Western Kentucky University / S / Chad Snyder

Obviously Organic Chemistry is a difficult class but Dr. Snyder really does care about his students. He will take the time to makes sure you are doing well in his class and will help you before exams if you arent. You do have to make the initiative with him, however. He offers 5 points of extra credit for each test which is helpful. There are 5 tests and one take home quiz. You can drop your lowest test grade. The final is the ACS which covers organic 1 & 2 but it is only out of 55 points and is also Extra Credit. Depedning what percentile you score on depends how much extra credit he will tack onto your final credit. Ex: 20th percentile means you will get 2% added onto your total final grade in the class. He really does do a good job of explaining things and making sure everyone in this class is on the same page before moving on to another reaction or new subject. Definitely recommend taking him for both organics if you can!

Anyone you talk to and most evals on here all say that he is the best Organic teacher at WKU. That is the reason I took him. Worst. Mistake. Ever! I came from Pesterfield's Gen Chem class and loved it and succeeded in it. These two are very different teachers. Snyder doesn't explain things in depth. He only skims the top of it which doesn't give you a true understanding. He then tests you on all the exceptions that he didn't teach you. He definitely has his picks in the class and they are the ones that he will curve in the end. He allowed cheating in his classroom this past semester which may be ok with some students but definitely rubbed me the wrong way. He is bad about telling people things and then going back on his word. I don't trust him. He seems like he may be a nice guy but he is way too concerned with people liking him to be an effective teacher. I can't say exactly how he compares to Hemali but I am definitely going to find out this semester because I sure as hell would never take him again!!

Finally, a science teacher who doesn't think the world revolves around his class! He's very helpful and actually seems to care. Very willing and easy to work with.

Dr. Snyder is an excellent instructor. He gives his classes the most relevant material to prepare them for professional school and doesn't concentrate on the insignificant facts. The material at the end of the class is difficult but with time and effort you can obtain an "A". Dr. Snyder is also very helpful in office hours and a very entertaining and enthusiastic lecturer. If you are a pre-professional student, please take Dr. Snyder!

This is organic chem, so yeah its going to be hard, but Dr. Snyder does his best to not make it so terrible. I struggled to get C's in my other chemistry classes, but so far I have an A in this one. You don't have to come to class, but there is usually something graded every class period, like a problem set or a quiz. He puts old tests up, which are a lot like his tests, and has help sessions. If you have to take organic, try to to Snyder, he is the best. For the lab too, you dont have quizzes or anything in his lab sections like you do for other professors.

Dr. Snyder's style of teaching can be summed up (in my opinion) in one word, "analogy". To be able to relate hard topics to a subject that a student understands is a great tool to use. However, it should not be used as the main tool of his teaching. Reasons such as monotony and just knowing an analogy is going to follow a new topic introduced gets really old. Lastly he did a poor job on teaching titrations, and well, almost every chapter covered in Chem 2. It was almost like he could tell this, and would offer tons of extra credit to make up for his poor teaching. I guess an organic professor should teach organic, which makes sense. And don't me wrong, Dr. Snyder is a nice guy face to face.

Dr. Snyder is the best chemistry teacher. Organic is difficult but Dr. Snyder explains everything really well. He is always willing to help if you don't understand something. Dr. Snyder also holds review sessions to reinforce all the things we go over in class. He makes chemistry tolerable... On every test you have an opportunity to earn extra credit. Dr. Snyder also grades quizzes and tests fairly quickly. His class is very organized our class followed the syllabus for the most part so you always knew what was going to be covered in class. So if you have to take organic I would highly suggest Dr. Snyder.

Dr. Snyder is the best chemistry teacher for students who are actually interested in chemistry. Show some motivation and desire to learn and he will help you with anything you need. He makes great metaphors during his lecture that make the material easier to understand. Dr. Snyder incorporates a little bit of organic chemistry into his class examples which is very interesting but he doesn't expect you to know it for the test. HIGHLY SUGGEST DR. SNYDER!!!

First off, do not even think about cheating in this class. From day one, Dr. Snyder's paranoia of people cheating is clearly evident. Anyway, the course is fairly easy if you have a pretty good grasp of Chemistry. As far as Snyder's teaching goes, its kinda iffy. If you want an A, you will have to teach yourself a lot of the material and study hard for his exams. They are pretty difficult if you don't have a clear understanding of the concepts but you get to drop one of the four. Also, extra credit is offered out the butt, so as long as you score decent on the exams you will end up with a solid A. I would say that I got close to 50 points of extra credit when the class had 600 points total.

