Rong Chen
1 course · 36 reviews
All Reviews
Actually the worst professor ever. Fails to even teach. Doesn\'t even know chemis
5/9/2026
Just because you achieve as an academic does not mean you are skilled at teaching. I had to teach myself the majority of the content in this course despite attending every lecture and making a very active effort to try to learn.
2/11/2026
decent lecturer -- the course is difficult. the homework does not help at all and is extremely time consuming. I scored slightly above average each exam (avgs in 60s) but still ended with A-. 480/600 = A- and 535/600 was an A, which is an insane gap.
12/25/2025
Lectures didnt help much without going over the textbook, especially towards the end. Big textbook merchant! Averages usually hovered around the 50s-60s which she would consider to be a good performance. If you can, pls take heemstra for your own sake. An A- or higher is doable, but youll need to really utilize the textbook & sacrifice hella time
12/20/2025
I think she tries her best to teach, but her lectures are difficult to understand. I learned more from glancing the textbook as well as asking AI questions from previous exams/workshop questions.
12/20/2025
Just avoid her at all costs tbh. She gives practice workshop questions every week, but they're literally only 6 pages long so u can never get any practice in. Also her exams r stupid hard, with things that you've never seen before. Then she has the audacity to tell the class that the exam was easy despite the average being a 50%.
12/15/2025
I don't understand how a teacher could be so unhelpful, given the resources of a class as big as Orgo and 3-time a week lectures. Randomly, in a help session, a small group of students were told that the AI program, which we were forced to use, was teaching us incorrect rules and mechanisms. The whole class was never informed.
12/14/2025
Avoid her at all cost. Exams are super difficult. Went to her office hours once about an exam and tried to explain through my reasoning but she got super defensive and wouldn't let me talk...
12/13/2025
Her lectures have improved significantly over the last few years. She is generally available and helpful during office hours. The class is difficult, but she realistically does a good job with the allotted time.
12/10/2025
actually so bad she doesn't teach at all. avoid at all costs
11/4/2025
Very kind and helpful if you talk to her one on one. It's clear that her expectation for students is that we teach ourselves, and lecture just goes over the main concepts (I mean hey, it does say that in the syllabus. Fair game). Get ready to read the textbook and go to office hours if you wanna do well.
10/27/2025
Lectures are for the most part unintelligible and important concepts are mumbled or glossed over. Camping out in office hours/optional workshops is basically required if you want to get any sort of grade you'd be unashamed of. The average scores on the midterms are abysmal and she will blame it all on the students.
10/24/2025
Genuinely could not have learned less from lectures, had to teach myself everything and then the exams were unreasonably hard. Never had a worse lecturer.
10/21/2025
this professor just can't explain concepts clearly, maybe due to her english. she tries to explain but everytime fades into mumbling and doesn't know what she's talking about. also, a lot of memorization that is useless. why would we need to memorize pka and electronegativity values? shouldn't these be provided on the reference sheet?
9/22/2025
Professor Chen is amazing and I don't understand why she gets so much hate. She listens to student feedback, gives clear expectations, and is incredibly caring and supportive. She was a much better lecturer than Barnes because she stayed on topic and clearly explained mechanisms and what was needed to know for the exam.
1/23/2025
Professor Chen is awesome. I understand how some people might find her lecture style difficult, but I think orgo in general is hard to lecture. It really takes a lot of work outside the classroom, but if you plan ahead, use your resources, and ask questions, you will be ok. Most importantly, Professor Chen really cares about her students.
1/9/2025
10+ hrs/week
Exams were honestly fair and straightforward if you studied and kept up with the course. There was also a midterm drop. There were pretty easy quizzes to test basic understanding but you could drop one as well. Sometimes the textbook had conflicting info with lectures. Like a lot of other courses here, a pretty self-taught course. If she saw that you put in effort like office hours and workshops, you had a chance to ask for a grade round-up. There were also one or two extra credit opportunities. Chen is also very receptive to student feedback and is doing her best to improve her course.
