitude while teaching (even on Tuesdays/Thursdays from 6-9 PM), which I really appreciated. Plus, he's actually a really nice guy if you get the chance to talk to him for a bit. That being said, he has his flaws in his teaching style. First off, he can be fairly condescending and passive aggressive. This got ridiculous a few times this quarter, especially when the second round of midterm grades came out. Too often he blames his students for poor performance, rather than seeing how he can adjust his teaching to bump up scores, which is unfair. Second off, he can't write a test for his life. His questions are often poorly worded, and have mistakes/typos throughout, which makes it terribly difficult to understand what he's looking for in any given problem. Lastly, he does seem to teach certain concepts in a more confusing way than is necessary. However, if you use Erker as a resource and put the substantial effort into this class that it takes to succeed, this class won't be nearly as bad as it seems. Considering the CHEM dept here, he is one of the better introductory options.

Absolutely avoid Dr. Erker for any intro level courses. He is the worst teacher I've ever had. He's extremely disorganized and makes mistakes all the time. He explicitly told us certain concepts were not going to be on the midterm, then half the test was on them. The class average for the second midterm was in the 50s, and he told us if we all earn Fs, that's what he'll give us. We have to correct him all the time in lecture on things as basic as stoichiometry. For our last lab, he gave us the wrong molarity for some of our materials and contaminated unknowns, then proceeded to say he will only give us "partial credit" because our answers are all incorrect (literally most of the class had these contaminated materials). He jumps around constantly during lecture and never explains a topic to a point that we actually understand, so we never actually know what our labs are supposed to be showing us. There are so many people at his office hours (because all of us are in the same boat here) that I've stopped going because I'll be five people deep into the hallway with his office full of students. It was an extremely frustrating class this quarter, and I really like chemistry. I would have no problem at all with someone who is just a tough grader or expects a lot from us, but Erker is just plain bad at his job, and then expects unfair results from us.

This is a very difficult class, and a lot of material is covered. I think that Erker does a pretty good job in his lectures of explaining the material, but there is so much for him to discuss that it requires extra effort to do well in this class. At the end of every class, he will post a list of things that the class needs to/should do before the next class, and that was very helpful for me. I think most people complain about Erker or other professors here just because this is a hard class, not really because Erker is a bad teacher. Doing well in this class just requires a lot of effort, but if you do all of the work and bring any questions you have to his office hours he is very helpful, and very clearly answers them. I think that people complaining about Erker expect to be able to just go to every class and learn everything they need to, but that isn't the case, this is just a very difficult class that requires a fair amount of time outside of the lecture/lab

AVOID Erker if you can. At first his enthusiasm made me think this was going to be a fun class but after three weeks I was so sick of him, his unorganized lectures, and his rough grading that I withdrew from his class. Avoid avoid avoid.

The course is lab / lecture combined into one, and Erker dedicated all of the lecture towards the lab. With no textbook, lecture, or information online, its kind of hard to learn the material. Doesn't help that some of what he says in lecture is wrong. I'm not terrible at plain Chemistry, but I hate memorization and I wasn't willing to put time into it for this class, but this guy expects you to memorize a ton of terms, formulas and stuff. Its a waste of time. First class I have ever gotten a C in, and I think I understood the material better than most. He tried to do demonstrations for reactions five times - of which 3 times he failed. Once heard him say he likes it when students fail because its "more interesting." Once described current as movement of protons - not as a way of explaining, as he never mentioned electrons in that lecture. He is pretty full of himself, but over the quarter I got the impression he doesn't know what he's talking about.

I am not even a member of his class, and I know he's a bad professor. I have a friend who is in his class, however. We are both in chem 124 at the same time, so I thought I would help my friend out because she was having a hard time in chem, and I was doing pretty well in my own class. Despite this fact, when I tried helping her, I had absolutely no idea what they were learning. It seemed as if they weren't even doing chemistry because everything was so insanely difficult. We worked on labs together, and Erker's labs aren't even the same as the labs other chemistry sections do. His labs have similar concepts, but are just 1000 times harder. He says it's more "interesting" when people fail vs when they pass, and he purposely makes things harder because he enjoys to see people struggle (I'm not making this up; he literally said this). Again, I don't even have him as a professor, and I know he's bad. That fact in itself should be a testament to how terrible of a teacher he is. DON'T TAKE HIM! (The grade my friend got in her class is a B-, after studying her ass off for 2 weeks for the final exam. If you don't literally slave your life away for Erker's chem class, don't expect to get anything above a C)

While Dr. Erker is clearly passionate about chemistry, he is not passionate about introductory chemistry. He sees the classs as a way of showing kids how to “problem solve” which is great, but the problems you need to solve require chemistry knowledge. He doesn’t teach that. His terrible lectures are only related to the lab you’ll do that week/day and his midterms are a hit or miss on the hat you look through the text. He gets off to the idea of you “teaching yourself” which is an excuse for him not teaching the material himself. He cares about chemistry, and that is obvious by his tangents about “how much cooler chemistry gets” but that isn’t helpful for someone just being introduced to the idea of a mole. Overall, if you can get anything out of this rating, it is this: don’t be a chucklefuck and don’t take Erker.

I feel like people do not give Erker enough credit. I feel like Erker was very effective in his teaching of the material. Sure, the number of labs we had to do was really frustrating, but if you are really willing to put in the time, an A is definitely possible. My advice? GO TO OFFICE HOURS. Erker does a really good job of explaining material, and if you have any trouble ever, he will help you understand. Overall, if you are willing to put in the time, erker is a great option, and you will learn a lot.

The guy above me is wrong. The ratings here are accurate for what a professor should be. Erker does NOT present the material clearly, and while if you have some chemistry knowledge, you should be able to receive a high grade, that is not the point of a college level course! He is absolutely terrible as someone who is supposed to *give* knowledge rather than appreciate it. I gained absolutely nothing out of his class and I suggest, if you are in the interest of actually leaning, to take someone else instead.

