Took him for 14B. People may say he is easier than Lavelle, but if you plan on taking 14C and D, Scerri will screw you over. You don't learn much real Chemistry in his class, and EVERYTHING on his tests is based off the course reader which is extremely unorganized and horrible tool. It's very difficult to follow and learn anything from the reader unless you're following it while watching a lecture. His tests are highly conceptual, and he likes to ask some special cases and minute details that he mentions in class.

However, if you do take him, you really don't need the book, just the reader and practice problem booklet. Those are all you need. Memorize the reader and do LOTS of practice problems.

Two words: Course Reader

Exams: Are definitely more conceptual, so if you remember the course reader, be able to recite definitions or theorems as written in the course reader.

All it takes is going thru the course reader, sitting for a day or two listening or watching to rewrite notes into your course reader before your exam and you'll be set. Everyone who's taken Scerri knows that this is your golden ticket to that grade you want.

I had him for 14A and 14B. Memorizing the course reader is how you get a good grade. I didn't bother with the book and still ended up with an A. For a science class, Scerri is actually not a very hard professor.

Scerri is pretty much as fair as you can get when it comes to a science class. I took him for 14A/14B and ended up with A's in both, and didn't find the workload at all overwhelming. Attend lectures and take note on what he focuses on most in lectures, because that is most likely what he will put on his exams. Do the pink book (old exam question booklet) from front to back and you will have a pretty good idea of how he tests. Know concepts and important definitions, and be able to explain what you know (especially for 14A and the first half of 14B). For o-chem, memorize, memorize, memorize, do practice problems and you will be fine. Don't let the south campus hype of an introductory chemistry class scare you, because Scerri will give you the grade you deserve for your understanding of the material, and he's pretty entertaining in class.

I had Scerri for 14A and 14B. At first from reading all the previous posts, I assumed he was going to be really hard for 14A but in reality. He is a fair professor. His midterms and finals are straight from the course reader so don't even bother with the text book, unless you want further understanding of the concepts. His midterms and finals are similar to previous exams, so I suggest to study the course reader and the previous exams.

With 14A: his midterm was more conceptual than equations. His final was similar to the midterms he gave out in the past.

With 14B: his midterm was more equations, and KNOW YOUR DERIVATIONS! he'll throw it in there for sure. His final for the first lecture, which I was in, was HELL! Trust me, study the organic material until your eyes bleed b/c 5 out of 8 of the problems were on that topic. He used the same question from the midterm for the old material.

All in all, Scerri was a decent professor who was fair. I never went to office hours so I don't know him personally. In the end, I passed the class with a decent grade for someone who skipped quite a few lectures.

Personally, I liked this professor. Although, this comes from my experience inside the lecture hall only as I never had the balls to drop by office hours so I can't exactly confirm whether he's a butthole during those visits or not. It wouldn't be hard to believe that he is one though. However, I thoroughly liked his class and his personality. He was pretty funny, and also probably the weirdest professor I had all year (he licked chalk for a good 5 minutes one time). The one thing that surprised me most about this class was his in-class experiments. Sometimes they're pretty cool and sometimes they're just pointless..but they always wake me up and it's a break from mundane lecturing all class.

I felt like Scerri's class moved at an alright pace. I never felt like it was too much all at once or anything but we somehow managed to finish one week early in g-chem and one week early in our o-chem and i think we got a little more into o-chem than others. One day I was tired as hell and didn't wanna bother going to class but I thought he would go over important material, and it was a bogus review lecture..

Now, Scerri likes to base his grading on around 1-3 homework assignments, 2-4 thinkwell online quizzes, one midterm, and a final. The homework assignments came from his pink book - his compilation of previous midterms and finals - for Chem 14A, but in 14B, he made us print out our worksheets online, but they were practically the same. These homework questions were always fairly easy to me, I always got 100% on them, just make sure you compare with your friends.

