Historical instructor

PAULA PICCOLI

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 3.33/5 from 9 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

What students say

Original student reviews · all captured dates

CHEM 104
Quality 4/5Difficulty 4/5
I definitely enjoyed going to class with Piccoli as she was a very light-hearted funny individual and she definitely cares about her students. However, the tests were very hard and poorly worded. I also felt I had to teach myself a lot of the material. Overall, probably not the best chem professor.
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CHEM 104
Quality 2/5Difficulty 4/5
She's a decent lecturer but her tests are ridiculous. Test are poorly worded, and and some calculations weren't even computable. They are also graded very unfairly, and even if you have the correct work and the correct answer, you most likely wont receive full points. She's interesting in lecture, but for your grade's sake, take someone else.
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CHEM 104
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
Great professor. Incredibly helpful during office hours. To everyone that comments that she gets angry - she DOES, but people also talk A LOT in this class, I would be annoyed too. You're not in class to talk, you're in class to learn. The exams are tough, but definitely doable if you STUDY. Her lightheartedness during lecture makes class fun.
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CHEM 104
Quality 2/5Difficulty 4/5
Do not take a course with her if you can help it. Don't expect a great grade unless you are amazing at learning on your own and enjoy incredibly hard exams.
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CHEM 104
Quality 2/5Difficulty 4/5
Professor Piccoli means well, but she lives completely in her own world. She made it seem like the course would be easy and care-free because her attitude expresses such in lecture, but her tests do not have this attitude AT ALL. Only take her if you have to for general chem. requirements. good luck.
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CHEM 104
Quality 2/5Difficulty 3/5
Professor has extremely difficult exams.Seems to think that all low scores are a result for poor behavior, not poor teaching. There's really no reason to go to lecture. If you are able to take another 104 Professor DO SO. You will regret it later when her test averages out to be a D and she blames the student population for "talking during lecture"
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Personal experiences, not a representative survey. Profile matching and captured coverage are shown in the source details.

Classes with PAULA PICCOLI

No teaching recorded in Fall 2026.

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Recorded teaching history

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Teaching history may be incomplete. Course pages contain course-specific feedback and citations.

Instructor identity & provenance
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