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.

I personally really like Scerri. If you're like me and have always had trouble understanding chemistry in the past, then Scerri might be a good professor for you. I like how he takes concepts and explains them in such simple words whereas many others would use complex terminology. He gives some good analogies, clear explanations, and has some humor in his lectures. My suggestion for doing well in this class? Watch the thinkwell videos, do ALL the practice midterms/exams that he gives you and understand how to do each problem, and rewatch lectures on bruincast if necessary. Overall, just understand the concepts, and if you do those three things, you should be able to understand it well. Studying in groups will also help because you're explaining the concepts to one another.

I definitely recommend Scerri!

Great professor! Literally all you need to do is just memorize the course reader. Along with that look at past midterms and finals for each. He repeats questions from old exams and other questions are similar to old exams. He is way easier than Lavelle for 14A. I know people who are waiting till Spring quarter just to take 14B with Scerri. It depends on your preference... Lavelle is way more structured in his homework, points, and etc. For Lavelle you will be using your big chem book a lot. However, for Scerri he goes only on what is on his course reader. He is way more conceptual driven than Lavelle and his exams have much less math on them. For 14A we only had one math problem on the midterm and the final. The rest were conceptual questions about the material. Also Scerri's class is set up in a way where you can pull yourself back up if you suck on the midterm. I got a C+ on the midterm, but I pulled an A- in the class because I did really well on the online quizzes and homework. For his online quizzes many answers are online (yahooanswers). The final was so easy. Literally my TA told me that he made the final so that people could finish in 2 hours (You have 3 hours for it). I saw people get up and leave an hour into the final and it only took me an hour and a half. Overall, I would definitely take Scerri over Lavelle every time because

1. Class is more conceptual
2. Quizzes are way easier because they are online and you have unlimited time per quiz
3. The amount of homework is much less
4. He is much funnier

There is one thing to note... If you can't take a joke then do not go to his office hours or ask dumb questions because he will call you out on it. He is not mean he just has a dry sense of humor. I thought he was funny, but I know some people thought that he was mean. Just do not ask questions that he just answered or aren't relevant at all.

Scerri was overall an ok professor. As a person, he seems a little egotistical, so that bothered me a little. Do the online quizzes with other people, and do past midterms and you'll be fine. And most of all, "MEMORIZE THE SHIT OUT OF THE COURSE READER." Some of the answers to his final questions are taken word for word from it.

I was enrolled in Prof. Scerri's class for Chemistry, but I attended both his and Prof. Lavelle's lectures every class (Lavelle's after the first two or so weeks of school). Like most people say, both Professors have pros and cons, but I found that Prof. Scerri's exams weigh MUCH heavier on concepts and explanations whereas Prof. Lavelle's weigh heavier on the mathematics side of things. Prof. Lavelle goes much faster than Prof. Scerri as well which personally didn't bother me because I had an excellent AP Chem teacher in high school so I could follow the material relatively well. Overall, I thought Prof. Scerri's class was pretty interesting, a lot of it was review but it was definitely more in depth than my previous chemistry class, so focusing wasn't difficult. I didn't do so well on the midterm which is why even though I did better on the final, I made a B overall in the class. Some of the questions are very tricky and nit-picky, so be cautious of that. If you miss a very small part of an explanation, you might start losing points on questions and it will add up and hit you badly. All I can say, is that you would be wise to start studying early and stay on top of things because for the most part, everything ties together and things get PRETTY specific. However, I thought both Professors were very knowledgeable, so when you get right down to it, choose whichever professor is available since chem 14A fills fast, and give preference to the professor who's exams are reflections of the best ways you display knowledge of the material (conceptual/explanations or mathematical).