I got an A in the class.

I never went to discussion because my TA was a complete idiot who frequently answered students' questions with a clueless look on her face, but many of my friends had helpful TAs.

People complain about him looking down on his students, but honestly, if you ask a stupid question, you're asking for it. I kid you not when I say some girl asked, "Will we be expected to multiply that out on the exam?"

You don't need to memorize each page in the course reader, but know the concepts. And don't take Thinkwell/the graded homework problems lightly. Easy grade boosters right there.

Overall, I wish he was teaching Chem 14B next quarter because he's much easier than Lavelle for the student who prefers concepts over calculations. Your grade is made up of Thinkwell, a few homework problems, the midterm, and the final.

The midterm was ridiculously easy. The final was pulled out of his ass and was quite the curveball in comparison to the midterm, but fair.

Don't be scared of Scerri.

Took 14A and 14B.

If you come to all of the lectures (or at least watch them podcasted online) and literally memorize the coursereader, you should be fine. Before each midterm/final, try to do every single problem in the back of the coursereader, many of his exams have almost identical problems. But, make sure to look over every detail, he might ask for the most random diagram on an exam and if you didn't memorize the coursereader, tough luck.

His TA's are very knowledgeable and very helpful; sometimes they present material and teach slightly different than him, but it helps for a better understanding. They're also always really open to questions and do helpful review sessions. Make sure not to get behind on lectures/podcasts--they really are the core of the class.

Thinkwell quizzes may get annoying because sometimes the material on the quizzes varies a lot from the material learning in class. But, you do have several attempts on the quizzes and only your best score is submitted into your grade.

Overall, happy I took this course. AP Chemistry will DEFINITELY help you succeed. Definitely don't buy the book, you will not use it at all. Make sure to know that coursereader inside and out, and you should have a fairly good grade.

I had him for Chem 14A and 14B.

Overall, he is a good professor. Although he can be condescending towards his students, he definitely does know his material. I thought he explains most of the concepts pretty clearly. However, I felt that he explains the material better in 14A than in 14B. Then again, 14A's material is more straightforward than 14B.

As everyone has been constantly repeating here, he teaches and tests off his coursereader for both classes. The textbook is not really needed, but useful when you don't understand his explanations and when you need extra practice problems. He does provide a good amount of past text questions in the back of the coursereaders, so I highly recommend to do all of them before the midterm and final. He does recycle past questions or ask similar questions. Also, most of his TA's have TA'ed for him before, so they provide good practice problems during discussion.

What many people don't know first coming into this class is that the homework and online Thinkwell quizzes he assigns are a BIG part of your grade. So basically, acing all the assignments and quizzes can be a really good grade booster. I also recommend watching the videos on the Thinkwell site because they provide different approaches to understanding the material. They were a good secondary source if I didn't understand how Scerri explained some concepts.

Scerri as a professor is all right. As I said above, he can be mean and condescending to his students, especially when he thinks you asked a "stupid" question. Some people are bothered by this, but I don't think it's unbearable. However, he does have concern for student learning since he hosts review sessions before the midterm and final. They can be pretty helpful since he goes over all the main concepts and tells you what and what not to study.

In the end, I would recommend Scerri for 14A and 14B. The workload was definitely do-able. If you memorize the coursereader and do the practice problems in the back for 30 min- 1 hour a day, you should be in good shape for the tests. There is a curve in the class, so it does help. However, the curve can be high since people do well on the tests in general.

(It's pronounced "sherry" not "scary." Even though he is "scary.")

I was a mere freshmen coming in from a crappy public high school with little experience in Chemistry. I did not take AP Chemistry; I only took Chemistry Honors (and didn't learn anything at all). The thing that scared me the most was that we basically went over all I learned in Chem Honors in about a week and immediately went into new material that I've never seen before.

MATERIALS:

Chemistry textbook: YOU DON'T NEED IT. Scerri tells you explicitly that things change and things get outdated so he doesn't like to rely on the textbook. You can read it if you'd like, but I found that reading it only confused me even more.

Course Reader: This is your chemistry bible. Memorize it. Live it. Love it. Sleep with it. Make babies with it. This is your ticket to a good grade.

The class is self explanatory:

30% of your grade is comprised of two written homework assignments (which are his past midterms... you can sometimes Google his solutions that he put up and forgot to delete) and Thinkwell quizzes. Thinkwell is a program that you are required to pay $12 to register for and there are 3-4 online quizzes related to the topics of discussion. THIS IS THE EASIEST THING TO BANK POINTS ON. DO NOT BLOW THESE OFF.

Another 30% of your grade is the midterm. There's only one; which can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on if you do well. My TA told us that usually the curve is low so an A is still achievable even if you do poorly on this, but don't take that as an excuse to slack off.

40% of your grade consists of the final. Someone once told me that these examinations do not usually deviate from his old versions of tests (that are provided in the back of the course readers) but in my year they were totally different. So be prepared for anything.

His class is... average. It's chemistry. It's bound to be difficult. But it's doable. He's ambiguous, and a bit of a douchebag sometimes. He'd ask questions to see if anyone might know the answer, and some brave soul would attempt to answer it only to be shot down by his cutty sarcasm. Don't be a fool. Just be a spectator in his path of destruction and you'll be saved... from embarrassment at least.

