I took this class online spring quarter, so it was pretty easy considering everything was open-resource. I like that she did a lot of in-class examples of how to solve problems. One thing I did not like is how much harder the quizzes/tests were compared to practice material she gave us. The weekly practice problems would be pretty easy and then the quizzes and tests would be significantly more challenging. It was hard to adjust since we had never been exposed to anything that difficult. Overall, she was nice and tried her best.

I loved this class so much! I took this class in the online format, but it still ended up being a positive experience. The setup of the class is very minimalistic. So every week, you have a worksheet that you go over in discussion. If you pay attention, you should be able to get it done. If you did 5 of these worksheets over the whole quarter, you get full credit. Every couple weeks or so, we have a quiz. These quizzes are pretty simple, though they can sometimes be very definition heavy. The professor also gives you extra practice problems each week, which I felt were very helpful in supplementing the material. There is one midterm and one final, which ended up being optional for us. The midterm was honestly on the harder side, and I didn't end up taking the final.

The professor herself is pretty good. I admit, the lectures themselves can get a bit dry, and usually I don't understand much in them. I found her office hours and TA office hours to be more helpful. While she was a little condescending on people's questions early in the quarter, I saw a lot of improvement on her part. She was a really nice person, and listened to the class whenever we gave her suggestions. I would certainly take a class with her again

I was initially very concerned to take this class because the reviews were not that great. I don't get why professors have such low reviews. This professor is a gem and she genuinely cares about you and your learning. During the time of the pandemic, she was very understanding of our situation and offered a lot of help to help us succeed. She often asked students opinions on how to make the class better or how to accommodate us, which was very nice of her. In terms of workload, if you watch lectures and do the weekly worksheets and practice problems, then you will do absolutely fine on the quizzes and midterms. The midterms in the class were very fair, and the quizzed prepared you for those. The midterms took a while to complete, but they were not incredibly hard. If you watch/attend lectures then you will do fine in the class. She does offer extra credit, which helps a ton.

She is one of the first great professors I've had during my first year. Even though Ochem can seem daunting, she making learning and understanding the material easy. Definitely reccommend her, she is such a sweet person.

Ochem was amazing with Castillo. As a first year, she was my favorite professor who taught what turned into my favorite class so far. I’m not saying it’s easy, but after previously struggling through Chem 14A&B with Lavelle, I am eternally grateful for the way Castillo taught the class. She made ochem so simple for us, and it helped me absorb the material in such an effective and efficient manner to the point where it became very interesting for me, and I was able to work myself to an A without laboriously doing extra practice problems and studying like I had to do with gen chem. The lecture content and practice problems were of the same difficulty as the exams and quizzes, so you constantly had a good idea of where you were standing in the class. Yes, the remote learning conditions were challenging to deal with, but Castillo did her absolute best in accommodating for us, including making the final optional and keeping your current grade.
There were some rough patches in the class that need to be smoothed out for the future. The grading of the midterm was chaotic, and I imagine the final will be as well, and it was inevitably the result of vague questions and just straight up incorrect grading. I know the TA’s grade the majority of it, so it’s not completely her fault, but I had to put in several regrade requests for answers that were just like the answer key, but were marked wrong. I did get the points back, but the rate of these occurrences was too high since most students were dealing with similar problems as well. Also, although she’s a good lecturer, and to me better than Lavelle, she’s not perfect. She’s not the best at explaining concepts, and sometimes her explanations were just the definitions of terms. She can also be a little rude when responding to questions that she thought the answers to were obvious. Hopefully these issues are fixed in the future, and if she does she will have a great chance of placing herself among the upper echelon of UCLA professors.
Overall, despite the occasional hiccups, she’s a great professor and I would definitely recommend her to other students, and even take the class again. You could tell she genuinely cared about student learning, and she always sent emails to keep us updated and informed. I know she had to deal with a lot because of the whole remote learning situation, and honestly I thought some of the students were a bit too whiny and pesky by asking for more EC/generous grading. They needed to be spoonfed information when everything was on the class website or discussed in her emails, yet somehow she managed to keep her cool pretty much the entire time and still helped us out as much as possible. You have my full respect Castillo, and I hope I have another class with you in the future.

I was terrified of taking 14C with Prof Castillo after reading the reviews from Winter 2020. After entering the class, my worries about her disappeared. She is an extremely empathetic and caring professor who was accommodating with grading and the final- the final became optional and an A- was from 85-92%. She is obviously passionate about ochem and loves when students actively engage/participate in class. For the most part, she was clear and able to explain the concepts well enough for me to gain a decent understanding, but you can tell she lacks experience teaching. Despite her inexperience, she creates structured slides and presents a number of practice problems during lecture. Further, I was never rushed in this class at all. In fact, it was one of my lower stress classes this quarter. Prof Castillo was no a lazy teacher, making her own worksheets/additional practice worksheets/exams, on top of posting old exams and keys, so there's plenty of opportunities to practice. Attending discussion was extremely helpful to solidify understanding in my opinion. My TA (Dayanni) was amazing and really helped me understand concepts.

