Very good at teaching thermodynamics and it’s applications. Very clear instructions.
Homework is mandatory but very manageable. Office hours are very useful for homework help.
The book is theoretically required, but not needed. It is helpful for some people.
Tests are fair, and manageable.

Beren is a nice guy and generous with grading (curves to a B+), but his lectures are a little disorganized. Take his class if you want to learn the material and earn a decent grade, but are ok with having a new professor who has not totally figured out how he wants to teach the class.

The tests are relatively straightforward and fair. His first midterm and final both had a high median, while the second midterm was significantly harder (tricky questions and a time crunch). Since this is a curved class, this test basically decides your grade so make sure you're prepared for it.

I recommend using OWL (if you have it) or the textbook to do practice problems. If you didn't take AP Chem, you may need to work harder than other students to be on equal standing.

Professor Beren is great! Although his lectures can be pretty mundane sometimes, he is very clear and straightforward about what it is that he would like you to know. You will never go into an exam wondering what could possibly be on it. The workload is fairly light, just a problem set due each week. He is super helpful in office hours and holds multiple each week so as to make sure that everyone has a chance of coming. His exams were all pretty fair- although the second midterm was pretty rough, the average was not too horrendous and he does curve the class up. Overall, he is just a super friendly professor and always looking in the best interests of his students.

Beren is a fantastic professor and I would definitely recommend him for any chem class. His lectures can be a bit dry, but I don't think that's his fault. He posts his "slides" (really a pdf of lecture notes) and our class was BruinCasted, so if you're disciplined enough to self-study, you can miss a few classes and be fine. He had office hours four days a week and always held review sessions before exams. He clearly wants students to succeed and is very approachable.

The homework problem sets were manageable, always less than ten problems and though some were harder than others, they were all graded on completion so it wasn't stressful if you couldn't figure something out. His exams were pretty much as expected, drawing from the homeworks and discussion section questions, but as others have said the second midterm was harder and you needed to know how to apply the equations in situations that we hadn't seen in previously given sets (unlike the first midterm, which fooled us into a false sense of security). No cheat sheets, but all equations and constants are provided.

You don't need the textbook to succeed in this class, but an AP Chemistry background is very useful because the topics are almost the same. Beren didn't really teach or test on the more complicated topics included in 20B (like solubility, Carnot cycle), which my friends with other profs had. Overall, a very reasonable class, and he definitely tries his hardest to provide us with all the resources we need.

Professor Beren was great! Since he is a bit new, his lectures can be a bit disorganized and repetitive and he sometimes makes mistakes. However, he definitely cares about his students. This man took the time to set up appointments with his students that were in danger of failing the class. He also provided a lot of applications of the material we learned (including a tour of the CNSI building!).

In terms of tests, the midterms were pretty fair, the second one being a bit harder. The final was pretty easy, as Beren makes it pretty clear what material is important to know. Overall, I’ve heard some rough things about 20B, but taking it with Beren made it all the more better. Would recommend!

Beren is a very nice guy and a pretty good professor. Personally, I found his test grading schemes a little confusing and he doesn't give too much partial credit on longer problems, so definitely make sure you write out your steps clearly so the grader can determine if it is a math error or a conceptual error, as conceptual errors will cost you a lot more points. The HW is fair and not too difficult, but the tests are definitely harder than the HW. TA sessions were not mandatory but personally I thought the worksheets were really useful, and a lot of the information from those worksheets ended up on the final. As mentioned in other reviews, pretty generous curve, but don't expect an A if you don't work for it.

Christian is a good professor and is extremely helpful and understanding. He curves the class upwards to about 50% A's and 50% everything else (at least according to what he says) which is extremely generous. His lectures are usually pretty good, but they sometimes cover things which are a bit out of scope (those topics are not in tests though). His tests are pretty fair and cover basically what you expect them to cover. There is mandatory homework, but it's not too difficult and is basically graded on completion.

As a person who after Chem 20A dreaded chemistry, Beren made it bearable. Beren is super helpful and I VERY STRONGLY RECOMMEND going to his office hours. His homework is a bit challenging but you can get through it. They are mostly graded based on completion from what I understood so its good to get the practice from them.

His discussions have worksheets to work on which are super helpful because they pertain to the homework. My advice is if you have a question ask it then and there!

I think it is really important to practice with these problems, you need to know when you can use things you have used before like HEY WAIT I can use the ideal gas law! Or OMG WAIT is that K I can use yadda yadda. It'll make sense later.

Beren is a great professor so if you are gonna take this class I highly recommend him and the best of luck to ya!