I end up with an A, but I don't like him. He is very arrogant. Once I went to him to ask some question. He asked me "aren't u in my class?" No matter why people say that he is mean and rude.
He is so conceptual. I don't know whether learning different kinds of periodic table can help us pursue study in life science.
The class itself is not bad. But I HATE HIM

I would HIGHLY recommend taking Scerri's class for 14A. I came into UCLA with no chem experience (except regular chem my freshman year of high school) and I ended up getting a B- in the class. Obviously not great, but not horrible and I bet I could have done even better had I made sure to stay on top of the concepts along the way. Chem is tricky, but Scerri actually made the class fun (he played his electric guitar in class and it was sick- oh and he does some cool light tricks with lasers and hair... take the class to find out).

To succeed in the class, WATCH THE THINKWELL VIDEOS. Especially if learning chemistry is going to be like learning a new language for you (because for me, before the class I barely even remembered what a "mole" was, and titrations were basically just something done in labs.) Also, go to office hours when you need to. Oh, and get to know the professor and he will want to help you learn. He is super cool, so make the most out of the class by engaging yourself in it, and don't fall behind because catching up sucks.

If I could do the class over again, I would have gone to every office hour. I would not have been afraid to ask all my questions. I would have made sure I understood each concept along the way, rather than catching up 1 week before the midterm/final (PS to all you new students: please study at least 1 week in advance not the night before, you will need it).

Anyways, since this is a teacher evaluation, I 100% recommend taking Scerri's class. He was an awesome teacher, and I learned a lot from him and his class. The course reader he made is really to the point with the facts you need to know, and the Thinkwell vids and his lectures fill in the gaps. Not to mention, if you actually understand what is going on, chemistry is actually really neat (yea i just used that word). Good luck!

Professor Scerri obviously has a vast amount of knowledge regarding the topic, and it's a pleasure having an educator who is actually passionate about the topic he teaches. His lectures are highly organized and he does not overcomplicate the explanations. He presents the information very clearly and precisely, and this is very useful to go over on Bruincast while studying. I appreciate how he takes the time to repeat new material for added emphasis and include other facts that may be helpful during studying that he may not have mentioned before. He covers a lot of ground efficiently and is definitely experienced in knowing best how to clarify a concept to a confused student.

That being said, the class itself is not "easy." You have to not only memorize the course reader, but understand it and apply the concepts. People have said to go over the practice problems because those are going to be the exact same questions as on the midterm/final. I agree that the old tests are excellent practice, but it is faulty to assume that the questions will be the same. Not only might you be wrong and the questions be either slightly or completely different, rendering you hopeless, but it limits you. Sooner or later, you'll suffer for simply memorizing. Might as well actually learn the material, and not guess about which questions will be on the test.

That also being said, his office hours are pretty brilliant when it comes to extra help. He has them at least twice a week, and I recommend going if you have any questions. He will answer them effectively. If you still don't understand what he meant, you can ask him additional questions and he won't hesitate to help you out. Don't be afraid to ask questions! Despite certain comments (that honestly I believe to be extremely overdramatized), I feel that Professor Scerri really enjoys teaching his favorite subject and likes his students.
As to his personality, I'd say he is a genuinely good person with a witty sense of humor. He is also an excellent guitarist.

Also, TA's are great. Very knowledgeable and friendly. Discussions very useful, recommend going (even if they're at 8 AM).

Scerri is brilliant, but an awful teacher.

I absolutely hated his lectures. They were incredibly disorganized and based on his awful course reader. Even though he's been teaching this class (and using the same course reader) for years, he makes tons of mistakes EVERY lecture. You'd think he'd have fixed his course reader by now...

I get the feeling that he doesn't prepare at all for his lectures: I assume that he just goes to class, glances at his course reader, and assumes that he remembers everything because he's been doing it for so long, but his lack of practice completely shows.

His Thinkwell quizzes (homework) have NOTHING to do with what he lectures about in class. I read the textbook in order to do the quizzes, so that saved me. In fact, I had to read the textbook numerous times in order to actually understand his course reader...

I always wished I could ditch class because his lectures never made sense, but since all the exams were based entirely on the course reader, you have to go to class. I got an A in 14A because I basically memorized the course reader, did a bunch of old practice tests for the midterm/final, and made sure to do well on the homework.

All in all, I think Scerri is one of the best examples of a typical public university professor who's here to do research and doesn't care about teaching undergrads. I got the feeling that he cared more about his ego than his students.

*Chem 14A AND Chem 14B*

Professor Scerri is pretty good, but I’m not sure if it’s better to take him over Lavelle. First off, 14A is really easy regardless. If you struggle in this course, you should definitely think about changing your study habits and go to more discussions. To do well in this course, you have to do well on the midterm. I got a 96 on the midterm and I was pretty set for course, despite a relatively difficult final.