Also important to note: DO NOT BUY/RENT THE TEXTBOOK. I rented it (it was expensive) and practically never used it.

As for grading, the class was designed to have 4 grade components- 5 Quizzes (30%), 1 Midterm (20%), Discussion Worksheets (20%), and Final (30%). The class is graded on a straight 90-80-etc distribution with pluses and minuses, although this was adjusted at the end of the quarter.
Quizzes: usually around 4 questions. For the most part, you are able to complete these with little studying outside discussion, practice worksheets, and lecture. Although, I missed a number of points on a few vaguely worded questions. I was able to make most of those points up though extra credit.
Midterm: Given Week 6. Relatively straightforward, but some questions were confusing/tricky/vague. They took a long time to return and had massive amounts of regrade requests. I had to request a regrade to get points back. They didn't release the exact averages, but I believe it was in the 80s.
Discussion Worksheets: You only have to turn in 5 but I highly recommend doing all of them. They really relate to exams and quizzes. Easy to get full credit in this category.
Final: Did not have to take- opted out.
Extra Credit: There were three opportunities for extra credit, which were applied to quizzes and the midterm. They were extremely easy and quick to do, and ultimately pushed my grade from an A- to an A. Do them. They may seem small when they are worth one point, but in a category with limited points worth 20 or 30% of the grade, they do make an impact when the class ends.

Overall, I feel like I gained a decent baseline understanding of organic chemistry with very low levels of stress in this class. I recommend taking this class with Prof Castillo, as I anticipate her teaching will further improve with time, and I already found her teaching acceptable for this course. This class was far easier for me than 14A and 14B with Lavelle (so if you struggle with him- don't worry).

Reading these reviews from Winter Quarter, it's become super apparent to me that Dr. Castillo has learned SO much from her first quarter teaching and applied that to Spring Quarter because I had an amazing time in her class. She truly cares about each and every one of her students and that is reflected in the way she lectures, the accessibility of the materials offered, and the adjustments she is willing to make to ensure the class is straightforward and as fair as possible. Her weekly discussion worksheets and practice problems were excellent representations of what to expect on the exams, and her lecture slides were clear, thorough, and great sources to study and learn the material. And if her materials aren't enough, she links you to Khan Academy videos that are brief and super helpful! She made organic chemistry SO accessible and easy to learn for all of us to learn and I will miss her so much.

Professor Castillo is honestly a sweetheart and one of the few good professors I’ve encountered so far (I’m a first-year). She genuinely cares so much about our learning experience and she LISTENS to her students concerns without fail. I’m unsure why organic chemistry has such a bad reputation but this has been my favorite class so far, and it was online! Her grading is very easy and you don’t need to do much more than pay attention in lecture and do the practice problems to understand the concepts well. She doesn’t have clicker questions, but her slides often have practice questions throughout and I appreciate the opportunity to practice on the spot. Go into this class with an open mind and a willingness to look past what you’ve been told traditionally about organic chemistry. You really won’t regret it.

Well, if your reading this you are probably a South Campus major. As you know UCLA science classes are tough so adjust your expectations. Yes its not an easy A, but if you work for it an A is achievable. Castillo is the best professor I have had at UCLA yet. She clearly cares alot about her students. She is not a lazy professor. She makes all of her own tests, homework, slides, and quizzes. There is no disconnect between lecture material and exams. If you learn the material that Castillo emphasizes in class and discussion sections, you will do well. Students know exactly how to be successful in her class, there are no surprises. Lecture material is tough but it matches the difficulty of the exams. Which is something I can not say for my other professors. Would 100% take Castillo again and I am hoping she teaches 14D. Although I have not received my grade yet, it will likely be an A.

She was incredible and I learned so much! Prior to this course with Professor Castillo I felt like I was always behind in Chemistry and like I would never understand it, but within two weeks of this course I genuinely felt like I was capable of succeeding and taking more chemistry classes. I was worried about taking her class because the BruinWalk reviews were very negative, but she was amazing!! I'd especially recommend her to anyone who doesn't like busy work because she never assigns work just for the purpose of assigning things. Everything that is turned in is short (quizzes are never more than 5 problems and homework is brief) and to the point. For those of you who would rather spend time studying the material than spend hours just trying to get work done to submit, this professor is for you.