Okay, as someone finishing the class with an A+ this quarter, this review will be really helpful as a guide for you (a prospective or new student). If you're looking to take this class, know that you WILL be confused over the course of this quarter. That is guaranteed. I did NOT feel like I learned very much, and the lecture content was super disjointed. You don't need to be an AP Chem student to do well in this class, I'm a communications major and I did well so just take my review very seriously, and you'll be fine.

That being said, I learned a very important skill in this class: prioritizing learning the material I need to do well on the tests and nothing else. This class is not about learning chemistry because it's interesting; it's about surviving and not ruining your GPA. You'll eventually grow to accept that fact in this class, especially after the midterm. The midterm and final for this class were 2 of the hardest tests I've ever taken. Please do yourself a favor and study for the midterm and final AT LEAST a week and a half in advance. You need to do ALL the practice tests he gives you because those are a very accurate reflection of the kind of questions that are going to be on the test. Often times they are the same questions. Run and rerun through those practice tests (every test) until you commit every question and answer on the answer key to memory and know how to solve them. I'm not kidding; please do this. Even with the practice tests given, our average for the midterm was 62 or 66% for our chem 14A class. If you don't do the practice tests, expect a 30% on the test, and that's a generous estimate.

I've read some reviews saying don't leave your achieve quizzes until the last week, and I think that's pretty smart, but you'll be fine if you do. I did the fundamental quizzes before the midterm, then the other 4 or so quizzes the week before they were due. It was honestly a lot easier this way for me because I knew the content from the midterm, so it was just a review. I think it's possible to do these achieve quizzes the week before they're due, but keep in mind they take 3/4 hours each, so you may not want to grind that hard. I didn't mind.

Read the slides ahead of each lecture and immediately ask your TA to clarify any questions. I had Jack Diab as my go-to TA, and he was amazing, so I'd recommend asking a few TAs for help until you find one that explains things in a way you really get.

Finally, you can start solving the practice midterms before you finish reviewing your lectures or learning the material. Please do this! Don't wait till you have a complete understanding of ALL the content of the class to do the practice midterms because I promise the practice midterm questions will still stump you. You'll have more time the earlier you start, though.

Good luck!! Listen to my advice and you'll do great :D.

Summary: Do not take Scerri
Midterm mean score: 64%
Final mean score: 63%
The statistics speak for themselves: you are set up to fail with this professor.

Scerri is overall a nice guy who is personable and funny. I like him as a person. However, his teaching I do not agree with. He sees Chem 14A as a weeder course so you are set up to fail from the beginning. There are 10 quizzes due at the end of the course (thirty percent of grade). No homework. Midterm is thirty percent of grade and the final is forty percent of grade. NO EXTRA CREDIT OPPORTUNITIES OR RETAKES.

Statistics for midterm: (out of 109 points)
Minimum: 15.0
Maximum: 111.0
Mean: 69.64
Median: 71.0
Standard Deviation: 21.56

Statistics for final: (out of 152 points)
Minimum: 8.0
Maximum: 143.0
Mean: 95.39
Median: 101.5
Standard Deviation: 30.98

*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 Bang, K, who I do not recommend. He was kind, but the way he taught the material was more confusing than Scerri. I ended up skipping his discussion sections after the third week and going to to Yousiff's, who I highly recommend! He is great at teaching!

Dr. Scerri has the most disorganized slides ever and he's hard to follow sometimes. If you took AP Chem in high school this class will definitely be easier for you. However, his exams are pretty straightforward and as long as you study from his provided exam materials you will be ok. I'd recommend watching YouTube videos or something else to supplement that because you'll have a hard time using his slides to study.

the worst prof i have ever had at UCLA. He doesn't seem to know what he is talking about. His powerpoints are also very disorganized and messy. I took AP chem in high school and got a 5, but still hated this class and struggled soooo much that I had to drop it a week before the final (however I was dropping it just because this quarter the school allowed us to do so without transcript notation, and I doubted that I would get an A in the class and I didn't want to spend all that effort and still get an A- to ruin my gpa). Anyway, a terrible class with a terrible professor.

This class was different from other gen chem classes in that it was concept focused. Scerri's lectures were engaging and he was always open to questions during and after class. If you understand all the concepts discussed in lecture and on the past midterms/finals, you should be fine for the exams, which account for the majority of your grade. He isn't the best at communicating outside of class and I wish he gave us more resources, but overall I feel like I learned a lot.

Took this class with Scerri online during COVID. Our grades at this time relied on Sapling homework, 1 midterm, and the final.

SAPLING:
We had 9 required assignments (averaging about 25-30 problems per assignment) that were due by Week 10. Biggest advice for Sapling is DO NOT PROCRASTINATE. Do at least one assignment per week and you'll be fine. A 100% on Sapling is possible, but can take a while depending on how good your grasp is on the information. He gave us unlimited attempts on all of the questions, but there are a good handful that are somewhat difficult. Ask your classmates for help if you're stuck. Someone is bound to be able to help answer it.

MIDTERM:
Thankfully, the midterm for Spring '21 was fair. Do all of the past finals Scerri gives out, and look for more. Familiarizing yourself with the types of questions he might ask is worth your time, and a few questions are reused. Some of the test was calculation and some of it was conceptual. For conceptual questions, the answers usually came from what he said in lecture. Take note of EVERYTHING Scerri says because it's fair game on exams. By the way, the midterm and the final were both open book and open note but I still suggest knowing the material well because the exams are actually pretty long, and the last thing you want is to run out of time.

FINAL:
Basically what I said for the midterm, but, naturally, more difficult. The post-midterm material was much harder for me to understand.

Last Pieces of Advice:
Keep up with the content, write down everything Scerri says, and review the content regularly. Scerri isn't the best at explaining things during lecture, but he does a better job clarifying concepts in office hours. He's also pretty chill, likes cats, and plays guitar.

Professor Scerri is very forgiving and does care about his students. He accepted my late submission of my final without deducting any points and I was beyond grateful. However, aside from that, this class is tough. The sapling isn't due until the end of the quarter, so most students don't pace it out well and end up cramming through it while studying for the final. Also, our final was quite horrible. Some questions were familiar, but a lot were brand new.

Legit did not learn anything in this class. His exams were harder than Spring 2020 because too many people got A's so it isn't an easy A anymore. Also, his lectures are the most disorganized lectures I've ever seen, they make me miss the structure and organization of the 7 series. If you wanna do well you either had to have taken AP Chem before or watch a lot of youtube videos that will explain the concepts better than he does.

While Scerri is a good professor he sometimes struggles to give clear explanations on certain subjects which might confuse people. However, Scerri does try his best to make sure that students understand the material by answering clarifying questions at the end of the lecture. Scerri grades on a curve which can feel unfair at times and create a competitive environment. The professor's exams were very challenging and required you to know how to apply various formulas to solve a problem. Unfortunately, Scerri was not the best at preparing students for exams since the class averages were very low. While Scerri did release previous midterms and finals, Scerri made it very clear to his students that he intentionally made this quarter's exams much more difficult than previous quarters. Scerri's lectures do not go in-depth on solving such complicated exam problems but instead focused on giving the formulas needed and how to solve simple problems with said formulas. However, the class is manageable with enough dedication.