Frantz is genuinely not a nice professor at all. Most of us are taking it because we want to put in the work and understand how difficult it will be, yet she still manages to make every student in her class feel like they are unprepared and cannot obtain a good grade in the class.

Readings Monday and Wednesday are bearable, and there's quizzes due every Sunday night, Tuesday night, and Thursday night which are also pretty easy. My advice is get FULL points on every homework (due every sunday, 25 questions), every discussion, and every quiz. Really throughout the semester you must keep up on every reading and assignment or you will fall majorly behind. Another lovely thing about Frantz? Even if you have an 89.9, you get a B+. The three midterms are super challenging, but doable and the corrections allow you to get half percent back. With a drop, corrections, and 100% in all other areas, you will probably have an A before the final and feel super proud. That's what I had and was overjoyed since my twelve works of extremely hard work paid off.

Well, buckle in. The final exam will drop you at least a letter. I worked for two weeks and perfected every single topic. I did every problem in the textbook, redid every exam discussion and friday practice, and went in feeling great. Came out of it feeling mediocre but confident that I would pass with at least a 65% to obtain a B+. Received my final grade for the course and? It dropped 10%. Over one final exam (which has an incredibly low average and no corrections). Devastating because after 12 weeks of nonstop effort and good grades, one exam changes it all.

If you have to take Orgo with Frantz, you will be fine. I remember seeing messages about her before enrolling in her class and being terrified. It's doable, but prepare yourself for massive disappointment. She is not encouraging, and will constantly make you question if you should even be pre-med (or whatever STEM major you are). Her lectures are insanely fast so make sure you have notes to add to before class rather than just taking them for the first time in class. Just buckle in and prepare to work HARD. She is kind of the worst ever and patronizes every kid in her class. Don't let this class demoralize you...

This class is hard, but doable if you put in A LOT of effort. There are readings twice a week and make sure you do them and ideally also do the practice problems within each chapter. Frantz BLITZES through content so doing the readings ensures that you actually know whats going on when shes moving at mach 5 through the slides. For the exams, the biggest things to study imo are the discussion problems (which are very similar to exam questions), the practice problems at the end of each chapter (especially the integrated problems), and the in class clicker/practice questions. Exams are TRICKY. There are some questions on exams that I am sure that not even 10% of the class got right. She does not go easy on you. But at the same time, the exams are fair for the most part. Theyre difficult, but most of the material is stuff that she has gone over in class and done practice with. The hardest questions usually make you have to take concepts youve learned and apply them in different situations, so make sure you understand why stuff is happening the way its happening. Also there is a good bit of memorization, but its completely doable if you spend a little time with it.

Frantz is a good teacher when it comes to teaching content, but she makes some questionable decisions imo. Like we'll have an exam that ends at 8:30 PM and then have a reading due at 11:59 which no one does bc why would you do a reading thats not on the exam?? Its just more information than youll need to know, and then after the exam you only have a few hours to do the reading. Understandably no one does that reading, and then she gets upset in class that nobody did it. Like ?? But other than some stuff like that shes good.

A lot of the points that go to the final grade are gimme points, but the real make or break points are the exams. You can drop the lowest midterm which is nice, but make sure you try hard on every midterm so you have a good buffer for the final. The final is a BEAST. Its completely doable, but it combines a lot of topics from the entire semester so you really gotta know everything. The key to this class is Study Study Study. This is not a class where you can study the night before the exam and get away with it. But if you do commit to studying, you can definitely pull off a good grade. As hard as this class is, youll get through it. And you may even enjoy parts of it!

#tCFfall22

For my fellow mentally ill students:
I’m not trying to scare you or stop you from taking this class. I just want you to be as prepared as possible. I don’t care if your anxiety hasn’t been a big issue in the past. I don’t care if your previous professors have understood that sometimes you’ll miss class because you’re depressed. Frantz DOES. NOT. CARE. Get SDAC accommodations ASAP before taking this course because she’d rather watch you burn and beg for help in front of her. The only thing stopping her from completely letting her students drown is SDAC. Use those accommodations. And if you can take another professor, PLEASE take the other professor.

