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 **********!

Scerri is one of the worst professors I have taken at UCLA. His teaching online was not the best because the class requires a lot of math problems so he would mainly say how to solve them instead of actually be able to write out the steps, this of course was simply due to the online format. I think he is okay to take in person, where you can form study groups and ask questions. But he was very unaccommodating to the current situation and expects everyone to come in with solid knowledge of chemistry. His sarcasm during office hours and lectures made my blood boil. If you have the chance, take any other Professor.

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.

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).

Said this for 14A too but he's literally not that bad. If anything, he was better for 14B by a large margin. My friends that took 14B with other professors had a way worse time because the exams were harder. At least Scerri's exams are graded with partial credit in mind. He reuses a lot of questions from former exams that he provides which were my main source of studying. He had a lot of in class practice problems that were really similar to exam questions too. Attendance wasn't mandatory but I went to lectures because they were interesting enough and he's a funny and unpredictable guy. Idk I think people just hate him because they don't know how to self-study and they get mad when they don't get an A despite the class having enough resources to succeed if you put in the work. The TAs were great and made so many exam study resources that were posted for the entire class to use.

Do not take this class. This is my second class with this professor and I can officially state that I have retained and understand ZERO information. His slides are so confusing and he runs through 100+ slides in 50 minutes. His lectures consist of him reading off slides and even reading the solutions to practice problems without actually going through the way to get the answer. Chemistry is not supposed to be taught this way! It should be progressive and the professor should work throw the answer, not just read the answer off of two long slides in a few seconds as if anyone would understand that. The TA strike after midterms also meant that there were no sections so any chance of understanding the content outside of his lecture was destroyed and there was zero support given from TAs when it was needed the most. The achieve quizzes are SO long and tedious that it felt like I had numerous final exams for the class. The class is graded in the most confusing way ever that it isn't even possible to know what grade you're at and what the curve is. This is the worst class and professor I've ever encountered.

I took this class with no prior experience in chemistry. Overall, I put a good amount of work into this class (took lecture notes, read through the textbook, attended office hours, completed practice questions, etc.) because I was scared of getting screwed over by curving. The workload in this class is deceptively light, so I would make sure that you find ways to study on your own time. I do not think I would have been able to do as well if I didn't dedicate as much time to this class as I did. Scerri seems to be knowledgeable and passionate about chemistry, but his lecture slides often had mistakes, which made me rely much more on the textbook. A large portion of our grade (50% I think it was) came from completing online Thinkwell quizzes. The quizzes weren't bad at all, as we could take them up to three times, open-everything, with no time limit. I was just annoyed that the questions were pulled from a bank that included some concepts we did not (and were not going to) cover. Scerri acknowledged we wouldn't be tested on those concepts, too. The midterm and final were fair and reflected practice questions done in class and discussion sections, but I would make sure to also pay attention to conceptual ideas mentioned in the lectures/textbook so you aren't caught off-guard when they show up on exams.

Avoid this man at all costs: like seriously no matter what you have to do don't take chemistry with Scerri. Currently taking 14A and its not even over and it's absolutely terrible. Day 1 I began and on zoom was this old man who did nothing but self promote his work and confuse me beyond belief.
Spoiler Alert: His slides are screenshots from textbooks or random questions online. So they are not cohesive and don't make a ton of sense. He just reads the pictures during lectures. During lecture he does a lot of self-promotion for this book he wrote on the periodic table (1/2 his lectures thus far *its week 6* have included pictures of the book). He hosted a review session for the midterm where he covered 5 weeks of content in 10 minutes, he clicked through the slides so fast you barley had time to read them let alone write anything down. His midterm was on a Sunday, mind you(who does that?), in-which included far too many short answer questions for the allotted time and had an entire 4 part question that was based on fake/made-up chemistry(I really wish I was making this up). His tests have typos, he doesn't explain topics that shouldn't be that hard and causes a lot of confusion. Overall he is one of the worst Professors I have ever had. Every lecture literally makes me more confused. He might be a nice guy but he is definitely one of those people who know what they are talking about so well that forget that we aren't on the same level. Organic Chemistry Tutor is the only reason I even know what the vocabulary words mean and what the equations are for this class. If you have to take him, don't do it. Please save yourself the head-ache and the stress.
-Thank you

I thought this was a solid class. I took this my sophomore year for the psych major, and I hadn't taken chemistry since sophomore year of high school. lectures often have mistakes in them that do get corrected, but overall they were informative. they also had great practice problems. what really helped was lab. Spencer was probably one of the best TA's I've ever had, he was so clear and explained everything really well. Definitely attend section if you need help and clarity. Scerris was also nice and I did think he was approachable, you can stay on the zoom for a good while afterwards to ask questions. if you follow along the practice questions and do the homework, the exams really shouldn't be difficult at all. don't shy away from this class, I was scared at first but really there is no need to be nervous.

a lot of the reviews here bash scerri and the class but it’s about as hard as you’d expect a college-level (weeder) chem class to be. i studied hard and it was doable. (not easy, doable.)

grade distribution: for my quarter, it was 30% hw (easy 100%), 30% midterm, 40% final. the midterm and final themselves weren’t curved but the final grade was. (iirc it was a downgrade :( ). no extra credit.

lectures: scerri goes really fast in lecture which was def a struggle to keep up with but i HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend going to his office hours. he’ll go over material again and again and you can ask follow up questions, which you can’t really do in lecture. he’s also not that scary. he actually has a sense of humor (i know, how surprising) also, he usually stays behind lecture for a few minutes to answer questions. even if you don’t have questions, i recommend you hang out there so if someone else asks a question, you can benefit from the answer.

homework: the class uses owl for homework assignments, which has lots of attempts and you can keep coming back to it. it’s due at the end of the quarter but don’t fall behind cuz it takes forever. one problem is that the owl questions aren’t even what you’re expected to know for the course, so just speedrun them and you’ll be fine. (it’s an easy 100% so do not mess up. it’ll put you at a huge disadvantage for the final curve). other than owl, there’s no other hw.

exams: for exams, scerri does reuse so many old questions. do as many of his past exams as possible and that’ll set you up really well for the midterm and final. he posts a couple on bruinlearn but see if you can find others (like at the test bank, etc.). don’t start studying too late — there’s so much to study.

your ta will usually have practice questions for you to do. if you want more practice, other tas also sometimes post their questions on bruinlearn, so you can check that out.

also, this course is def not just like ap chem since it does cover some quantum stuff. it is complicated and you will have to work at it, but find a good study group, engage with the material, and you’ll be able to do it.

good luck!!!