Scerri is actually a good and knowledgeable lecturer, he focuses more on conceptual things. Some people found his accent sexy but it always made me sleepy lol. I think his curve standard is alright, I got 4 on AP chem and i didn't work so hard to get an A- for this class. His course readers are well organized and it will save your time since you don't really have to go to textbook for final reviews. We only had three online quizzes and three writing HW assignments last quarter, which is pretty cool. For our midterm, he used problems from previous mid-terms attached in the CR, so make sure you check them out and do enough practices.

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Overall a good guy, a bit of a douche but he cares. My friend took Lavelle and is smarter than me and did worse. So don't take Lavelle, Scerri wants you to do well for the most part. His midterm and final were difficult but not impossible. Pay attention to what time you take the class cause chances are you'll fall asleep if it's too early (his accent soothes you to sleep). Ended with a B+ and I thought I understood it pretty well.

Scerri is a solid lecturer, and it is helpful that everything you need to know is in the course reader or his lecture slides. All of the homeworks and quizzes are OK. The exams themselves aren't all that bad either. The only thing that threw me off was how he curved the class. I understand that only about 12-15% of people get an A- or better, but I scored above the mean on everything and still got a B-. Unlike most professors, Scerri's curve is a true bell curve that will set the average to about a C+.

I took Scerri for Chem 14A.

Overall, the class was really manageable. I didn't take AP Chem, but if you put in your dues and go to discussion and do the homework, you should get at least a B. I never went to lecture because it was Bruincast, but I would recommend finding a good TA and going to every discussion section. I had Jordan Stern as my TA and he was by far the most helpful.

Scerri as a lecturer is pretty unorganized. He uses a course reader that is too expensive and is just a print out of all his slides. The midterm and final are based on this course reader. Memorize it and know it inside out, or you will fail.

Scerri is really conceptual compared to Lavelle, who is math oriented. Lots of questions on the midterm and final are conceptual, and may depend on some brief thing Scerri mentioned in lecture that is not in his course reader; thus, if you don't write it down, you will probably get the question wrong.

I thought this class was actually not that bad. I got an A on the quizzes and homework and a B+ on the midterm and final, but ended with a B+ in the class, which surprised me. I don't know how Scerri's curve works and he didn't explain it at all, nor did I see the class distribution. My final was also misgraded, but Scerri does not accept regrades for the final exam, which is pretty lame.

Overall, I would take Lavelle. Scerri is really condescending and egotistical, albeit a decent lecturer. However, if you're going to take Lavelle for 14B, take him for 14A so you can get a feel for his exams and teaching style. You'll also be better prepared for Chem 14C if you take Lavelle, and you'll find out if you belong in the pre-med/science major that you currently are in. Scerri is just too unpredictable in my opinion.

Scerri is a pretty good professor. His tests aren't hard and he explains the concepts well. He is definitely better than Lavelle for people who care about their GPA. The workload is very light. In Lavelle, you would have weekly optional homework which really isn't optional because if you don't do them, you won't do well on tests. For Scerri, you get 4 online quizzes and two written homework assignments. Not too bad right? Oh, and for the online quizzes, it is open book so you can look at notes, internet, and even collaborate. Quizzes are 15% and HW is 15%. If your at least somewhat competent, you should average 95% between the hw and quizzes, build a buffer for the midterm and finals which aren't even hard themselves. There is one midterm worth 30% and a final worth 40%. Going to test bank would be wise.

As for his personality, some people say he's "mean," but he's really not. Simply don't be an idiot. Those people who complain, saying that Scerri is rude or a douche, are generally morons. Usually they embarrass themselves by asking a question that Scerri just answered or a question that isn't even relevant. Plus, I wouldn't even classify Scerri's responses to these questions as "mean." He just answers with some sarcasm. Many of you who have had that one sarcastic English teacher in high school know what I'm talking about.

Overall, he's pretty easy compared to Lavelle. Probably moderate difficulty compared to UCLA professors overall. He's not mean, he's just sarcastic towards retards, which is being very generous in my opinion. Definitely take him.

I really like Scerri. Unless the course readers are totally different now, don't buy new ones. He says to buy new ones because he corrected past typos, but nope. The typos stayed :P
When I didn't understand whatever happened in lecture, the podcasts were always helpful. I still went to class everyday though. It's good to go so you get the hang of the course reader and how he words things. I hardly went to discussion. My T.A. could have made better use of our 50 minutes. For extra practice, I attended AAP sessions. They were great! I really recommend taking them if you can. I took exce sessions, which last an hour and a half twice a week. They really help you break down the concepts and take everything step by step so that you fully understanding things. When it came to the exams, I did well even without the curve. The key is really to do those practice exams in the back and just make sure you're really comfortable with doing them at sort of a fast pace so you don't run out of time. There aren't any surprises!

Yes, Thinkwell sucks so much. I wish he'd get rid of it.

Make sure you do well on your written homework because you really don't want to lose easy points!

I really liked Scerri a lot. I had him for Scerri for 14A and Lavelle for 14B, and I personally found Lavelle A LOT harder. After taking the class, I really felt like I truly understood concepts about Chemistry that were blurry to me in high school. To do well in Scerri's class, watch the Thinkwell videos. They help explain concepts in a different way than Scerri does and can definitely help you because they can sometimes get confusing. Also, make sure you get 100's or near 100's on the online quizzes. Honestly, they're super annoying to do, but they're worth like 30% of your grade and you can look up all the answers which is a lot better than taking the quizzes in class. I did this and did all of the practice midterms and finals and got an A+ in the class, without really much effort. Lavelle on the other hand, I worked much, much harder, and I'm pretty sure I got a B in the class. Take Scerri.