Please don't disregard the other reviews that you see here on BruinWalk. When I say Professor Baugh is bad, he is BAD...so much so that it was not worth putting myself through a quarter with him. I would highly recommend that if you can skip 20A and move onto 20B (or even better if you don't need to take this class), don't take this class.

Overall, the professor isn't a bad person intrinsically, just the odd dress-sense and terrible jokes that are not funny whatsoever. However, while he may be smart, he is a terrible lecturer. The slides have nothing to do with the exams, and it wouldn't matter since it's so hard to understand what the professor is saying, given that he adds the prefix "eigen" to literally EVERY F*CKING word for no apparent meaning. It was telling that the first week, the lecture hall was past capacity, but at second week, it was only filled to half capacity. Only go to the first five minutes of lecture: this is when Professor will give announcements about what dates are the quiz and etc.

The thing about this class is that the examinations and quizzes are written entirely by the TAs, so basically if you have a good TA or study a lot from the book, do that to ensure an A, as opposed to mentally losing brain cells by sitting in on his lectures. It's actually better to study via doing the homework problems, since the tests and quizzes are basically carbon copies of these problems.

In terms of grades and workload, the workload is all right, as long as you are disciplined enough to do the week's assigned homework. In addition, a bonus about this class is the grading scheme: it's broken, literally. The way it works is that there are two midterms, and any points you lose on the midterms are added to the final (so if you missed 10 points from the two midterms, your final is now worth 410 points as opposed to 400 points). The class is also NOT graded on a normal curve, so your grade is simply the number of points you get out of 1000. However, be wary of the quizzes, since these actually determine your grade much more considering that you cannot redeem points lost on these (so surprisingly they actually alter your grade more than your midterms).

This class is a freaking MEME. My friends and I literally spent lecture taking pictures of him and writing memes, thus displaying how useless his lectures are. Once, for the second midterm, Baugh told the lecture it would test on chapters 3,4,5, while my TA told me Baugh told the TAs to write the test on Chapters 5 and 6 only, another example of him just trying to royally screw us over.

Overall, terrible class, I might've got a good grade but literally learned nothing this entire quarter, as this was not a very conducive class towards learning. Recommend that you SKIP if possible.

Baugh is a very nice man. He seems concerned with the fate of the students. However, he does not seem like a natural teacher. His lectures are confusing and do not bear any relevance to the quizzes/midterms/finals. The quizzes/midterms/finals are mostly homework based and relatively straight forward. Overall, it was not a terrible class, but ALL work was done outside of lecture.

Halfway throughout the quarter, most students stopped coming to Baugh's lectures altogether. Most of the time, students that come to lecture confused end up leaving more confused than they were before. Throughout his lectures, Baugh overcomplicates the material, leaving students to frantically filter out the material they should know for exams and the material that is within the scope of the class from information that Baugh adds to try to further explain concepts but end up further confusing students. The majority of the class (quizzes (2), midterms (2), final) is dependent upon the homework problems that Baugh assigns so more emphasis should be placed on completing and understanding homework than the lecture slides and material. Overall, I would not recommend taking Baugh's class.

After enrolling in this class, I read through the comments on here and was honestly terrified. There are so many horror stories of students receiving a C after "putting in hundreds of hours." This class is not difficult if you do the reading and the homework problems and can gain a general, conceptual understanding of the material. His problems on the midterms, quizzes, and the final mirror the assigned homework problems or at least can be reasonably answered with knowledge of the homework problems. One thing I would recommend is to use the OWL online resource. A lot of the videos are pointless but after watching them all, in addition to completing every available problem, I noticed a significant improvement in my success in this class.

Please read this whole review. I am reviewing before I take the final, so this might not be the most helpful .Baugh is a brilliant guy, he knows so much, and you will understand that if you do take that class. That being said, HE CAN'T TEACH. His lectures do not make any sense most of the time, and they only vaguely cover the material. He teaches the chemistry material in the most complicated and convoluted way to the point where the lectures aren't even worth the time. Thankfully the tests and the grading are really forgiving. What you miss on the midterms you can make up for on the final so there's no harm. All the tests and the quizzes are based on the textbook questions and the textbook, so if you spend a little bit of time looking at the textbook and doing the problems, you can perform really well. You could honestly avoid his lectures, and spend that time with the textbook, and probably have the highest grade in the class. The TAs also all make the quizzes and the tests, so working with your TA and attending discussion can help you a ton. Baugh is also decently helpful in office hours too.

Baugh's lectures do not match up with the material being covered in the textbook. It is very easy to get lost during his lectures because the material he covers on them is WAAAY too complex for an intro chem class. With that said, as long as you follow his pacing guide that is on his syllabus and self-study from the textbook you will be more than prepared for the tests. He allows cheat-sheets on his midterms which is a blessing. Passing this class is not hard as long as you self-study and do the homework problems, considering that the homework problems are identical to test questions. Take Baugh if you want to get an A and can self-study, otherwise good luck.

He makes this class harder than it really is. You have to learn everything from the homework/textbook on your own. His lectures are way too complicated and don/t match up well with what you're going to be tested on. The exams usually represent the homework well at least.

Selling textbook PDF -- $10 -- (Oxtoby/Gillis/Campion, Principles of Modern Chemistry, Seventh Edition). Text **********.

CHEM 20A with Baugh was an absolute nightmare. I struggle with Chem a lot and this class didn't make it any better. His lectures are god awful and are almost never useful. His review sessions are better as he sometimes gave hints as to what would be on the test. Make sure you go to the review sessions, not necessarily for what he goes over, but to have better insight into what's going to be on the exams. Discussions are a hit or a miss, my TA was so awful that another TA ended up stepping in for him (he was far better ily Nick). I ended up doing well in the class only because of his odd grading system. That's probably the only the thing that makes this class bearable. As long as you do well on the final, you're set. Don't worry too much if you have poor midterm scores (but don't devalue them either). If you can, transfer out, if not, GOOD LUCK. You're gonna need it.

This class was like a reality check that verified to me that the memes about engineering being hard is true. I didn't have a strong background in chemistry (didn't take AP) but I don't think it would've helped much anyways. A lot of the class was annoying because it involved a lot of quantum mechanics. That probably took most freshman by surprise, mainly because it is hard to imagine and not straightforwardly intuitive. Baugh is very smart, but his teaching style is sort of lacking. His presentations are very jumbly and hard to internalize, and most of his lectures are spent talking about derivations, all of which I've already forgotten. IMO, the TAs make or break this class because they do most of the teaching. Baugh seems to have been aware of the student's discontent though because in the middle of one lecture he sent out feedback forms. Kudos to him for that. Sidenote: Baugh is a Planck fellow

PROS:

* One huge pro about this class is the grading scheme. All the points you miss on your midterms are redeemable on the final exam. This means that if you get a 100 on the final exam and zero on both midterms, you will still pass the class. Note that this doesn't include quiz grades

* Baugh tells a few jokes from time to time

* Homework is not graded

* Sometimes questions on the exams are freebies (usually about the history behind an experiment

CONS:

* The material is confusing and almost nonsensical

* What Baugh lectures in class will not help you do the homework, and might only be slightly relevant on the test

TIPS:

* Go to your TA, if they are not good, leach onto another TA, try going to office hours

* Even though there is are free PDFs online, the paid online version of the textbook is easier to read (discovered this in 20B)

* Please actually look at the homework even if its annoying

* Just keep going don't drop the class, godspeed