Professor
Delroy Baugh
1 of 2
AD
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2019 - Talk about an absolute disaster. In previous quarters, it seems as though his lecturing style may have largely been the same, but the tests/quizzes, as previously mentioned, were written by generous TA's with material pulled directly from the homework. Therefore, any student willing to put in a basic level of effort into the class would, without a doubt, get an A. Unfortunately, this is no longer the case. Baugh, based on students' previous end-of-term comments, has decided that he would start writing the tests and quizzes himself. One would think that this would be a good thing, but this judgement could not be further from the truth. Before I even talk about the material covered by the questions, I must address how they were written. Every single form of assessment has had some form of crippling error/lack of clarity (ESPECIALLY the 1st midterm, which would have been strictly impossible had the TA's not rushed in to clarify basic grammatical or numerical errors in the writing of the questions). In discussion sessions, even the TA's are not sure what could have possibly been on Baugh's mind when writing them. On either of the midterms, the questions themselves were, in fairness, a mixed bag. While about 1/3 of the questions had clear influences from the homework, allow me to be clear: there was no case, either on a quiz or a midterm, where a question asked on the midterm was of comparable difficulty to a question asked on the homework. The 1st quiz had one question based on the homework that was far harder than any homework question. The 1st midterm, same deal but with two questions. The 2nd midterm had a question on molecular geometry that was legitimately impossible to complete based on knowledge that one would have gotten from completing the homework - it would have required prior knowledge of geometry not covered in the class. On a 6 question midterm, one could expect two problems with faint roots from the homework, two problems based on the reading, one question based on some topic that was particularly stressed in lecture, and a final question on a topic with origin unbeknownst to anybody, including the TA's. This would be alright, if there was some form of overlap between these materials. Unfortunately, all of the material covered by each of these ideas is completely mutually exclusive - the textbook is weak in that the problems rarely have anything to do with the reading, and Baugh is on a whole other tangent altogether. In short, do not be deceived by previous grading curves in this class. I have yet to see the final or my final grade in the class, and, despite my scoring significantly above the average on every single assessment thus far, I could hardly have less confidence in what my final grade will be based on the grading system in the class (midterms don't even matter). Beren may appear to have a harder grading curve, but I assure you, it is a strictly easier and less stressful environment than you will ever be in while in Baugh's class.
Fall 2019 - Talk about an absolute disaster. In previous quarters, it seems as though his lecturing style may have largely been the same, but the tests/quizzes, as previously mentioned, were written by generous TA's with material pulled directly from the homework. Therefore, any student willing to put in a basic level of effort into the class would, without a doubt, get an A. Unfortunately, this is no longer the case. Baugh, based on students' previous end-of-term comments, has decided that he would start writing the tests and quizzes himself. One would think that this would be a good thing, but this judgement could not be further from the truth. Before I even talk about the material covered by the questions, I must address how they were written. Every single form of assessment has had some form of crippling error/lack of clarity (ESPECIALLY the 1st midterm, which would have been strictly impossible had the TA's not rushed in to clarify basic grammatical or numerical errors in the writing of the questions). In discussion sessions, even the TA's are not sure what could have possibly been on Baugh's mind when writing them. On either of the midterms, the questions themselves were, in fairness, a mixed bag. While about 1/3 of the questions had clear influences from the homework, allow me to be clear: there was no case, either on a quiz or a midterm, where a question asked on the midterm was of comparable difficulty to a question asked on the homework. The 1st quiz had one question based on the homework that was far harder than any homework question. The 1st midterm, same deal but with two questions. The 2nd midterm had a question on molecular geometry that was legitimately impossible to complete based on knowledge that one would have gotten from completing the homework - it would have required prior knowledge of geometry not covered in the class. On a 6 question midterm, one could expect two problems with faint roots from the homework, two problems based on the reading, one question based on some topic that was particularly stressed in lecture, and a final question on a topic with origin unbeknownst to anybody, including the TA's. This would be alright, if there was some form of overlap between these materials. Unfortunately, all of the material covered by each of these ideas is completely mutually exclusive - the textbook is weak in that the problems rarely have anything to do with the reading, and Baugh is on a whole other tangent altogether. In short, do not be deceived by previous grading curves in this class. I have yet to see the final or my final grade in the class, and, despite my scoring significantly above the average on every single assessment thus far, I could hardly have less confidence in what my final grade will be based on the grading system in the class (midterms don't even matter). Beren may appear to have a harder grading curve, but I assure you, it is a strictly easier and less stressful environment than you will ever be in while in Baugh's class.