14B was a different story. The midterm was much harder and the final was really long. He skimmed over organic chemistry and structures really quickly, so I walked out of that class knowing very little about that. I think I took 14B lightly after doing well in 14A, so that definitely hurt me. However, if you put in the work, you should do well.

Thinkwell sucks. The problems are always worded weirdly. However, you should definitely actually watch the videos and read the script. This will help you answer most of the questions. Try to get 100% on all the assignments, since you do get multiple chances. The written homework is pretty easy too, but make sure to not make silly mistakes.

Overall, I found Scerri to be decent. I didn’t expect an amazing chemistry professor, but I wish he was more friendly. He is not afraid to call someone out for a stupid question or for talking in class. He also markets himself a lot and never forgets to mention his book. Class is always entertaining though (as long as you get called out).

SELLING CHEM14 SERIES TEXTBOOK: Chemical Principles, The Quest for Insight (Atkins, Jones)

It's in good condition! Down to let you haggle for a fair price :D

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I had Scerri for both 14A and 14B.

14A is much easier. If you have taken AP Chem, you should be fine in this class. The exams are not too hard, but be sure to work quickly. A ton of people ran out of time. If you score well on the midterm (90+), you don't really have to do well on the final. The homework is really and the TAs were super helpful.

14B is a whole different story. This class was much harder than 14A, and I thought he wasn't a good teacher for these subjects. Thermodynamics gets a little confusing, and the midterm had a pretty low average. I got 10% more than the average on the midterm, so I thought I was going to do well. But he made O Chem much harder than it had to be. I didn't do well on the final and ended up with a B. I was so pissed, since I did really well in 14A.

Also, thinkwell quizzes suck! Do them with friends, so you can compare answers. The questions are not worded well, and you don't want to miss any points.

Overall, I think he was ok. Lavelle and Scerri both have pros and cons, so just take whoever is available. Both are hard in their own way. There seem to be other newer professors teaching these classes as well, so maybe give them a shot?

Note: He definitely has a huge ego, but his sense of humor made me go to class. He makes fun of people who say/ask stupid stuff haha

I took Prof. Scerri's class my first quarter at UCLA (fall 2011). I didn't really care about his lectures, he basically reads you the course reader. His exams were based on the course reader and he gives you practice tests in the back of the course reader. Make sure you buy the course reader... if you couldn't tell, it's pretty important. You really don't need to buy the chemistry text book that they suggest unless you want to. You can use it again in Chem 14B, but I would suggest trying to find a used one (check bruinwalk textbooks or postyourbook.com) since the bundle in the ucla book store is so freaking expensive! I just went to the library whenever I wanted to do practice problems, which worked well for me since I was more focused in the library anyway.

What made me dislike Prof. Scerri is the fact he wasted so much of my lecture's time on the periodic table... I think it was like 3-4 lectures when he really should have only mentioned it briefly. We all took high school chemistry (hopefully) and if you got into UCLA, you probably are already familiar with the periodic table. This also meant that he did not get through all the material on acid/bases and equilibrium, which a lot of people thought was awesome at the time since it meant less material on the final. Let me tell you, if he doesn't get through the material, YOU ARE STILL ACCOUNTABLE FOR LEARNING THE MATERIAL he didn't get to. All the other chemistry classes you take( 14B, BL, etc) are based off of chem 14A and those professors will think you learned everything on the syllabus, so its best you learn it the first time. Acid/base and equilibrum WILL come back to haunt you, especially in chem BL, when you do at least 3 or 4 titrations during the lab. I talked to my 14BL professor, and he says a lot of kids in Lavelle's class the previous quarters do much better in the labs and on the BL finals than the students who took prof. Scerri.

So know this when you are deciding between Lavelle and Scerri: Lavelle is genuinely a nice guy (I know since I had him for 14B), Scerri is an ass most of the time. People will try to tell you he is funny, or sarcastic--- no, he is just mean and he will make fun of you... so I guess if you are not on the receiving end of his "jokes" it may seem kind of entertaining at first, but after a whole quarter I was pretty tired of his behavior. Scerri's class was much easier for me than Lavelle's class, but that also might be b/c A is more conceptual, and B had a LOT of calculations. I also got a little lazier my 2nd quarter, so I probably could have done better in 14B with a little more effort. Although Lavelle's tests were a little harder, you also can get more of a curve... I'm pretty sure Scerri's class didn't have that much of a bell curve. FYI: I scored above 90% on both midterm and final for Scerri and got a A in the class, but then got like 60% on Lavelle's final, which was kinda brutal... but I still pulled a B in the class, which tell you how badly everyone else failed too.