The most unorganized adult I've seen at cal poly. Not good at explaining concepts at all. You'll do fine if your high school did a good job teaching chem, or if you took AP chem. For the second midterm, he told us it wouldn't be cumulative, but lo and behold he pulled a fast one and surprised us with material that was indeed from the first part of the quarter. What does that mean? It means he doesn't communicate (and doesn't respond to emails either). Not the end of the world if you're self sufficient and have taken chem before, but he should be your last choice.

Professor. Erker is not as bad as everyone says he is. He is great at keeping an enthusiastic, energetic attitude during a 4-6 on MWF, which I loved. He lectures in a way that makes you want to listen and participate which makes the class go by a lot faster. That being said, he has his flaws in his teaching style. He explains concepts in a roundabout way and makes the labs a lot harder than they need to be. However, if you use Erker as a resource and put effort in, this class won't be nearly as bad as it seems. His office hours are incredibly helpful and the best ones I have ever gone to and at least in our class of 14 people he would make sure to sit down and answer questions if you had any. However, he never responds to email which is a bit frustrating and sometimes uses the LAs a little too much. Overall for a general chem class, Erker is great option but definitely better in smaller class sizes and best in a one-on-one setting.

man, i love this guy as a person. as many have pointed out, he has a lot of enthusiasm for chem, and he is very smart and knows a lot about advanced chem and QM. but he is really a god-awful teacher, atleast for introductory chem. i took AP chem last year so i know like 80% of the material beforehand, so the class is a breeze for me. HOWEVER i feel SO bad for anyone who hasn't done chem since like sophomore year in high school because his whole teaching structure is completely backwards. you literally start off learning about spectroscopy, energy levels, quantum numbers, etc. then the LAST things he teaches us is covalent bonding and stoichiometry, which is IMO a completely backwards approach to teaching chemistry. his tests are fairly difficult, nothing you won't see if you do the homework and pay attention to the lectures tho. also he grades the labs quite brutally. i get A's on most of the tests and quizzes but C's and low B's on labs because he removes a shitton of points for small errors. bottom line is if you took AP chem, take the class for the easy A and because youll learn some basic quantum mechanics and overall have fun with ur lab group. if you are unfamiliar or dont remember much of chem, DO NOT TAKE ERKER

I don't like leaving bad reviews, and I have nothing bad to say about the personality of Erker, he's a good guy who's passionate about chem and wants to teach others chemistry. However From what I understand, he would introduce us to a topic and then test us on its intricacies. I say "from what I understand" because people that are in the class who have already taken AP Chem have told me that they don't know how students taking chem for the first time are passing. I didn't study for any classes in high school and am still improving my study habits in college, but after reading the entire assigned textbook sections, reviewing all assignments and handouts, and even going to office hours to clarify things I still felt unsure on, I got a 60/110 on the second midterm. In my opinion, that's unacceptable. If the book, handouts, and asking questions can't even get a passing grade on the things that he's testing us on I don't know what will. To cut him some slack, I believe that he would be a much better professor in upper division chemistry. I believe that I heard that he doesn't normally teach 124, and constantly during lectures would mention something and then say "If you're taking chem _ _ _ you'll dive in to this topic deeper."

So Erker is a great guy, hard not to like him. But his teaching style was relatively disorganized, and he tends to talk in the most confusing way possible. No actual homework is due, but the homework quizzes take questions from the recommended homework and tests you on it. Problem is Erker doesn't believe in giving answers, so you will never know the answers to homework questions, exam questions, quiz questions, post-lab questions, worksheets, etc. This makes it difficult to understand what you're doing wrong until the last second, aka when you get a midterm back and see that you were actually doing something wrong, or a lot of things wrong. So if you have him, you should probably aim to go to office hours to check that you're doing stuff right, or compare with people with chem majors, otherwise you will get wrecked. Midterms/exams are kinda crazy hard, but study his worksheets and the homework and you'll do fine, assuming he doesn't murder you with the free response. But Erker does want the best for you. I pulled a D on the first midterm, and B+ on the second, but he noticed the improvement and said that if I did well enough on the final, he would reduce the weight of the first midterm, saying one bad day shouldn't ruin the quarter. I ended up with an A- in the class, so I can only thank Erker for giving me a second chance lol. Bottom line is that he's a good guy, but not a great teacher, so the class will stress you out, but if you push through and use him as a resource, you'll do fine.

Avoid this professor if you can. He is extremely disorganized, taught in a way that made no sense to most people, and is a difficult grader. If you aren't a CHEM major and are just taking this course to pass fulfill a requirement, do not take this guy. The material really isn't that hard but he finds a way to make it really difficult

Professor Jay Erker is a new teacher at Cal Poly. I believe he tries really hard but hasn't gotten the hang of teaching yet. He gives midterms and finals without really telling the students what information will be on them. In the beginning of the year we spent about a month doing Excel graphing with our labs and it was so unnecessary and time consuming. I honestly didn't learn much of anything from this class. The only plus was the time he wore his fedora to our midterm with his hair down, so great!

Dr. Jay is a cool guy. He is a new teacher and you can tell that he is unorganized, his lectures do not really make sense or match up with homework problems, but he is extremely helpful during office hours and you can tell that he cares about his students success.

Great personality and truly wants his students to succeed. Though the lectures always left me confused, if you go in for office hours ,Dr.Erker is incredibly helpful and wanting to help you.