At first, I hated Dr. Snyder, but by the time of the classes end, I felt a resounding...meh. Dr. Snyder is an organic teacher by trade, and it shows in this inorganic class. He demonstrates only a mediocre understanding of the material, sometimes being unable to adequately field questions asked during class. Even during one class period, he had spent nearly the entire lecture showing us how to work a difficult titration problem, only to be pointed out by a student that he had done one of the preliminary equations wrong, rendering the entire question inaccurate. He then, in embarrassment, let us leave 20 minutes early. He offers tons of extra credit for seemingly stupid reasons like not talking, or showing up to class on time. He is also extremely paranoid about cheating. He even had the gall to announce to our honors section on the first day that at least two of us would be kicked out for cheating by the end of the semester. He then explained to us how sneaky he was and how he could easily catch us cheating. This shows up on his tests too. He is gestapo with this crap, and forbids anyone to look up off of their paper at any time. If you do, he assumes your cheating and may fail you. Our class was his supposed first class never to cheat. Despite the fact that he doesn't teach the material well at all, inflate your grade with tons of xtra credit, and he is gestapo with cheating, he's actually a nice guy, and just listening to him fail at trying to explain to the class by using some ridiculous metaphor for chemistry is enough to make the class palatable.

Don't get me wrong, Dr. Snyder is easy to get along with, but I did not get my money's worth as far as choosing him for my Organinc professor. Maybe if I was a girl he was attracted to, I would have recieved the grade I wanted.

I disagree with the previous eval about Dr. Snyder! If you want to go to any kind of professional school, then you should definitely take Dr. Snyder. Yes this course is diffulcult (ITS ORGANIC II) and no there isnt that much extra credit, but if your planning on going to professional school, extra credit should not be needed and you should be able to handle the challange in order to make it in a professional school! He is one of the only professors I have ever had who really cares about how his students do. He explains everything in a way everyone can understand. He offers some extra credit on tests and he IS always in his office and he IS always willing to take time for his students, if a student cares enough to go talk to him. Sometimes he does let the class out early, but that only gives us more time to study for his course. If you are in the pre professional pragram, I highly suggest taking Dr. Snyder!! He is the easiest professor to talk to. If you cant handle this class, then maybe you shouldnt be going to a professional school. He is a GREAT professor!!!

If you want to go to professional school of any kind do not take Snyder. It was always amazing to me how all other organic teachers offered extra credit and other means of obtaining an average grade. NO extra credit, NO office hours, NO time. We always left class early and this reflected on our grades greatly. I just cannot stand to see good students fail. Snyder however feeds off of this. Don't get me wrong, he may be a nice guy but not a good Chemistry professor.

This class is very difficult - but what do you expect it is Organic Chemistry. A lot of work has to go into it, I highly recommend doing the suggested homework and extra credit opportunities. Dr. Snyder does a very good job as a teacher, he doesn't want this to be a memorization course so you truly understand what is going on. It prepares you well for standardized tests in the chemistry area and he speaks English which is a rare thing to find in the Chemistry department.

I Only Had This Lab Once A Week. I Must Admit I'm Not Extremely Great At Chemistry, But The Teacher Made It Fun. He's A Fun Guy And Only Taught The Essentials. The Exams Were Easy and The Daily Quizzes Were Pretty Much Free Points. Oh, And The Final Consisted Of Four Questions. You Didn't Even Have To Take The Final If You Had An A In The Class.

Dr. Snyder is the best professor on this campus. The material is hard but he will do whatever he can to get the class to understand. You can earn up to 17 pts extra credit per exam. Exams are fair and he tells you what to expect on them. He truly cares about his students and will do anything for them. Some professors demand to be called Dr. but Dr.Snyder earns the title.

This class is difficult but Dr. Snyder wants to see his students succeed. However, his tests are difficult and I always went in there feeling extremely prepared, yet I always felt like I should've studied more after taking his tests. For extra credit, he wants you to do problems out of the ACS book you buy from the department. At first they take forever to do because most of it is stuff you haven't learned yet, but he's willing to help--sometimes. Overall, he's an OK teacher--atleast he speaks english clearly!

I really liked Dr. Snyder! He is an excellent teacher and he really knows what he is talking about! I am going to try and take him as many times as possible and I would recommend him to anyone, even non chem majors. He is more than willing to help and make everything easier for you! You will have to take notes but he gives power points, and that really helps out. Get the book, it is needed! All around, a great guy and a fab. teacher.

Dr. Snyder is the best science professor I've had in college. He's fresh out of graduate school so he's not old and bitter like a lot of professors. He genuinely cares about whether or not his students learn the material; in addition to regular class and office hours, he'd hold 1-2 hour review sessions on his own time at the end of every week to help keep everything fresh. Organic Chemistry is extremely difficult and will be tough with any professor, but Dr. Snyder does his best to not make it any more difficult than it has to be and exerts himself to help each student understand.