Scerri was a good lecturer and he explained the concepts well. However, I feel that thermochemistry is better math-based, since you mainly do problems that are applying different equations. Scerri's slides are kind of disorganized and his midterm wasn't anything like the practice tests he gave out. The problems he gives in class aren't much like the problems that end up on the midterm. The final was relatively easy, but the grade doesn't help if you didn't do well on the midterm. If you get your hands on old practice exams those can be very helpful with the conceptual questions he asks. Thinkwell quizzes aren't too bad but you need to get as many points on them as possible to boost your grade.

Grade breakdown:
30% thinkwell and written hw (For our class, he only did one written hw assignment and then 4 thinkwell quizzes)
30% midterm
40% final

SELLING 14A/14B TEXTBOOK - ALMOST BRAND NEW CONDITION
SELLING CORRESPONDING ODD ANSWER KEY
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I actually really enjoyed 14B with Scerri. Although unclear at times, he's an intelligent and engaging lecturer who is relatively consistent in terms of his expectations and course material. Yes, this class is less organized than others, but I still feel WAY more prepared for the rest of the 14 series. I think people tend to be intimidated by Scerri, and since many of this students are freshmen, they expect Scerri to coddle his students probably like their high school teachers did. Which is stupid.

Overall, if you are choosing between two professors, take Scerri if you want a bit more of a challenge, you enjoy chemistry, and you want to be extra prepared for future courses.

Selling course readers (volumes 1 and 2) for this class! Text me at ********** if interested :) (I'm moving so will throw them away after 6/14, so text me immediately if interested!)

Im selling Scerri's 14B course readers! They contain all his lecture slides, extra info, and practice/past tests. I recommend them! email me at *************

Selling 14B course readers for $35 (includes PDF of Atkins's Chemical Principles)
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If you know your general chemistry well or took AP Chem or something like I did, you will not have to worry about the class except when you get to the OChem part. For Ochem, just understand how to name the compounds and how each mechanism works. Also know the concepts of the chair/boat conformers and chair flips. In regards to exams/grades, Scerri is SUPER predictable and provides a bunch of his past exams in the back of his course readers. He basically just puts together a test with questions from his past exams. He even told us to look at the past exams in the back of the course reader and hinted to us that he would recycle questions. If you look at all the past exams, you will also see the trend of him recycling certain questions, so pay attention to those. People who don't do well in the class are honestly probably lazy people who don't bother to look at the past exams at all. All you need to do is just do all the past exams and understand how to approach each problem and why you do it a certain way. This quarter for the final, the multiple choice questions on the final were almost the exact same as last year's final so lol god bless

If you want to ace the class, just don't be lazy and do as many as the past exams as you can. Scerri is super fair and lazy so he doesn't seem to make up new questions anymore.

To do well in this class, you must know the coursereader inside and out. Be sure to do all the problems in the back involving the topics he will test and do them in BOTH books. This really helped me out for the final and making sure you know the big concepts and how to apply them is really important. In the thermodynamics and kinetics section, try to do his practice midterms and redo them until you can do them without looking at the answers. In the ochem section, make sure you know your nomenclature and mechanisms. Scerri is fair and predictable. Best of luck!

I am a first year and I can say I hated this class. I learned nothing whatsoever. I attended all the lectures and it was as if I wasn't even there. I am currently studying for the final and I am learning not reviewing. This class changed my outlook on the subject of chemistry as a whole. Goodluck to anyone who takes it. This is my last chemistry class and I am over the moon about it. It's safe to say that I hate chemistry!!

Scerri preaches out of his course reader. Memorize the course reader, and you will do well. All of his exams are relatively similar, so I would recommend scavenging around to find them all.

I had Professor Scerri for both 14A and 14B, winter and spring quarter respectively. Between him and Lavelle, I'm glad I took him for both chemistry courses. He's smart and knows what he's talking about, but his teaching style can be confusing. His teachings are heavily concept-based, as opposed to Lavelle who seems to love the mathematical side of chemistry (or so I've heard from friends).
Also specific to this course is how the topics are covered. There's 5 weeks of thermodynamics, kinetics, and electrochemistry. After the midterm, it's 5 weeks of organic chemistry. I hear Lavelle focuses less time on organic chemistry, if that's meaningful to anyone.

Grade breakdown for Spring 2016:
Homework: 30%
Midterm: 30%
Final: 40%
(There was an alternate scheme where both homework and midterm went up to 35% and the final went down to 25%, but that was due to an unfortunate incident that occurred during Week 10, so I doubt this will happen again.)
As you can see, he weighs homework very heavily, which is nice. Thankfully, this buffed my grade. His homework is made up of both physical homework derived from questions from his course reader and ThinkWell, an online quiz system. Both are fairly easy.

All of Scerri's exams are derived from past midterms and finals, which can be found in the back of his course readers. I remember doing a problem in the back the night before the midterm, and the next day that same question was on the exam. It helps to do these problems! Also, his discussion sections were entirely optional. However, they do help with clarifying some of the course materials, The best TAs this quarter were Daniel Hatfield and Alexie Pogue--highly recommend enrolling in either of their discussion sections if they're offered!

Regarding the curve, I think it's generous. I got a midterm score of 51% (the average was 69%) and on the final I got a 55% (I have no idea what the average was) and still managed to pull a C. His curve was very generous, as you can see.

Overall, I'm glad I took Scerri. He was very fair and did not surprise his class with any topics he never covered during lecture on the exams. Go to office hours, treat the course readers like your chemistry bible, and watch the BruinCasts, even if you went to lecture!