Selling 7th edition Principles of Modern Chemistry (Oxtoby/Gillis/Campion) for $80
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Selling Chem 20 series Oxtoby textbook for $100. No code included. Text me for more info **********.

Chem 20A is a challenging class. IF you know your high school chemistry (and remember it), though, you should do well enough. It's mostly an expansion of the concepts in high school chem, with advanced mathy stuff.

Speaking of this mathy stuff, Felker spends a lot of time going over the mathematical backgrounds to chemistry, especially in reference to quantum mechanics. A lot of it is highly complicated, and it seems he wants to establish it so you can learn where these concepts come from rather than just to memorize them. From a curious scientific point of view, that is beautiful. You absolutely NEED the mathematics to prove anything in science. It made a lot more of an impact to me when I considered the extensive research leading to the discovery of quantum mechanics. From a GPA-watching-student's point of view, I kind of wish we spent more time reviewing concepts that would be on the tests. The tests, by the way, are hard, but manageable. Felker, during office hours, said that a midterm was harder than he expected when he took it himself. What can you expect from a chemistry midterm? But hey, to each their own.

Lecture attendance seemed to go down to 1/3 by the end of the quarter. Since you can learn most of what he teaches by reading, you probably don't even to attend lecture. I attended all of them, but if you have the self-studying personality, then you could just read it all on your own.

Pro tip: the homework has an unlimited number of tries, not six.

Pro tip 2: Felker is much more helpful in office hours. With a lower number of students, he can really explain a topic, and he seems more relaxed in general.

P.S. I don't know what or whom he is looking at in lecture every day, though. He rarely seems to make eye contact!

AVOID HIM. Unless you're a natural chemistry genius, his courses are hard. I had him for 20 A & B and somehow managed C's in both. The idea of open book exams is enticing, but you only use the book to look up values for equations that he's too lazy to include in his questions. His lectures are pointless. He only explains the conceptual ideas behind the problems, not how to actually do the problems. He often would be in the middle of a lecture and say "where was I going with this?" or "you don't need to know that" and just move onto something entirely different. I don't feel like I learned much of anything after two quarters with him.

There is a substantial amount of OWL homework for this class but I think its helpful in learning the material. The midterms were super easy(I got 95% on both.) But DON'T GET COMPLACENT because the final was the most difficult test I've ever taken in my entire life and I had Chayes for math 32A...

His voice will lull you to sleep. He graduated from CalTech and the sign on his door says "Physical Chemistry" so he likes quantum mechanics. A lot. I find the material fascinating but his lectures are very conceptual while his exams are very mathematical. You have 2 hours to do 4 free response questions on the midterm. Open book for all three exams. 1 page of notes for the MT and 3 for the final. Each question requires you to be familiar with multiple different equations. Go to your discussions. The TA's will help you connect the concept from lecture to the equations in the book. The exams are hard but it's like that for everyone so the curve is very generous. I love it when he makes jokes but those come every 2 weeks. Oddly enough, he always seems to be staring right over the students' heads.

As a biochemistry major, I can safely say that 20A is indeed a "weeder class" for the Physical Sciences. The material is as difficult as it gets and the tests are challenging. AP Chem students beware, 20A is mostly focused on quantum mechanics and structure, so all those equilibrium problems and thermochem concepts are not covered.

Felker himself is quite a knowledgeable professor. He's a spectroscopist and does a load of complicated research. However, he isn't the best lecturer. He briefly goes over chapters 1 and 2 (moles, mass percentages, stoichiometry, etc.) and puts great emphasis on chapters 3 to 6 (bonding and quantum mech.) He's generally easy to follow and explains CONCEPTS very well. The real tick about his lectures are that they cover nothing about how to solve the possible problems you encounter during the tests, and I mean NOTHING.

All the methods and and techniques you must learn on your own. There was mandatory online HW (which is 20% of your grade) but it is nowhere near the same difficulty as the tests. (Pro tip: DO THE STARRED PROBLEMS IN YOUR TEXTBOOK. DO NOT COUNT ON THE ONLINE HOMEWORK AS PRACTICE)

The TA's are... okay... My TA wasn't as helpful as I wanted him to be. I did find, however, that emailing the TA's helped a bit. Discussions aren't mandatory. The TA's did do a great thing for out class: set up a Facebook page for homework help and chem help. It certainly helped us and got many announcements through very quickly.

Just remember... Nobody will teach you techniques and formulas in this class. Learn them on your own. As for the lectures, you don't really need them for the tests, but if you want to understand the material from a conceptual stand point, it'll do you great justice to attend lectures and follow along with your textbook (His tests are open book, so take notes in your book.)

Study well!

THE CLASS/COURSE ITSELF: As a physics major, much of the material was irrelevant to my major preparation except for the quantum mechanics portion of the class. This is a great course for prospective chemistry majors but beware, this isn't for the faint of heart.

THE PROFESSOR: Felker is an individual who boasts great stature, and as a graduate of CalTech you wouldn't expect any less from him. He teaches chemistry from the foundation and teaches more complex concepts afterwards. If you want to do well, do the reading and attend his lectures and after each lecture try to synthesize the material from the book and his lecture. This is a great way in understanding the material. Felker mostly uses mathematical approaches when he expounds chemical concepts.

THE EXAMS: Here's the jist of how the exams are. 1st Midterm is easy-very easy. The level of difficulty of the questions are simple and straightforward. 2nd Midterm, this one is another step up in the difficulty range. It was overall fair/intermediate in difficulty. And the final was insanely hard. If you want to score really well on these exams there are a few things I STRONGLY advise doing.
-Review past exams because the language is the same and you'll need to get comfortable with the test format.
-Do the End of Chapter questions of each chapter. Every single one of them.
-Go to both T.A. and Felker's office hours with questions in hand!

The Summary:
Overall Felker is your average professor who is doomed with teaching a difficult topic. Often, students will blame him for a lack of student concern and relentless lectures but it is ultimately up to the student to live up to those expectations. A strong background in AP Chemistry and Physics will help you understand the material better but is definitely not an excuse for not studying. In any case, I would advise taking Felker as a last resort if you're a freshman taking his class because the material is overwhelming.

selling 6th edition hardcover with solutions manual for $30. some highlights in the book but overall book is in good condition. solutions manual by itself is $10 text me at ********** or email at *************

I took this class winter 2010, he is not hard compared to the other teachers who teach this class. If you want hard take Baugh, Baugh skips the first 3 chapters and nothing that comes out of his mouth makes sense! Felker starts from chapter 1 and explains everything very slowly and it all makes sense. He takes his midterm questions right out of the book, in fact he does open book midterms and finals. He's the easiest chem teacher at ucla, I think. I think the midterm questions were literally straight out of the book, they were the questions with the * on them, you basically write your answer in the book and then copy it down on the midterm. If you don't pass his class, you def should not be a south campus major because he's as easy as it gets!