Now thinkwell quizzes I had major problems with... I only got 100% on the first one I ever took (14a) and the last one I ever took (14b). This is because thinkwell asks s*@t that Scerri has never gone over, so if you go purely off his lectures, you won't get that great of a grade, much less a 100% (which you should be getting, it's a freaking open-everything quiz, easy points). Despite this, I went through all of the quizzes thinking "god dammit Scerri, wtf is this?!." Then, I started wandering the thinkwell site, and I realized that the questions from those quizzes were DIRECTLY from thinkwell's online lectures and notes. So, what I suggest is: you open the quiz in another window and then on the regular thinkwell site go to the section under which that quiz is covering and just look for the question within the online lecture or the notes (lecture = notes, additional notes = something called a transcript or something, make sure you look for it) Bam, if you don't get an A, I suggest doing it again you always get 2 extra chances and only your highest counts.

Midterm - his one-midterm style, as opposed to other professors' 2-midterm style, is a relief or a bummer. Speaking from experience, if you f(#% on the midterm, you better be getting 100% on all of your homework AND you better make up huge on the final because you don't have a second midterm to balance it out. Or, you can do really well and be set.

Final - Both of his finals in 14A and 14B were 8 questions. Around 3 were based on topics covered before the midterm, and the rest on the most recent material. Each question has several parts to it. People are correct when they say you can get by, by just purely memorizing his course reader. Go to class and make sure you understand EVERY single word in the course reader because sometimes he'll just have a word there without explaining what it is in the course reader, but he'll say it in class and probably elaborate more and then put it on this midterm/final (I doubt any 14A people will forget this, and the TAs agreed with us, but he freaking put one whole question about the freaking periodic table... like wtf, seriously? @#$@!&@#%). So yeah, get a good grasp on the material, practice on all of his previous midterm/finals to get an idea on the kinds of way he'll ask a question. Sometimes he'll repeat patterns, his 14A final looked exactly like some questions from of previous midterm/finals. But don't bank on it.

Good luck yall crazy bruins.

Scerri is a good professor. His course reader is fantastic, you shouldn't even bother buying the textbook. His tests come straight from the course reader and yellow/pink book. He really encourages students to come to office hours. He told us to come even if we had no questions. I regret to say I never did because I could never get my lazy ass back to campus.

One thing you should know is this: if you volunteer for his experiments, he will make you come up and tell a joke. He thinks he is funny (and I think he is pretty amusing), but sometimes his jokes seemed to get a little out of hand. There was a girl in our class who liked having attention lavished on her, so she would always ask a lot of questions in class...most times, questions that were off topic. Scerri often made fun of her for that. So be warned: if you ask irrelevent questions, Scerri will not hesitate to mock you!

Memorize the course reader, and do all the problems assigned as well as thinkwell, etc. His midterm was easy and since the average was so high he decided to make the final extremely hard. Therefore a large percent of the class ended with a C even if their midterm was an A. He isn't really approachable, he comes off as anal and makes students feel dumb so if you feel intimidated talk to the TAs they know the material and are willing to help you out.

My favorite class at ucla so far. I worked very hard for this class and loved it at the same time. I had lavelle first then him and like scerri better. I got an A+ with Scerri and A - with La Velle even though the 14a material was significantly easier for me. A background in AP chem will prove successful. Focus on course reader.

I dont know why people are so extreme about scerri. either they love him or downright hate him. I dont have any personal feelings towards him--he makes fun of people (ok we all know he's lacking in the personality department), he's not as smart as he thinks he is, I think he knows that but still hopes no one notices. His nitpicking grading sux but tests are easy. basically he's a horrible teacher (at this point its a pretty objective statement) but if you dont mind expensive course readers, keeping your big mouth shut and swallowing your own ego instead of trying to compete with his, and you like to avoid very hard chemistry textbooks that require real work, then he's not so bad afterall. Just get through the quarter and get chem over with and try not to hold lingering feelings of hatred towards the guy. good luck.