Teaching Section

John Richard's Teaching Approach

John's lectures are typically organized as follows: students get so-called "skeleton handouts" in advance, which contain most - but certainly not all - of the information (the handouts alone are not sufficient for revising the subject, and are only distributed for your convenience so you can better concentrate in the lecture on what is taught).

A powerpoint presentation is delivered containing all the information required to know, and you are expected to take extensive notes on your "skeleton handouts". Your revising should be directed to understanding the principles and reproducing the material in the handouts (eg mechanism of the Vilsmeyer reaction etc).

The tutorials will give you a very good idea how to direct your revising. The questions will make clear to you what you have to know and understand. You must spend at least 1h/week trying to solve the tutorial questions, AFTER having read your notes. It is NOT the purpose of tutorials to merely repeat the lectures, but to provide an opportunity to help you with issues you don't understand, and this of course implies that you had tried before rather hard to understand or solve the particular problem. So make the most of it !

Previous exam questions can be found on Blackboard. I am always willing to make an appointment in case you want to have large bits of the lectures re-explained to you. Please email or ask me after lectures/tutorials.

UB Learns

UBLearns provides access to course handouts, notes and syllabus for registered students. Access the UB Learns Blackboard pages here!

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