The professor alone is a reason to take this class. He is funny, engaging, very helpful, and EXTREMELY qualified to teach this class. He knows his stuff. However, the workload is heavy. There are problems due every week that take many hours to complete. Also, the material itself is difficult. Being proficient in calculus helps immensely with the problem sets. The exams are also quite difficult, but are manageable if you study. If you really love chemistry and quantum mechanics, I highly recommend this class.

***This review is for Prof. Gelbart's 20BH class just too lazy to fill out the forms lol***

Review for Professor:
Professor Gelbert is really clear, funny and passionate. He gives out lecture notes for previewing/reviewing purposes and they are really helpful. He is also very nice so don't be afraid to go to his office hours and ask questions. There was one time I asked a really stupid question that he already gone over in the lectures and he still did the full derivation and explanation for me. He explains the derivations pretty clearly. Lectures are funny and enjoyable, especially when he talked about his personal encounter with the genius physicist Dirac.

Review for Class:
The class is not that hard but it literally gave me mental breakdowns during the quarter (though it was mainly because I stressed myself out lol). Courseload is pretty light: only one problem set per week. This course is more conceptual so it might be a little bit hard to understand sometimes. The part that involves many processes was a little bit confusing because different systems and processes need to be treated differently. Be sure to understand the first law of thermodynamics and go over all the derivations before the test and you'll be fine. The test problems are not that hard but they are worded in a way that is meant to confuse you (lol). Also there are only 4 questions on each midterm so screwing up one question is enough to bring you lower than the average/median. But the professor gives practice problems and they are like similar-ish to the actual test. He also has a really good curve (like 30-40% A-range?) so even the test scores are not that high, you will still end up with a pretty good grade.

Conclusion: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Prof. Gelbart is without a doubt the best professor I've come across. Not only is he very clear and concise in his explanations but also dedicated to making sure the class understands what he's trying to communicate before moving on to other topics. He creates a very friendly environment and always encourages students to ask lots of questions.

And his tests may not be easy but he will never make them ridiculous or test you on something he has personally not explained in class. You'll know exactly what the majority of the test will be about and what topics will not be covered based on what he has focused on during lecture. You can even ask him if he will test you on a certain problem and he'll give you a straightforward answer. I'm not sure about his other classes but for 20AH he emphasized the importance of understanding the concepts and being able to utilize them instead of memorizing facts. (So much so that you could pretty much ask him or the TAs whatever FACT you don't remember and cannot determine based on the material you learned, they'll give it to you while you're taking the test.