This teacher was absolutely awful. I chose the instructor, Drew, and halfway through summer they switched it on me. I may have earned an A in the class, but it was by no means due to any instruction from him. He curved our class 9% due to his failed teaching. He does NOT present material in any helpful way at all. His powerpoints are random, make no sense, and don't relate to the material on the test. He'll give practice examples in them, but never explain them fully or even give us the answer. Half the time he does an example on the board, he does something wrong and writes so microscopic and disordered that you don't understand what even is going on. He spends 90% of the time lecturing on something that doesnt make sense, and then 10% on labs. He doesnt teach you how to do the prelabs or post labs so you end up with awful grades on them. He assigns weekly homework and grades it harshly -- even if you copy it verbatim from the solutions manual he finds something to mark it wrong for. Overall, this teacher is plain AWFUL and I would avoid him at all costs. He didn't prepare us at all for the final all the chem classes take, so we were SOL because he didnt know what he was doing. He fudges due dates and even moved the midterm SOONER than when was on the syllabus. He has no idea what he is doing, and he's rude. He doesn't understand how to teach, and he is so horrible that it sets you behind for the rest of the chem series.

Erker is a new teacher, and it clearly shows. He has a very hard time communicating material in an understandable way to freshmen Gen Chem students. Although you can tell he is extremely bright, his lectures are confusing and unorganized. The tests were extremely difficult compared to other teacher's tests for the same class. I would not recommend taking Erker. He made the material much more difficult to understand than it actually was.

Dr. Erker is a sweet guy, but he is seriously lacking in his teaching skills. He does powerpoints and talks for his lectures, the powerpoints are very unorganized and he clicks through them kind of quickly. Its hard listening to what he has to say while you are worrying about writing all of the info from the powerpoint down before he switches to the next one; he also talks way to long, it gets really boring, really quickly! He messes up frequently and questions himself when he is doing examples for the class and when he comes around during class to answer questions, he isn't very helpful. If you take his class, he is most helpful during office hours! He is great one on one in his office, not so great when it comes to teaching a 40 person lecture/lab.

Dr. Erker is new, and it definitely shows. But although he has a hard time communicating the material to the students, he really pushes to attend his office hours and to always email and ask for help in class. I think that he knows he isnt the best at communicating, so it is really important to make sure ( for your own sake) that you understand something because he will gladly help. I DO NOT RECOMMEND for chem 127 but for chem 128 and 129 he is a fine teacher who is willing to help, if you want it.

Erker is a really funny guy but I would not recommend taking him. I basically taught myself this entire class by reading the book because he is so unorganized in his teaching that I couldn't follow along. I think if you are capable of following along that it wouldn't be too bad because he can teach but I'm the type of person that needs it all straightforward. However, even if you can pay attention, you better know everything by heart because his tests are impossible. The multiple choice was never too hard except on the final it was ridiculous, but the free response was so hard! Thank god for partial credit. Also, the entire free response section on the final was something that he taught us on the last day of class and nobody knew how to do. He likes to put a lot of the labs on the tests so make sure you pay attention to those and he also likes to put stuff that he didn't teach on the tests so you are kinda screwed in general. The average of the tests were always really low. Be prepared for a lot of studying but I think that no matter what teacher this class will be hard either way.

Professor Erker is a super nice guy and a pretty good teacher. I was worried because his rating on polyratings was really low, but after the first few classes it was clear that he's made some serious improvements since those ratings were created. His lectures are very clear and he goes through everything systematically and makes sure the majority of the class understands the topic before moving on to the next topic. Lots of practice problems given in class so you know if you understand the material or not and can ask questions if you don't. He is VERY helpful during office hours and is willing to spend as much time helping you as you need. He loves chemistry and cares a lot about his students. Most friendly teacher I've met here. He honestly wants to do a good job teaching. His office hours are incredibly useful and also fun because he's such a nice person to hang out with. CHEM 127 is a difficult class for me, but that may be because chem is not an easy subject for me and I've always struggled. Lots of resources to help you get through this class... use them.

This teacher is very enthusiastic about what he does, but he also goes off topic a lot. This was confusing when it came to knowing what to study for the final. Make sure you do all the suggested homework and worksheets so you know what you will be tested/quizzed on. There is much outside class studying necessary. The labs are very harshly graded so make sure your titles and answers are perfect, if not s justification. On the bright side there are helpful study workshops where you can potentially take practice tests. Because the average for his assignments are so low, there is usually a pretty nice curve. Will be testing another teacher next quarter.

I absolutely adore Dr. Jay! I�m not quite sure why he has such a low rating on here, because he is one of the best professors I�ve ever had. He�s super passionate about chemistry, which shows in every lecture and makes him totally endearing. He definitely knows his stuff, and if you go to office hours, he�ll spend as much time as you need going over the material until you understand it. There were two midterms, a final, and various homework quizzes and labs. Labs are graded by the LAs, and they take a while to get a feel for how they�re graded. The free response portion of the exams can be brutal, so definitely go to office hours and do the worksheets Jay provides on Poly Learn. That being said, this is definitely a class that needs extra time and effort outside of class put in to get a decent grade. But hey, it�s college and that should be expected. The professor can�t make you learn the material. I'm stoked to take Dr. Jay for 128.

Jay is a good guy. He tests hard, but curves generously. Super helpful in office hours, and presents info in class pretty well. Would recommend

I have never failed a class in my life, 3.7 cal poly GPA prior to this class, I worked hard, gave this class everything I had and failed. The amount of time I put into this class caused other grades to suffer as well. Jay Ercker is a very, very bad teacher with a good personality, so he likely earns good polyratings from students who have extensive backgrounds in Chemistry prior to his class. Unless you had a great high school chem teacher or have taken AP, I strongly recommend NOT TAKING THIS CLASS AT ALL COSTS, and I am being generous right now, I felt much more strongly about this class while I was taking it. As far as what the actual class is like, he jumps around the book, so you don't know what to study besides the homework, he gives very difficult quizzes once per week, and you will either cover as much as 100 pages of text in a week or you will have multiple labs in addition to thirty to forty pages of text. The labs are by far the most forgiving portion of the class, they are very time consuming, but not too difficult. The midterms are very difficult and the final is a nightmare. Most students who are not confident in their chemistry skills prior to the class will likely earn a C- or lower, and an A is all but impossible. Taking this class a second time, with a different teacher I got an A-. A quick note for KINE majors (I am one myself). I have talked to upperclassmen in the major all of whom are 3.5+ cumulative GPA, this class was one of the lowest grades they got. The two I spoke to specifically both had tutors and were in a workshop and they got D's. Make sure you have a cushy schedule around this class. In conclusion, save yourself the time and do your GPA a favor and just get a different teacher.