How did I do? I managed an A+. Not because I'm smart. Trust me. I'm a bit of a dumbass. I did well because I immersed myself in the material. I used every single resource (that I knew of at the time) provided on campus. I went to all of my discussions. I took advantage of Covel tutoring (which unfortunately might be canceled due to budget cuts). I went to the test bank and printed out his old tests and meticulously went through every question to understand them. Instead of finding the answer, UNDERSTAND the concepts behind finding the answers.

Your golden ticket: Thinkwell. Everyone hates the Thinkwell quizzes, BUT a hidden gem in this program are the LECTURES. THINKWELL LECTURES HELP OH SO MUCH. They are videos of professors elaborating on concepts that we go over in lecture, but they're much more concise, clear, understandable, and they go at a slower pace. Watch all the Thinkwell lectures. SOME OF THE THINKWELL QUIZ ANSWERS ARE EMBEDDED IN THE LECTURES THEMSELVEs. You're paying $12 to use Thinkwell, why not take advantage of the lectures as opposed to just taking the quizzes?

What I'm trying to say is, you're not going to understand Chemistry by cramming all the material 2 days before the final. You can probably do that with other classes like calculus, but certainly not Chemistry. Take a second and THINK about what you learned after every lecture. Attend discussions. Do LITTLE things that spread over the entire course of the quarter quarter and eventually that knowledge will build up to a higher magnitude of knowledge (and confidence) that will help you to do well. I progressively absorbed the material and ended up doing better than people who treat lectures as their only 3 hours in the week to think about Chemistry.

Do I suggest him as a professor? Not really... Haha. But if I had to choose between Lavelle and Scerri, I would choose Scerri.

A lot of my intense (and very smart!) pre-med friends took Chem 14A with Lavelle in the fall and did poorly because he makes it into a weedout class. I'm a quarter behind all these friends and took Chem 14A with Scerri, and apparently he's a hell of a lot easier than Lavelle. I'm not sure what that means in terms of performance on the MCATs though. So we'll see. It's your call.

What a baller. This guy is a hilarious, enjoyable guy to listen to, much thanks to his awesome British accent. He's a great teacher that's always willing to answer questions after class, but after his lectures there's not a lot left to be explained. The class itself wasn't too difficult, EVERYTHING we need to know is in the course reader (although it kinda long), so just learn every concept in it and you should be fine!

I've taken chem 14A with both Scerri and Lavelle and I think Lavelle's a more efficient(but def. much harder) professor. I'd say if you were a science major, you'd be better off NOT taking Scerri as Scerri is kind of off-the wall random in terms of some questions he asks on midterms, and he spends hours elaborating on a simple concept. Scerri's exams are relatively easy though (mostly conceptual) but they're hard if you don't know what to expect and are unfamilar with his way of testing.
His reader is what I really have a problem with. It's sloppy (he handwrote the whole thing), has a buncha random blank pages to fill up space, and it's pretty messy (the diagrams that he includes in it are great though).
One thing I loved was his thinkwell. It was very organized, straight to the point, and IDENTICAL to his lectures in class so if you miss class you can just watch the thinkwell videos which is what I did 60% of the time. Overall, he's not bad (easier than Lavelle for sure) but he's not as organized and doesn't prepare you as well as Lavelle does. Lavelle's reader is a godsend..

2 words: FUCK THINKWELL.

Professor Scerri was alright. He was interesting in class, but his midterm and final were very very hard. You don't even need the book or workbook, you only need the course reader and attached pink book. He also posts all of his lectures online, which was really really helpful. Overall, I have heard that he is better than Lavelle so I guess I would recommend him based solely on that.

He is a great lecturer and the course reader saves you a lot of time. BUY IT and KNOW IT TOP TO BOTTOM. Very arrogant, not welcoming before and after class, and lacks transparency when it comes to grades.

i used to attend this guys lecture and sit far in the back of the lecture hall and never had the chance to really talk to him. one day i lost my glasses and i couldn't see shit, so i had to sit in the front of the class to read the notes.

scerri comes off as a pretty intimidating & arrogant guy in lecture, but being in earshot range of the dude and having the ability to have a decent conversation with him took the edge off of him imo. knowing most of the material beforehand (having taken and 5'd the ap chem test) is also a plus; there were a couple of times he thought my answer/conclusion/idea was wrong, and guess what, turns out i was right. straight up argued with the guy after lecture one afternoon over his hatred of LeChatlier's Principle. i've come to the conclusion that he is fairly stubborn in his beliefs; when he makes an opinion of something, he stands firm.

as for tips on the class; don't buy the book, it's a waste of $200 and i'm still trying to get my money back from mine from last quarter (haven't even opened it). do however, get the course reader. you don't necessarily have to bring it to lecture every time (i didn't), but DO take down notes of what he is lecturing about during class (i used a spiral notebook)

i went to discussion the first couple of times, then quickly realized that the "discussion" is typical of a south campus class - almost no discussion, almost all going over problems. basically, a gigantic waste of time. don't worry about skipping it.

for the midterm/final, DO do the problems in the test booklet that the TAs recommend you to do. for the midterm/final i pretty much locked myself in the room the night before and did every single problem of the previous mts/finals included in the orange booklet that had something in it scerri covered in lecture. don't worry if you dont understand some of the problems; if it doesn't look familiar, more than likely it won't be on the exam.

overall, a pretty douchey, arrogant, but intelligent & respectable guy. kinda fun to shoot the shit with too.