I would like to think that Dr. Scerri has turned a new leaf. His exams used to be upwards of six questions with multiple parts, complicated equations, unclear directions, and every other atrocity you could think of. In light of his bad reviews, this quarter he opted to make the exams more organized, succinct, and tolerable.

Our midterm was rather pleasant, actually. Our tests were curved up and I was one of a few students who got 100% (sorry but I hope that gives context as to who's talking here).
The midterm was based on practice exam questions we had gotten during discussion sections, and his previous exams were a great litmus test for what types of questions we would expect.

The final exam, however, was an entirely different story. Because of the TA strike, our exam with multiple-choice on a Scantron. The multiple-choice questions were adulterated from the same online source and Prof Scerri lacked the common sense to supply us with the necessary information to approach these online questions. Because of this fault, 5 of 45 questions on our final exam are being omitted, with a 6th question having answer options from an entirely different question (formatting issue?). Compounding this, students with the CAE were told that they were five questions to omit and not approach, but students in traditional lecture halls are only told about four. For this reason, we are currently running the risk that students with accommodations will have an artificially lower score because they were told to leave another question blank.

Take this as a testament to his communication style: he sucks at it.

As other reviews have indicated, his lecture slides are incredibly unorganized and his style of walking us through lecture slides during class with occasional elaboration does little to aid our comprehension.

While I might not be as direct as the other reviews to "Avoid Scerri at all costs," I would advise that you might want to avoid him if unorganized slides, a lack of communication skills, a snobby personality, and a stark tendency to say "obviously" when trying to explain challenging concepts are a deal breaker to you.

Thank you for listening to my TedTalk.

Before taking this class, I was warned by many people that I should NOT take this class. After taking the class, I would give about the same advice to my peers. The professor does not use actual slides, but rather PDF documents with often unorganized information. When asked questions in class, he often took a long time to answer the questions, and sometimes just avoided the question entirely. It was clear many times that he did not really review his lecture slides before class. It seemed to me that he didn't really care for his student's wellbeing, as evidenced by the fact that he told students to never use his personal email and to only post things on the discussion forum (which he also rarely checked/answered). The exams were not too bad, especially given that they were open note, but I relied heavily on AP Chem knowledge to pass the class. If you can take the class with a different professor, please try to do so. If you cannot, make sure you attend TA sections (because the TAs are sometimes or usually better at explaining the information than Scerri) even though they are not mandatory, do a lot of practice problems, and watch a lot of Youtube videos on concepts you don't understand.

SCERRI WAS SO HARD! Don't take this class. I hated it and struggled so much. I regret taking this class. He was very confusing and the tests were extremely hard! BE WARNED

I actually really loved this class. From the students I talked with that were also in the class, this seems to be one of the most polarizing classes I've been in. You either love it or you hate it. But that makes sense, since general chemistry is often a weeder-type class for many pre-med students.
I will say this though: it's possible for anyone, even if you're not "good" at chemistry, to get a good grade in Eric Scerri's Chem 14A and have an appreciation for the material.
40% of your final grade in this class is the final exam, and 30% is the midterm. Dr. Scerri will give you several old exams to study and STUDY THESE!! Even MORE importantly, go to the test bank and search for as many old exams as you can find. Split it up between you and your friends to get literally as many exams as possible. These past exams are very useful because Dr. Scerri has been known to copy and paste pretty much all of his exam questions to his current exams, or he may change a single word or number. Understand how to do problems on as many practice exams as you can find and you'll be golden. I got a 98% on the midterm and a 97% on the final through this method, because as I reviewed more and more practice exams, the problems that I had with the material eventually disappeared. I can guarantee you that people who don't do well in this class don't do this.
20% of your grade is online quizzes, which aren't too difficult, and 10% is homework, which can be quite tedious but is overall manageable. Scerri is very funny at times, but can also be quite dull at other times. However, I would say he's in the better half of professors I've had at UCLA. Don't even bother wasting money on the textbook.
Lastly, going to discussion definitely didn't hurt me either. Some of the more complicated concepts such as molecular orbital theory and hybridization were ironed out for me through my TA's teaching.
Overall, this class is manageable, and the resources for you to do well are definitely there.

