I came into this class thinking it was hard and hearing stories about how this is a weeder class and whatever. Imma be honest. It really isn't as hard as people say. The ones who say its extremely difficult are usually the ones that wait to learn everything before the midterm and final. That will not work in this class at all. Im going to share some of the tips I used while taking this class to hopefully help you guys get an A as well.

1. Attend every class. I had this class MWF 8am and it was hard af waking up but trust me it is so much better to get this 50 min class out of the way than to waste time and energy watching the audio podcast and going back and forth between the slides posted. And since its an audio podcast and not a bruincast video there are things that are important that he may write on the board that can help you later when you study.
2. A day before each lecture, the slides for the lecture are posted on ccle. I would always copy down the slides in my notebook before the lecture. It doesn't matter if you don't understand every thing you write since you haven't gone to that lecture yet. The purpose of this is that you will be able to follow along the lecture and actually have time to understand what he is saying. Pham lectures pretty fast and I always notice that when he talks a bunch of heads go down to copy and write down whatever he says. At least for me, it is difficult to write down stuff and understand what is going on while the professor talks fast. Spending 30 min the night before to write down the notes from the slides can help you solidify your understanding of material during class.
3. GO TO DISCUSSION! You can attend any discussion you want pretty much cuz they don't take attendance. I personally went to 2 discussions a week with 2 different TAs cuz it fit my schedule. That may be a bit excessive but definitely go to 1 a week for sure. My favorite TA was Sean. He always knew the material very well, answered every question, and always guided students through confusing topics.
4. For the midterms, start studying in advance. I usually started studying a week in advance. I would go an do practice from all the discussion worksheets and TA worksheets. OCHEM is all about practice. The more you practice it, the easier it becomes. Another reason why I started early to study is so that I could go to office hours if needed. I would have a separate sheet of paper listing out any questions I had referring to specific problems from the worksheets or concepts from lecture. Let's say the midterm was on a Friday. By starting to study a week before, I was able to get through the worksheets and my notes by Monday of the week of the test. This meant I could attend office hours on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday to ask any questions before the exam. If I started studying on Tuesday of the same week as the test, I would probably finish the reviewing by Thursday, which would give me no time to attend office hours to clarify any questions I had. If you keep up with the material every day then it won't be overwhelming when it comes to the midterms and final. Also don't be afraid to ask the LAs, TAs, or the professor any question. They are there to help you do well so take advantage of them as a resource!
5. Practice in test-like conditions. The hardest part of the two midterms is the time limit. They are both 50 minutes each which means you gotta know your shit. There are usually old practice exams that people from previous years have. Try to get your hands on them and take the them at home within 50 minutes to stimulate real testing conditions.
6. Ochem has some memorization don't get me wrong. But it is a lot easier to do well in this class if you spend time understanding the concepts instead of memorizing each reaction/mechanism as a separate thing. Like you can memorize each example he gives in class, but if he changes one small thing from the example and puts it on the test, you're going to have trouble. Take the time to understand the material conceptually, ask questions to fill any knowledge gaps, and you will be ahead of the curve.

That's pretty much all the tips I have. This is what worked for me. The most important thing I would say is to not come into the class with a negative mindset. As long as you put in the work and tailor your study methods to fit the class you will do great!

*Also pham offers a ton of extra credit(10 pts for tophat which are like clicker questions, 6 pts for the surveys throughout the year, and 10 points for the CRYOFF project at the end of the quarter)

You dumb fucks managing bruinwalk got the WRONG Hung Pham. Hung Ding Pham is a completely AND utterly useless. He teaches LS4, and his accent it terrible.

If you're looking for a review of Dr. Hung V. Pham, here it is. Dr. Pham is definitely a character. He always tells us that he isn't that smart himself, and that the only reason why he is better at ochem than we are is that he had 5+ more years to learn it than we did. This professor is a very humble and super approachable. I got destroyed in 30A, and I thought that I was just not good at ochem. I took 30B and 30C with Pham and got A's in both classes. [I worked pretty damn hard though] Dr. Pham intertwines methods of learning and life lessons into his ochem lectures, and it's pretty engaging. He won't give you any practice tests or anything, so if you want to get ahead of the curve, go print out his old exams. If everyone has his old exams though, it'll raise the average to a 70ish, I think. [Happened in his 30A class].

