The Chem 14 series is just hard altogether, there is no "easy" professor, especially if you don't know how you learn. With that being said, GOODLUCK. Try new methods, and rely on yourself rather than the professor! I personally liked Scerri for 14A, but don't rely on my review

My biggest piece of advice to do well in this class is to GO TO DISCUSSION SECTION WITH YOUSIF. He opens it up to everyone and you can go to any of the available times he has them. They were incredibly helpful and he cleared up concepts that were explained in convoluted ways in class. ALSO, if you go to class and discussion you should do well on the tests because every single problem on the midterm and final comes straight from the slides.

Aside from that, I really don't think Scerri is as bad as the reviews say. I took the class fall 2021 with the expectation he would be a completely unfair grader and horrible lecturer with a 2.9 rating on bruinwalk. Maybe it was because it was online, but the class was very easy to follow along and take notes on. Sometimes Scerri wouldn't answer a question adequately or explain a concept in a way that would just confuse people, but for the most part, I feel like I sufficiently learned all CHEM 14B topics .

Lastly, Achieve quizzes. For the quizzes, I had done 2 of them prior and I did the last 5 from 10pm to 9am the day they were due without any distractions, so that should give you an idea of how to space them out/how much to procrastinate.

I agree with most of the negative reviews. My philosophy to a happy life is to try avoid thinking about this class and the professor as much as possible so all I'm going to highlight is that it is evil to have the midterm and final on Sundays. I missed meeting Timothee Chalamet at the Wonka premiere because of him... That alone... is evil. When I hear the words "Schrodinger's" or "quantum" it's like I'm a soldier waking up to trumpets in the break of dawn. Avoid this class as much as you can. I put my entire chest into this class and got As in all of my other classes, but this one really takes the cake. What do you gain by curving down grades? CHEM 20A with Prof Scerri is the mysterious looming figure that haunts me in my sleep. But I digress. I feel like I got all the content down if I'm being honest... he just seems... a bit unfair. If they're trying to weed me out... they almost got me. To the C+ I got, thank you for allowing me to pass. But I hope to never see you or anything lower than you again. THEY CAN TRY TO WEED ME OUT BUT YOU'RE GONNA HAVE TO TRY HARDER! IF YOU EVER SEE ME FIGHTING A GRIZZLY BEAR.. HELP THE BEAR!

*Grading/Curve*
Dr. Scerri is probably one of the most polarizing professors I have heard about. I think a lot of people dislike his classes because he is not very clear about the "curve." He stated on the first day/his syllabus states something about not wanting too many people to get A's so some people do get curved down. This did happen to some of my friends unfortunately who had about an A and were given an A-. He is not transparent at all about how much he is curving people down or what the class average is etc. Additionally, your final grade may not accurately reflect how you performed on the assignments since Dr. Scerri does make mistakes when inputting final grades. This happened to me and my friends, but I emailed him and went through some back and forth, but he eventually changed my grade. Your grade is 30% midterm, 30% Achieve (homework), and 40% final. No extra credit, syllabus quiz, discussion, participation, etc. -- just those three assignments.

*Homework*
Achieve is a pain since it is graded on accuracy and some of the problems require sm time and are too extensive for what we are tested on. DO NOT LEAVE THIS TO THE LAST DAY. I think it is manageable to do in the last week, but this can be VERY stressful when studying for other finals, so I highly do not recommend doing the whole thing the last week either. The numbers will also vary from student to student so you cannot "divide and conquer."

*Exams*
Personally, I am very bad at chemistry and only took one regular chem class early in high school so everything I learned in 14A and 14B was new. However, I did some of the old midterms and finals Scerri posted and they were highly similar to the actual exams since he reuses his exams. I definitely recommend doing the old exams before studying your notes because it will help you narrow down what you need to study. The answer key for these exams are usually wrong though so you have to check with a TA for the right answers. He does not use the textbook at all and all the concepts/problem types can be found on his lecture slides. Study his slides if you have time!!

*Lecture/Content*
Lecture attendance was optional since they were recorded, but I actually really loved attending lecture. Dr. Scerri is a very amusing lecturer and I found the content very interesting. His slideshows are unorganized since everything is in different colors and fonts for no reason, but his slides have a lot of useful information and diagrams (some of which you will have to draw on exams!!) Honestly, if you put in a decent amount of effort, the slides aren't as hard to understand as other reviews state. People say that Dr. Scerri is a confusing professor, but I think that's just the content in general. He really does try to thoroughly explain the material and pauses to ask if we have questions. He even makes jokes and takes a break every now and then.

*Professor/TAs*
I had Dr. Scerri for both 14A and 14B and I had very low expectations because of the previous reviews, but after finishing both classes with him, I actually really liked him and his classes! I wouldn't say he's the nicest professor, but in both quarters, I have never heard him be rude to a student. He is very open to answering questions and usually is responsive to emails. He definitely gets a bit confused from time to time during lecture, but he will correct himself after a couple of minutes. Your understanding of the content is definitely reinforced/enhanced by the TA. I had Hootan, who I 1000000% recommend, but I've heard Spencer and Kodi are also amazing.

DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS WITH THIS PROFESSOR LIKE THE REVIEW BEFORE ME SAID HE IS QUITE LITERALLY A MENACE TO SOCIETY. First off, Scerri grades on a bell curve. If that did not scare you off then you should know for this quarter, he refused to make the final online, despite the fact that there were not enough TAs left to proctor the exam because of the strike, and he also did not allow us to ask any questions during the final exam. During the actual final he forgot to add multiple equations onto the equations sheet and literally had to add them onto the board mid-final, and also began throwing random questions out, making the final out of 41 questions instead of 45, thereby increasing our chances of receiving a worse score. When asked about final grades, Scerri left a very passive-aggressive email, literally stating that he "very much doubt[s] that there are errors since I have done this work myself rather than leaving it to TAs who don't have as much experience compiling grades" and then proceeded to blame the entire situation on the TA strike. He also managed to lose my friend's final and then proceeded to accuse her of not even taking the exam, despite the fact that there were multiple witnesses of people who saw her turn it in. Scerri is quite possibly the worst professor I have ever taken a class with at this school and is a disappointment to UCLA.

I agree with what people said below. Just make sure to include EVERY detail on the test. That makes all the difference. You may know the problem like the back of your hand, but if you leave out some minor detail, they leave out some major points. Oh, and make sure you have a good TA.

Oh where to start with Professor Scerri. As you can probably tell by the other reviews, Dr. Scerri is not a very good lecturer. His slides are extremely confusing and he often gets confused trying to explain them to us. More often than not, a TA or student has to correct him because he gets confused. Apart from the bad lectures, the tests are not only very difficult but are also a huge time crunch. The practice exams he gives out are so much easier and shorter than the actual tests (they also have incorrect answers on them). The midterm he gave us was 7 free response questions with like 4 or 5 parts each in 2.5 hours. I barely had time to finish despite going fast; I did not have time to check my answers, but Scerri obviously did not take any criticism the class had for him because he did the same thing for the final. He said he would try to make it better by adding multiple choice questions, but those MC questions each had 5 to 7 parts as well. So he ended up giving us 6 free response with parts a,b,c,d,e along with 12 extra questions for multiple choice. He said this was to deter cheating to make sure we couldn't consult anyone else in the class, but many people along with me could barely even finish on time.

In addition, he doesn't seem to actually have much regard for his students, unless you're one of his favorites. One time in lecture, someone asked why he used a certain amount of sig figs when dealing with pH which was a valid question because it was confusing and he answered with "have you been coming to lecture?". This was a completely inappropriate response. I had come to every lecture and he had barely gone over that concept and I found his entire demeanor to be very condescending and smug. On multiple occasions you can literally see him rolling his eyes at some questions also.

Personally, I did not enjoy 14B with Scerri, but it is possible to get a good grade if you commit yourself. Honestly, the best way to study for his tests are to do the exams he gives out as practice (and ignore the incorrect answers he gives), and watch a lot of the Organic Chemistry Tutor on YouTube. If you have to take 14B with Scerri, I wish you the best.

I feel like Dr. Scerri is not given enough credit for the time he invests in his students. To me, it seemed that he answered every relevant question asked of him, and he always made time for students to voice their confusions. Some people complain that he brushes students off & appears condescending, but I think they were just misunderstanding him. He has a good sense of humor & sometimes shows his cats on camera-- he is a nice guy.
While I did struggle with many of the concepts taught in this course, I believe that was a result of my own lack of preparedness for this class. I did not have a strong chemistry foundation coming in, and I was very quickly overwhelmed, but that is to be expected of a college-level chemistry course-- it's gonna take some work to get the grade you want, don't expect it to come easy. If I really tried to concentrate on the material during lecture, I understood it. Dr. Scerri is a clear lecturer if you really listen to him. Although I sometimes found his slides kind of confusing and disorganized, if you asked him to clarify them, he would.
The bottom line is that this class is difficult in that there is a large amount of material you are expected to learn, but you are totally capable of learning it if you're willing to put in the work. Dr. Scerri provides many resources to facilitate student learning, including recorded lectures, lecture slides, practice problems, office hours, and a textbook.

Great lecturer and great class . Took it my first quarter at UCLA and it was interesting and a perfect introduction to the classes here. Tests arent hard at all, just use his course readers and the pages he assigns from the textbook

I am selling my textbook Principles of Modern Chemistry by Oxtoby. No notes or highlights, and in mint condition. Text me at ********** I can meet on or around campus. Selling for $60 with price negotiable.

If you have had him for 14A the grade breakdown is identical. 30% thinkwell, 30% midterm, and 40% final. I opted out of the final due to everything that went down during the end of spring quarter..

Scerri comes off as a very arrogant, know-it-all professor, granted I am sure he is incredibly knowledgeable but he likes to say words like "elementary" when describing certain concepts which just comes off condescending. I wouldn't say he is the worst professor I have had, but he is not near the top of the list. I did well in both of his chem classes because the problems he does in class are nearly identical to the problems on the midterm/final.

The best thing to do in this class is honestly rewrite notes to get a better understanding for yourself. Scerri is not the clearest, and you will most likely be confused by his lectures due to the disorganized structure and his poor way of teaching.

Otherwise, I did generally learn a lot from 14A and 14B but I am incredibly glad to be over with Scerri.