Most Helpful Review
I'm writing this now before i see my grade for chem 20AH so that i won't be as biased. There's really two things to rate here, the professor and the class chem 20AH. Professor Baugh is a nice easy going guy who just happens to be a friggin genius. He's a good teacher in class because he asks the class (of 60 or so) questions and interacts with them, which helps you get the course material. The thing i really liked about him is that he liked the kids who were normal and disliked the freakshows (and let me tell you, there are a few in Chem 20AH) who went to the library for supplemental quantum chemistry books the first day and then bithed when they were all checked out. I reccomend taking Professor Baugh and i did like his TA as well because they were real people, not chem people who'd never seen the light of day. before you go leaping to take chem 20AH, read the next paragraph. Chem 20AH is a kick in the teeth. I thought i knew at least a little something about chemistry before i took this class. It's absolutely nuts, if you're some kid who aced HS chemistry and is a humanities major looking for a "challenge" as so many of the people weeping were, then run from this class as far as your legs will carry you. If you're going into something this will actually be useful for, (biochem, chem etc.) take the class and get ready. Let go of everything you ever thought you knew about chem and just go with it. The first midterm was hard, the second was easier but still hard and the final was as hard as the first midterm, but was do-able provided you studied your a$$ off. If you go into this class expecting to be a jedi and get an easy A, forget it, but if you approach it with the mentality that you're a lamb going to the slaughterhouse, you'll hang in there and get a whole lot of high-level knowledge (i talked to one fo my third year friends and he said we got upper division classwork). If i get better than a C in this class im gonna frame the darn printout and hang it above my mantle.
I'm writing this now before i see my grade for chem 20AH so that i won't be as biased. There's really two things to rate here, the professor and the class chem 20AH. Professor Baugh is a nice easy going guy who just happens to be a friggin genius. He's a good teacher in class because he asks the class (of 60 or so) questions and interacts with them, which helps you get the course material. The thing i really liked about him is that he liked the kids who were normal and disliked the freakshows (and let me tell you, there are a few in Chem 20AH) who went to the library for supplemental quantum chemistry books the first day and then bithed when they were all checked out. I reccomend taking Professor Baugh and i did like his TA as well because they were real people, not chem people who'd never seen the light of day. before you go leaping to take chem 20AH, read the next paragraph. Chem 20AH is a kick in the teeth. I thought i knew at least a little something about chemistry before i took this class. It's absolutely nuts, if you're some kid who aced HS chemistry and is a humanities major looking for a "challenge" as so many of the people weeping were, then run from this class as far as your legs will carry you. If you're going into something this will actually be useful for, (biochem, chem etc.) take the class and get ready. Let go of everything you ever thought you knew about chem and just go with it. The first midterm was hard, the second was easier but still hard and the final was as hard as the first midterm, but was do-able provided you studied your a$$ off. If you go into this class expecting to be a jedi and get an easy A, forget it, but if you approach it with the mentality that you're a lamb going to the slaughterhouse, you'll hang in there and get a whole lot of high-level knowledge (i talked to one fo my third year friends and he said we got upper division classwork). If i get better than a C in this class im gonna frame the darn printout and hang it above my mantle.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2020 - Had to take 20B to fulfill requirements, even though I had already learned the content way before. About 70-80ish students were enrolled in the class, but if you ever went to lecture you could expect to see less than 20 students, unless there was a quiz/midterm. The content is pretty simple, but Baugh can't explain it well at all. However, that's okay. He moves through his own syllabus very slowly (a week's work in a month). It's easy to keep up with the course through the textbook and a few practice questions. What's really annoying is Baugh's quizzes and exams. He is very unclear on what will be tested and keeps changing the date. Then, when you take the quiz, you'll spend half the time trying to understand what the damn question is asking you because the English used in his questions is just SO UNCLEAR. He writes them out as if he's talking, and it's hard enough to understand what he says anyway. Once you get the exams back, you'll find that the grading is frickin inconsistent and your classmate may have written the EXACT same thing as you, but you get 0/50 and he gets 50/50. His questions aren't hard, but they're stupid questions. I really thought I'd get an A in this class, because I know the topic really well. If not for his grading errors, I probably would've got it. It also felt like his final grades were quite random. I don't recommend anybody take this guy's class, and don't know how tf he is teaching at UCLA. FYI, he was "under review" this quarter for about two weeks and then he said he would improve, but that was complete BS. Don't enroll in his class.
