CHEM 14B
General Chemistry for Life Scientists II
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Enforced requisite: one course from 14A, 14AE, 20A, or 20AH with grade of C- or better. Enforced requisite or corequisite: Life Sciences 30B or Mathematics 3B or 31B with grade of C- or better. Not open to students with credit for course 14BE, 20B, or 20BH. Chemical equilibria in gases and liquids, acid-base equilibrium; phase changes; thermochemistry; first, second, and third laws of thermodynamics; free energy changes; electrochemistry and its role as energy source; chemical kinetics, including catalysis, and reaction mechanisms. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2025 - If you are a fan of self-studying this is the class for you. Lavelle is one of those professors that teaches you material that wouldn't be on the Midterm. Reading the textbook is going to be more beneficial than actually going to lecture (and besides its recorded). Every midterm and the Final is composed of just multiple choice tests so no partial credit is given; however, it is manageable to still pass. Discussion is mandatory and TA led sessions before the Midterm are helpful. Keep on top of Website postings as those are helpful as well. The class is graded on a point system so everything is weighed the same. Overall, not my favorite class.
Winter 2025 - If you are a fan of self-studying this is the class for you. Lavelle is one of those professors that teaches you material that wouldn't be on the Midterm. Reading the textbook is going to be more beneficial than actually going to lecture (and besides its recorded). Every midterm and the Final is composed of just multiple choice tests so no partial credit is given; however, it is manageable to still pass. Discussion is mandatory and TA led sessions before the Midterm are helpful. Keep on top of Website postings as those are helpful as well. The class is graded on a point system so everything is weighed the same. Overall, not my favorite class.
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2024 - I would like to start off by saying that I was almost deterred from taking this class due to the numerous scary reviews about Professor Scerri. Unfortunately (or fortunately I should say), he was the only teacher teaching the class the quarter I needed it, so I took the risk and enrolled in his class... and I am extremely glad that I did! I know Professor Scerri has a reputation for himself, and it is possible that in the past this reputation was reflective of him, but if so, he has definitely changed very much. After taking 14B with him, I can confidently say that he was nothing at all like the reviews I had read about him. Here, I will document my most notable experiences for anyone looking to take this class: Attendance: Professor Scerri did not have a mandatory attendance policy in his class, although he highly encouraged IRL participation. Given this, however, all lectures were recorded and posted on the canvas page in a timely fashion, and in the case that any of the recordings for a certain class were unavailable or corrupted, he would post a replacement video in lieu of that unavailable lecture (he was very accommodating). Assignments: The only graded assignments were quizzes that were assigned through the Achieve platform. Essentially, these quizzes were grouped by topic, each containing around 30 or so questions with unlimited attempts per question. These quizzes were also assigned at the beginning of the term with a due date near finals week, so lots of time to complete them with no pressure! (However, I would highly recommend completing the appropriate quiz after finishing the relevant content in the class, just to stay on track because it is very difficult to cram all the questions at the end of the quarter). Exams: Here's the kicker for a lot of students. I personally thought that Professor Scerri's exams were very fair and honestly not too difficult. I know that this is just my opinion and that other students may have had different experiences, but I think I did a decent amount of studying for his exams and performed just as well as I anticipated. The course consisted of one midterm and one final, with the midterm and final being worth 30% and 40% of your final grade, respectively. Professor Scerri provided previous exams from his class as practice material for the exams and the questions were relatively similar in difficulty, so no real surprises on exam day. Honestly, as long as you do enough practice using the questions given to you by Professor Scerri and the TAs, you should be more than fine. Final Remarks: Honestly, I would say that whether you like him or not, Professor Scerri's 14B course was more than fair and truly not too difficult so long as you actually practiced and studied your fair share—nothing more, nothing less. I would HIGHLY recommend this class to anyone looking to take 14B. Please do not be afraid to take this class like I was, it will all be fine :)
Fall 2024 - I would like to start off by saying that I was almost deterred from taking this class due to the numerous scary reviews about Professor Scerri. Unfortunately (or fortunately I should say), he was the only teacher teaching the class the quarter I needed it, so I took the risk and enrolled in his class... and I am extremely glad that I did! I know Professor Scerri has a reputation for himself, and it is possible that in the past this reputation was reflective of him, but if so, he has definitely changed very much. After taking 14B with him, I can confidently say that he was nothing at all like the reviews I had read about him. Here, I will document my most notable experiences for anyone looking to take this class: Attendance: Professor Scerri did not have a mandatory attendance policy in his class, although he highly encouraged IRL participation. Given this, however, all lectures were recorded and posted on the canvas page in a timely fashion, and in the case that any of the recordings for a certain class were unavailable or corrupted, he would post a replacement video in lieu of that unavailable lecture (he was very accommodating). Assignments: The only graded assignments were quizzes that were assigned through the Achieve platform. Essentially, these quizzes were grouped by topic, each containing around 30 or so questions with unlimited attempts per question. These quizzes were also assigned at the beginning of the term with a due date near finals week, so lots of time to complete them with no pressure! (However, I would highly recommend completing the appropriate quiz after finishing the relevant content in the class, just to stay on track because it is very difficult to cram all the questions at the end of the quarter). Exams: Here's the kicker for a lot of students. I personally thought that Professor Scerri's exams were very fair and honestly not too difficult. I know that this is just my opinion and that other students may have had different experiences, but I think I did a decent amount of studying for his exams and performed just as well as I anticipated. The course consisted of one midterm and one final, with the midterm and final being worth 30% and 40% of your final grade, respectively. Professor Scerri provided previous exams from his class as practice material for the exams and the questions were relatively similar in difficulty, so no real surprises on exam day. Honestly, as long as you do enough practice using the questions given to you by Professor Scerri and the TAs, you should be more than fine. Final Remarks: Honestly, I would say that whether you like him or not, Professor Scerri's 14B course was more than fair and truly not too difficult so long as you actually practiced and studied your fair share—nothing more, nothing less. I would HIGHLY recommend this class to anyone looking to take 14B. Please do not be afraid to take this class like I was, it will all be fine :)
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