I had Prof. Pham for all three ochem courses (30A, 30B, 30C) and he is honestly the best Professor to have. Ochem seems very daunting, but Pham really broke it down clearly and in a way that's easy to digest. He was very understanding of his students and showed clear effort to ensure that his students were doing well during quarantine and the sudden shift to an online quarter.

With the online quarter for Spring 2020, we had 2 midterms (24 hours, gradescope), a final (ended up being optional no-harm), as well as problem set worksheets (newly implemented due to online learning, he didn't have these in 30A or 30B) that were graded on accuracy (they weren't too bad).

Overall, highly recommend him as a professor!

Professor Pham is an EXCELLENT teacher and explains concepts very well. He has also been excellent in making accommodations during the pandemic. I was so scared of taking organic chemistry based on what I’ve heard, but if you’re taking the class with him and review at least a little bit every night to make sure you stay up to date with concepts (the class builds on itself) you should be fine! I’d highly recommend studying for this class using his slides, but also Leah4Sci, the Organic Chemistry Tutor, and Professor Dave Explains on youtube. I also really liked the book “organic chemistry as a second language”, it helped a lot! Overall I wouldn’t worry about this class if you take it with him and make sure to attend lecture as it is worth extra credit.

I took the 3 week version of this class so it was very fast-paced. As the other reviews, Pham is a super engaging lecturer that explains concepts really well, they were all bruincasted (This class was fully online) so I found it extremely helpful to rewatch lectures at about 1.5x-2x speed. Youtube resources like Professor Dave and Leah4sci really helped as well. Overall, the tests are difficult and long but they are also fair. If you keep up with lecture and do the discussion/LA worksheets you should be good!

Oh boy, I am a classic student who really struggled with organic chemistry and this was my third time taking it after panic dropping it twice, but I'm glad to be done with it. Dr. Pham is very knowledgeable and approachable, and he did a fun AMA at the end of the quarter which made him appear more human.
Here is the course breakdown, which is very different for COVID times:

Problem Sets (x 5) 100 ~30% (open notes, 1 per 2 weeks)
TaH Exams (x 3) 150 ~45% (open notes, one was a final)
Discussion Participation 40 ~12%
BACON Tutorials 40 ~12%
Total 330 100%

Before I dropped this class, I took it with Dr. Pham in Winter 2020 and felt that the difficulty was similar, although the tests were more difficult without open notes. I also took it with Dr. Nag in Spring 2020 and felt that his class was way harder, probably because he published 24-hour take home exams that were open-note but very difficult.

This time, I actually committed to taking Chem 14D and I think I did okay. The material is hard, but not too reliant on Chem 14C. I had a poor professor for 14C, but you really only need to be aware of conformations (mostly chair conformation) and the idea of resonance and aromaticity and also the different functional groups.

I liked the exams had less weight, which alleviated a lot of my stress, although I still found them difficult. The average for the first exam was in the 70s and the average for the second exam was about 80, I believe.

Dr. Pham's grading scheme is also very kind, with the following criteria:
A+ (no EC) ≥ 99.0% 99.0% > A ≥ 94.0% 94.0% > A- ≥ 88.0%
88.0% > B+ ≥ 84.0% 84.0% > B ≥ 79.0% 79.0% > B- ≥ 75.0%
75.0% > C+ ≥ 69.0% 69.0% > C ≥ 62.0% 62.0% > C- ≥ 54.0%
54.0% > D+ ≥ 47.0% 47.0% > D ≥ 39.0% 39.0% > D- ≥ 30.0%

Also, he gives up to 8 extra credit points for clicker questions (0.5 pt/answer) and at the end of the quarter, he had students be able to make ochem-related media for up to another 8 points.

I would recommend taking this class with Dr. Pham, although be aware that ochem is challenging and while taking it online has its pros with open-note tests, ochem will continue to be tough if you have outside-of-school responsibilities that are taking up time in your life.

Aight Pham is a good instructor but I have to say he is overhyped. I don't mean this as an insult, I'm just telling you to not come into it thinking Pham is the best 14D professor in the world because you might lower your guard and take it for an easy class. If you can I'd recommend taking 14D with Nag because he does in fact take it easier on students.
Now that that's out of the way, Pham's class has its benefits: his class is super well-structured and organized (and grading was absurdly fast, it only took them 2-3 days after each problem set or exam to release grades) and the only thing you have to turn in besides the BACON quizzes (which are easy) are the problem sets. These things make the course mostly stress free because they make the content very straightforward & let you focus on studying. I've had to take very disorganized courses before, so taking this course was honestly such a breath of fresh air.
My warnings to future students: Pham's exam times (this quarter it was two midterms + one final that was shorter, but a bit trickier, than a midterm) are back to their limited "in-person" windows because of someone in the Chem 30 series that posted his exam on Chegg in Winter Quarter. This means 2 hours for midterms and 3 hours for the final with zero flexibility even for people in other time zones, so I had to take some exams very late at night. Also, don't bother with the textbook problems, they might be good to solidify some basic concepts but they're zero practice for exams; focus on the TA worksheets (all TAs' worksheets are available to all students on CCLE). Make sure to ALWAYS be caught up on material because topics builds on top of the other like nothing else and also because his in-class polls (which are questions on the previous lecture's content) give extra credit.

I disrespect him. He did not accommodate any of his students who underwent some difficult times. He lives by his syllabus. He does not care if you are out of state or country (you will be required to take the tests during PST) or if there is a medical emergency. YOU WILL BE TAKING HIS TEST NO MATTER THE CIRCUMSTANCE. and they are painfully brutal.
He is great at teaching, don't get me wrong, but the lack of compassion someone can have during this really weird/difficult time really deters students from enjoying this course.
good luck

Please take this class with Pham. It's really, really hard, but he offers an extra credit project (which is what I have to thank for this A- haha) and he's super understanding when it comes to things. Stay on top of your shit in this class and you'll be okay. The tests are pretty hard though.

the class was BRUTAL. I'm sure Pham is a great professor and is excellent at explaining things, but ochem just did not stick in my brain. And I *was* a chem major. It was easy to fall behind in the beginning and I just couldn't pick myself up and ended up not understanding anything in the second half of the quarter. I don't really have much advice but Pham is good!

Also, my TA/LA forced us to participate in the discussion by putting us on the spot, so if you get a TA/LA that does that, I'm so so so sorry. It was the worst being called on and not being able to say anything.

Seems like I'm stuck in the 30 series so wish me luck in 30B even though I learned nothing in this class lol.

Ochem is tough, and imo Pham made it more simple. I used to do good in the 20 series, and the reason why I did rather bad in this class is because I didn't study for this class strategically. His papers are mostly related to reactions, so remembering reagents and processes helps a lot. He gives out extra credit in midterms and finals, as well as in surveys. He does accept people asking him questions during office hours and after lectures, and TA sessions help a lot. I wouldn't say that Pham made ochem easier, but at least he made the learning process easier and more entertaining.

it was hell