Chem 30BL is mostly an individual effort. You can't really complain about Bacher. His lectures really clear up the procedures for each lab, and he goes through all the reasons behind each step. So go to lecture every week. Labs are challenging but you get used to them. Do well on the lab quizzes and try not to screw up elsewhere. Most importantly, do very well on the final. This means do every single practice final he gives, understand completely why each answer is there, and look through the solutions to his old exams since the problems aren't there. If you are weak at IR, do as many of his old IR assignments as possible. Yes this is only a 3 unit class and you will be bitching all the time, but it is very possible to earn that A. Plus about 20% of the class get A's, so ignore the misleading distributions to the right of this paragraph.

Good luck.

I initially did have a lot to say, but I decided to shorten things a bit. Who wants to read an overly long review anyway?

Professor: Not the worst person in the world. He seems imposing but is much nicer in person. Responds to emails promptly. Based on my TA experience, I'd rather have Bacher lead lab sessions. This guy really, really knows his stuff, but then again he's been teaching this class for 7-8 years (based on his exam results on his webpage). He is the only professor teaching 30BL and 30CL at the moment, so you HAVE to go through him. You can choose otherwise by switching your major out of chemistry/biochemistry/bioengineering/etc, but that's up to you.

Course: One of the most informative classes I've taken here at UCLA. The theory is interesting enough, but the material is very practical. You will learn more lab techniques than you ever have learned from 20L and 30AL. The labs are difficult and time consuming, and the outside work also takes up too much time. Perhaps that's the one bad thing: despite being 3 units, Chem 30BL will take more time than many 5-unit courses. Pre-labs and post-labs take hours to complete, and if you want an A, you better work your butt off.

Grading: The number of points total out at around 620. He says there is no curve, but I think there has to be, at least for the final. I'm writing this before seeing my grade, so the less bias the better. The final's average was 62% and the high was an 87%, which is somewhat lower than his usual distributions (average around 70%, highs in the 90% range). Lab reports are worth the least but take up the most time. Lab quizzes are very important and you have to do well on all but one which is dropped. There are some online quizzes which are frustrating because most of the questions are "select all that apply." Finally, there's the final, which occupies a whopping 210 points of the course. Clearly, doing well on the final is no exception.

Overall: You don't really have a choice, do you? To get an A, I'd say you need to do your own lab reports, attend lecture, write down everything he says, do well on the lab quizzes, and score higher than most people on the final. Good luck.

It is not impossible to get a high grade in this class, but you have to be able to put in A LOT of effort. The lectures are very helpful, so make sure to attend them and try not to fall asleep! Do ALL of the final exam practice booklet, and work your butt off!

In the beginning of the course, I had mixed feelings about this class. I heard it was hard, so I didn't carry high expectations going into it. As for the difficulty of the course, i can honestly say for a three unit class, it was a lot of work, but doable. I got a high grade in the class, but the amount of time I spent working in the lab was way beyond the unit value of the class.

Professor: I have to admit, I didn't like him very much at the beginning. His accent definitely took a bit of time getting use to. I normally replay his lectures 4-5 times after the lecture cuz I can't understand half of what he says. Some people can understand him better than others. It really depends on the person. Listening to him so much, I can sometimes hear his voice when doing work for his class in the dorms. But half way thru the course, I actually started to like him. He will force you to learn and push you to your limits. Just when you thought you reached the bar, he raises it. But he's actually really nice most of the time, always willing to help. He can be a bit mean if you talk to him at the wrong time, but overall he's very nice. I feel like he has taught me a lot more than my 5 unit classes. The lab techniques i learned will stay with me forever. I really learned alot from him and for that I thank him. I feel he will be one of the professors I will remember in 10 years or so when I look back at my college experience.

Experiments: Prof Bacher may be a nice professor, but he certainly has his way of driving people crazy. The experiments after the 3rd one, always went beyond the time limit especially when you mess up which is def not unusual. Its sooooooooo frustrating when something goes wrong. I always got like a 30% yield (with half of it being impurities)and that pissed me off too.

Quizzes: The online ones drove me nuts. Dr. Bacher definitely gave the phrase "multiple choice" a new meaning. The in class quizzes are made by the TAs. My TA was awesome but he was hard so I averaged a C on all the quizzes. But it really doesn't matter cuz everyone is in the same boat. You fail, but so does everyone else. It really comes down to who fails more.

Pre/Postlab: I rarely got a 5/5 on my pre/post lab. My TA graded hard. But like I said above, everyone is in the same boat so it doesn't matter. This is why I never spent alot of time on them. I feel like I get the same grade no matter how much or how little effort I put in.