Professor Erker is a nice person and is knowledgeable about chemistry. However he is an inadequate instructor who bases his teaching pace off of how many fingers students hold up. He blazes right through all of the material and never truly takes time to clarify on details because he is OBSESSED with getting ALL the labs done. If you struggle with tough concepts and need an effective instructor DO NOT take Erker because he is an inefficient professor who is not interested in teaching chemistry, only the idea of it.

I personally think that Dr. Jay is a great professor, but I know lots of people struggled with this class. I was initially super stressed about having to take this class because I didn't do so hot in AP chem back in high school, but Dr. Jay explains things with so much enthusiasm that it makes it hard to not pay attention and enjoy class. He's incredibly helpful in office hours, which I totally encourage going to because he will answer any and all questions you have (and he's not intimidating at all, so it's super easy to talk to him). I feel like I learned so much more about how chemistry actually works rather than how to just plug some numbers into an equation and call it good.

Dr. Jay is a super chill and nice guy. He tries really hard to make a hard, complicated subject fun and enjoyable. He does rant some and the class material is pretty tricky; however, he is very approachable and willing to help if he can. He's not great in office hours unless it's one on one, so I would recommend that. Also I would recommend taking the supplemental workshop and study sessions because this class isn't easy.

If this isn't a prerequisite for future classes, DO NOT TAKE. I took this class as a Business major to cross off a GE and it was unnecessarily difficult. There are workshops available, which was very helpful. You basically have to teach yourself the material and then Erker reviews it in class. He is very helpful in office hours. The class average on both midterms was a C and D. Haven't heard great things about the other 127 professors either, so if you absolutely have to take this class Erker is fine.

Dr. Erker is a really cool guy but not the greatest professor. He has a PhD in Quantum Mechanics which definitely shows. His lectures are pretty confusing due to the fact that he tells you a lot of random stuff about quantum mechanics that you do not need to know for this course (I kid you not, some of his lecture slides had "you do not need to know this" written in all caps as their title) and the fact that he will randomly skip a ton of slides during his lecture, not tell you what was on them, but expect you to know their information because they are posted online. I went to his office hours at least once a week and still got a C. I have no idea how anyone passed his class without going to office hours. In addition, he grades on a bell curve so if you are even slightly below the class average you will get curved down from a B to a C.

Prof. Erker definitely knows his information well and is enthusiastic about the subjects he teaches. However, I feel like he goes a little too fast and simply assumes you have a good knowledge of chemistry before taking his course. Definitely go to office hours if you can. I made the mistake of not going bc I was too scared he'd look at me like wtf you don't know shit. I was lost in that class. Do well on the labs and triple check you have all the requirements, check online for answers to verify. Do the homework so you're prepared for his quizzes. They're pretty much the same. I've heard his office hours are crowded so definitely talk to him as much as u can. Also, register for a workshop for this class. IT HELPS A LOT, trust me. Overall, if you know ur chemistry well, you'll like this class cuz he'll challenge you to really think and connect all the chemistry you know. GOOD LUCK!

Dr. Jay is a hard professor, but it is possible to do at least decent in his class. Here's what you need to do. Read the book, because he is very thorough with teaching the mathematical part of chemistry but not as thorough with concepts. Luckily, the majority of the points on his tests are from calculations, not conceptual questions. Second, GO TO OFFICE HOURS. He is helpful in that environment and happy to answer every question you have thoroughly. He may not be a perfect professor, but he is honestly much better than a lot of the alternatives in the CHEM department. Took him for 127 and 128 and planning on taking him for 129 in the spring.

The worst teacher I've ever had

Lets just begin with the majority of these poly rating are all accurate. Erker will begin the quarter very enthusiastic about chemistry and it is very clear he is a very well educated man and very passionate about chemistry. But this does not have any relation to his ability to teach the subject matter, ESPECIALLY for an entry level course. I appreciated the fact he asks students if they understand the material before he moves on, but rather than going over the material, he will just give you more time to stare aimlessly at the example problem he gave you with no explanation or answer guide. If you are going to take this course, you better be able to whip all you high school basic chemistry knowledge out from somewhere or else you be lost from the minute he starts lecturing to the end of the 3 hour lecture lab combo, that he just spent the entire 3 hours using for a poorly organized lecture. All I can say is if you take this class, you better have access to a workshop or friends with a different professor so you can actually brush up on basic chemistry.

Though Dr. Erker seemed to be passionate about chemistry and his students success, it simply did not translate into his teaching style. Dr. Erker was extremely unorganized in terms of course planning (leaving a high volume of labs until the end of the quarter) and telling students what to do. No help on labs or understanding. He is helpful in office hours but prepare to be there every day. This class was extremely challenging and would have gone better if Dr. Erker taught more clearly and throughly.

Dr. Erker knows the information very well but is not good at managing time and reflecting on the progress of the students. He rarely revisits information that the class clearly does not understand. For example, the average on Midterm One was a 65%. However, he did not reteach any of the commonly missed concepts nor did he ask us what topics we would like to revisit. Subsequently, the average on Midterm Two was a 62%. I understand that the quarter system is fast paced and that the class moves equally as fast. However, I feel like there are ways that the class could be better adjusted to the students. The class, lectures, and labs feel like they are rushed and often times students are given homework assignments and prelabs that we do not know how to adequately complete nor understand. Dr. Erker is extremely helpful in Office Hours, however his Office Hours are very crowded as many students come in to learn the information rather than to receive clarification on topics. The only reason I passed is because he curved the entire class significantly.