I don't really feel like saying much more, but I hope the stupid fuckers at bruinwalk fixes this professor.

Chem 14D is a difficult class but Professor Hung does a great job explaining every reaction thoroughly. His exams are difficult but as long as you pay attention to lecture and understand every concept, you should do well. Also, every TA creates their own discussion worksheet so you have lots of practice problems available for exams. The professor also gives out some extra credit on exams and in an extra credit project. Overall, this class is hard but it's definitely worth taking it with this professor.

I liked this professor. He was a good and engaging lecturer. His exams were very fair. The TAs were cool too. Definitely a doable class given the difficult rep that Organic Chem has. He also gives extra credit (like 8 points) if you do the polling question during each lecture. It definitely bumps your grade up a lot if you do them (but you have to get the questions right). He gives weekly problem sets which are graded kinda harshly, but you get a whole week to do them and you can collaborate on them. Exams are in the same format as the Problem Sets, and can either be harder, easier, or the same level as the Problem Sets, its kinda a gamble. But overall, they weren't too different. He gives suggested homework problems, which are good for concept but don't help a ton if you want the style of problems he gives on the exam. TA Worksheets are immensely helpful, people in my class would do them for other TAs too because the questions are more relevant to what you learn in the class. Overall, pretty good class.

Organic chemistry overall is already a pretty tough subject. I had an A in the course before the final and a C after.
I think it really depends on what type of learner you are if you want to succeed in this class. There are no study guides for tests along with no worksheets other than those made by the TAs and LAs which can be helpful (if you have Jessica as your TA). If you want any type of practice it's hard to decide what is actually worth doing for the class.
Be prepared for lowish averages! 60% for the first midterm and 71% for the second. He said he might scale the average to a B- or B depending on the class, I'm not sure how true that is and do not count on it to save you.
I had multiple difficult classes and since I was doing well in this course I let it fall through the cracks. It didn't help that with the way 30A is structured, the beginning at least to me was very simple but the final 1-2 weeks we started learning around 20 reactions and mechanisms. We were also a little behind so we were rushing through it all.
Pham is a very likable person outside of class. In class, however, he is a lot less pleasant and the same goes for office hours. I went to office hours one time because I was genuinely confused and every question I asked I was given the answer of "you should already know this" and "we already went over this." but isn't the point of office hours to go over things you don't understand just from what you got in the lecture or get help on what isn't clicking?
From reading his reviews I expected him to be the best professor ever but that was definitely not the case, I would avoid taking him if possible but you will be able to survive if he's your only option like he was for me.
The whole class is out of 440 points.
100pts for each midterm (there's 2)
200pts for the final
40pts for online BACON (online quizzes, super easy to get 100%)
He gives out 6pts total of extra credit in the form of post-midterm surveys and the professor review. There are also some extra credit points on the exams but not that many (probably 4pts on each).
Pham is a great and funny person but not the best professor, you can definitely make it through if you try. Good luck!

Dr. Pham is one of the most entertaining professors I've had at UCLA. Although this class is difficult and requires tons of memorization, it's doable because of all the resources he offers (do the TA worksheets- they're MUCH more similar to his exams than the suggested book problems). His tests are difficult, but they're also very fair (he never tested us on something he hadn't covered in lecture). Make sure to participate in all the extra credit opportunities!

Let me be completely honest with you. Before this class, I loved O'chem. I took professor Castillo for 14C and received an A+. I had high hopes for this class when it began, but my hopes were quickly dashed. This man should not be teaching lower division classes for several reasons and here they are.
1. His slides are way too basic to understand the more in depth concepts. He lectures on an elementary level and tests on an advanced level leaving students to figure out the rest.
2. He grades homework extremely harshly. I completed all homework assignments with a tutor and my average homework score was a 60%. And I failed some of these assignments even with a tutor that had TA the course in the passed. Homework should be an opportunity for students to learn not bee punished.
3. He gives almost no practice material or realistic examples. We were given a total of 5 practice worksheets (the problem sets) from the professor throughout the quarter. That is it. Professor Nag gives over 30.
4. He gives very little extra credit. The only extra credit is from correctly answered poll questions during live lectures.
5. The professor does not care about student success. He only cares about his precious grade distribution. The sentence "I do not give review sessions before exams as it inflates the grades. Professor lead review sessions just unnecessarily raise the grade distribution." He acts as if giving a review session is above his pay grade. In my opinion, a good professor wants his students to do well, so he prepares them appropriately.

