He is the best professor I've had so far. Comparing all the chemistry professors I've had, he is the most effective. Not only is he an excellent lecturer, his personality is welcoming and is entertaining in class. Most of my studying was just from lecture notes because he is very good at explaining, simplifying, and covering all the material in the book. I only read the textbook when the exams were coming close just so I can have a more solid understanding of the concepts.

EXAMS:
....are like novels. Lots of questions. However, for some reason, he's perfected it so that there are just enough time to go through all the questions (even allowing for you to get stuck on a few). His exams are always the same format as previous exams. He is clearly aware of it and encourages you to look at the past exams. His questions aren't designed to trick you (organic chem is tricky all on its own). All the questions are doable. The places where people lose points are small things, like not drawing all the arrows in a reaction or not indicating the proper stereochemistry but you still had the structure.

TAs:
My TA was excellent, and from what heard, all the TAs are. My TA told me that Merlic likes to use people who actually work for him in a professional environment, providing much more incentive to perform well as a TA. Therefore, the TAs are usually all very good. The relationship between the TAs and the professor is incredible and entertaining to watch during lecture. (Merlic often cracks jokes that involve them).

Bottom line: EXCELLENT professor. He truly enjoys teaching. When a key idea comes up in class, he makes sure everyone is paying attention by saying "Look at me for a second," or other key lines to that effect.

Professor Merlic is a great professor. One of the best chemistry professors I have had thus far. His tests are fair and relatively doable as long as you study. My only hint is to know your stuff, especially your reactions for the second midterm and final. It's important to know those. He does go a bit fast during lectures, so it'd be a good idea to skim through the chapter before hand so you don't get lost. Also make sure to do the homework whether it's assigned or not. It's really good practice for nomenclature and reactions.

Professor Merlic is an amazing teacher. He explains everything so well. But, as others have noted, he goes really, really fast at times. Your hexagon drawing speed will increase 100 fold because of this course. But seriously, if you don't at least look at the book a little bit before you go to lecture, there is a good chance you will be lost. I always tried to make a point to do this and it helped tremendously.

Doing the homework is really important in this class if you are like me, and you cannot absorb everything in lecture. The book is well written and quite helpful, which is nice because the class is difficult as it is.

As for the tests, they really are not bad if you study. First try to go over everything and then do his practice midterm/final. He doesn't change the format from year to year, so if you feel confident solving the problems in the practice tests, you should be good to go.

The class starts off slow and gets much more difficult as the quarter progresses. The second half of the class is a TON of memorization. Good luck if you're going to be taking this. It's a tough class, but you really can't ask for a better teacher than Professor Merlic.

Merlic is a VERY effective professor and quite possibly the best o-chem professor you can take. His exams are VERY fair as he posts previous exams on the course website and the exams given usually follow the same format (aka LITERALLY the same types of questions) as the previous ones. The first exam is a joke, but the second midterm and final require complete mastery and memorization of reactions (starting material, reactants, and products). It's a lot easier than it sounds. If you don't slack off and keep up with the material in class you should easily have an A.

Merlic is an amazing professor. He is helpful, kind and surprisingly funny. He makes organic chemistry understandable, and even easy. His tests are exactly the same as previous years, and he gives you a bunch of practice tests with the answer keys. Bottom line, take any o chem class with Merlic. You won't regret it.

Merlic is a very funny professor, who does care for his students. His tests are very reasonable, and he always says that he won't trick you, which he doesn't. I really liked how he made the class interactive by writing on the board instead of giving lecture slides. A usual lecture would consist of him teaching the material as well as having a couple sample problems. He does however go kind of fast, so you must not EVER miss a lecture, because it is important material.

Merlic is a really good professor. You can understand him during lecture, and he basically tells you what you need to know. His practice tests are very similar to his actual tests, although they are a bit harder, as expected. His office hours are very helpful, and he'll even give you practice problems if you ask. He also gives out review rxn problems before each test. The class is tough as it is, and he makes it a bit easier. I'm sure he makes it easier than other teachers do. The only bad thing about him is that he goes through the material pretty quickly during lecture, so that if you don't come to class prepared or are good at understanding ochem pretty quickly, it makes it difficult to understand lecture. But if you take notes and look back on them later, along with reading the book, it makes things easier. The good thing about him is that during lecture, he tells you everything you need to know. He doesn't make you go to the book and fill in blanks or leave you confused as to what you need to know for the tests. But be sure to read the book. He could ask you for definitions that he didn't completely explain during class, and you can better understand how to explain things, e.g. what makes a certain molecule acidic, what a Lewis Acid/base is, what makes something a protic/aprotic solvent (besides having or lacking hydrogens). His review sheets for the rxns really come in handy because you really start to understand how the mechanisms work. And be sure to know the mechanisms! Although, when you get to the Sn/E rxns, he mostly wants you to know what reactants you need or what reactants you start with or what products are created. But understanding the mechanism is the key way to know what reactants you need. And the extra credit problem for the second midterm asked for the H2SO4 mechanism and he had 3 2 mechanism problems on the final.

Merlic is AWESOME! He's a really good lecturer (freakin hilarious) and his exams are pretty fair. He gives a lot of practice problems too, so you won't be lost as to what kind of questions he'll ask. If you can, take him!

Merlic is an amazingly good professor. Definitely take his class if you have the chance. He teaches O-Chem about as well as O-Chem can be taught. One thing for 30A though: the final is much harder than either of the midterms. You need to know everything there is to know about substitution and elimination reactions or else your grade will suffer.

Merlic is so good at ochem and he cares about his students. He definitely made an effort to make sure that everyone would do fine on his exams (scheduled at least 3 review sessions plus extra office hours each time!). He tends to go very quickly during lecture, and you might walk out of there with NO idea what just happened -- therefore, you should read the textbook before going to class. I think I could have easily gotten an A if I had put more work into it. It takes a lot of memorization of reactions to do well on the final. Go to his office hours. He's a nice guy who genuinely cares about your progress if YOU care about it! He's great at relating concepts to the real world (which many professors never do) and he keeps it interesting. He has a sense of humor and I never once felt like falling asleep in his class. Do yourself a favor and sign up for Merlic's class, but be prepared to work hard.