He is one of the best professors i've had at ucla end makes everything available to his students. If you study, know the thinkbook, and do his practice/past exams you will be ok.

I agree with all the past posts about this professor being very well prepared and giving you lots of problems to do ahead of time. He almost always teaches the 14 series organic chem classes, but during the past quarter (Winter 2010) he taught 30B for some reason. It was his first time teaching 30B in 6 years and he definitely did not adapt. Other than the first midterm, which was quite similar to his 14 series tests, the final and second midterm covered different and harder stuff causing the averages to be lower than those which are usually obtained on his 14 series exams. You would think that in a curved class it wouldn't matter, but unfortunately Hardinger doesn't like to change his system much so he kept the grading scale which he uses for the 14 series (one that goes by grade and not by standard deviation or rank in class). Because the averages were lower than what he was used to, a person who obtained the average grade in the class received a low C+ which is ridiculous as most professors set the average at a middle of high B-.

Point is.. don't take Hardinger for 30 series classes.

What the people wrote is not all true. He does not curve the class for his favorites. Ask him the scale and he will show you where you are relative to the class, and memorizing is also not needed. Unlike the other students wrote, memorizing is not the best way to succeed in the class. Practice! He gives so many problems, you should be familiar with his style by the time the test comes around. I did not memorize anything, but just went over concepts and understood how the IR, NMR, and MS work. Also know the concepts behind the reactions. By the way, I got an A ann all tests including final.

Keep up with all the web supplementals he posts on the web! And PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE as many problems as you can! Chem 30B this qtr was re-organized, so there was a greater emphasis on spectroscopy which wasn't fun. But Hardinger lets you know what he expects from you and doesn't pull "a fast one" on you on his exams.

I was really excited to take Dr. H because everyone has so many good things to say about him. I can confirm that he is the great lecturer everyone says he is, but be prepared to do work. His tests are pretty extensive, and if you haven't digested the concepts, then you'll lose a lot of points on his exams. He also grades on a straight scale although I think that he might curve it for his favorite students, so go to his office hours just in case. He isn't really that friendly outside of class if you try to talk to him, in fact, he's really cold. He does a good job of outlining what you need to do in order to be sucessful in his class, but if you do everything he says to do, you'll probably not do as well in your other classes. Overall I thought he was a decent professor, but definitely not the best all-around. He could really work on talking to his students.

Keep up!!! Hardinger is a really effective professor and not too difficult, but you really need to keep up because 30B is a tough course if you don't start learning your mechanisms right away knowing them.

Dr.H is a good prof in the sense that he will test you on exactly what his CFQ&PP (his reader) consists of. Unfortunately, I was a victim of the quarter system (I'm a 3rd year transfer) in that I did not do well at the beginning of the course which cost me an A or a B. If I had to do it over, I would take Prof. Hardinger again, and this time I would not fall behind!