Pros:
- good textbook
- Frantz gives up to 50% back of missed points on test corrections
- one test is dropped
- lots of practice in class

Cons:
- 15% of your grade is iclicker/attendance
- lectures not recorded
- least accommodating professor. Frantz doesn’t care if your mom is in the hospital, you’re dealing with medication withdrawal, or you got in a car crash and are in the hospital (all real scenarios from ppl I know!)
- no test makeups (better hope you never get sick)
- insane amount of weekly assignments
- very memorization-based

Tips for success:
- download the student manual to Organic Chemistry by David Klein
- do integrated practice problems from the textbook
- if you ever need accommodations, get official documentation asap from SDAC or your academic dean
- do regular flashcards on things you need to memorize, like pka values
- DONT TAKE THIS TOO SERIOUSLY. Your health, happiness, etc are all more important than this class. Don’t go nuts

And the final? Aha… ha… ha

Yes, you have to study your butt off for Orgo. NO ONE is kidding. If you fall behind even a little bit, it will be very hard for you to catch up. But I am here to talk about Frantz. I think she is really rude. She laughed at people a couple times in class- someone asked "Will we be expected to know these values on the exam?" and she laughed. She really wants you to learn the most you can out of orgo, so she makes it really difficult so you remember the most. At this level, that is not manageable with the amount of info that is being pumped out to us. You will be SO much better trying Samonina or Chruma, which don't make you memorize as much on exams. Frantz's final was absolutely ridiculous, that I didn't even feel bad about myself after I left because it was that hard. I think Frantz caters more to E school kids and and the rest of us regulars can't keep up- but she doesn't care who you are or what your strengths are- everyone is expected to do the same.

You have to study for Orgo A LOT in general, but I think you will have better luck with literally anyone else other than Frantz.

Dr. Frantz knows her stuff and is willing and able to explain it-- she is somewhat intimidating from afar, but when you talk to her one-on-one, I found her to be extremely kind and patient.

This class definitely has a lot of work involved-- she recommends on the first day of class to read the textbook (which is a great resource!) and take handwritten notes prior to the lecture that covers those sections. In addition to notetaking, there is also a short warm-up quiz due the night before each lecture and a weekly homework that can take anywhere from 1-3 hours (albeit I go at a slower pace, YMMV). This is altogether a lot of work and assignments to keep track of, but really taking the time to learn from these will help in the course. Her lectures can help to clarify concepts/certain aspects that she may test on, but I found I got a lot more out of lecture (i.e. the in-class practice problems) when I came prepared with pre-written notes. I would not suggest solely relying on lecture for understanding the content.

As for discussions, mine typically went for an hour and a half on average, but it really depends on how much time the TA's give for the small groups to work on the problems and how long they take to review them. Discussions are mandatory, but essentially solely participation-based. It can be worth it to stay longer to work on the challenge problems with your group, but they are closed-note and the difficulty varies. Still, you potentially get extra points back on exams (?) at the end of the semester.

Finally, the tests-- I personally found the midterms to be a lot fairer than I was expecting going into them. If you understand the content well enough to explain it to classmates, you should be in good shape. I found that the best resources to prepare were study groups, her recommended problems, reading through notes, and looking over discussion/in-class/homework questions. They're generally free-response, so make sure you know your stuff versus relying on recognition. If she says that you should know something (e.g. pKa values), make sure you know them! Test corrections are life-saving and worth doing! The final was a lot more challenging than anticipated, relies on concepts learned throughout the semester that you may not have used in a while, and there are no test corrections/curves. #tCFfall2021

