CHEM 110A
Physical Chemistry: Chemical Thermodynamics
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour; tutorial, one hour. Requisites: course 20B, Mathematics 32A or 3C (for life sciences majors), Physics 1A, 1B, and 1C (may be taken concurrently), or 1AH, 1BH, and 1CH (may be taken concurrently), or 5A, 5B, and 5C (may be taken concurrently), or 6A, 6B, and 6C (may be taken concurrently). Fundamentals of thermodynamics, chemical and phase equilibria, thermodynamics of solutions, electrochemistry. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
I thought PChem was going to be horrible but it really didn't turn out to be so bad. Schwartz really likes derivations so you wouldn't see too many plug and chug kind of problems on his exams. Be sure to go back to the most fundamental definitions when you solve his problems. You'll get the problems at least half right if you solve them this way. When I had 110A, the TA was Pep. Pep was so helpful. He gave out extra practice problems before the exams that really sum up what you should study. I go to the exams just doing these problems and I did fine (because the homework sucks). Also, be sure to look over Schwartz's old exams. He doesn't exactly recycle the questions but they are similar enough, if you know what I mean. He's taught 110A a lot of times so there should be quite a few exams floating around. Key to doing well in Schwartz's PChem class: practice, practice, pratice!
I thought PChem was going to be horrible but it really didn't turn out to be so bad. Schwartz really likes derivations so you wouldn't see too many plug and chug kind of problems on his exams. Be sure to go back to the most fundamental definitions when you solve his problems. You'll get the problems at least half right if you solve them this way. When I had 110A, the TA was Pep. Pep was so helpful. He gave out extra practice problems before the exams that really sum up what you should study. I go to the exams just doing these problems and I did fine (because the homework sucks). Also, be sure to look over Schwartz's old exams. He doesn't exactly recycle the questions but they are similar enough, if you know what I mean. He's taught 110A a lot of times so there should be quite a few exams floating around. Key to doing well in Schwartz's PChem class: practice, practice, pratice!
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2023 - I absolutely hated this class. While the problem sets for homework were light and she recorded her lecture, I really did not feel like I learned anything. The 50-min exams were extremely and impossibly long. You barely have anytime to think so them being open note doesn't help. She does not post the answer key but rather records her doing the questions and the video themselves are 40 minutes long. The final was very doable however. All her lectures were recorded but her lectures are just going over the textbook so you essentially still need to read the textbook to fully understand everything. She isn't the worst professor I've taken at UCLA because I ended with a better grade then I thought. My advice is prepare good notes for your exams, they will save your life.
Fall 2023 - I absolutely hated this class. While the problem sets for homework were light and she recorded her lecture, I really did not feel like I learned anything. The 50-min exams were extremely and impossibly long. You barely have anytime to think so them being open note doesn't help. She does not post the answer key but rather records her doing the questions and the video themselves are 40 minutes long. The final was very doable however. All her lectures were recorded but her lectures are just going over the textbook so you essentially still need to read the textbook to fully understand everything. She isn't the worst professor I've taken at UCLA because I ended with a better grade then I thought. My advice is prepare good notes for your exams, they will save your life.