It says on poly ratings not to rip on a professor because they failed you. But clearly, Jay wants us all to fail (aside from the fact that he's really approachable and fun to talk to). I agree with the person above. The only reason why I'm gonna pass with a C is that the class is curved (uncurved I got a D). He moves through the slides WAY too fast and doesn't explain things well. I understand that he's trying his best but I feel like I got nothing out of this course. There are way too many labs at the end of the quarter and I hate how the curriculum moves backward than the typical AP Chemistry class. For the entirety of the 10 weeks of this hellhole, I regret not taking AP Chemistry while I could with a better teacher in high school and not getting credit for that. I really thought that I would have a better experience with chemistry in college, but I was bold to jump to conclusions. I've never felt this helpless, stupid, and overwhelmed in a class in my whole life, and I had multiple mental breakdowns throughout the quarter. Thank you, Jay, for ruining my GPA and taking away my chance to change my major.

He is a very nice person and all around chill dude, but the only reason I got an A in this class was because I had an awesome AP chem teacher in highschool AND he curved the class significantly because he can't teach to save his life. He overcomplicated most of the topics in his disorganized lectures and didn't explain how to do labs or homework. The quizzes were the exact same questions as in the homework, so you'd think it would make these quizzes an easy grade boost, but don't be fooled, you WILL NOT understand most of the questions without spending every waking minute in office hours, many google searches, and heavy khan academy usage. This class isn't worth it. I barely understood this class because of how heavily conceptual it is despite the fact that most of the other chem professors focus more on the math side. He expects you to make connections yourself and even put questions HE HAD NOT TAUGHT on the MIDTERM. The nail in the coffin was when he promised the class an hour on the last day for questions, DIDN'T GIVE IT, and instead introduced multiple new concepts and a new lab, whilst revealing he will have no more office hours before the final. Take this course with another professor or accept the mental breakdowns and frustrations you will feel.

Dr. Jay is one of the most enthusiastic professors I have ever had. His genuine love for the subject encouraged me to do better in class when I felt as though I would never understand the material. Although sometimes his class would be disorganized or very scattered, he was always very helpful in office hours. Because he was so approachable, it made me more comfortable to ask more in-depth questions pertaining to the subject. Dr. Jay is also one of the nicest professors, and he really cares about his students' overall success. He always took the time to ask me how I was doing in my other classes and paid attention to anything I shared with him. I had him for both Chem 127 and 128!

Erker is a great guy and incredibly enthusiastic when he teaches. His lectures were unclear and left a majority of the class confused at times, but as long as you read the textbook and take some additional notes you'll be fine. He is really helpful in office hours and cares about his students. His grading scale was based on 2 midterms, labs, classwork, and a final (no quizzes, unlike other professors). I felt like his finals focused on more specific details rather than broad concepts, so make sure you know your chemistry. Overall, Erker is a nice guy who genuinely wants you to succeed and is really helpful in office hours. His lectures are unclear, but are understandable as long as you read the textbook and take supplemental notes.

Professor Erker is the worst professor I've had thus far at Cal Poly. I took AP Chem in high school and am very good at it. I got a good grade because of teaching myself and having previous knowledge in the material and the curve. His lectures are not worth listening to and his tests are completely unfair. He expects students to know concepts and do problems far beyond what he "taught" and even beyond what the book teaches. His office hours are not helpful because he is either late or doesn't answer questions because he doesn't actually know the answers. He actually says that he is going to try to trick you and that he enjoys tricking and confusing his students. On another note, he's a pretty nice guy.

Terrible professor. What's sad is that he thinks he is such a cool guy and doing his students a favor by displaying himself as a hippy. But in reality he is a weird person who can't teach if his fuckin life depended on it. Hopefully he will GTFO of Cal Poly soon.

Erker erks me. He is such a nice person and he does try to be enthusiastic and kind but I had SUCH a hard time with his style of teaching. I am not kidding when I say I went into office hours every single time he had them. He means well but no matter how hard I tried, I ended up having to either teach myself, get help from others, or just suffer. Take him if you like an extreme challenge, otherwise, avoid if you are not a chem fanatic like myself. Good luck.

JERKER!!!!!!!!

Jay�s patience is never-ending, and that in itself is extremely commendable. It�s not often that you have a professor who is more than willing to answer all of your questions with enthusiasm (and trust me, I had a lot). I personally think that he�s one of the best professors I�ve had at Cal Poly. That being said, chemistry isn�t an easy subject, so don�t go into his class expecting all of the material to be spoon fed straight to you. You have to put in the time and effort. If you do, it�ll reflect in your grade, as Jay�s grading system is very fair. I totally recommend taking his class!

erker is bae.

Dr. Erker is a super nice guy and is very helpful in office hours (when they aren't so crowded that you can get a question in). HOWEVER, his lecture style was very hard to get used to, he kind of talks in whichever way his brain goes instead of in a way that makes sense to students. I barely scruffed by with a C, and I studied for the final for about 5 days straight...

I would highly recommend not taking this professor for Chem 128, or any of the general chem series. I took him for 128 and had huge difficulty in his class. I am a hard worker and don't slack off and normally can at least pass a class on my hard work and time commitment, but what Erker asks of you is ridiculous. This past weekend he gave us a homework assignment that took 12 hours to complete for me and even up to 17 for other students. There were about 25 students, over a third of the class, in his office today for office hours and yet he still doesn't seem to be bothered by the fact that we were all having panic attacks on the quiz for the homework we worked on. Additionally, he didn't even know half the questions on the assignment and said he was unsure about several of the answers. What kind of professor doesn't know the homework he gives his students? I have gone into office hours to ask for help and generally feel chastised for not understanding the material. He makes it seem like students haven't done enough work thinking about the problems or concepts when we have spent ample time on it. I read the textbook and take notes and STILL can't follow his lectures. They are disorganized, all over the place, hard to follow, and practically impossible to take notes for. During lectures he also asks people to put a number up, 1-5, based on how comfortable they are with the topics he taught that day, and if he sees even a couple 4s or 5s no matter how many 1s or 2s (being uncomfortable with the topic) there are he moves on to the next topic. He even knows that his class is hard and harder than other chem classes and yet still refuses to curve more than from like a C to C+ even if nobody is close to an A in the class. He creates quizzes off of homework which is nice if you have done it and gotten the right answers but he refuses to make an answer key or let you check your answers because apparently "it's part of the process of learning". His midterms are not like the quizzes and seem abstract. I would really recommend not taking this class. I know one or two people that are fine in the class and like him but personally I did not agree with how he dealt with the class, students, office hours, or tests. Even if I end up passing this class, no way will I ever take him again because the amount of mental stress his course has given me is not worth it.

