John Heemstra

I had the worst Orgo 1 experience and Heemstra changed my life this semester. He is accessible in office hours and clearly cares about his students. Orgo is hard but Heemstra really explains and gives you time to think and discuss with others during lecture. You can tell how experienced he is and that he really is passionate about teaching.

4/30/2026

Nice and knowledgeable teacher, but the learning objectives were not clear. I guess I left with some understanding of orgo, but what I really learned was how to review problems for exams.

4/25/2026

Although orgo is a very challenging class, prof Heemstra made it very organized and interesting. He is a very nice person, and he really tries to remember your name. He is also very knowledgeable about this field. I am very glad that I can take my two-semester orgo with him. It is a great class.

4/24/2026

The class was fine, but I found I ended up memorizing problems and the LA worksheets. If you do that, the exams are straight forward. I must say I am not sure how much I actually learned.

4/22/2026

He's the best professor you can get for organic chemistry. Obviously, it's a hard course but he's the man you want to learn it from. He's very charismatic and his lectures just make sense, especially compared to the professor I had for Orgo 1.

4/21/2026

I appreciated that Prof. Heemstra drew out the mechanisms and tied concepts back into FMO theory. Exam questions were difficult & really creative, but I thought they were pretty manageable and generally like the LA worksheets. Personally, I found the content more intuitive than in Chem 111A.

1/3/2026

Material and exams were fine. Study old exams. Dr. Heemstra's lectures were fine, but I never felt comfortable with him. I guess he is better than Chen, but isn't there anyone better for orgo? My RA said to take Moeller…but I don't think he teaches orgo any more.

12/17/2025

Dr. Heemstra is better than Dr. Chen, but overall I found the course just a lot of memorizing. It was not hard, but not good. The bonus is the course was Tues/Thurs so I got it out of the way before Friday.

12/15/2025

Prof Heemstra has figured out a way to teach orgo in a way that feels appropriately paced. He methodically goes over each new concept, and from that point on, expects you to practice it on your own. The material is not easy, and he likes to challenge students on exams, but he is a great prof.

11/20/2025

I absolutely love Dr. Heemstra. He truly cares about his students and their well-being outside of his class. The class itself was also great. It is tough material but he teaches it so well, and it is so rewarding when you take a tough exam and get a good grade on it. His class was one of my favorites even though I don't particularly like orgo.

10/20/2025

Lucky to have him as my prof. Had 261/262 with Heemstra and am so grateful to have had him. Would be lucky to have another professor like Heemstra.

5/16/2025

Goated. I feel privileged to have been taught by Heemstra. Couldn't have asked for a better orgo experience.

5/16/2025

Kind, smart and enthusiastic. Helps you understand why certain chemistry is favorable with orbitals, thermodynamics, rate, and sterics. Research questions on test can be daunting, but you will be good if you can identify the reacting portions of molecules. Such a nice qualitative continuation of gen chem; I have learned so much. 261/262

5/1/2025

Great professor who made ochem a positive experience! Strongly recommend working through all workshop packets, which will help in your understanding of concepts and certainly improve your exam performance. Prof Heemstra often makes himself available outside of class, which is also quite helpful!

12/23/2024

A very enthusiastic professor who is incredibly accessible outside of class. If you thoroughly complete and understand the packets, his exams are very doable.

12/22/2024

Professor Heemstra is an excellent professor who cares about teaching. He is always there to provide extra support to students during office hours, and his annotating slides with us during class helps a lot in the learning process. The class does go in depth about concepts, so it is important not to fall behind, but overall, would recommend!!

12/22/2024

Heemstra made Orgo so much easier than what had been said. His lectures were very clear and engaging. The assigned homework and optional problem sets were very close to what was on exams and he would sometimes pull problems from those with a slight change. Put in the work and do everything he asks and you will do well.

12/19/2024

Heemstra is fine. The bonus is the class is not hard, and he gives you everything you need. The downside is you end up just getting ready for the tests instead of learning the material. I am sure I will spend a lot of time next year learning orgo for the MCAT.

12/19/2024

10+ hrs/week

Heemstra is a very good lecturer and although he goes pretty fast, I rewatch the lectures later and re take notes. He's generous with partial points on exams. Class is difficult but if you study regularly you will be okay.

12/19/2024

8-10 hrs/week

LOVE heemstra- he’s a very engaging lecturer even though class was incredibly challenging (brutal exams with case studies) but very rewarding! although his exams are harder than other profs, he is super generous with grading/partial credit so averages are higher. final exam decimated my ass though

12/19/2024

By far the best orgo 1 teacher. Gave great lectures that were enjoyable, easy to follow, and supplemented by humor. Very accessible outside of class. Very lenient with grading and partial credit and always gives extra time on the exams, which many think are easier than the other profs exams.

12/8/2024

Prof. Heemstra is one of the best professors I've ever had & he genuinely cares about students. Strikes a delicate balance between challenging you, while being understanding/reasonable. He draws everything on his slides, so it's easy to follow his lecturing. Nothing but good things to say!

12/7/2024

All of the test content was thoroughly taught through his powerpoint making studying for the test extremely easy. He seriously cares for the student's success and even give extra time at the end for exams!

12/5/2024

Absolutely amazing teacher! Explains concepts very well, make sure to go to office hours!

11/4/2024

10+ hrs/week

Be religious with studying. Heemstra and Barnes are incredible. Never fall behind. Made me become a chem major but kicked my butt.

7/6/2024

8-10 hrs/week

Heemstra was great but if you didn’t get a good grasp of orgo on orgo 1, it‘a super hard

5/22/2024

2 or less hrs/week

Heemstra made this class very doable. There are five exams including a non-cumulative final, and the lowest of these is dropped. The class did well on exams, and based on averages, most people should have ended with an A. Exams all follow the same format as each other and the practice exams and the practice questions are similar. The LA worksheets are optional but really help as the questions are more difficult than the exam questions. If you just take an hour or two each week to do the worksheet you will be fine. Heemstra is a good professor and most information can be learned directly from lecture.

5/18/2024

Like most students, I was pretty nervous about orgo. However, I thought Heemstra was good at explaining and I really appreciated his clear lecture slides and recorded videos. He is very clearly passionate about what he teaches and took a creative approach to his exams, which some may have disliked but I found it made the class more exciting.

5/16/2023

Ehh...I was hoping for better, but I guess it could have been worse. He seemed a bit rushed to plow through material and did not spend much time going into details that would help create intuition. It is king of a shame that the quality of professor in Chemistry has gone down every semester since 111.

5/11/2023

Heemstra was pretty standard. This class is very lecture heavy but he does do his best to explain everything. He's pretty accessible. Didn't really go above and beyond or anything, but also not too bad.

5/6/2023

He presented clear lectures, and was accessible outside class. Exams will contain real world examples. BIG TIP: Download the textbook and textbook answer key on Libgen or Z-Library. Use these to do the assigned textbook readings before each class, and the assigned textbook problems after every lecture. This will make studying for exams a breeze.

5/1/2023