Took this class in 2017 Summer Session A. Amazing professor and amazing person. He deeply cares about his students and performs well above and beyond his duties as a professor. His explanations are clear, but they tend to be mildly obscured by his accent. He has a high expectation of his students, which he tells to all his students before the class begins, so effort is required to do well in his class. He has a 1-2 question daily preview due every day and a 3-5 question self evaluation due every Friday. Before every major test, if so requested, he will make a practice self evaluation that is 10 questions long. Though only 2 questions are due, I highly recommend completing all of the questions, since they are all relevant to the test. Overall, he's a great professor and I'm lucky to have him as one of my firsts.

Edit (6/7/2018): Professor Lin was one of my first professors. Now that I've had other professors as a comparison, I believe that the praise I gave to him is severely lacking to what he deserves. Quite honestly, Professor Lin performs well above and beyond other professors that I've rated 5/5 on Bruinwalk, so he should really be getting something like a 6 or a 7 on the same scale. I cannot stress how fantastic of a professor Lin is. I would highly encourage you to take a course with him if possible.

Amazing professor. I'm not a hard worker and don't like going to class, but this class was absolutely an exception. He had office hours all the time, and I'd attend almost all of them. He'd buy snacks for us and was so helpful during them.

You can tell he's passionate too. He was nearly in tears as he derived Schrodinger's equation and observed its beauty. Inspiring. Every day he lectures with such a fire and passion for quantum mechanics that he's sweating from head to toe. Made me work harder just watching him teach.

He buys you Subway during exams too. When I did well in the class, he sent me an email congratulating me, and promising to write a heartfelt recommendation letter should I ever need one. What an amazing human being.

[STILL AVAILABLE] Selling "Principles of Modern Chemistry" 7th Edition PDF. Email *************. Price negotiable.

For some reason I thought Professor was kidding every time he said the assignment was going to be hard. If it was not hard, then it took a lot of time and effort on the student's part to learn the material. Professor goes over the material many times in class so as long as you pay attention and do the homework, the class should be straightforward for the most part. Of course it is an honors course so there will be many ways to test your understanding.

I like the workload and the pacing of the class because it holds me accountable unlike other classes so I always know the material. Overall I had a great experience because Professor was entertaining in his lectures. His stories had a reason and helped when the material became too overwhelming. I doubt many professors at UCLA are as genuinely concerned and available to students as Professor are.

I would recommend taking his class if you are interested in chemistry but know that the workload requires discipline.

DON'T TAKE LIN.
HE TAKES QUANTUM MECHANICS TO A COMPLETE NEW LEVEL YOU DON'T EVEN WANT TO UNDERSTAND.
YOU'LL NOT GET GET BETTER THAN A B UNLESS YOU'RE A NERD AND LIKE MEMORIZING PROOFS OF SCHRODINGER'S EQUATION.

A++ prof.....he was high demanding but u can learn a lot...

I took Chemistry 20AH with Professor Lin in Fall of 2008. I recently wrote a letter, which sums up to the best of my ability my impression of the class.
To Whom It May Concern:
I would like to strongly recommend Professor Yung-Ya Lin. My name is Michael Creim and I was a student in Professor Lin’s 2008 Fall Chemistry 20AH course. I will remember this class for the rest of my life. It was a truly unique experience going to 3069 Young Hall everyday for our noon lecture. Never before in my life have I seen students camped outside the classroom up to an hour early to try to get a seat in one of the front rows, a feat I accomplished most of time. Even through the end of the quarter if you weren’t there at least fifteen minutes early you had to settle for a seat in the back. In the following I will try to explain why we developed such a passion for the course and respect for the man who led it.
Chemistry 20AH was not an easy class. We had homework due everyday except Tuesday, and in the typical week I would have to spend a little more time on my Chemistry homework and studying than I had to spend on both of my other classes combined in a typical month. (Those classes were Philosophy 21 and Math 31A). In short, Professor Lin expected a lot out of us at a very high level, but he also demanded just as much from himself. He and the TA’s went above and beyond the call of duty to make themselves available to us. Every week the TAs, Ronda and Sophia, had office hours Monday and Wednesday for an hour right after class and Fridays from 4:00 to 5:00. Professor Lin, in addition to his two-hour office hours on Tuesday and Thursday nights, also had an open door policy everyday for the two hours preceding class and was available to see students for half the day on most Saturdays. Every midterm and final had an in-class review session and two out-of-class review sessions, and during finals week he held office hours for an hour everyday until the final on Friday. He worked so hard to help us succeed. He personally checked over all our work before entering the grades and returning it to us so that he could better understand what kinds of differing methodologies the class used to tackle the problems and to really get a feel for each individual’s problem solving style. Even though he gave himself this additional burden, he still always returned our grades to us on time for important deadlines. For example, I knew both my homework and first midterm grades well in time for the add/drop deadline. Professor Lin is an inspiring figure who leads by example, and genuinely cares about his students.
I think that the circumstances surrounding the second midterm really are a microcosm of the class as a whole. The midterm was scheduled for 5:00 on a Tuesday afternoon. Professor Lin said that he believed it was capable of being completed in two and a half hours but he would allow us as much time as we needed. I have a hand-eye coordination disability called dysgraphia, so I am given extended time on tests and allowed to type my answers. He volunteered to personally proctor me and allowed me to take it in a conference room next to his office. Five hours later at 10:00 the last person besides myself finished. After 8 hours at 1:00 in the morning, I finally finished as well. Professor Lin offered to give me a ride back to my apartment, which I turned down as I wanted to grab a bite to eat in Westwood. When I left he was still puttering away although I did not know on what at the time. The next day he walked into the class wearing the same clothes, then he walked out and brought in every single person’s graded midterm, all 18 pages worth of questions. I got a 90%. And to reward us for our hard work, he gave us all pizza. That day was truly special. Professor Lin is truly special.
Sincerely,

Michael Creim

Prof Lin's class is extremely hard -- much harder than it needs to be. He often lectures on irrelevant information, and I left class more confused most days. I had friends in other 20A lectures who were learning completely different information, ours being much harder.

He is incredibly difficult to understand because of his accent so be prepared to have to decipher his lectures.

He doesn't really teach, just kind of throws the information at you for you to figure out on your own. If it wasn't for the TA's I don't know how I would've gotten a B-

Best professor ever! He is very passionate about what's he teaching and is also very caring for his students. He makes quantum mechanic interesting and easy to understand. Definitely recommend taking him. You will not regret it. It might be hard to understand him at first, but after awhile you will get used to it. Tip: Attend all of his office hours. Very helpful and you get good Japanese snacks too!! Not a hard class at all!!

He is a great professor and I highly recommend him. Though he is really busy he tries his best to help his students. Dr. Lin is also very difficult. He expects a lot out of his students. But if you show him that you are trying hard then he will help you where you need it. Just study diligently in his class and you should be okay.