856 ratings
Organic Chemistry nerd
Noah H.
I make chemistry less messy by organizing the evidence.
Education
Rice University
B.S. in Chemistry, minor in Chemical Physics
Hometown
Denver, Colorado
A note from Noah
“Chemistry isn't a pile of formulas — it's a story about where electrons want to go, and once you can predict that, the math just writes itself. I'll teach you to read a mechanism the way I read a climb: see the gradient before you hit it, meter your effort, and never panic at the part that looks steepest. Stop memorizing the answer and start narrating the reaction — by exam day you're just retelling a story you already know.”
Noah’s story
Noah pulled a 61 in honors gen-chem his first semester at Rice because he'd memorized 80-odd Ka values without once asking why a reaction shifted. His cycling coach unstuck him: "read the road before you hit it." Noah started reading mechanisms the same way — tracking where electrons wanted to go before touching the math — and by spring he was the one tutoring that course in the Fondren Library basement. Growing up at 5,280 feet taught him the rest: on a 12% grade you don't win on raw effort, you win by metering it, and that's exactly the patience he hands students buried in stoichiometry. He still races Cat 2 road events, and once balanced redox half-reactions in his head for the last 30 miles of a century ride just to keep from bonking.
What students say
4.9 ★ · 856 ratings
“My daughter went from a 72 to a 96 on her AP Chem equilibrium test after Noah drilled 'predict the shift before you do the math.' The wild part: she emailed her teacher to argue a Le Chatelier point and the teacher agreed with her.”
“I'd memorize an orgo mechanism and lose it in a week. Noah had me drawing electron arrows like I was sketching a bike route, one push at a time. Went from 58% on my first ochem midterm to a 91% on the second-semester final.”
“I failed gen chem the first time and was dreading the retake. We drilled limiting-reagent problems the way Noah 'meters a climb' until I stopped freezing on them. Finished with a B+, and titrations finally make sense — I can actually read the equivalence point now.”