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2019 - Yoffe is an intelligent researcher with a passion for thermodynamics HOWEVER, he is by far the worst professor I have ever had. Due to Yoffe's intelligence, he goes on explaining concepts in poor detail and does not talk about the assumptions he makes. I will be fair, the first three weeks of this class that had partial derivatives was an absolute nightmare, but by around week five, his lectures became significantly better so hats off to him for that. Regardless, even after his improvements, he continued to teach material poorly. What bothers me about Yoffe the most is not his teaching ability but rather his attitude. During office hours and even lecture he would make rude, sarcastic, arrogant comments when students asked questions and did not handle himself professionally. His office hours are okay but it's hard to show up when your intelligence as an upper division biochemistry student and the best public university in the world is constantly being ridiculed. His TA Chen was terrible and would mutter as he wrote equations on the board. Even after getting terrible TA reviews last quarter, Yoffe continued to let him teach. The other TA KJ was amazing. Although even she was sometimes confused, she was clear about the knowledge she could provide you. Outside of little things like Yoffe constantly showing up late to class and erasing the chalkboard before you could even write everything down, his exams were poor. He emailed us that Jule Thompson Expansion wouldn't be on the midterm when there were then conceptual questions about it. During week 2 I wrote in my notes because he explicitly stated only Pressure Volume work would be tested but on the final, he brings out tension work out of nowhere. Yoffe's curriculum is also lackluster. Although he has taught this class before and at community college, the homework questions often do not provide you with all the information you need, they are often irrelevant and do not prepare you for the exams, and you are not prepared to answer them with what you have learned in lecture. People who get the best grades on the homework are those who have Chegg accounts or money to buy online homework services, not kids who start the homework early. Yoffe lectures based off of another professor's notes, tells us to read the textbook and the other professor's notes. Between three different sources of information and a variety of handouts and emails that Yoffe constantly sends (I've received more than a 100 emails from this buffoon this quarter), it is hard to understand what you need to know for the exam and what is trivial. Yoffe also doesn't even seem to take his own final seriously because his phone went off multiple times in the middle of the exam. Yoffe is a physical chemistry genius and has a true passion for thermodynamics, but he has no business teaching students due to his poor curriculum, attitude, and inability to handle things logistically. 110A is a tough class, especially for people who will never use it again in their lives, but having a professor who can teach, can make this class which some consider the hardest one in the biochem major, much more tolerable.
Winter 2019 - Yoffe is an intelligent researcher with a passion for thermodynamics HOWEVER, he is by far the worst professor I have ever had. Due to Yoffe's intelligence, he goes on explaining concepts in poor detail and does not talk about the assumptions he makes. I will be fair, the first three weeks of this class that had partial derivatives was an absolute nightmare, but by around week five, his lectures became significantly better so hats off to him for that. Regardless, even after his improvements, he continued to teach material poorly. What bothers me about Yoffe the most is not his teaching ability but rather his attitude. During office hours and even lecture he would make rude, sarcastic, arrogant comments when students asked questions and did not handle himself professionally. His office hours are okay but it's hard to show up when your intelligence as an upper division biochemistry student and the best public university in the world is constantly being ridiculed. His TA Chen was terrible and would mutter as he wrote equations on the board. Even after getting terrible TA reviews last quarter, Yoffe continued to let him teach. The other TA KJ was amazing. Although even she was sometimes confused, she was clear about the knowledge she could provide you. Outside of little things like Yoffe constantly showing up late to class and erasing the chalkboard before you could even write everything down, his exams were poor. He emailed us that Jule Thompson Expansion wouldn't be on the midterm when there were then conceptual questions about it. During week 2 I wrote in my notes because he explicitly stated only Pressure Volume work would be tested but on the final, he brings out tension work out of nowhere. Yoffe's curriculum is also lackluster. Although he has taught this class before and at community college, the homework questions often do not provide you with all the information you need, they are often irrelevant and do not prepare you for the exams, and you are not prepared to answer them with what you have learned in lecture. People who get the best grades on the homework are those who have Chegg accounts or money to buy online homework services, not kids who start the homework early. Yoffe lectures based off of another professor's notes, tells us to read the textbook and the other professor's notes. Between three different sources of information and a variety of handouts and emails that Yoffe constantly sends (I've received more than a 100 emails from this buffoon this quarter), it is hard to understand what you need to know for the exam and what is trivial. Yoffe also doesn't even seem to take his own final seriously because his phone went off multiple times in the middle of the exam. Yoffe is a physical chemistry genius and has a true passion for thermodynamics, but he has no business teaching students due to his poor curriculum, attitude, and inability to handle things logistically. 110A is a tough class, especially for people who will never use it again in their lives, but having a professor who can teach, can make this class which some consider the hardest one in the biochem major, much more tolerable.
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