Simply put, Rubin is a nice guy who has absolutely no business teaching a lower div ochem course. His expertise seems to lie in his research niche and not much else. It also didn't help that he was incredibly disorganized with his lectures and slides. Oh, and be prepared to receive eight emails a day from him! You will be cleaning your inbox every day.

Ngl, it started out pretty rocky with Rubin... Lectures were confusing and the practice problems were contentious, but the professor really tried his best and helped us out as much as he could! He is super communicative and understanding. With time, he got better at lectures and provided weekly office hour recordings that went over how to do all the practice problems.

As someone who admittedly studied maybe 15 hours max for this class, it is extremely doable. Rubin's grading scheme was absolutely goated and made As in this class entirely possible. Just be sure to review the topics he provides in his syllabus, check your e-mails from him, and do the biweekly practice problem sets. I wish he would be the prof for the rest of my classes here lol.

Maybe I don't feel so prepared for 14D... but at least I passed 14C!!!

Rubin mentioned that he hadn't taught in over 24 years, I went to 2 lectures in the beginning and never went back. I genuinely was so confused on what he was explaining. I thought I understood the concepts from reading the textbook but would end up even more confused after his lecture. The slides were very confusing and unorganized. He seemed so sweet and funny but I just could not. He would basically walk students through the biweekly homework assignments in his zoom office hours and post them which was helpful. He allowed open electronic notes on his tests and allowed us to do it on our iPads, it genuinely helped a lot. My PLF carried in helping me understand the material and I genuinely would not have passed my midterms and final without her. Even she said that the way the professor was structuring the class was very poor and was teaching us things she learned in 14D. Wouldn't recommend.

i was originally worried about taking 14c with prof. rubin (as he didn't appear to have taught this series before), but man i love rubin. although his class structure and teaching were a bit disorganized at the start, his office hours were incredibly helpful to completing the homework (even gave ec in the end that basically made hw grade 100%). rubin himself is also hella nice, caring (listens to students), and such a funny man (also love his dog aw). i think his exams are very fair, even with the fact that they were open note and done online (in-person). 14c w/ rubin has probably been my favorite chem class so far at ucla, and rubin is a godsend (grading scheme was so lenient tbh). that said, you do have to find some other materials to prep for exams and study for concepts (just search on youtube or other textbook pdfs lol).

This class was good overall, but the beginning was a little rough in terms of lectures and clarity. He is super understanding and allowed for a lot of regrades. The exams were fair, and the grading was very lenient. It is a fun class, and I highly recommend taking it with Rubin.

Prof. Rubin is a genuinely good person but not the best professor. I knew he cared about us as students (eg. holding office hours, constantly updating slides in his free time), but he was not a good lecturer whatsoever (but it might just be that he hasn't taught in a while). His lectures were confusing and on top of that his problem sets tended to focus on nit picky exceptions to concepts rather than focusing on practicing the core concepts. I found myself having to rely on ochem tutor online a lot throughout this quarter. Go to office hours because (most) of the TAs will give answers to problem sets. However, he did have a lenient test-taking policy, curved grades, and made the midterms more reasonable than problem sets (the final was a bit harder though). As long as you put in the work you should be able to get a good grade.

i'm gonna be so fr, i was depressed this quarter so i did not go to a single discussion since it wasn't required and only went to like 2 lectures. overall, this man really tries, and i appreciated that.
grade consisted of 600 points:
mt 1 - 100 points
mt 2 - 100 points
final - 200 points
5 problem sets 40 points each - 200 points
the fifth problem set had 10 extra credit points
problem sets were graded on accuracy. for problem set 1, he answered questions that students had on hw problems, but for problem sets 4 and 5 he completely walked through and did the problems in his online recorded office hours.
before each exam, he gave an extensive list of around 10-15 things to know, but then only tested on the easiest 5 topics. this was very nice but it was also kind of a waste of time to be studying things that never showed up on the exam.
the means and medians were pretty high for each exam (80s) so i'm sure this would be a very doable A for a lot of people who put in the effort to go to discussion and watch lectures & office hours, especially due to the generous grading scheme:
97+ - A+
90-97 - A
80-90 - A-
70-80 - B+
60-70 - B
50-60 - B-
40-50 - C+

I loved the class with Dr. Rubin. In the beginning it was a but rough since I would go to lecture and become completely lost. If I wrote this review in the beginning of the quarter I probably would have given him a 2 or 1 star because I didn't realize that this man is actually GOATED. If you go to his lectures prepared with some baseline knowledge his lectures are actually useful. The problem with Rubin is he starts in the middle of a topic and not necessarily at the beginning (rather he's not good at teaching the basics). As such if you do take his lecture make sure that you actually understand the material a little bit before you go to the lecture. If you do that then you will actually get use out of his lectures. If not then review the material and watch the recorded lecture. His tests were very fair and open everything. Additionally his office hours are very useful. During lecture it can be hard to understand the material and the Problem Sets he assigned (graded on accuracy). However if you go to his office hours not only does he clarify a lot of what he said, he will also go through the problem set (though you do have a kinda push him to do it otherwise he won't do it). Overall 10/10 would take this class or any class taught by this man.

Also when he brings his dog to the midterms it is sooo cute.

This was Rubin's first time teaching in a while so at the start of the quarter his lecturing abilities were extremely poor and all over the place. By the end, Rubin was doing a decent job lecturing, akin to maybe Lavelle level. Rubin is a very funny guy who seems to care about his students. He does at times seem to have a big ego, however. For example, when asked a question that he doesn't know the answer too, he often responds passive-aggressively. The tests in this class were extremely fair and easy, often taking questions directly from the problem sets, and always using the easiest concepts from the section. Overall, Rubin is a decent professor, although I worry that I wasn't adequately prepared for 14d.

Rubin was the sweetest professor I've ever had! This quarter seemed to be his first quarter teaching in a while; I remember checking his last Bruinwalk reviews and seeing they were from 2003. He was not good at explaining lectures in the beginning but he seemed to make more sense as the quarter went on. If you take him going to TA office hours and discussions will help you so much on his problem sets (the TAs give you the answers and teaches it to you, which is how I learned most of the material). His lectures were boring sometimes but you can tell that he truly cares about his students.

Midterms and final was fair, and the final was pretty similar to the rubric. His grading scheme is also very, very fair and probably the best I'll ever get from a class here. I remember he brought his dog in a backpack into our midterm and final and it was the absolute cutest thing I've ever seen.

Overall, I had a rocky beginning since I wasn't used to anything ochem at all before taking the class and I had my doubts about Rubin's lectures, but putting in the effort to learn paid off in the end.