I really liked Professor Reilly! She's a wonderful professor and is so helpful both inside and outside the classroom. She held an insane amount of office hours, and I went really often and was satisfied every time we talked. She posted all of the handwritten lecture notes on CCLE, and we would print them out and fill them out in class. For every discussion worksheet, she would post a video answer key of her doing out the problems, which are SUPER helpful and can save you time if you can't make it to office hours. There was a review session before every exam, but they were run by the LAs. While most of the LAs are really nice and smart, they also make the review sheet that they go over during the review session, and I felt like the problems were more for pushing your thinking and went beyond what was expected on the exam, which was kind of unhelpful if you were going to review exam material. Professor Reilly also posts a lot of extra practice, which I recommend doing ALL of it because they'll really help prepare you for the midterms/final, especially when it comes to mechanisms and synthesis problems. While she does go kinda fast, office hours do remedy that, as she goes through any and all questions thoroughly and will explain concepts multiple times if you don't understand them. My only complaint is that the first midterm was relatively straightforward, and our average was a B-, which is really good. However, she made the second midterm and final extremely difficult, and the respective averages were an F and a D-. The second midterm and final were really difficult for most of the class, me included, and the questions were meant to push your thinking. However, that was a problem for the second midterm considering the extreme time constraint (during a 50 min. lecture period). For the final, it was more understandable, as it's 3 hours, but it was still extremely hard, and most of the class stayed all 3 hours. However, she does offer multiple XC opportunities and easy homework points through BACON. Overall, I would definitely take her, even though her exams are difficult, because she's really nice, helpful, straightforward, and a great chemistry professor!

Reilly is very clear in explaining each of the concepts. The class is organized in a way that is very manageable. The pre and post labs are very straightforward. If something is unclear or you do not know the answer to the question, you can always go to her office hours or TAs office hours to ask for clarification and help. She is very willing to help and is very approachable.
Our final was 40% so worth a little more than previous classes she taught with 35%.

Prelab Assignments = 20%
Lecture Participation = 5%
Engagement/Participation/Lab Cleanup/teamwork (TA points) = 5%
Postlab Assignments = 20%
Final In-Class Presentation = 10%
Final Exam = 40%

Grading:
99.0% + = A+ | 95.0% – 98.9% = A | 90.0% – 94.9% = A– |
85.0% – 89.9% = B+ | 80.0% – 84.9% = B | 75.0% – 79.9% = B– |
70.0% – 74.9% = C+ | 63.0% – 69.9% = C | 55.0% – 62.9% = C– |
50.0% – 54.9% = D+ | 40.0% – 49.9% = D | 30.0% – 39.9% = D– |

Like noted by another reviewer, it is relatively easy (very doable) to get an A–/B+ (which can be seen in the grade distributions). Pre/Post lab assignments should not be too hard to get full points on, but since there is no midterm (which can be a positive or a negative - depending on your perspective) your final grade is heavily dependent on the final exam. The final is not to hard, but requires some application thinking. To do very well on the final, (even attempt to try to get that A+, you have to basically get perfect on everything, and on the final miss only a few points (at least 97.0+ as even with the buffer from the extra credit in post and pre lab category, 99%+ is asking for perfection). It is very easy to calculate your grade in this class, as her grading scheme is already set and you just have to calculate your own percentage. She mentioned she would scale the final scores if necessary, but she also said that she has never done so in the past, as students have done relatively well on her exams.

Overall, she was a great professor, very manageable and very approachable when questions needed to be answered. She will probably be teaching 30BL/CL from now on, unless something changes.

She is one of the best professors I have had at UCLA. Her workload isn't too bad, and he gives out plenty of A's as long as you understand the material. Take her by all means, I would definitely recommend her.

Very hard class, amazing professor. The first Ochem class will be hard for anyone, but the professor makes it so much better. she posted the lecture notes online so you print them before lecture and then work through the problems in class. It makes lecture so much better and I actually learned a lot more. The material is hard so I read the textbook before class which helped a ton. Grading is 23% midterm 1, 23% midterm 2, 45% final, and 9% bacon (online HW, very easy, and free). She also offers 1.5% extra credit for going to lecture which is nice. The test are very hard midterm 1 (avg. 83%), midterm 2 (avg. 52%), final (avg. 60%). The key to do well is do good on mdterm 2. The material on midterm 2 is not hard but you learn a lot of reactions between weeks 4-8 so make sure you stay ahead of schedule and know all the reactions very well before then. The really hard test is the final. By now everyone knows all the reactions, so she adds tricky problems that don't just test your knowledge on memorizing reagents and reaction, but to truly think like a chemist and draws a little on acid/bases and general chem knowledge from chem 20A/B. Overall to do well in this class you need a solid understand of chemistry and there is no way to fake it

Dr. Reilly is a very compassionate and clear professor for Chem30A! She really wants to help students to the best of her abilities, and was good about having office hours, review sessions, extra practice problems, video keys, etc. to help students. This past quarter, she did lecture very quickly and at times it can be rather difficult to keep up with what is going on. But I walked away with a very strong understanding in the end. If you take her, here's some things to know:
-Dr. Reilly lectures extremely quickly, especially after the first midterm things start flying by. Really try to look at the material that will be covered beforehand, and review it consistently after.
-Reilly makes very helpful worksheets that are pretty reflective of the kind of material that will be on exams. Definitely do all of the worksheets and go to discussions.
-The textbook problems were not too helpful/reflective of what is expected. Often they are significantly easier. Maybe do some early on for practice.
-One frustration I had with the class was how much of the exams relied on being creative with mechanisms/synthesis. You can still understand the reactions but still do very poorly on exams. Do not let the 1st midterm fool you! Exams got significantly more difficult afterwards. Practice, practice, practice with the resources she makes + anything you can find.
-Averages of 2nd midterm and final were in the 50s, low 60s, but Reilly adjusts her grading around these. She wants a more difficult exam for a better distribution.
-Its been said that Reilly manipulates grades at times significantly, and values improvement, so don't be discouraged!

