CHEM 14BL
General and Organic Chemistry Laboratory I
Description: Lecture, one hour; laboratory, three hours. Enforced requisite: course 14A or 20A or 20AH with grade of C- or better. Enforced corequisite: course 14B. Not open to students with credit for course 20L. Introduction to volumetric, spectrophotometric, and potentiometric analysis. Use and preparation of buffers and pH meters. Synthesis and kinetics techniques using compounds of interest to students in life sciences. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 3.0
Units: 3.0
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Winter 2021 - For this quarter, the workload consisted of: Weekly lab section activities: 90 points (21% of grade). She drops the lowest lab activity. This activity is done with your assigned group during lab. The lab activities were often unnecessarily long amd tedious and graded very harshly. Surveys: 5 points (1%) Team reflections: 5 points (1%) Weekly lab reports: 150 points (34%). Most are done on your own, however some were group lab reports. You work on these lab reports on your own time outside of lab/class. She made the total points worth 170 but would only take 150 points, meaning you have a 20 point buffer to still be able to get 100% in this section. Some of the lab reports were alright but others were unecessarily long. They were also graded harshly. Writing assignment: 25 points (6%). This assignment is grades by your peers amd the grade consists of your rating as a reviewer, the grades given by your peers, and if you "mastered" the oractuce review portions. Midterm: 60 points (14%). She gave 2 hours to do the midterm anytime between 8am-8pm. There was an individual portion worth 50 points. This is taken during the 8am-8pm slot. Then a group portion of the same midterm was to be done and was worth 10 points. The group portion was not timed. Final exam: 100 points (23%). The final could be taken anytime from 8 am-10pm and once startes you have a 3 hour time limit to complete it. It was much harder and lengthier than the midterm. The content itself isn't hard but she makes the material harsher than it should be for a 3 unit class. She gave an 8 point extra credit that was only to be applied to the lab activities section. The grading for this class is harsh, and it's almost as if they look for places to take points off rather than to reward effort. Honestly this class was not worth the time commitment and anxiety, especially during the pandemic. However, Casey is nice and very helpful in OH and engaging in the practice problem sessions.
Winter 2021 - For this quarter, the workload consisted of: Weekly lab section activities: 90 points (21% of grade). She drops the lowest lab activity. This activity is done with your assigned group during lab. The lab activities were often unnecessarily long amd tedious and graded very harshly. Surveys: 5 points (1%) Team reflections: 5 points (1%) Weekly lab reports: 150 points (34%). Most are done on your own, however some were group lab reports. You work on these lab reports on your own time outside of lab/class. She made the total points worth 170 but would only take 150 points, meaning you have a 20 point buffer to still be able to get 100% in this section. Some of the lab reports were alright but others were unecessarily long. They were also graded harshly. Writing assignment: 25 points (6%). This assignment is grades by your peers amd the grade consists of your rating as a reviewer, the grades given by your peers, and if you "mastered" the oractuce review portions. Midterm: 60 points (14%). She gave 2 hours to do the midterm anytime between 8am-8pm. There was an individual portion worth 50 points. This is taken during the 8am-8pm slot. Then a group portion of the same midterm was to be done and was worth 10 points. The group portion was not timed. Final exam: 100 points (23%). The final could be taken anytime from 8 am-10pm and once startes you have a 3 hour time limit to complete it. It was much harder and lengthier than the midterm. The content itself isn't hard but she makes the material harsher than it should be for a 3 unit class. She gave an 8 point extra credit that was only to be applied to the lab activities section. The grading for this class is harsh, and it's almost as if they look for places to take points off rather than to reward effort. Honestly this class was not worth the time commitment and anxiety, especially during the pandemic. However, Casey is nice and very helpful in OH and engaging in the practice problem sessions.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2020 - I took this online. Henary is very hard to understand. It's not just his accent; his explanations just aren't very clear. One of the worst things that stood out to me is when he was going over how to solve a problem on his slides, and he just verbally did the calculations. It was impossible to follow. I guess you can't blame him if he doesn't own a stylus/tablet, but surely with a little effort he could've figured something out. Another thing that irked me, and maybe this isn't a valid complaint, is that he would constantly ask "is this clear to you guys? Hello? Hello guys?" and wouldn't move on unless he got a few replies like"yes makes sense." I know he was trying to get input but it wasted time on already short lectures when we had to constantly tell him to move on. IMO the etiquette should be to listen if anyone says "no I don't understand," otherwise assume everyone understands. On a more positive note, Henary was very accommodating to the lockdown/protest situation. He apparently made the tests easier for us, which was very nice of him. Still wouldn't recommend this professor though. Now for TAs. I heard from people that they relied heavily on TAs to clarify material. My online TA was Kevin Chandler and he taught us nothing. We joined zoom for 10 minutes, he took roll, and then we left. Even before tests, when Henary told us the TAs would hold review sessions, Kevin didn't prepare anything. He just asked every week if we had any questions. But as TA he should really prepare SOMETHING for us. Also there were two times he was more than 15 minutes late to class. He was a lenient grader on labs for the most part. First day of class, I was like "this guy is so chill that's awesome," but by the end I realized too chill was a bad thing.