I'll do my best to give a fair, comprehensive evaluation. Here's a bit of background where I am coming from:
Grade: A.
Bioengineering Major.
Relevant High School Coursework: 5 in AP Chem, a 5 in AP Physics.

That being said, Scerri's class was definitely a challenge but doable.

Class lectures: Overall, Scerri does a decent job teaching. He is a fair teacher, but what throws off many of his students is the fact that his lectures are supremely conceptual, while his tests are primarily computational (of a sort). During lecture he goes over concept over concept but does very little practice problems. That being said, there is so much content being said during lectures, many of which is not in the course reader. In order to have true success in the class, it is not enough just to attend lectures but to take meticulous notes. One detail he might say may be covered verbally but it might be key on the actual exam. Even though he has a course reader, there was stuff covered that he had to use seperate slides (not in the course reader). Though this content seems extra, take it seriously, download it when he sends it in an email, print it out, and put it along with the stuff you want to study. On our final for Fall 2013 he had content he had barely grazed over.

Secondly, do your best to attend lectures. Though he does give podcasts and an excuse not to arrive, sometimes stuff happens to the podcast that makes it cutoff some of the lecture. Other times the camera angle does not capture things he writes on the board.

Studying for Midterms and Exams: Personally, people say to memorize the course reader as if section by section. The best way to prepare for the course is taking the big concepts and linking them all together, filling the holes with the details from his lectures, rather than memorizing them forthright. If you can connect all the concepts together and use each one to memorize another, you will have a much easier time than memorizing them fact by fact. One example of this is how he arranges all the content up to the Midterm. Rather than memorizing each theory up to Schroedinger's equation in preparation for the midterm, it is better to study with the guiding question of "how does all the content that I have learned build up to the prevailing theory of Quantum Mechanics and Schroedinger's Equation?" Arranging the course and the content through a series of large and smaller questions will make the whole course of CHEM 20A cohesive and you will get a better understanding with less studying. Linking concepts of the course rather than memorizing each piece by piece will be beneficial.

In the course reader, Scerri provides a number of practice exams. For a SOLID GRADE in the course, the best thing to do is to know every singe problem in the practice tests. His midterm and final mimic the finals and midterms he gives in the past (shocking, right?). When it comes to doing these problems, it can't be a matter of going through each practice exam once and being done with it. You really must practice the problems that give you the most difficulty if you want to succeed. Another important thing is to try these practice exams at least a couple weeks before the actual final. Start studying week 8 or 9 with these practice finals for a couple reasons: Firstly, he gives a lot of practice exams. Secondly, each practice exam takes at least a 2-3 hours to complete if you are studying correctly. Starting these practice tests the weekend before Finals Week will be utter hell.

Lastly, study with the right people. That is what helped me most in the course. Whatever holes regarding one person has can be easily covered by the other. This will help you immensely in studying the for the midterm, the final and those pesky Thinkwell Quizzes. One note regarding Thinkwell quizzes. Their questions are not nearly as hard as the exam, but do them with friends and you will likely get an A since questions are recycled and you can take the quiz 3 times. Take it all three times even if you do get a 100 for mastery of content. Again, group work will help manipulate the system to your advantage.

Discussion Sections and Office Hours: When it comes to discussion sections, dominate the section with questions. Get these questions from stuff you don't understand from notes, or from the practice exams (another reason why you should be starting these practice exams early). Everyone else will not have questions until weeks 9 to 10, by then it is too late. Take advantage of everyone else's complacency during the early weeks to have all your questions from the practice exam answered. You will be much less stressed. If you are to attend office hours, again be the one to ask questions about content. Likely whatever questions you may have are the same ones others may ask, but if someone else asks the question, there is a possibility of being stuck there for another 10 minutes listening to content you already know.