12/27/2024
I really think that Chen is over hated. As someone in section 3, I thought that she did a better job than Barnes at explaining concepts and mechanisms. She's also incredibly caring and nice and will go out of her way to try to help you.
12/23/2024
This class is very difficult and covers a lot of material, but Dr. Chen is so caring and supportive that it makes it worth it. Her office hours are very helpful, and she always provides a detailed explanation. She puts so much effort into making sure that everyone has the resources to succeed, and it's important that you utilize them.
11/22/2024
the material is challenging but I don't think it is because of Professor Chen. Orgo at WashU is pretty hard. But she is ready to help and willing to help you even outside her office hours. I found her helpful throughout the semester.
11/12/2024
2-4 hrs/week
the course is run awfully. Chen means well but is just a bad teacher. You would be best served skipping class to read the textbook
5/19/2024
4-6 hrs/week
Aside from it being a difficult course, chen was not a good lecturer. Not sure what other professors/sections were like, but technical issues that she wasn't able to fix interrupted lecture probably once a week. She also just wasn't great at responding to questions during lecture. Lab required much less work than gen chem lab, and was very doable if you completed everything for it. One of the midterms was dropped from the final grade, which was nice
5/18/2024
Avoid her at all costs. Has no idea how to teach, glazes over difficult concepts with no explanation, very confusing lectures. Get ready to learn on your own. Tests are difficult, some close to impossible. Class averages were in the 50-60's, that should tell you something about the her teaching abilities. Take the class with literally anyone else.
5/14/2024
While I am aware this was Professor Chen's first semester lecturing, lecture was difficult to follow and did not adequately cover topics for exams which almost entirely make up the final grade. I found reading the textbook to be a better alternative to lecture but lead to a lot of time spent reading rather than practicing. Exam avgs were around 50
12/29/2023
Lectures were not useful and it felt as if you had to fuse both professors together to gain some basic understanding of the concepts. Office hours were not helpful as she did not understand what students would ask her or how to explain the concepts clearly. Very frustrating to deal with and did not feel supported by the professors in the course.
12/23/2023
What a terrible semester. Prof Chen was as confused as we were. I tried to go to the extra sessions, but those were just as bad. No idea what grades were based on. Just plain frustrating. To go from Chem 111/112 to this felt like false advertising. I was considering Chemistry as a major...not any more.
12/22/2023
I was frustrated w/ Chen a lot this semester. This was her first time lecturing, so she deserves some leniency, but some lectures were just inadequate- eg not going into depth on the things students need to know, writing mechanisms in literal silence. OH were occasionally helpful- sometimes she didn't really get what students were trying to ask tho
12/22/2023
She doesn't know how to give clear lectures and would confuse the class and herself. If the average is a less than 50 on the exam for many students than that fault is on the professor not the students regardless of how hard the class is. She doesn't know how to gives lectures.
12/19/2023
Was satisfactory at teaching the material, but could be better at explain concepts for everyone. Lectures were very fast paced but that had more to do with the material rather than her own doing. Was helpful if you went to office hours.
12/9/2023
Boring lectures, inconsistent exams. Lack of useful practice questions. Generally not very helpful. If I hear her say "clearlei" again I\'m gonna explode on the spot.
12/8/2023
Actually the worst professor ever. Fails to even teach. Doesn't even know chemistry herself (ex: always says "apparently" when explaining concepts as if even she is surprised by what she is teaching). It is very clear she has never taught here before. Exams aren't even close to what is taught. Rude. Doesn't answer questions. Just inadequate.
10/21/2023
Not a good lecturer, very unengaging and not good at explaining concepts apart from surface level. Exams deal with much more complex problems that you could only be prepared for by work outside of class. Poorly structured. If students are averaging Ds on your exams you probably aren't teaching properly.
10/21/2023