This class is difficult, BUT Dr. Pham is easily one of the best professors I have ever had, and I am sure that will be the case throughout my entire college experience. If you approach the class in a way where you just do the minimum, maybe just showing up to lecture and doing BACON homework, then you will get the minimum benefit from the class. Obviously, sometimes that is how you have to approach the class, but if you have the chance to get to know this amazing professor, not only will your grade improve but you will be able to see just how dedicated and how seriously he wants his students to understand the concepts. He will have full on conversations about a topic that will go out of the scope of the class which is GREAT because with the way this series is structured and with how complex ochem is, knowing more will only help you in every way. Pham knows just about every answer to any question you may have and the best part of his explanations is that it isn't a high school answer where you just have to take the answer as it is because the teacher said it's true. He will give you the why and then everything about your knowledge of anything will just click. I don't know how he does it but that was my experience. If you are only focused on getting a good grade in a class, maybe you can do it on your own or in a study group, but if you actually want to just know more about chemistry or Pham's life because he has cool stories, then I would make an effort to go to office hours or the one-on-one sessions. Do what you can to get him as your teacher because UCLA students couldn't be luckier to have Pham grace us with his presence in a rigorous and intense 14 series, pre-med environment.

Hung V Pham is such an amazing professor, I would really recommend him. He teaches Chemistry in a way people can actually understand and relate to real life.

Dr. Hung V. Pham (NOT Hung Ding Pham) is quite the eloquent and engaging professor. He teaches OChem in a way that emphasizes understanding the patterns in the reactions and trends, not memorizing each reaction and property as a discrete item.

First off, I'd like to say I rated "Workload" as 2, but if you don't want to do well, that "Workload" can be 5, easily. If I wanted to feel super confident on the exams, I probably would have done 1 on the "Workload." In short, OChem is not easy. Not. Easy. Why did I rate the "Easiness" as 1? Pham says people say 30A is the hardest class they have ever taken, and that's because it is on a higher level of thinking. It's not as discrete as Math 31A/B and is as continuous as Chem 20 is disjointed. When you learn stereochemistry in Week 3, you will keep referring to it up through Week 10. It never. Goes. Away. Never.

But OChem is logical. After a lot of studying. Keep re-running the mechanisms for everything, and eventually, the answers to your problems will come more quickly and reliably.

Lectures? Bruincasted. Engaging? Quite. Fast-paced? Yes. I used Bruincast a bit.

I fell behind a bit in the beginning of this course. Being my first quarter in college, 30A really showed me that my study habits were not adequately developed. So I say this: don't. Fall. Behind. Practice, practice, practice. I foolishly failed to work out the worksheets from discussion, and neglected to practice the book problems. The only thing that saved me was my study group sessions (which revealed gaps in my understanding lol). Do the worksheets and practice problems, and you should excel in 30A (and hence 30B/C).

The midterms are super-fast paced, but the final has twice the content with three times the time, so don't worry too much about the final. I got 76, 74, and 86 on the midterms and final, and ended up with an A- in the class. Pham gives extra credit. On midterm 1, he asked about the little guy that appears at the top of every lecture. On midterm 2, he asked about a fun Friday activity he did. On the final, he asked you to draw four shirts he wore and to give feedback on the course.

Pham is honestly my favorite professor. I used to hate ochem but he made my confidence in the subject grow astronomically. His tests are fair and do not test you on any information he did not cover in class. Also, he explains concepts clearly and concisely. He is really humble and funny in lectures and has a good outlook on life. He would often send us encouraging emails before tests and give us lessons about metacognition and confidence on exams that changed my outlook on exams a lot. Also, because we had to take finals at home this quarter, he made the (optional) final a lot easier which I appreciated. I really recommend him!

Professor Pham is by far the most amazing professor I've had at UCLA. He's so funny, which makes lectures a lot more enjoyable, but he's also very knowledgeable about the material. He really wants students to understand the theories behind different concepts and cares deeply about student learning in general.
I would definitely recommend doing practice problems almost every night/keeping up with the material in general. Ochem builds on itself, so it's really important to constantly review. I took this course 2 times, and the first time I actually dropped the class week 9 because I hadn't been keeping up with material and didn't understand a lot of concepts on the test. But when I took it during the summer, I did practice probs every night and made sure to review lectures, and ended up doing very well.
Overall, I highly recommend Pham. I think he'll make your Ochem experience better despite its reputation.

Professor Pham is one of those rare professors that makes you excited to come to class. Coming from a bad 20A Professor, Pham completely changed my mindset regarding chemistry. In terms of his tests, if you do the discussion worksheets and some of the book problems, you’ll be fine. The average was around a 60 percent on the midterms, but the course is scaled so you can get around a 50 percent and still pass the class. He is very generous with extra credit, and he grades tests within 1-2 days. Definitely take him