Misc: Scerri has a decent class. He is a funny professor whose arrogance can come off as amusing and somewhat charming. Get him to play his guitar and you'll be listening to him jam away. Quite impressive really, but we all know he's playing for the ratchets. Be the one to ask the questions and answer the questions. One warning when talking to Scerri however: don't be stupid when talking to him. He ostracized one kid for saying "like" too much. Poor kid. If you have decent grammar skills and aren't too socially awkward (thats for you engineers), then you should be fine in navigating Scerri's sharky waters. Best of luck.

dude this class was bad... scerri is incomprehensible and terrifying. the course is reasonably difficult (what you'd expect for a chemistry class) but scerri is a terrible teacher and is entirely unclear about what he wants you to know.
the homework is fine- its a bunch of modules due at the end of the quarter. totally manageable but not really helpful for exams.
the ta's are helpful for the most part. sometimes they seemed to be just as lost about how scerri approaches certain topics, and will just teach you a different way. theyre as helpful as they can be with what theyre given, and i definitely suggest going to discussion. attendance isnt taken for discussion or lecture so you can pick which TA you like.
ive heard that other sections of 20a have much better professors. do everything you can to avoid scerri. his slideshows make absolutely no sense and wont walk you through the kinds of problems youll see on the exams. he's going to be incredibly vague about what will be on the exams and what info he will give you on the formula sheet. he doesnt really stop for questions and will make you feel stupid if he doesnt like your question. he's really terrible at gauging how his students are feeling or how much we're learning. the first lecture about quantum mechanics will be comically difficult and scerri will simply push through.

shits tough. cant wait to take a chemistry class with a decent professor.

Professor Scerri is horrible. I agree with the people below that like his course reader because you do not have to buy a textbook, but he is a mess. His lectures are all over the place. His office hours are useless. And his finals are ridiculous. Science majors, there is no way to avoid him...sadly! But if a new teacher comes along...take them no matter what!

Great class! Loved Professor Scerri. He is so intelligent and very willing to help you at office hours!

Selling textbook and solution manual--$30! Message me at **********!

Believe ALL the reviews posted for Scerri, no matter the course, and I know there is a lot. If you are thinking about taking chem 14A, DON'T TAKE IT WITH SCERRI. His class is a mess, disorganized, and not fun at all. During class time (took this class online because of COVID), he just reads off his lecture slides word for word. Often focuses on the history of chemistry instead of actually solving problems. When he does show us problems, he doesn't physically go through the problems with you and because this is an introductory course, it's kind of important that he does. For midterm and final "reviews" he just combines all his slides from past weeks into one big slide and spends the class time reading them word for word, just faster. You're better off not attending lecture, just discussion. (He interrupted multiple lectures by asking why no one had their cameras on instead of focusing on teaching. When we gave reasons (internet connectivity, more cameras on = lagging issues, distractions, etc) he basically dismissed them and said they were stupid and untrue.) Discussions aren't mandatory but they're IMPORTANT if you don't want to listen to Professor Scerri. In discussions, TAs help with actually solving problems and what they mean in the context of the class. I had Spencer as my TA and he was a GREAT help. Besides 1 midterm during week 5 and the final, there are 9 Sapling quizzes you have to do. He doesn't offer any schedule to do the quizzes, just one big deadline at the beginning of week 10 so you have to create your own or you can choose to save them until the end of the quarter (I don't recommend this though). This class is heavily curved but you'll survive if you learn to work well with your peers and ask for help. Join a PLF session and talk with your peers on help with sapling quizzes. Class only consists of 3 grades: Sapling, Midterm, and Final. Our midterm was very easy with almost all questions copied word for word from another exam in previous years but for the final, it was devastating so don't think that you can float on by in this class.

tldr: This class is messy from start to finish. Don't go to lecture; go to discussions. Try to get Spencer as your TA. Sapling is required and try to finish one quiz a week to be on track. Midterm is easy but final was excruciatingly hard. Class is curved. Get help from PLF sessions. Grade consists of: sapling, midterm, and final. If you're in this class, you can text ********** for pdfs of past midterms and finals with answers (as well as blank ones so you can practice with).

This was my first ever chemistry class and I have left this class absolutely hating chemistry. I read all the reviews beforehand and thought to myself that this class can't be that bad and is probably manageable but I could not be more wrong. Scerri has ZERO organization on his CCLE site and his lectures make absolutely no sense and consist of him jumping from one topic to another back and forth. I did not even know what the topics were so I can study on my own since there is no OUTLINE. The exams were extremely long for the duration and I have not learned one topic in this entire class which will harm me going forward in the course as he is the only professor teaching 14B next quarter too. This class was so bad that I almost dropped and changed to a non-stem major every week. DO NOT EXPECT TO LEARN ANYTHING.