Spring 2020 - I took this online. Henary is very hard to understand. It's not just his accent; his explanations just aren't very clear. One of the worst things that stood out to me is when he was going over how to solve a problem on his slides, and he just verbally did the calculations. It was impossible to follow. I guess you can't blame him if he doesn't own a stylus/tablet, but surely with a little effort he could've figured something out. Another thing that irked me, and maybe this isn't a valid complaint, is that he would constantly ask "is this clear to you guys? Hello? Hello guys?" and wouldn't move on unless he got a few replies like"yes makes sense." I know he was trying to get input but it wasted time on already short lectures when we had to constantly tell him to move on. IMO the etiquette should be to listen if anyone says "no I don't understand," otherwise assume everyone understands. On a more positive note, Henary was very accommodating to the lockdown/protest situation. He apparently made the tests easier for us, which was very nice of him. Still wouldn't recommend this professor though. Now for TAs. I heard from people that they relied heavily on TAs to clarify material. My online TA was Kevin Chandler and he taught us nothing. We joined zoom for 10 minutes, he took roll, and then we left. Even before tests, when Henary told us the TAs would hold review sessions, Kevin didn't prepare anything. He just asked every week if we had any questions. But as TA he should really prepare SOMETHING for us. Also there were two times he was more than 15 minutes late to class. He was a lenient grader on labs for the most part. First day of class, I was like "this guy is so chill that's awesome," but by the end I realized too chill was a bad thing.
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Winter 2024 - This was easily my least favorite class I've taken at UCLA; this is not the fault of Dr. Ngo since I think she made the best out of a bad course structure. First off, requiring that students pay over $50 dollars for all of the lab materials and textbooks is utterly asinine. Why is a flame retardant lab coat required when we barely even work with flame to begin with? Can the university point to a single experiment that requires a flame retardant coat over a normal run of the mill lab coat? Why isn't the textbook available in a PDF format for students to view online? In fairness, Dr. Ngo did make the week 1 required reading available on BruinLearn, but only did this for the first week. The UCLA textbook cartel must've gotten to her. When did lab glasses/goggles become the responsibility of the student to purchase? Classes that require this form of investment are borderline predatory in my opinion, especially when half the materials we are forced to buy feel useless and completely arbitrary. This feels even worse once you realize that the TAs know the order of the experiments, and write the steps to the experiments on their slideshows. It's not like you're tested on what's in the textbook, so the whole thing just feels like one large scam. There is not a single element in this textbook that helps students engage in 14BLs content, since everything the textbook covers is also covered by the TAs, lecture slides, and pre lab/post lab instructions. It's really a shame. Apart from the utter scam that is the textbook, the class is... ok? Labs make up a large portion of your grade, so pray to god that you have a TA that grades generously. If your TA is a stickler for the fine details, you will suffer immensely (since TAs can take off points for formatting, significant figures, chart titles, chart accuracy, etc). It is mildly annoying that significant figures matter so much, but you get used to this quirk over time. My TA (Jae) was awesome, she always told me where I made mistakes and seemed to grade easier as time went on. The labs (especially the pre labs) did feel like needless busy work. For example, every pre lab asked you to make a flowchart of the experiment. This felt useless, since you were allowed to bring the textbook with you (plus the instructions were written on the board most of the time). These labs are not hard to perform in any capacity, and any roadblocks you may run into can easily be solved by your TA. The exams make up such a tiny portion of your grade (12% for the MT and 28% for the final). If you have a great lab score and good midterm score, you can basically score a high D on the final and still recieve an A in the class (I think I needed around a 77%). Keep in mind, the cutoff for an A is 90%, not a 93% like in most classes. The midterm felt very fair, just review the lecture slides and go over the practice problems. It was online, Dr. Ngo was very flexible regarding the time, so you could start the midterm sooner or later in the week depending on your midterm schedule. The same applies to the final (though it was in person). I did not attend a single lecture (since they were at 8AM and were not recorded for some strange reason), and I received an A on both exams, just by going over some of the concepts presented in the slides and the posted practice problems. Dr. Ngo actively wants you to succeed in the class! Overall, this class feels like an utter scam, and I hope the feds shut down this money laundering scheme at some point, but Dr. Ngo is easily one of the best professors you can take this god forsaken class with.