ERKER FUCKING SUCKS, no matter how hard I tried, he was such a fucking asshole. Unless you want to kill yourself, don't take his class!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dr. Erker is a fine person, but a pretty bad professor. In class his lectures are unorganized, chaotic, and he fails to see when the class is not understanding the material. Even when 75 percent of the class is giving a 1 or 2 on his 1-5 understanding scale he will still continue forward with the lecture rather than clarifying the material. In order to succeed in his class one needs to attend office hours at least once a week. I understand that in many classes going to office hours is important, but with Dr. Esker's class I think that too much of a student's ability to succeed in the class in dependent on their ability to attend office hours. If you have class conflicts with his office hours you're pretty screwed. I also heard Dr. Erker say to a student that he was going to make the final harder because the class average for Lab was too high so the class curve was too high. I don't understand this. Why not be happy that students are succeeding and understanding the labs and make the final an appropriate difficulty? Why does the curve need to be low? Even if he was going to do this I think it is unprofessional to say that to students. Erker is a fine person but I think that he makes the content harder to understand that it needs to be. If you've ended up in his class and can't change your schedule my recommendations are to 1) Attend office hours as much as possible. It's the only time you can make sure you did the homework right and essentially where most of the learning for this class is done. 2) Always do the homework. Getting good quiz grades could save you. 3) Before midterms know the conceptual stuff (read textbook chapters/look over his slides again), their easy points on the midterms.

Ruined my GPA

Erker is by far my favorite teacher at Cal Poly. Super smart guy. I would have his babies because I want kids as smart as him.

Dr. Erker is a nice guy and is very smart!! Unfortunately he does not present the class in a way that makes it possible to learn. His slides are never helpful and taking notes in class is difficult because he is so scrambled. Also he never gives answer keys to his homework which makes it impossible to know if you are dong it right. His tests are unreasonably hard and he had to curve the class almost 15% just to have enough students pass. Over all I had a really hard time in this class and he should be avoided at all costs.

If you're not a dumbass who needs to be carried by your professor, this man is the best.

Dr. Erker is an awful teacher and an awful chemist. His lectures consist of ramblings, confusing/pointless real-world applications, and powerpoints chock-full of countless equations, figures, and graphs he makes no effort to explain. He skips around on slides, showing some for a second at a time. Erker also consistently makes typos on ALL his material (homework, quizzes, midterms) that he will definitely not notice until someone points it out. Erker posts "homework" on PolyLearn that isn't actually due but is supposed to help you study; however, he never reviews it or posts the correct answers on PL. Finally, he will probably never answer an email from you, or even read it. Several times a day, Erker will ask the class to hold up 1-5 fingers based on how well they understand whatever concept/process is being discussed. Most of the class doesn't participate in this, and Erker only needs to see a few people holding up 5 to be convinced that the entire class gets it. Even when people show 1 or 2 fingers, he ignores them and moves on without further explanation. I think this system is extremely flawed and is a terrible metric of how well he is teaching. Labs are usually rushed because Erker wasted so much time earlier in class. I say he's a bad chemist because he is totally fine with your group getting a single data point instead of doing multiple trials. This makes labs easier, but you don't really learn from them if you just copy trial data from another group who did a different experiment. The average score on Midterm 1 was 54%, with a standard deviation of around 16. This is the sort of class average I expect to see on ochem tests, not 100-level chem tests. I study the material, do the labs, and participate in class, and even then, I was completely lost and guessed or didn't get answers for half of it. My score was near the average. Most students I spoke to felt the test was unfairly difficult. Many of the questions on the midterm were extremely confusing and poorly worded, and I had a hard time figuring out what they were asking. Erker laughed about how low the scores were as if it were all a big joke before announcing that he decided they were too low to curve. Switch the fuck out if you get him, seriously. I wish I did.

Oh man, yeah, that was a hard class. 128 is not a breeze and Erker definitely does not help. I took this class as a freshman and later retook it to help my GPA (C to an A). Granted I was way worse at chem back then, but I remember how bad he was at explaining material. It is a passable class, and he curves, but I have never had a harder test than his final. All my friends that took him for 128 or other gen chem series agreed that his midterms and final were some of the hardest tests they have ever taken. I know a good amount of people he failed that I know didn't just dick around in his class. You don't have to avoid this class, but if you have a tough schedule, I would consider waiting a quarter for a new professor if possible.

Jay Erker is a terrible professor. He should be fired. He is unorganized, rude, unhelpful, and just plain bad at teaching. Cal Poly should be thoroughly embarrassed to have him as a professor.

My final grade in this class was a C+ which I was surprised about seeing as I worked my ass off all quarter. I went to almost every single one of his office hours as well as never missed a class, yet I still struggled on the midterms and final. His test are hard, he constantly talks about how textbook example problems are deceivingly easy, but so are his practice problems compare to his test questions. One of the hardest things about this class is you will never get an actual answer out of him. None of his homework problems or slide problems will ever have an answer and he never goes over examples in class. The few times he went over examples in class he would do it halfway or attempt to do it in his head never actually give you an answer that was 100%. I suggest taking any other professor possible.

Dr. Jay is the nicest and most enthusiastic professor I have ever had and his lab was actually fun! He is kind of disorganized in lecture and his exams are extremely lengthy and difficult. I worked so hard in this class and still could not get an A.

