Overall, this class is okay.
If you could take this class with another professor, I 100% recommend doing so.
HOWEVER, if you really can't fit in 14C in another quarter with other professor, DO NOT PANIC, here's why:
1. Her exams and quizzes are not difficult. She gives out past quizzes and midterms all with keys. There are also a lot of optional practice problem worksheet that can help you with the material. Practice problems are especially helpful for orgo.
2. In terms of not understanding new concepts: this is a introductory organic chemistry course, meaning that you can find most of the concepts on YouTube. Personally, the concepts that I did not understand from her teaching were available on YouTube. I had no trouble understanding all of the material (with the help of youtube). Also, TAs and LAs are extremely helpful. Plus, Professor Castillo is good at explaining most of the concepts. There were just a few that wasn't clear.
Like everyone else has mentioned, Professor Rodriguez really cares about her students and really tries to help her students the best she can. During lectures, she is always excited and passionate about the materials that she is teaching, which I enjoyed.
However, She is just simply not good at teaching, to the point that makes me wonder why she is the professor at a college like UCLA. She's not good at teaching in terms of explaining new concepts. For some concepts like aromaticity, she explains them very well. For some others like NMR spectroscopy, she sometimes just try to explain a concept by repeating the name of the concept. She does have an accent, which should not be a big problem, but in general if you are not good at working with professors with accents (like me with her and Dr. Lavelle), I would not recommend taking the class with her.
I am not sure if the teaching problem will resolve as she teaches more classes.

In summary, if it's possible to take it with another professor, please do so. However, if you really do need to take it, trust me, with a little bit of extra effort, you will survive. And, I don't thin ur grades will suffer. TBH, if you are taking this class because you need to apply to med school, you might actually learn more and remember better for mcat because of all the extra studying efforts. So do not panic.

Good luck.

she's overall a good professor who cares about our learning, not as terrible as everyone says. they just think their entitled to so many things -- longer quiz times, more extra credit, online quizzes, etc. they email her for every little thing and don't email her with respect i know they would never ask for these things from other professors like lavelle or scerri

Castillo is very nice and really cares about student learning. Sometimes she can come off as condescending, but she is really invested in learning. It was her first quarter teaching so people need to cut her some slack. She isn't as bad as everyone says. She is a decent lecturer but has some communication issues. Also, her slides are really good. She is a good person, a decent teacher, and had a generous grading scale. I honestly would take another class with her.

This was Castillo's first time teaching so it was understandable that their were a lot of bumps in the road. In lectures, she went over slides and examples but did not require clickers so attendance wasn't taken. She held in class quizzes (about 5) that were during the first 10 minutes of class. Overall, it was a good class and she made herself readily available to help students in office hours and through emails. She wasn't always super clear about the material she was teaching and what made it worse was that the textbook included examples that were 10x the difficulty as the actual material we were learning in class so it was hard to look to the textbook for help and understanding. The TA's did a good job at filling in the cracks otherwise.

AWFUL LECTURER!

Professor Castillo is nice and doesn't seem like she wants to give students a hard time, but isn't really clear in her lectures, and also struggles to control the class sometimes so time gets wasted waiting for people to quiet down. That isn't necessarily in her control, and I think it's her first quarter teaching so that might change in the future. But the way she sometimes doesn't fully answer students questions in class is unhelpful, and causes people to talk more.

She was pretty vague in saying what would be on the midterms, and uploaded some practice problems for them but said she wouldn't upload the answers. Some material was on the midterm that she said wouldn't be emphasized, and during the review session she would not answer questions as to what specific material would be on the midterm.

The grades for the class are based on 2 midterms, 5 quizzes, discussion section attendance (you only have to go to 5/10 discussion sections for full credit) and the final.

This was by far the most horrendous professor I have ever had the displeasure of taking a class with. I hope she never gets the opportunity to teach this class again. I had to self teach this class using the organic chemistry tutor on youtube. She is not understandable at all and truly a horrible lecturer. IF YOU CAN AVOID THIS PROFESSOR DO IT. She seriously needs to TAKE chem 14C before she ever attempts to teach it again. I hope I never have to try and learn a single thing from this terrible terrible professor for the rest of my college career.

Her class is not understandable. ......Too much tests and they are all hard.
Don't take this class!!

As people have already said, Prof. Castillo seems like she really WANTS to sympathize and make this course as simple as possible, but unfortunately she's just not a very good lecturer.

I think the worst thing was the way she answered questions + communicated with students in class. It seemed like every question was either a joke or a waste of her time, and the majority of questions were met with thinly veiled passive aggressiveness and eye-rolls. Say what you will about her, she's very skilled in making you feel stupid in front of 250 people.

Never have I ever before closed my eyes and covered my ears in a lecture without the intention of napping.