Professor Scerri is an extremely kind professor, however his class was not easy to me because lectures were disorganized and unclear. First of all I took this class online even though we were back to hybrid learning. Scerri often had the wrong example on his slides or had issues screen sharing that made the content more difficult than it should have been. I do not feel like I have a great understanding of material (however in 14A Lavelle was awesome and I totally understood the concepts). I never thought I would write a bruin walk review, but I felt that I should to encourage students to take this class with a different prof. Maybe he's better in person?

Scerri is an ok professor. During lectures, he reads off his slides & doesn't really expand on the concepts that are not already on the slides. He's unengaging and speaks very slow so I rarely watched his lectures live. However, he is very knowledgeable in Chemistry!!! It's just his teaching can be improved.

Workload is very light -- his grading scheme:
50% Thinkwell Quizzes every 2-3 weeks (homework, ~$35)
20% Midterm
30% Final

His midterm & final are extremely long with multiple parts to a question (1a, b, c, d, 2a, b, c...) and 2/3 hours was barely enough time to go through it all. He gives us extra time to submit (I think it was 30 minutes?) but still wasn't enough time to finish the exam. I was stumped on a lot of problems. He releases past exams as practice, but his answer key is slightly wrong & also confusing, so it's best to compare your answers with other classmates.

Thinkwell quizzes are fairly simple and straightforward. These are practice problems & problems you can expect in a Chemistry class. I thought they were helpful both conceptually & mathematically. There is no time limit & you have 3 attempts, with you highest score taken into account.

Discussion sections are not mandatory, but depending on your TA, they are definitely helpful in reviewing concepts & going over practice problems.

Self teaching yourself for this class is the way to go: look back at your past AP Chem notes & go on Youtube and watch the Organic Chemistry Tutor (super helpful).

Honestly, scerri gets a bad reputation but he is not that bad. He is fairly clear in lecture and is always there to answer questions if you have them during lecture. His final and midterm reviews are all good representations of the exams and if you can do them you should be prepared. Thinkwell quizzes are a little annoying but honestly not that bad, but they do not really represent exams. When you ae studying focus on the conceptual he loves to ask about it. The math is important but you need to be able to explain your answers on exams and make sure to use key words that he'll say in lecture or on his slides. The exams I would say were fair not too horrible. You can do well in the course if you just take good notes, pay attention, and do the reviews.

A lot of people really hate Prof Scerri but he isn't as horrible as everyone makes him out to be. I had him for 14A and 14B, and let me just say in high school I took chemistry over the summer (learned nothing) and slacked off during 14A so I had VERY minimal knowledge about chemistry going into 14B. Prof Scerri can be hard to keep up with and he uses different terminology at times (which some students attribute to his arrogance but I literally think it's because he's British and their terms are not the same for certain things), but as long as you really pay attention during lecture you should be able to get a basic understanding of what he is saying. He has the tendency to get ahead of himself and explain difficult concepts without reviewing the basics first, but if you watch a couple Youtube videos or go through example problems in the recommended textbook you should be fine. On that note, GET THE TEXTBOOK. It isn't required but it is super helpful to go through while learning concepts and has a lot of practice problems you can use when studying for the midterm and final. As far as his lecture slides, they can be a bit unorganized but if you are following what he is saying and actually paying attention, it isn't that bad. Also, for the most part Prof Scerri is open to answering questions and sometimes he may not answer them well but I've never seen him shut a student down for asking a question.

If you're hesitant to take this class, don't let the negative comments completely dictate your decision. You literally get what you put out, so if you aren't willing to pay attention during lecture, ask questions, and utilize outside resources like the textbook/videos/practice problems/etc. then obviously you're going to have a tough time. The professor is responsible for giving you the information, but you are responsible for making sure you understand it and utilize all the resources available to you to do so.

His grading is 30% quizzes, 30% midterm, and 40% final - which isn't too bad because the quizzes are basically free points (not that hard) and his midterms and finals generally tend to lean on the easier side, the only thing students get concerned about is that he grades on a curve (but from what I've experienced and heard it should never hurt someone's grade).

If you take this class, good luck and remember to utilize the resources you have to help you succeed!! Like I said, I had poor knowledge about chemistry before this class but I ended up getting an A- because I put in the work. You can do it!!!