This dude is really cool. He's also very smart. Too bad he can't teach or write a test. Ah well, some people should just stick to research. Avoid if possible.

Erker is the best professor I have had at poly! He is so helpful in office hours and you learn about chem and so much more. If you're willing to make the effort to try and learn, he will be a huge help and you'll have a great experience in his class. I highly recommend him!

Jay is a really nice guy but not the best professor. You can tell he has a real passion for what he is teaching but that doesn't make up for his lack of teaching skills. His lectures are powerpoint presentations with blocks of text and he moves very quickly. He bases the speed of his lectures on the number of fingers students hold up. This system sucks because half the class never does it and the ones who do always hold up 5's (meaning they understand and should move on to new material). His quizes are the exact same questions that he assigns for homework, so this is clutch. Midterms are super hard. The average for both of mine was 63% and 64%. Overall he is slightly below average. But he has a good sense of humor and its pleasant to be around.

Erker is the true homie (not just because he's nice, either. He can actually teach this stuff really well).

Erker is one of the best professors I've ever had, high school included. This is my third consecutive quarter with him for both lecture and lab, and I have no regrets. He's very passionate about what he teaches, but the material is not easy. Chemistry is hard as fuck, yo. That being said, he's equally passionate about making sure his students succeed. I was genuinely terrified I was going to fail CHEM128 last quarter, as I failed the first two midterms, but he graciously met with me MULTIPLE times before and during finals week leading up to our final exam to go through my old midterms and quizzes, and I ended up passing the final with flying colors. He cares so much and he's such a nice guy. He can get a little off track during lectures, and sometimes he gets things wrong, but he admits to his mistakes and corrects himself and explains why. Biggest suggestion? GO TO HIS OFFICE HOURS. He explains everything that doesn't make sense during lecture IN DETAIL. He goes through the homeworks (which is exclusively what the quizzes are comprised of) problem by problem.

I know this is long but its worth it. alright, here's what's up. Erker is super smart, but cannot explain ANYTHING worth shit. His slides are so spastic and he just flips through them, then finds a random problem and won't even finish it or do it so fast that no one had any idea what just happened. I can't even explain how bad his teaching was. Coming to class is a waste of time, i never learned a single thing from him. Chem is a hard subject for me, but I'm a hard working student. Ive never failed a test, or gotten anything below a B in a class. With that being said, my friends, the internet, and kahn academy taught me the entire quarter. For the first midterm, i studied my ass off because i had heard he was really hard. Within 15 minutes of that test i had decided that i already failed. The free response was a joke, and the long multiple choice was extremely hard. All of my friends and i came out of that test are were like WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED. He makes his free response something you've never seen before on purpose, and expects you to somehow figure it out. You can literally just tell by the questions he writes that he's an ass and is trying to make the test impossible. He expects way too much out of his students. My feeling after the test was right, because Erker told us that MOST people got below a 40%. He then proceeded to say "but, i have a group of about 10 students who got A's, so that tells me that all of you failing is not my fault. If you're not gonna work hard, then i have no problem failing all of you." WHAT??? ARE YOU SERIOUS??? I was so pissed. Just because you have 10 students who are really smart and probably took AP chem doesn't mean you taught them shit. I was mortified and discouraged with my grade. I went into his office hours to explain myself and he said if i did well on the next 2 exams he would make my first midterm worth only 10% of my grade. So I worked my ass off and got a B+ on the second one. I didn't get my hopes up too much though because i knew the final was going to wreck me. The final was hard as shit. One of the free response questions was literally just straight up impossible and nothing like anything we'd ever done before. I ended up pulling a C though somehow. He gives a lot of partial credit because no one has any clue what the fuck is going on. Anyways, he ended up rounding everyones grades at the end of the quarter almost a full letter grade because he knows he sucks and too many people were failing. This was the most stressful class of my entire life and I'm not joking, unless you're insanely good at chem and teaching yourself, DONT TAKE HIM. My friends who had other professors would look at my tests and would be like wtf is this??? It would be better for you to just take it another quarter and wait. this class is a disaster and caused me so so so so much anxiety and was so much harder than it needed to be.

NAH FUCK HIM

His ability to convey the material in a way students can actually understand what the heck he is saying is absolute shit. GOOD LUCK! I would recommend a different professor, just run away!!! run!!!!

Erker may not be the best at explaining concepts in a way that students taking the general chem series may understand, but boy do I love this man. His lectures were stressful, he jumps around through his slides quite a bit, and never really seems like he knows what he wants to teach each day, but he is still a great professor that genuinely wants his students to learn and succeed. That being said, Jay's office hours are THE BEST. I went both days he held them every week, and they helped so much. Erker is funny, extremely intelligent, and very helpful. If you put the effort into this class, you will succeed. His midterms and final are the absolute worst, and while they may seem terrifying at the time, everything works out in the end. I got a low B on the first midterm, a high C on the second, and I have no clue what I got on the final, but I somehow ended up with an A- in the class. His quizzes are based entirely on homework he gives (not mandatory to do, but the quiz questions are literally copied and pasted from the homework), so it's pretty easy to get 100% on all the quizzes if you prepare and do the homework problems. Erker made me miserable, but I still think he's great, so that's saying something.

Is Erker October 10th? Because he's a 10/10 !!!!!

I have many mixed feelings regarding Dr. Erker.... I'll begin with the negatives. Dr. Erker's lecture class has been one of the most confusing, disorganized classes that I have taken so far at Cal Poly. His teaching style is very different from most because he never truly breaks down problems, but rather skips steps assuming that all of the students have learned it or remember it from previous classes. He will go off on complicated subjects WAY above the level at which our class is, and then at the end will say "But that isn't something you need to know". I have never had a class that has left me questioning my intelligence and worth like this class has. His quizzes are easy because they are the same problems you see on homework, but the midterms and final are absolutely absurd. Positives: There is absolutely zero argument that Dr. Erker is an extremely intelligent man. He is incredibly knowledgeable and enthusiastic. He cares about his students and wants us to learn. He is helpful in office hours and kind and patient. His lab is also fun because he gets really into it and breaks it down nicely so that everything goes smoothly. You almost always end an hour early if you've done it right. Overall, Dr. Erker is unorganized and has high expectations, but wants his students to do well.