One last suggestion: NEVER take more than one final on the same day! Trust me, my second quarter I had both math and chem final on the same day, with only a 30 minute break.. it was terrible. And as you can see, I did not do so well. My brain was fried after the first test, and I was only halfway done.

Good luck choosing between Lavelle and Scerri, they both have +/- but if I had to choose professors again I would definitely pick Lavelle over Scerri, even though I did get a better grade in Scerri's class.

Took 14A and 14B

Great professor with less cost of education. Entertaining with his jokes (is it only me?)

Tips:
1. Go to lecture, take good notes: things he tells you in lectures are often in exams. Especially the ones he repeatedly tells you.

2. Understand: don't just memorize everything in the course reader. Although memorizing the course reader is a big part of the exam, understanding key concepts and understand why things happen are another important part.

3. Thinkwell: work together, and sometimes questions are in "exercise" part of video lectures in thinkwell. I don't know if it is still there because it seemed like Scerri blocked this near the end of the last course. 14B in S12

Scerri's class shows some of the best and worst aspects of science in UCLA, especially the life sciences. On the positive side: I admire his emphasis on conceptual understanding of chemistry over mathematical, his well-organized lectures, and his abundance of resources to help students learn the material.
However, I found his condescending and arrogant attitude unbearable. I know that he is "cool" and gives obnoxious and stupid people the responses they deserve, but I found him to be very rude and supercilious when answering students who asked fair questions about the material. If you are looking for an approachable professor, Scerri is not approachable.
My tips to help people succeed in this class:
1. study constantly: every day for 1-2 hours. I didn't do this for the midterm and I did badly. But when I did this for the final, it really helped me. Write flashcards, even if you don't look at them. Write down everything you know in a chapter and check to see what you are missing. Whatever helps you, do it consistently.
2. absorb the coursereader: memorizing the entire thing is not helpful because Scerri tests on how much of his concepts you understand. So instead, try to understand almost everything. But memorizing certain things definitely help, like charts or the electron configuration of Copper.
3. Do your best at Thinkwell: Like I said before, do not underestimate Thinkwell. It counts for 30% of your grade and you get three tries on each quiz, so it is like homework. It's a grade-booster so do the best you can. The upside to thinkwell is that many of the thinkwell answers are on the posted online lectures and you can collaborate with people.
4. Understand what he is looking for on exam questions: The way that I have seen him put together final exam questions is that each question has 4 parts. Part 1 is very easy like, define Hund's Principle. Part 2 and 3 are more difficult, but they are typically core concepts, like a buffer problem. Part 4 is tricky because he will try to get you to apply key concepts from one section to the key concepts in another. People freaked when they saw questions like that, but instead you should approach them by thinking key concepts for the first section and key concepts for the second one, and then you should think about how they might be connected. He loves writing pseudo "philosophy of chemistry" questions, especially if they regard quantum mechanics. BEST PREP IS TO GO OVER 2 PRACTICE EXAMS IN DEPTH. The midterm is a bit easier because it is short, but pay attention on the questions and don't panic because he will set up "traps" in terms of wording to trip people up. Really pay attention because an accumulation of small mistakes can change your B to a C.
5. Attend review sessions for the final: The best is to go to the review session hosted by a TA names Arunima . She might not be teaching anymore. I heard WINTER '12 was her last quarter. Anyways, the other girl TA is decent, but Blake and Chain are not very good.
In the end, I recommend this class for life-science people who need to take general chemistry but don't want to do a lot of mathematical problems, pre-meds because I heard Scerri is better than Lavell for the MCAT and it's good introduction to the grading curve in the life sciences, and especially for people who are "sorta pre-med/sort unsure about life science". Why I recommend this class especially for the third category is that I think it really helps you decide whether or not science should be your field of study. . You will learn some very interesting things in his class and it really opens your eyes to scientific philosophy, which is something kids out of high school don't typically know much about, but you also have to contend with the intense internal competition (and jealousy) among students, Scerri's smarminess, and that steep curve. I fall into the third category and even though I did decent in this class, B+, this class really encouraged me to switch out of science. This class made me realize I didn't love life-sciences enough to go through chem 14B with Scerri and onwards. This goes back to my opening point that Scerri's class shows the best and worst aspects of studying science: interesting material, but very rigorous and taught by an egomaniac. These aren't problems unique to the field of science, they are present in every field, but taking Scerri's class will help you determine if you love life science enough to endure chem.

Sorry for the long long review, I just wanted to give a comprehensive review of his class and how it might have significance over your academic path.