Winter 2024 - This was easily my least favorite class I've taken at UCLA; this is not the fault of Dr. Ngo since I think she made the best out of a bad course structure. First off, requiring that students pay over $50 dollars for all of the lab materials and textbooks is utterly asinine. Why is a flame retardant lab coat required when we barely even work with flame to begin with? Can the university point to a single experiment that requires a flame retardant coat over a normal run of the mill lab coat? Why isn't the textbook available in a PDF format for students to view online? In fairness, Dr. Ngo did make the week 1 required reading available on BruinLearn, but only did this for the first week. The UCLA textbook cartel must've gotten to her. When did lab glasses/goggles become the responsibility of the student to purchase? Classes that require this form of investment are borderline predatory in my opinion, especially when half the materials we are forced to buy feel useless and completely arbitrary. This feels even worse once you realize that the TAs know the order of the experiments, and write the steps to the experiments on their slideshows. It's not like you're tested on what's in the textbook, so the whole thing just feels like one large scam. There is not a single element in this textbook that helps students engage in 14BLs content, since everything the textbook covers is also covered by the TAs, lecture slides, and pre lab/post lab instructions. It's really a shame. Apart from the utter scam that is the textbook, the class is... ok? Labs make up a large portion of your grade, so pray to god that you have a TA that grades generously. If your TA is a stickler for the fine details, you will suffer immensely (since TAs can take off points for formatting, significant figures, chart titles, chart accuracy, etc). It is mildly annoying that significant figures matter so much, but you get used to this quirk over time. My TA (Jae) was awesome, she always told me where I made mistakes and seemed to grade easier as time went on. The labs (especially the pre labs) did feel like needless busy work. For example, every pre lab asked you to make a flowchart of the experiment. This felt useless, since you were allowed to bring the textbook with you (plus the instructions were written on the board most of the time). These labs are not hard to perform in any capacity, and any roadblocks you may run into can easily be solved by your TA. The exams make up such a tiny portion of your grade (12% for the MT and 28% for the final). If you have a great lab score and good midterm score, you can basically score a high D on the final and still recieve an A in the class (I think I needed around a 77%). Keep in mind, the cutoff for an A is 90%, not a 93% like in most classes. The midterm felt very fair, just review the lecture slides and go over the practice problems. It was online, Dr. Ngo was very flexible regarding the time, so you could start the midterm sooner or later in the week depending on your midterm schedule. The same applies to the final (though it was in person). I did not attend a single lecture (since they were at 8AM and were not recorded for some strange reason), and I received an A on both exams, just by going over some of the concepts presented in the slides and the posted practice problems. Dr. Ngo actively wants you to succeed in the class! Overall, this class feels like an utter scam, and I hope the feds shut down this money laundering scheme at some point, but Dr. Ngo is easily one of the best professors you can take this god forsaken class with.
Most Helpful Review
Summer 2019 - This is my first ever bruinwalk review but I felt like I had to write one because the reviews on here doesn’t do Pang justice. He’s a very effective professor and gives little hints to help you memorize stuff while also being funny. Also he prints out the slides for the lectures which makes it easier to follow and take notes since you don’t have to worry about missing important info since most of it is already there (rip the trees tho lol). Pang also gives you a study guide for the midterm and final with solutions like what an angel. The study guide is harder than actual exams so you’ll do well if you just study off of it. The labs are time consuming but the manual gives you step to step directions. Some of the reviews blamed Pang for the structure of the class but it’s a freaking lab of course it’s going to have a heavy workload and every 14bl professor is required to assign those labs. Overall Pang is a real homie and I wish he taught the regular chem classes because I would’ve gotten way better grades with him as the professor
Summer 2019 - This is my first ever bruinwalk review but I felt like I had to write one because the reviews on here doesn’t do Pang justice. He’s a very effective professor and gives little hints to help you memorize stuff while also being funny. Also he prints out the slides for the lectures which makes it easier to follow and take notes since you don’t have to worry about missing important info since most of it is already there (rip the trees tho lol). Pang also gives you a study guide for the midterm and final with solutions like what an angel. The study guide is harder than actual exams so you’ll do well if you just study off of it. The labs are time consuming but the manual gives you step to step directions. Some of the reviews blamed Pang for the structure of the class but it’s a freaking lab of course it’s going to have a heavy workload and every 14bl professor is required to assign those labs. Overall Pang is a real homie and I wish he taught the regular chem classes because I would’ve gotten way better grades with him as the professor
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