Erker is legendary. If you think his class is hard, just go to office hours, he is extremely helpful. The quizzes are basically free points because they are verbatim from the homework. Midterms are a little hard, but its a chem class - its not meant to be easy. That being said, everything on the exams is totally possible to do if you practice. He also curves generously.

This guys is nuts. Super disorganized, skips over examples and expects you to intuitively figure it out on the spot. Best option is Office hours cause honestly he’s pretty bad in lecture. Relies heavily on PowerPoints which screws him over during class. Super cool guy and wants you to do well, but he just doesn’t understand how to properly convey the material to the class. Avoid this guy unless you want a big challenge.

If you like to sit in class for 3 hours a week and have no idea what is going on the whole time, this guy is for you. Erker is a great guy, very nice and approachable, but an awful teacher. His teaching style consists mostly of throwing practice problems up on the board, telling you to do them, and then not going over the answers. He assumes that you basically already know how to do everything and that you remember everything from 127 and 128. He does not take the time to make sure students actually understand what is going on, rather he just makes sure that he goes through all of the information.

Dr. Erker is a super cool, down to earth guy and he's a blast to talk to in office hours. Unfortunately, that does not cut it when it comes to acid/base chemistry. He talked so fast in lecture that I felt my blood pressure increase every time I was in there because he would fly through things that made very little sense and then would ask students to hold up fingers 1-5 to show how well they understood concepts. Most of the time students would hold up a 1-3 and then he would say "Okay wonderful let's move on!" The average scores on exams were between 55-65 percent if I remember correctly, but he didn't do a thing to change them. Everyone would stay after exams for an extra thirty-ish minutes and his final took four hours (is that even allowed?) He was a really nice guy and was so helpful in office hours with teaching concepts that didn't make sense, but then the exams would be so hard I left thinking I failed every time. I think he focused a little too much on calculations and not conceptual information, so no one understood why we were doing the math we were doing, but then he would get frustrated when people were confused on the math. By third quarter I was used to teaching myself chemistry, but it was really frustrating knowing there wasn't much I could do to leave Erker's exams feeling confident. His class was a huge challenge, but I found it hard to be annoyed with him because he was so nice.

Erker is the worst professor I have had thus far at Cal Poly. Not only is he a terrible teacher, but he is also just a jerk. He goes through the material so quickly in lecture that it is virtually impossible to take notes. He is moderately helpful during office hours, but he is so condescending that I have to psych myself up to go. I finally understand why some people are hesitant to ask their teachers questions. He is the first teacher who has made me feel stupid. Dr. Erker doesn't exemplify any aspect of Cal Poly's supposed motto of "Love, Empathy, and Respect". Frankly, I think he is a liability to the university and he needs to be let go.

Lectures are both super schizophrenic and fast paced, so you have to come to his class ready to pay attention the entire time. He's extremely generous with his office hours, as he will assign bonus office hours before exams and film himself doing them so that students can refer back to old material (he even has timestamps in the video description). His tests are hard. Above all else, he's a very nice guy and great to get to know which makes his class pretty fun if you like chemistry.

erker is probably the best professor ive had throughout the whole gen chem series. he is SUPER passionate about chemistry and genuinely wants you to understand the material. his exams were very challenging but not impossible. he gives quizzes that are directly from the optional homework assignments. his lecture does get a bit messy and he tends to go through material very quickly so it is easy to fall behind. GO TO OFFICE HOURS!!!!! he is a LOT more helpful there. he will emphasize that the most important skill to have for this class is analyzing the problem and knowing how to approach it. overall, he definitely knows what he is doing (he is a huge nerd) but he is a better teacher during office hours, not in huge lecture halls.

Erker means well!!! His lecture slides are a bit out of control sometimes and you leave confused, so the best (and maybe only way) to do well is to GO TO OFFICE HOURS! He is a nice guy and wants you to do well. The class is hard. He thinks the course is easy because he is a genius, but I'm not gonna lie, its a hard class. I only did well because I went to every single office hours to ask questions. He can get side tracked in office hours and talk about random things like the science behind soda bubbles, so you have to kinda wait for a quiet pause and then ask your question. His office can be filllleeeddd with students but he encourages everyone to squeeze in and sit on the floors. He will answer any question and help you until you get it. DO THE HOMEWORK AND GO IN AND CHECK ANSWERS. His quizzes are copy and pasted from the homework. The homework problems are optional but they help so much. If you don't do them you won't understand the material. There is no key for the homework so you have to go in and ask for help or have him check your work to see if you got it right. This class is hard, and it made me put in a lot of work, but Erker is a nice guy and wants you to do well. Exams are hard and a lot of people fail, but he curves the class at the end and will sometimes give a redemption assignment to earn points back. I wouldn't switch out if you get him. He formats his class where you look back on the problems that were once super hard, and at the end of the quarter are super easy. He prepares you well to learn all the information. You will have to put in work. Go to office hours, become a regular in there. He loves to help

Erker left me feeling hopelessly lost after each lecture. Definitely try to read the textbook ahead before the class because he skips around in the slides and makes it very confusing. He does not give you time to write down the slides so I would suggest reading the sides again after class and have a separate notebook for in class and rewriting at home. The homework he gives you does not have answers so you never know if you did them right, I would suggest a massive group chat so you can discuss answers and how to do problems because I definitely learned more from my peers than from Erker. Quizzes are very easy just memorize how to do the homework problems and make sure you do them right to get a 100% on quizzes. Midterms and Final are hard as F**k so study your ass off and don't be sad if you get a horrible grade. My class got about a 40% average on both the midterms. At the end, he will curve it in his own way because if he didn't more than half the class would have failed. Good luck everyone.

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.