Just took a test. The numbers say it all.

Dr. Castillo is a nice person and genuinely cares about her students, but as far as the class and content goes, I did not get much out of the course. Her lectures were disorganized and difficult to follow, students were left with little resources/problems to practice, and communication between professor/student was off. Although I did well in the class, I feel like I did not really learn as much as I wanted to and was upset at how the lectures, class, and exams were structured. I would not recommend this professor.

Terrible lectureer

I'm a freak who loves OChem, and one of the reasons for that is Dr. Castillo. She's so sweet and fun and honestly just wants us to like OChem as much as she does. If you put in the work, this class should be no big deal because everything was open-note. I would recommend studying using the practice problems and discussion worksheets. Avoid the textbook unless you want to do tedious problems. Also, talk to your LAs because they're so helpful. Dr. Castillo would sometimes contradict herself :(

I took 14C in the fall with Prof. Castillo and she was great! She seemed like she really cared about our learning and was very flexible with all the assignments and quizzes. She gave a lot of practice material and old tests for us to review.

She was often pretty funny and was always patient with us. Her tests were pretty straight forward— they were a little difficult, but nothing that we didn't cover in class. She took our feedback very well and modified things accordingly given the weird format of this quarter. I really enjoyed this class and I felt like I knew what was going on (which I can't say about most chem classes I have taken). The class had six quizzes, a midterm, and a final. The quizzes were not too bad and honestly I was happy we had them because they basically acted as a buffer in case the exams did not go well. The quizzes totaled to 120 points while the final was 140 points—so they definitely add up.

Anyways, I would highly recommend Castillo for 14C! She is super kind and a good teacher, and does not try to trick you.

Although Dr. Castillo was very accommodating during Spring 2020 since everything was online, she is NOT a good lecturer. She doesn't go into depth about details and her quiz and test questions are often not a good way to measure our knowledge. Although she was very nice spring quarter, and she was lenient with her grading scale, she is not a good teacher and I don't think she should be teaching such a critical class like 14C.

Avoid taking 14C with Castillo. She’s the most unorganized Chemistry professor I’ve had so far at UCLA. Those who have had Lavelle before know that he’s incredibly organized. Castillo is nothing like that. She outright refuses the regrade requests. The midterm grading was a mess. She didn’t want to hear students who were graded unfairly. After this, she never put our final grading on gradescope so we would not be able to ask for a regrade. She stopped posting practice questions after week 5. She basically gave up on the class after the midterm. The class does not require attendance, the tests were not terribly difficult but you can still end up with a bad grade bc she does not do partial credit. If you don’t want a professor who does not respond to emails, and is incredibly unorganized with grading I would recommend avoiding her.

I came into 14C quite scared because of the reputation organic chemistry has but I was pleasantly surprised to see how the class was set up and the number of resources she gave her students. Professor Castillo has quizzes set up almost weekly which forced you to study each topic and in turn prepare you for her exams. Her midterm was straightforward and as long as you use her practice problems you will be more than prepared. I felt like she made complex topics completely understandable and simple and the main thing I appreciated about her was the transparency of all of her exams because she was genuinely never out to get students. Her lectures and her slides were always helpful and provided the majority of the information you would need and I also found her office hours to be extremely beneficial. I would overall take this class again with her and I wish she could teach 14D.

I thoroughly enjoyed this class; chemistry is not my strong suit, but a dummy like me understood the material thanks to Professor Castillo. The discussions were very collaborative on worksheets and allowed you to grasp the material better. The midterm and final were fair, although I lost some points due to poor time management and the fact that they were pretty long considering the amount of time allocated. There are some topics, like stereochemistry, that are rough, so really work on practice problems and watch Khan Academy videos (she only goes over simple problems in class).

I really liked this class. I've found her tests to be moderate in difficulty, but if you pay attention in class and come to office hours then you'll do fine. Professor Castillo is super nice to her students and isn't stingy about grades at all. I also liked how open-minded and accommodating she was, she is always open to ideas that will make the lives of her students easier/less stressful. The only negative thing I found was that her explanations can sometimes be unclear, but the TA's can help you in those situations. Overall, great class.