Final: The importance of the final for this class is like the MCAT to med school admissions. YOU MUST DO WELL if you even want a shot at an A. I don't know what I got on mine yet but I can guess it is high because I failed everything else in the class and got a high overall grade. I studied by summarizing by writing and reading the entire survival guide (yes, all 300 something pages) and the lab manual(another 100 pages). I never touched my textbook (waste of 40 dollars). The practice final course reader was my best friend in the world for the quarter. He asks the same questions forwards and backwards so study it. There're a lot of practice finals in there and each taking 3 hrs means you should start early. I started the practice finals 4 days before the final which basically meant I didn't sleep cuz I had three other finals to study for too. I actually ended up reading the answer key cuz I couldn't possibly finish it all. But the bad news is, you can't start too early because one you forget and two the final tests on all the experiments esp the Grignard (which is the final experiment). So you can't really do an entire final without actually finishing all the experiments. I cram alot. It tends to work for me. But if you're not a crammer, then start studying early.

Overall, I actually kinda liked the class which was unexpected. I thought I was going to absolutely loathe this class and the professor, but I didn't. The professor, the learning, and the material I liked alot. But the grading was something I didn't enjoy as much.

Professor Bacher is actually very nice and willing to explain things. He is not intimidating when you talk to him.

Hard class, too much busywork. Interesting experiments, but overall a waste of time for a non-chemistry, non-biochemistry major.

The entire weighting of your grade is on the final, which covers material you definitely did not learn in 30BL. To ace the exam (and the class), fanatically study the practice exam booklet. Know your spectra, and memorize as much random trivia from the Survival Guide.

I love learning and I love all my major upper divs, but this class was a waste of my time.

I heard from a lot of different people that he is hard and I somewhat agree with them. More is expected from the students here than in the previous chemistry labs. But the good thing is that he is very willing to help and is pretty good at explaining things inside and outside of class. Don't be intimidated by Dr. Bacher though he may sound a little mean (German accent). He is actually a great guy and I do recommend him. Look through the course readers he gives you and look at the practice tests. You should get an idea of how to study for this class from that. Just study diligently and you should be fine. Good luck.

Throughout the quarter, I did horribly. My TA graded harshly, so I was averaging 50% on the weekly quizzes. Rarely did I get full credit on my post labs. And I actually forgot to do an entire 10 point homework assignment. However, the day before the final (the entire day), I completely dissected the final exam reader. I took the first test as a diagnostic. I worked through all of the other ones. And I took the last as a practice test. Before that day, I had never seriously studied for the quizzes. But the final exam reader is the most useful thing in this entire class. As a result of my cramming, I got the high score on the final, and I got an A in the class. So even if you feel hopeless throughout the quarter, anything is still possible. This is a rare class in which the entire quarter is salvageable with just one exam.

Dr. Bacher is by far the best chemistry teacher I have ever had at UCLA. I am a biochem major so I have had my fair share of teachers. I was really scared for this class but I put in a lot of effort for each lab, went to office hours, and studied hard for the final. I got an A. I didn't even think I did as well on the final as I did in the class. He really cares about his students and wants us to think and really learn. I learned more in one quarter of his organic chem lab than I did in the entire 30 series. I received B+'s in all of the 30 series classes and really learned it for his class. Take this class seriously and work the whole quarter. It's demanding as far as time goes but really worth it and not that bad!

Professor Bacher was always there when I needed him. Whenever I went to his office hour, he kindly answered all my questions and seemed very concerned about student's learning because he always emailed me back in less than two hours and was always in his office. This class requires so much work and energy, especially if your TA is very picky and demanding, but definitely doable if you're determined to get an A. Personally, chem30BL was not as horrendous as I thought it would be..so don't be afraid to take this class and go to his office hour~!

Above all, Professor Bacher is very nice. He does care about his students and he does know all of their names by the second time he sees them, which is refreshing in a huge school like UCLA. He knows who works hard and who doesn't. He is always in his office so you can ask questions and he is very helpful in that aspect. He genuinely cares about how the lab goes and he tries to make lab enjoyable.

However, I do have to agree with others that lectures are hard to follow because of his accent (and I really try my best to understand!) Also, I think it would be more helpful if lectures were more about the concepts than lab techniques.

This class is hard but doable, but it is mostly time consuming. The lab reports take a loooonnnng time to complete depending on how nit-picky your TA is. However, if you put in the work, you should do well. (I got an A, but I worked really hard for it).

There is quite a bit of independent studying for this class but as long as you're familiar with the concepts in the lab and the techniques reader, you should be fine. A good grasp of general and organic chem is really crucial for this class. To do well in the final, I would recommend doing all the tests (and understanding all the answer explanations) in his exam reader since he tends to recycle questions. Also, it is helpful to time yourself when you're doing the past exams. The final not easy and really long but we only had 2 hours.

Overall, I would recommend Bacher. He is quite nice and I learned a lot from this class.