Regarding the class, the pre and post labs can be a bit of a pain (probably less so in the school year since lab isn't twice a week). However, Reilly will answer any and all questions you have (especially with the NMRs, which I was really bad at reading) so I would suggest you get as much of it done as you can and then ask her for help!

Regarding the professor--Professor Reilly is amazing! She is an engaging lecturer, incredibly smart, and also super kind and understanding. She's patient with everyone and never condescending--she treats all questions equally and answers them thoroughly. This was really helpful since I switched from the 14 series and lacked a lot of self-confidence in my abilities, especially when it came to organic chemistry. I felt welcome in the classroom AND encouraged to learn and try my best. Professor Reilly constantly reassured me that she was here to help and her office hours were a great place to get my endless questions resolved. I love her so much and I wish I could take 30CL with her :(

I'd like to preface this by saying that I am awful at chemistry, have little to no interest in it, and only took this course because it was a major requirement. Prior to this class, the last time I took an organic chemistry class was over a year ago. I was dreading this class so bad.
Professor Reilly made this class as painless as possible. She's a great lecturer, understands that people come from very varied backgrounds in ochem (people like me versus some second year biochem / chem majors) and is so incredibly responsive towards her students. She makes an effort to attend lab sections, holds office hours in lecture if she finishes early, and has the fastest Piazza response time of any professor I've seen. Also, our TAs all love her, which is a good sign. This is a class that you can absolutely succeed in if you try. Pre and post labs can be tricky, but TAs hold office hours, Piazza is a thing, and Reilly herself will give you some answers in lecture. You don't have to worry about not having study material for the final, because there's a practice worksheet for every week, plus three full length practice finals that she releases.

Note: She made the final exam optional this quarter (winter 2020), which I appreciate a lot, though she would've received a positive review anyways.

This review is for CHEM 14D. Overall, I really enjoyed taking ochem with Reilly. Even though her lectures go by really fast, she takes time to answer questions and give examples for clarification. This helpfulness also extends beyond class hours, as she uploads some tutorial videos and practice problems to CCLE in order to help you prepare for exams. Her lecture notes and chapter summaries are extremely helpful and easy to follow (especially helpful in making notecards). I found her exams to be difficult, but fair. Exams (2 midterms and a final) make up the bulk of the points in this class, but there are smaller points to earn from BACON exercises and smaller extra credit opportunities. Discussion sections are a hit or miss, depending on which TA's section you are enrolled in, but you can drop into any TA's section if there's space allowing.

This review is for Dr. Reilly for Chem 14D. Coming into this class, I thought I was screwed for two big reasons: I was awful at gen chem and therefore thought I was awful at all chem, and the quarter prior I took 14C with a brand new and very scattered professor who I don't believe got through all of the material we should have covered. We definitely hit the ground running with Dr. Reilly, as 14D is a lot to begin with but she also recognized that a lot of us had gaps in our fundamental ochem knowledge. However, even though she oftentimes spoke really *really* fast and covered A LOT of material in the span of each 50 minute lecture, she is the most patient, thorough, and articulate professor I've had at UCLA so far. She went out of her way for her students, posting tutorials on confusing (14C AND 14D) topics, posting pdf and video answer keys for each week's discussion worksheet, having super flexible and helpful office hours. Her tests were hard and both midterms had averages in the 60s. But they were completely and entirely fair. If nothing else, Amber Reilly is an incredibly fair professor. Ochem was definitely hard, but professor Reilly really holds your hand as much as she can throughout the course. I imagine she's just as fairminded, generous, and thorough in her other classes as well, so I highly recommend taking organic chemistry or whatever else with Dr. Reilly.

Definitely recommend taking Dr. Reilly. She is the best professor I have met so far.

Walking into the Chem 30 Series, I was nervous/scared as I heard that organic chemistry is by far the hardest chemistry you can ever encounter. However, Dr. Reilly proved that this is wrong.

She is so knowledgeable in Organic Chemistry and you can feel the love and passion for the subject from her at every lecture and office hour.

She is also very helpful and actually wants you to succeed unlike some of the other professors. She will hold additional office hours, study sessions, review sessions, and work on the homework with you after you attempted it yourself.

The notes she gives out are super helpful. I definitely recommend also going to office hours as she is great at eliminating any sort of confusion you have on the subject.

Overall the breakdown of the course is:
BACON UCLA (X6): 12%
Problem Set (X5): 25%
Midterm: 25%
Final Exam: 38%

Her exams are fair and if you learn the material and understand it, do the discussion worksheets, problem sets, and additional practice problems she gives out, you should be well prepared for any examination.

In times of COVID-19 Pandemic and BLM movement, she was very understanding adjusting the coursework accordingly.

YOU WILL NOT REGRET TAKING ORGANIC CHEM WITH DR. REILLY!