William Tolman

Tolman is a really great lecturer who generally gave hard, but fair tests. Unfortunately, his grading expectations were very hazy towards the end of the semester and the intention behind his grading methodology was hand wavy. This caused many people to be unhappy and/or surprised with their grades in the class.

4/30/2022

Prof Tolman is a great teacher. It’s no doubt very hard to teach ochem to 300+ students but I think he did a very good job. A lot of studying must be done on one’s own though (READ THE TEXTBOOK & do the practice problems). You have to do more than just go to lecture and workshop. studying outside of class is necessary but Tolman is amazing

3/4/2022

Prof. Tolman was a great explainer, his lectures were example-heavy and he explained things in depth. He was very accessible in his office hours, etc. He was also very genuinely concerned for his students and wanted everyone to do well!

2/24/2022

lectures were "mandatory" but were pretty useless, i learned out of the textbook most of the time / taught myself basically. the class itself was not the hardest it could have been, but my main complaint is his grading. i could've made a better grade in this class if he had not curved everyone's grades down, for no good reason.

1/17/2022

OK, start with I took 105/106, but half of the time I had no idea what Prof. Tolman was talking about. My friends who took 111/112 thought this was easy. So, I don't know if it is an issue with me, Prof. Tolman, this class, or my Gen Chem, but this was an awful experience. I did not feel comfortable speaking with Prof. Tolman about this.

1/8/2022

Tolman was fine, and he tried to connect with the students. A bit of humor was appreciated. I DO NOT LIKE the IPAD teaching style. This is one of the easier STEM classes you will take at Wash U. Exams are exactly like the practice exam. Realize he came from U Minn, and he likely needs time to adjust to Wash U standards.

1/8/2022

Not really sure what these bad ratings are but if you read the book, practice, and attend lectures it is a really fair class especially considering the exams he gives for practice are structured identically to the actual exam.

12/31/2021

He did the bare minimum needed for an Organic Chemistry class. I did end up doing better on the exam when I stopped caring about lecture and focused more on the problems. He curves exams down by nearly 20 points and then curves the class down by 10 and expects everyone to be happy. I spent 20 hours a week on this class alone aimlessly.

12/30/2021

Tolman is ok as a lecturer. A bit holier than thou. I am not a fan of the IPad lecturing. My main complaint about the class was the lack of transparency for grading criteria and lines for letter grades. I thought I was doing fine on the exams (A work) and then I get a B+. I don't understand why he curved down. This info should be in the syllabus.

12/29/2021

He is nice enough and he tries to connect, but it was boring and a waste of a semester. Lectures are done with ipad. Attendance was mandatory, because nobody would come to lecture. At least it was easy - the easiest class I have taken at WU. All exam questions are from assigned problems. His off hrs were during class time. Not cool.

12/23/2021