30C with Prof. Merlic has been great (writing this right before finals). First of all, the class is hard. It is meant for biochem & chem students, and it expects people going in to know basic orbital theory, stereochem and resonance, 20B acid/base chem, dozens of reactions involving aldehydes/ketones, alcohols, alkenes, and alkynes, and so on.

That being said, Merlic does a great job in presenting his slides (which have tons of good information and are thoroughly detailed), is very receptive to student questions during lecture or office hours, and his homeworks, albeit time-consuming and difficult, are excellent sources of studying material for his exams.

For class structure in terms of grading and so, we had weekly quizzes in discussion worth 25% (easier than they sound), homework once a week worth 25%, three midterms worth 25% combined, and a final worth 25%. The exams are challenging and sometimes you may run out of time (though less than before in 30B), but they are completely doable if one prepares with the past exams he provides, problem sets, and homeworks.

At the end of the day, I'd highly recommend taking this class with him....Roberto Chavez as TA as well, if you can get him.

I cannot express enough the regard I hold for professor Merlic; he is easily one of best instructors I have had the privilege of learning from. On the last day of lecture, I even found the triumph of finishing orgo colored by melancholy, as I realized our time together had come to an end. Though organic chemistry is often discussed with a degree of dread, Prof. Merlic's wit and contagious enthusiasm, dare I say, made the class something to look forward to. He lectures at a brisk pace, but provides ample supplementary materials with which to study. He also demonstrates CONSIDERABLE patience, given some of the more "quirky" students in class this quarter. Though he initially grinned and bore the disruptions, by ninth week he began to lay down the hammer on the hysterics; in my opinion, he could have done this sooner. Exams and grading was fair. Complemented by a very competent TA team, I would fully recommend this course with Prof. Merlic. My only regret is that I did not have time this quarter to take his Honors Seminar.

This class was by far the most difficult in the CHEM 30 series, especially because of the carbohydrate and lipid chemistry that was squeezed in the last 2 weeks of the course. Since the course had both weekly quizzes and three midterms, I was constantly studying for this class. There is no mandatory homework in this class, but you need to do all of the practice problems and go over the textbook to do well. The exams are definitely fair, as Merlic's practice problems are far more difficult than the actual test questions. Also, the practice questions that accompany the slides are fairly similar to the midterm and quiz questions. The final was more difficult than all of the midterms. Overall, what made the class stressful was that it was graded on a curve, so only a certain amount of students could get an A, A-, etc. This made the class more competitive than others and essentially discouraged cooperation. As for Merlic, he was an interesting and engaging lecturer but sometimes glazed over difficult concepts because he understands them so well. We would go over lecture slides very quickly, and Merlic would tend to focus on the real life applications of the concepts which was definitely interesting but not very helpful for doing well on exams. Understanding all 30A and 30B concepts was essential for doing well in this class, specifically visualizing stereochemistry. If you keep up with all of the lecture slides and review them after every lecture, you'll do well in this course; it just takes a lot of additional work.

This class was pretty interesting but difficult at times. I took 30B with Merlic the previous quarter so I was a little more prepared for the amount of work and the exams that he did. That being said its still pretty hard with learning a ton of reactions. If you keep up with him throughout the quarter you'll do fine. He just goes pretty fast through reactions but he'll explain concepts really well during lectures and office hours. I'd recommend Prof Merlic if you want to learn a lot and you generally enjoy ochem.

His class had three midterms, a final, and discussion quizzes each week. Depending on your TA you could possibly get half the points taken off without explanation like I did but he normalizes the grades at the end so it only matters if you do well in comparison to the rest of your discussion.

Probably the hardest class I've ever taken as a Chem major so far but incredibly rewarding. First part of the quarter was rough because my 30b knowledge was pretty weak but if you do most of the practice problems he gives you and the book problems the class is quite manageable. He gave us 3 midterms during the pandemic which really sucked up my time I literally put in like 3x more effort than all my other classes combined. Overall pretty rewarding and one of the better profs you can have for ochem though i'm honestly not sure how I ended up with an A- as I basically scored a standard deviation up on every midterm and the final, grades were probably super inflated due to covid or smth ;-;

Had Merlic for 30B too. Definitely not as fast paced as 30B and the lack of spectra made it all the easier. Lectures can still be difficult to keep up with so make sure you're really paying attention, but Merlic makes it easy with his dynamic speaking style. Exams are fair but that doesn't mean they're easy, so make sure you really understand what's going on conceptually in each type of reaction. The lipid and carbohydrate sections were definitely infodumps too big for the the last few lectures of class. I opted out of the final, so I'm not sure how lipid/carbohydate questions were constructed in exams. Overall, Merlic is intimidating for sure but he cares fiercely about his students and is one of my favorite professors at UCLA. If you're on top of things, his class makes o-chem extremely enjoyable.

Great prof, really goes in depth about a lot of topics to teach why certain reactions happen and is willing to cover past info in detail for those of us that forgot. His homework, practice, and exam problems are often interesting and/or hard and he likes to talk about how to apply concepts. He's also a fun guy in general. I didn't touch the textbook because his problems are way better than the textbook problems and he gives you everything you need to do well.

I honestly loved having Merlic as a professor. I had him for 30B as well so I knew what to expect from his lectures and tests. He was a pretty engaging professor and you can tell he really knows his chemistry. He does go VERY fast in lecture; however, his lectures always make sense when you go over them later, so I would suggest going to class.

My advice is to do all the practice tests he gives and all the practice problems. He structures his tests very similarly so if you study the problems that he gives you you'll be set. I also would go to office hours. I always went to TA office hours (Carl was very helpful) because Merlic lowkey scares me. And also, make sure you pay attention to what he talks about in lecture because it will most likely be on the tests. For example, which mechanisms he goes over in detail, or which handouts he discusses because they will most likely show up even if you don't think it's important.

30C with Merlic felt less rushed than 30B, partly because the middle half of the class was not too bad (aromatic chemistry and molecular orbitals). However, the class is pretty much all synthesis, so take that as you will.

The first few concepts (enolate chemistry, amines) were somewhat challenging, but once you get to aromaticity, the class chills down for a few weeks. However, our midterm 2 was on Week 9, so it was really easy to get complacent about the material until the weekend before the midterm. I have to second the other comments that the chapters on lipids and carbohydrates were weird and felt a bit out of place.

If you had Merlic for 30B, you know what to expect. Lectures go quite fast, although not as fast as 30B. Lots of handouts to read over and study. Lectures are engaging for the most part, and he does Q&A review sessions before each exam and multiple office hours every week.

So just to let you know, Professor Merlic isn’t dumb. The students this quarter were though. They brought in old exams to office hours thinking that past bruinwalk reviews about him reusing old exams would be 100% true. Learn the material, go to office hours, and use chemistry websites if you don’t understand. Also, don’t pay people for old exams.

Make sure you can write fast and be ready to be called out if you’re on your phone.