All of the other reviews about this class are pretty accurate. Expect to have to do a ton of work if you want to do well. The readings before class are not optional. You need to do them every time to succeed. It is difficult to get an A in this class but very easy to pass. The test corrections are clutch, and they basically ensure that you won't fail the class if you put in effort. I really liked Frantz, and I learned a lot in this class. This class is probably harder to get an A in than the other orgo professors, but you are going to learn more. I would still recommend taking Frantz since orgo 2 is much harder than orgo 1, and you'll get a better foundation from Frantz than the other professors. 45% of the grade is an easy 100%, and 30% are from the midterms (which have test corrections). The final was very challenging, but I still ended up getting an A in the class. My biggest piece of advice would be to do every single extra recommended problem in the back of the book and to BUY THE ANSWER KEY! Once I did this, my grades and understanding improved a ton. Hard work will pay off in this class!

I'm going to preface this by saying that I have never written a course forum review before, but I felt it necessary given that most of the current reviews on this page are not the most accurate representation of the class. The class is structured with 3 midterms (each 10%, corrections to get half points back), clicker and homework questions (45%, easy to get full points), and the final (25%, no corrections). I think our class averages for the midterms were 73, 65, and 53 (before corrections) and the final was probably around a 50. My advice is to do all the assigned readings for the week on the weekend prior to going to class. This will give you a better understanding and allow you to remember the information better. I studied for about an hour each day before lecture as if we were getting quizzed on the info (which worked for me but might not be necessary for everyone). My goal was to be comfortable with the information before seeing it in lecture. However, you should be studying daily just because of the sheer amount of information. There is a lot of memorization, but try to understand why things happen because it makes it easier to remember. Pay special attention to problems during discussion (similar level of difficulty to exam). To prepare for exams I would do all the recommended textbook problems she assigns and do ALL the integrated problems. There is usually a problem or two on each exam that is pulled straight from the integrated problems. I would study the new information daily and start studying for exams 1-2 weeks in advance by doing a ton of practice problems. The reviews on this page make the final out to be impossible. This gave me so much stress and anxiety leading up to the exam. It is very long and tedious, but the problems are no harder than the problems you have been doing all year (still around the difficulty as integrated problems). My mistake was taking other course reviews to heart and thinking that this is an impossible class. It is not. You have to be willing to put in a lot of work, but I promise the constant studying and hard work pays off in the end. A lot of people would procrastinate and wait until the last minute to study which I do not recommend. I was a little discouraged with my midterm grades (without corrections a 82, 73, and 80) as I didn't think they reflected how much I worked/how much I knew. However, being able to learn from your mistakes with test corrections is really helpful. I was able to score around a 88 on the final so succeeding in this class is definitely possible.

On to Frantz. I think she gets a lot of unnecessary hate. Her exams are tough but fair. Her class is super interesting but can be overwhelming if you do not prepare. My big complaint is that she introduces new content (for the next exam) on exam week, which I found a little inconsiderate. However, I firmly believe she gives you all the tools necessary to succeed. Other reviews make it seem like she is never available for help. That is not true, I would say she is very available. She holds office hours, and says that we can always email her to schedule time for help or to just talk about life/things in general.

Succeeding in orgo is about you. Everyone will have a different experience, and different study techniques work better for different people. My main piece of advice is to keep a positive mindset. I have always been someone that has to work twice as hard as others to keep up, so this class gave me a lot of anxiety and imposter syndrome. I wish I enjoyed the class a little more and didn't worry as much. Keep working hard, learn from your mistakes and adjust study habits if necessary, and try to enjoy the information and I promise everything will work out in the end!

