It was her first quarter teaching this class when I took it. Many people have heard about the chaos of our first midterm (there weren't enough paper copies), but Shao ultimately tried her best to make sure it didn't negatively affect us. We were able to choose to retake the exam or disregard it and weigh our other exams heavier. The retake exam was more than fair; it was extremely similar to the original test. She also offered extra credit when most of us would miss an exam question. The people saying bad things about this professor are just mad about what happened in the first midterm, but that wasn't necessarily her fault and she did address it in the best way possible. I also think that Shao had very clear lectures and was very open to helping students. Homework and quizzes were fine and we were able to work together on them. Getting an A in this class is very doable but most people want to dwell on mistakes that happened rather than take the opportunities she gives students.

This was her first time teaching this class so, as you imagine, it was a mess. She started of the quarter by allowing the midterms and final to be open book, meaning we could use our iPads to look at our notes but the Wi-Fi had to be off. Well, obviously, there was some cheating later on in the course so she took that priviledge away and made us print out any notes we wanted to have out during the Final, which was totally absurd and expensive. She was a hot mess the entire quarter if you could not tell already. During the first midterm, she assigned us to different lectures and when the time came to take the exam the TA's tell us to share one exam packet for every group of 3 because she didn't make enough copies. It was a whole mess because she didn't want us looking over people's papers yet wanted us to share a packet. Everyone emailed the dean and department chair and she was told to re-administer the exam but she chose a day during class (50 minute time limit). She ended up assigning 8 questions all with (a-f questions) which was crazy so then everyone emailed the dean and department chair about it and she had to curve the exam immensely. Her lectures are very hard to follow so it doesn't help much. Her homework worksheets were alright. Her discussions were attendance tracked too.

This review is for Chem 14C: Structure of Organic Molecules, taken with Dr. Shao in Spring 2023.
Dr. Shao seems to be a kind and caring professor, and this was her first quarter teaching Chem 14C. Her lectures were incredibly unclear, fast, and disorganized. She would have slideshows that she would annotate on during lecture, where she mainly rushed through a wide variety of practice problems rather than explaining the concept with clarity. The lectures were unclear and fast; she often did not have time to field any questions because she wanted to rush through all the day's slides.
Outside of class, Professor Shao offered to help students in office hours and via email. Via email, Dr. Shao was quite blunt with her replies and not very helpful. Most of the learning done in this class was via Youtube videos and studying with friends. The lectures were unclear and Dr. Shao did not provide much clear help outside of class either.
As for the exams, they are open note, so there is no memorization needed in this class, which is a relief considering that organic chemistry is considered quite memorization heavy. There were 2 midterms and 1 final exam. The tests were written quite fairly; the two midterms were rushed in terms of time, but the final felt quite short and simple. Each exam had multiple choice questions, short answer questions, and then longer comprehensive problems. There was scope for ample partial credit. The first midterm was slightly curved up, but the second midterm and final were not curved.
Dr. Shao's grading scheme was incredibly friendly. The class average was an A-, which seems high for an organic chemistry class. She offered 3% Extra Credit in the form of surveys and feedback forms and then an additional 1% Extra Credit in the form of bonus questions on the final exam, which really boosted grades. Additionally, discussion section worksheets were worth 24% of the grade, and Canvas quizzes were worth 16% of the grade, most of which were free points.
Overall, for an organic chemistry class, Dr. Shao made it quite easy to get a good grade in this class. The exams were open book/note and there was a lot of extra credit offered. However, Dr. Shao was not a clear and helpful lecturer, and it felt like I did most of the understanding of the content of this class by myself via Youtube videos. All in all, easy A class but mainly all self-learning outside of lecture.