I should have trusted the Bruinwalk reviews for this guy. I was thinking "how bad can he possibly be?" but Delroy is really bad. I mean, he has all the knowledge required to teach this class properly but he really cannot teach. His lectures are not clear and include a lot of more advanced stuff that won't show up in the quizzes/tests. His teaching pace is also quite slow and the way he covers chapters is not very organized.

However, I will give him credit for being hardworking. He has 3 office hours a week which is more than most STEM professors. However, judging by the effectiveness of his lectures, I highly question the value of going to his office hours.

My advice: only take him if you are already very good at chemistry and can easily learn the content on your own/with the TA. This is because his grading is quite lenient (in a unique way) and his quizzes and tests are quite easy. If you are weak in chemistry or have no interest in it, you can be 100% certain that anyone else would be better.

Who would win: bright-eyed hopeful freshman eager for learning vs. one Delroy Baugh? I took Baugh my first quarter, despite the bad reviews, thinking I could handle to tough class, but boy was I wrong. Baugh's lectures are convoluted with information. He doesn't follow much of the textbook, and he uses complicated charts and graphs in his powerpoint slides, but doesn't really explain them. He assigns optional homework, but doesn't really go into depth on how to solve the problems to help you on his quizzes and tests. I attended his office hours, hoping they could help me somehow, but I quickly realized he taught those just like his lectures: messily and brushing vaguely over topics. Baugh has a passion for chemistry, but most of the class is physics based, and he never really explains it well enough for someone with no physics background, like me, to understand. I found myself self-studying from the book for the most part (on that note, he's fine with an older edition PDF form of the textbook, which saved me a lot of money). Basically, if you end up taking Baugh or have no other option, be prepared for a lot of self studying, going to office hours (whether his or a TA's), reading and studying material from the book that wasn't covered in class, and really devoting your time to understanding the physics and math behind atomic structure.

I took Baugh for Chem 14A and I literally died. The only way I got through this class was not by the readings but by really understanding his graphs. You need to know the graphs and what they mean. The material that he taught didn't really pertain to the actual material that we were supposed to learn so that's why many people find it so difficult when it came to the tests. I would recommend not taking chem until the next quarter if you can. It makes a difference because Baugh will ruin your chances if you're definitely planning on going pre-med. Another good way to pass is by looking up old tests from the previous years and writing them on a cheat sheet because he gave our class a cheat sheet so take full advantage of that. I pray for you because this class ain't no joke or walk in the park!

Principles of Modern Chemistry
7th edition

Oxtoby/Gillis/Campion

NO OWL attached

Selling for $ 90
Original price: $ 137.50 for new
$ 103.50 for used

Contact/text

*************

Principles of Modern Chemistry
7th edition

Oxtoby/Gillis/Campion

NO OWL attached

Selling for $ 90
Original price: $ 137.50 for new
$ 103.50 for used

SELLING the Principles of Modern Chemistry 7th Edition textbook for ONLY $70! Text or call ********** to buy before it sells quickly!

Lectures are bad. You don't learn much. Tests are pretty easy.

Not as bad as everyone said it would be.

Baugh's a good guy. He's extremely passionate about Quantum Mechanics and cares about the students understanding it. He held a lot of office hours and would take whatever time it took for someone to understand a concept. His exams were not "tricky", they were straight-forward. This is a subject that would be extremely easy to make impossible on a test.
I had no background in chemistry at all, not even a HS chem class and I got an A+.
Here's what I did:
-I got about 4 old exams from the test bank and found a few more posted online.
-I went to 4 discussion groups (3+ the one in which I was enrolled. I had the time and, like Isaid, I didn't know shit about chem so I figured I would need them.)
-I went to all the TAs' office hours. We had two really good TAs and 90% of the time I was the only student in there. I would go on with a list of what I didn't get and have it all explained. I had them explain to me every single question on the old exams (I think this was the key to performing well on the tests).
-I went to almost all of Baugh's office hours.
-Went to all the lectures and did all the HW(blah, blah). Seriously, though, the quizzes were variations of the HW problems, so if you knew how to do all the HW, you could get 100% on the quizzes.
-I made sure I had every equation on my cheet sheet and graphs/diagrams from the old exams.

I agree with other posters about looking at the old tests. This class would be hella-hard without them.

The key to success in this class is getting the old exams. Without those, it will be quite difficult to get a grade higher than a C. Pay a visit to the test bank, there are plenty of old exams available. As for all the people complaining about Dr. Baugh, well this is UCLA, you are on your own. If you want to survive this class with a decent grade, improvise!

Please Please DO NOT TAKE THIS PROFESSOR
I fully recommend other professor!!
He teaches hardly and HIS MIDTERM AND FINALS WERE CRAZY......
Even though you think that YOU ARE GOOD AT CHEM
You will probably get C
My first Fall quarter with CHEM 20A was..terrible.
He give most of the students C (average)
Avoid him as much as you can....