Winter 2020 - Had to take 20B to fulfill requirements, even though I had already learned the content way before. About 70-80ish students were enrolled in the class, but if you ever went to lecture you could expect to see less than 20 students, unless there was a quiz/midterm. The content is pretty simple, but Baugh can't explain it well at all. However, that's okay. He moves through his own syllabus very slowly (a week's work in a month). It's easy to keep up with the course through the textbook and a few practice questions. What's really annoying is Baugh's quizzes and exams. He is very unclear on what will be tested and keeps changing the date. Then, when you take the quiz, you'll spend half the time trying to understand what the damn question is asking you because the English used in his questions is just SO UNCLEAR. He writes them out as if he's talking, and it's hard enough to understand what he says anyway. Once you get the exams back, you'll find that the grading is frickin inconsistent and your classmate may have written the EXACT same thing as you, but you get 0/50 and he gets 50/50. His questions aren't hard, but they're stupid questions. I really thought I'd get an A in this class, because I know the topic really well. If not for his grading errors, I probably would've got it. It also felt like his final grades were quite random. I don't recommend anybody take this guy's class, and don't know how tf he is teaching at UCLA. FYI, he was "under review" this quarter for about two weeks and then he said he would improve, but that was complete BS. Don't enroll in his class.
AD
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2020 - This class serves to remind you and everyone else how subpar our PChem education is coming up to taking this lab. When did we learn anything proper about kinetics? How deep did our spectroscopy education go? Definitely not time-dependent spectroscopy but there's an experiment on that so have fun. Electrochemistry? Good luck. To survive this class, be proactive and learn as much as you can before you enroll. That way you won't have to spend hours teaching yourself how to code, hours teaching yourself the basic theory behind your experiment, and hours learning error analysis. That way, it will save you time so that you can use 10-20 hours to write your fucking lab reports that come for your throat every 2 weeks. Baugh is literally useless which makes him one of the best professors to take this class with because he doesn't give a fuck. He doesn't talk to the TA's at all so there is constant miscommunication. His lectures are hallucinations. If you've ever taken a class with him before you'll know what I am talking about. How he has managed to stay in this department after all this time is beyond me. Possibly because there is a dramatic lack of pchem faculty that step up to take part in our upper division education other than the same few people like Baugh.
Winter 2020 - This class serves to remind you and everyone else how subpar our PChem education is coming up to taking this lab. When did we learn anything proper about kinetics? How deep did our spectroscopy education go? Definitely not time-dependent spectroscopy but there's an experiment on that so have fun. Electrochemistry? Good luck. To survive this class, be proactive and learn as much as you can before you enroll. That way you won't have to spend hours teaching yourself how to code, hours teaching yourself the basic theory behind your experiment, and hours learning error analysis. That way, it will save you time so that you can use 10-20 hours to write your fucking lab reports that come for your throat every 2 weeks. Baugh is literally useless which makes him one of the best professors to take this class with because he doesn't give a fuck. He doesn't talk to the TA's at all so there is constant miscommunication. His lectures are hallucinations. If you've ever taken a class with him before you'll know what I am talking about. How he has managed to stay in this department after all this time is beyond me. Possibly because there is a dramatic lack of pchem faculty that step up to take part in our upper division education other than the same few people like Baugh.
1 of 2