Take everything said about Frantz with a grain of salt. People like to complain about stuff and organic chemistry is a very hard class, which makes it easy to complain about. Orgo 1 is considered a walk in the park compared to Orgo 2, so it is best to get a really good teacher who will prepare you for Orgo 2. If you can't get Samonina, I would highly recommend Frantz. I think she is a good professor and going to give you a very fair shot at getting a good grade in this challenging course.
First off, I enjoyed the structure of her class (Mon./Wed. are lectures, Fri. is practice problems) because she gives you a lot of chances to practice the material. She gives a lot of "easy" points. There are daily quizzes before class and weekly HW and you can basically get 100s on all of them. It seems like a lot of assignments at first, but they are super helpful in terms of understanding the material and you get used to it. You also get a lot of discussion and iClicker points that help your grade a ton so make sure you do those. The 3 midterms are very reasonable. You get 1/2 points back on the midterms through corrections which is a great grade boost. Even if you bomb one, your grade can still be okay in the end. The final gets a lot of hate but I thought that it was relatively reasonable. Obviously it was hard, but if you genuinely understood the material throughout the course and studied a lot you will do fine.
For this semester, our class average was an 84%. Overall I got an A-. I am not a chem genius, but I did put a whole lot of work into this class. Here is some of my advice:
1. My biggest piece of advice is to study throughout the course, Frantz tells you this on the first day. She is not joking. Make sure you are constantly reviewing topics. I had flashcards with me at all times and tried to study the material a bit every day.
2. Put in 100% effort through out the course because, in the end, every point matters and could be the difference between a 89.5% and a 90.0%. I know too many people who did well on the first exam, started slacking because they thought they could get away with it and ended up being super unhappy with their final grade. Do the EC discussion points, they can make a difference in the end.
3. Before coming to class make sure that you have done the readings. Her lectures are very beneficial if you have already been exposed to the material. I did all of the reading for the upcoming week on the weekend so I had the whole week to really understand the info. This made such a difference and, although it was kind of exhausting, I would HIGHLY recommend this strategy.
4. The integrated problems at the back of the book, the HW, discussion problems, and the Friday practice problems are super similar to the exam questions. Some of our exam problems even seemed to be based on these questions. Do them to study.
5. If possible, do not take other challenging courses while taking this course. I know for some people's schedules that is not possible, but it is easiest to succeed in orgo if you are just focusing on orgo.
At the end of the day, this class is emotionally exhausting. I can honestly say that I enjoyed the material and thought it was super interesting, but it was still super stressful. This is not a fault of the professor, it is just the truth of a medical school weed out course.

Honestly I think that a lot of people just like to complain about this class. While it was by no means easy, I would say that Frantz was a good and respectable teacher and did her best to cover the wide range of material that we needed to know within the constraints of class time. There are three main pieces of advice that I would give to anyone who needs to take this class: 1. When Frantz says to review every day, she absolutely means it. I did this pretty consistently throughout the semester and it makes everything much less stressful when test time rolls around. 2. Aim for 100's on the midterms. Not kidding. I know this isn't necessarily a realistic goal, but the point of me saying it is to emphasize how important it is to keep your grade as high as possible. Which brings me to 3. The final exam will be one of the most difficult tests that you take in your undergraduate career. There's no sugar coating it. I spent an entire week studying for around 8 hours a day and still struggled. This is probably the one bone I have to pick with Frantz, but I also understand that she has to make her class difficult in some way, and she does provide test corrections on midterms and lots of participation points throughout the semester to help offset it.
While this certainly wouldn't be a course I would take by choice, I definitely learned a lot and think that Frantz was not nearly as bad as many like to say. Go to office hours, do the practice problems in the book, and go to class and you will make it through.

This class is very much a weed out class. Frantz is a pretty nice person but her lecture style with clicker might not be for everyone as she goes pretty in depth, and expects memorization of lots of charts, graphs, and values the other classes are given on exams. There are people who succeed with Frantz but if you are unsure of your major or procrastinate a lot I wouldn't recommend because it will not be a fun experience. The homework clicker and discussion points make up almost half of your grade so try to get all of those points because exams are sometimes brutal. There are 3 exams for a total of (30%). The exam before the final had an average of a 50 or 60 so try to do well on the first two to set yourself up well for the final. That said the final was pretty rough and makes up almost the same amount as the exams but without corrections like the others(25%). The class is hard and stressful and I would have definitely preferred another instructor like Chruma, but if you do get Frantz it's not the absolute end of the world.