Finally, take professor Nag if you can. He gives 15%+ or more of extra credit and he lowers the grade scale significantly. You need to get a 30% to pass Nags class. In Pham's class, I averaged a 65% on my exams and I received a B-. My roommate who took professor Nag averaged a 63% on her exams and She received a flat A. TAKE NAG!!!

This class was...interesting. Pham is an amazing lecturer, likely one of the best that I've had in my time here at UCLA. However, with that being said, he is incredibly condescendign and expects you to just know stuff without studying. I recommend that you don't ask any questions in a lecture setting, as he can humiliate you for asking it. However, apart from that everything in this class is fair. The problem sets are hard, but I recommend working on them with some friends in the class, and definitely going to office hours if you need help. The midterms and final are very reflective of these problem sets, and also require some higher order thinking.

My advice for this class is to practice practice practice. This class is unique in the sense that the TAs tend to design their own worksheets. DO AS MANY OF THESE AS YOU CAN during Week 1, and based on which TA has the best worksheet, switch into their section. For instance, there was a TA in the quarter that I took it named Tony Moreno, and he was the absolute best. I wish I switched into his discussion :-). Anyways, from then, try to do the discussion worksheets every week, and use them as a study resource for the exams. Problem sets are due on the even weeks, and released on odd weeks. Before each problem set was due, I would meet with my study group and we would compare answers and talk through the problems. 10/10 recommend this approach. Also, the class goes pretty slow the first few weeks, in that you learn like 4 reactions for the first midterm. However, this number increases a crazy amount for the other exams. To keep up with the material, I recommend making a "cheat sheet" with the gist of each reaction, and making sure you understand when to use which mechanism. I definitely think this is one of the hardest classes I've taken at UCLA, but with the proper time management and practice, you can definitely do well!

OVERALL: This class was definitely tougher than Chem 14C, so it's important to stay on top of the content covered. Professor Pham's exams were challenging but fair, I would recommend keeping a list of all the reactions he goes over separate from the lecture notes so you can easily refer to them as you solve problem sets and study. I did this, and an LA uploaded her own list of reactions (shout-out to Hedi!), which was super helpful for exams.

PARTICIPATION POINTS/EXTRA CREDIT: To be honest, I was a little intimidated by Professor Pham so I didn't really attend office hours (I was afraid I would ask a stupid question), but he was a pretty fun and engaging lecturer. Each of his exams had a unique "extra credit" opportunity on them (I would recommend checking the box if there's ever any question about it), and he also provides extra credit in the form of a Chem 14D themed group project. Since I took the class online, each poll question answered also counted as extra credit for a maximum of 8 points. (There was no required attendance). The class also has online modules called "BACON" (easy points, just screenshot all of the slides to answer the questions) that are due each week.

PROBLEM SETS: The problem sets are good preparation for exams, so definitely make sure to solve them on your own instead of relying on outside help. I would recommend checking the answers over with a trusted friend after both of you have completed the problem set because some of it is graded on correctness.

EXAM TIPS: Synthesis problems are what most students have trouble with, so in preparation for midterms/final, do as much of them as you can! There are a lot of great synthesis problems online and they also help you further hone in on the reactions that are being tested. For exams, I would also recommend doing the TA worksheets of the TAs that are most popular in the class/have the best review.

DISCUSSIONS: Discussions are mandatory for participation points, although you don't have to submit your discussion worksheet. If you see Tony Moreno as a potential TA, definitely try switching into his section! I wasn't in his discussion, but attended some of his discussions because he has good slides and great worksheets.

Dr. Pham's tests are hard, but you are more likely to succeed if you stay relatively up to date with the material. Just don't fall behind! This class is pretty quick, but the reactions get pretty similar. Understand the patterns to make your studying easier! Dr. Pham is awesome, and his TAs are also great. He makes himself available to students, and he is very funny. He has quite the backstory, too. Attend his office hours to unlock the secret backstory DLC and to get life advice. Lastly, the time you get for discussion doesn't really matter. He said he would institute mandatory attendance at enrolled discussions if students crowded up specific sessions, but that never happened. I can confidently say that thanks to Dr. Pham, organic chemistry has been my favorite subject in college thus far. 14C and 14D were truly a blast. Take Dr. Pham!