I really appreciate this class and out of all the options for Chem 20A (at least for this quarter) Professor Alexandrova was far and away the best and most generous.

I don't think her Russian accent was really that distracting or difficult to understand. For me, I think she was so intelligent that she struggled at times to communicate effectively to her class. Nevertheless, important concepts she reiterates across multiple classes, which makes it easier to understand and office hours help clarify as well. To thrive in this class I recommend reviewing ALL the concepts by studying the notes carefully, reviewing owl problems and using the book as a guide to clarify anything in lecture (no need to understand everything in the book, a lot is just background info). If you put in some time here and there it is completely manageable and you will do well.

The test questions were a little wonky. Her first test was pretty easy, because it resembled her old test and covered fairly simple concepts (the average was mid-high B's). However, she quickly learned that students were studying off of old tests. The second midterm was harder but generally not too bad (average was a low C). I think most people were upset and will claim the class to have gotten "really hard" because they expected it to be the same question types as her old 2nd midterm. However, literally everything on all her tests were based off of problems emphasized in lecture. Nothing is unfair about her tests and by reviewing all her lecture notes and owl problems, you should have all the necessary knowledge to succeed. I struggled more with stupid mistakes than knowing how to answer the questions, because little errors can cost you a good amount of points. The class was generally really fair, though, especially compared to other professors who occassionally test on random concepts that weren't covered in lecture.

Overall, I feel like I am prepared to succeed in future chemistry classes even though she didn't emphasize the quantitive aspect of chem. Oh and one last note: she applies a generous curve at the end where the average student (hitting the average grades on all tests) will end up with a B-/B as opposed to a C or C+ in some other classes! Good luck y'all

I'm a physics major, so chemistry is not really my thing. However, since half of course is quantum chemistry / quantum physics, my physics background really helped me and gave me an advantage. I didn't study very hard for this course, mainly reviewing the very easy homework sets and summarizing the pretty dense notes that I take during lectures.
The 2 midterms were on Wednesdays, and I studied for them during the weekend before and scored very high. I probably studied the same amount for the final since it wasn't cumulative and was essentially a 3 hour midterm on the last ⅓ of the course. If you take this course with Alexandrova, make sure you have a strong physics foundation or else it will be a challenge - her lectures are physics-heavy.

Alexandrova's class was really hard lol I had to watch MIT open courseware lectures to understand what was going on in class. I think she was easier than the other Chem 20A teachers though. Her accent was hard for me to understand and her office hours get really crowded if you go late. Her first midterm was much like the old ones, but her second midterm was NOTHING like the old ones. My advice for this class is to rely on your TAs for help and other online resources.

She is not the BEST teacher. But she is definitely better than the other Chem 20A professors. She started out really strong. I loved it. It was a more in depth version of AP Chem. But things got pretty bad when she got into Schrodinger's Equations. She didn't do a very adequate job explaining them. She didn't explain the concept of them. Rather, it was just a bunch of equations that you just had to memorize how to do. I'm not sure if I can blame her or the curriculum. I went to her office hours and they were somewhat helpful. Her tests were fair. They were similar to her passed tests in the test banks. However, don't rely too heavily on them since she knows what tests are there. Some TAs were harsh graders, others were not. She does not curve her tests or the class. I barely got an B+. I could've gotten an A easily if it were curved since I was above the average.
OVERALL, I recommend her over any of the other Chem 20A professors. She's helpful in general, but the class gets weird after the first midterm, so don't expect her to be much help on it. Watch videos online to help conceptual questions.

Selling Principles of Modern Chemistry 7th Ed. Text ********** for more details.

Great prof. If you want an A the first thing you need to do is read the book! Literally you could read the book and not go to lecture and be fine for he exam. Her lectures are really good but are trash unless you read the book. Seriously read the book or you will get rekt. Go to the test bank. First midterm and final were very similar to her previous exams. However don't rely too much on the bank because the second midterm wasn't on the bank and screwed everyone. If you want to do well in this class study an hour a day from the book and look over you notes after each lecture. Do the Owl, adn go to the test bank and you'll get an A.

I didn't care for Alexandrova. Went to a few office hours which were helpful. She would snap at students in class sometimes if they asked questions that she thought were dumb.

Alexandrova was my first professor here at UCLA. To my surprise, I managed to pull off an A- in this class; overall, the class was pretty fair when it came to grading and tests. Would highly recommend to always check out the bruin test bank, because her final and midterms USUALLY have incredibly similar questions, just different numbers. The textbook reading is dense (especially when you hit quantum mechanics), and not really helpful. I'm not really the type of person who goes to a professor's office hours, but I did benefit going to the office hours of some of the TA (if Derrick still TA's I would highly recommend him!).
Make sure to attend discussion and write down EVERYTHING from lectures. Someone on bruinwalk already mentioned how it's pretty important to catch the small details she mentions in the passing in lecture, and I can attest to that. She also definitely has an accent, but knows the material well and can teach well enough. That being said, realize you are going to have to put in work to yield good results. I always felt like I was too stupid, or one step behind everyone, and, well, I managed to pull off an A-.
Oh and the homework is something you should just do and get over with, not really useful to study off of for the exam.

Alexandrova was an excellent and solid chemistry professor. She often would make sure that the most if not all of the class was on the same page during lecture before she would move on to another topic, and always paused for questions and engaged the class. Exams were of average difficulty. Very approachable and good chemistry professor overall.

Prof AA is a passionate lecturer, but sometimes I feel like she is just too smart to teach. She talks and draws orbitals on the blackboard very fast, so it can be hard to follow and take notes of everything. Overall though, she works to make herself available and always tries to explain all questions, both in class and in office hours.

However, if you're debating between this class and a regular chem class with a worse professor (like I was), keep in mind that because this is honors, it really is harder. We covered another chapter or two more material than the regular classes and didn't get a cheat sheet (though most formulas and constants are provided). She generally doesn't believe in memorization and the second midterm and final were both qualitative, so you didn't need a calculator. I'd say the tests are overall fair- it was nothing totally unreasonable, but they aren't easy either.

This was a good class, but the homeworks were hard and generally stretched my brain's ability to google and understand concepts. On the bright side, because it's honors she curves the class to an A-.