CHEM 144
Practical and Theoretical Introductory Organic Synthesis
Description: Lecture, two hours; laboratory, eight hours. Enforced requisites: courses 30C and 30CL, with grades of C- or better. Lectures on modern synthetic reactions and processes, with emphasis on stereospecific methods for carbon-carbon bond formation. Laboratory methods of synthetic organic chemistry, including reaction techniques, synthesis of natural products, and molecules of theoretical interest. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 5.0
Units: 5.0
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Most Helpful Review
This class have massive amount of material to learn. Dr. Chang had a detailed lecture notes that was uploaded after every lecture. It was helpful. The midterm was very hard but final was ok. He goes pretty fast.It took me a while to catch up with the material and know what I am studying for. I think an outline could be helpful.
This class have massive amount of material to learn. Dr. Chang had a detailed lecture notes that was uploaded after every lecture. It was helpful. The midterm was very hard but final was ok. He goes pretty fast.It took me a while to catch up with the material and know what I am studying for. I think an outline could be helpful.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2024 - Taking Professor Stuart Conway's class was the best experience I had at UCLA. His lectures are absolutely amazing, and he is incredibly knowledgeable and open to all questions. He takes the extra time to explain everything in detail and ensures you understand the material, which I value and appreciate so much more than just blindly memorizing facts. The class is curved, and while the labs can be challenging, it's exactly what you would expect from an upper-division organic synthesis lab. You should be challenged. Professor Conway is absolutely caring and knowledgeable. I felt honored to have had him as a professor. The final was brutal, but it wasn't impossible. I had 3 finals in one day, so I didn't put in a lot of effort into studying; however, I felt it was very doable if you had the time to study. I feel he values and grades you based on the effort you put in and he can easily tell how prepared and dedicated you are as a student. His slides were incredible and full of detailed notes. He combines the history of UCLA and the history of chemistry into his lectures, making the material even more engaging and relevant by applying real-world applications. I highly recommend showing up to his office hours and talking to him. Get to know him because he is one of those rare professors in chemistry who genuinely cares about his students. I absolutely loved that class and he is the most amazing professor I had at UCLA by far.
Spring 2024 - Taking Professor Stuart Conway's class was the best experience I had at UCLA. His lectures are absolutely amazing, and he is incredibly knowledgeable and open to all questions. He takes the extra time to explain everything in detail and ensures you understand the material, which I value and appreciate so much more than just blindly memorizing facts. The class is curved, and while the labs can be challenging, it's exactly what you would expect from an upper-division organic synthesis lab. You should be challenged. Professor Conway is absolutely caring and knowledgeable. I felt honored to have had him as a professor. The final was brutal, but it wasn't impossible. I had 3 finals in one day, so I didn't put in a lot of effort into studying; however, I felt it was very doable if you had the time to study. I feel he values and grades you based on the effort you put in and he can easily tell how prepared and dedicated you are as a student. His slides were incredible and full of detailed notes. He combines the history of UCLA and the history of chemistry into his lectures, making the material even more engaging and relevant by applying real-world applications. I highly recommend showing up to his office hours and talking to him. Get to know him because he is one of those rare professors in chemistry who genuinely cares about his students. I absolutely loved that class and he is the most amazing professor I had at UCLA by far.
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2021 - Although this is technically a lab class, you should honestly treat this class as a lecture class that has 8 hours of lab every week. The lectures are fast and go through all of Chem 30 with around twice as much content in each unit, and you'll need to study a lot to understand and memorize the reactions Dr. Merlic covers. He also assigns problem sets and pop quizzes during lectures. The content is pretty interesting esp. if you enjoy synthesis, but the sheer amount of information can get overwhelming. Every week or so, you basically learn a new set of organic reactions (oxidations, organometallics, aldol) and each set has its own set of stereochemistry rules. The lab component is not too bad (s/o to Tony and Roberto!) but the procedures are sometimes long and difficult. Labs are independent and self-paced, so your ability to get good NMRs will depend mostly on your own synthetic and purification skills. There will be times when your yield is incredibly low, requiring you to redo 2-3 entire lab periods of work. Hardest part of the lab reports is analyzing your NMRs, so really try to purify your products to make your life a lot easier.
Fall 2021 - Although this is technically a lab class, you should honestly treat this class as a lecture class that has 8 hours of lab every week. The lectures are fast and go through all of Chem 30 with around twice as much content in each unit, and you'll need to study a lot to understand and memorize the reactions Dr. Merlic covers. He also assigns problem sets and pop quizzes during lectures. The content is pretty interesting esp. if you enjoy synthesis, but the sheer amount of information can get overwhelming. Every week or so, you basically learn a new set of organic reactions (oxidations, organometallics, aldol) and each set has its own set of stereochemistry rules. The lab component is not too bad (s/o to Tony and Roberto!) but the procedures are sometimes long and difficult. Labs are independent and self-paced, so your ability to get good NMRs will depend mostly on your own synthetic and purification skills. There will be times when your yield is incredibly low, requiring you to redo 2-3 entire lab periods of work. Hardest part of the lab reports is analyzing your NMRs, so really try to purify your products to make your life a lot easier.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2019 - Hosea is an awesome guy. He's super nice, and very engaging. The class is instructed like his graduate course (244), but covers less material so it is very rigorous. Though it was tough, especially for someone who had an awful organic professor at community college, if you put in the effort you can manage the grade you want. Homework was challenging but only graded for completion and going to review sessions was incredibly helpful as he would give us some of the questions before hand to discuss them with our peers. His teaching style is different than most but that's what makes him so amazing. Definitely recommend taking him if you like organic chemistry.
Fall 2019 - Hosea is an awesome guy. He's super nice, and very engaging. The class is instructed like his graduate course (244), but covers less material so it is very rigorous. Though it was tough, especially for someone who had an awful organic professor at community college, if you put in the effort you can manage the grade you want. Homework was challenging but only graded for completion and going to review sessions was incredibly helpful as he would give us some of the questions before hand to discuss them with our peers. His teaching style is different than most but that's what makes him so amazing. Definitely recommend taking him if you like organic chemistry.
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