CHEM 30B
Organic Chemistry II: Reactivity, Synthesis, and Spectroscopy
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Enforced requisite: course 30A or 30AH, with grade of C- or better. Second term of organic chemistry for Chemistry, Biochemistry, and engineering majors. Properties, synthesis, and reactions of alcohols, ethers, sulfur compounds, aldehydes, ketones, carboxylic acids, and carboxylic acid derivatives. Organometallic compounds. Organic spectroscopy, including mass spectrometry, infrared spectroscopy, and proton and carbon nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
She taught directly out of the book and didn't explain things in even remotely scientific terms. She actually didn't explain anything. The whole class was a bunch of "This attacks here, and then this attacks here, and then this attacks here, and then this falls off. Any questions?" And of course there weren't any because it's pretty straight-forward when you don't have to actually understand it. So if you like memorization, great, you're love her. If you like hearing about electronegativity and pKa and all those other reasons WHY reactions happen, then take Merlic instead. Yes, her exams are a lot easier, but because of that there's pretty much no partial credit and the curves are really high. Also she curves based on a C+, though I'm not sure that's uncommon. So just make sure you're two standard deviations better than your peers before you take her class. She has a lot of energy, which was really amusing, but overall I got very little from the class.
She taught directly out of the book and didn't explain things in even remotely scientific terms. She actually didn't explain anything. The whole class was a bunch of "This attacks here, and then this attacks here, and then this attacks here, and then this falls off. Any questions?" And of course there weren't any because it's pretty straight-forward when you don't have to actually understand it. So if you like memorization, great, you're love her. If you like hearing about electronegativity and pKa and all those other reasons WHY reactions happen, then take Merlic instead. Yes, her exams are a lot easier, but because of that there's pretty much no partial credit and the curves are really high. Also she curves based on a C+, though I'm not sure that's uncommon. So just make sure you're two standard deviations better than your peers before you take her class. She has a lot of energy, which was really amusing, but overall I got very little from the class.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2020 - I'm not sure how Merlic is during a usual quarter when things aren't remote. However, if you have the chance to take this class with Merlic during remote learning, do NOT take this class. He was extremely unaccommodating during the pandemic and made the class harder than a usual quarter. Instead of having two midterms, our class had 3 midterms, one of which was the Friday before Week 9. His justification behind this was to give us a "progress report" on how we were doing, but nobody knew what they had in the course since the class was graded on a curve. The averages for each midterm were extremely low, usually around a 50% or a 60%. The exams themselves are already quite challenging to complete on time; however, we were also expected to scan and upload the exam within the given 1 hour time frame, which wasn't required for the in-person class. Merlic also made the exams more difficult and longer due to our ability to "look through our notes", but in reality there isn't any time to skim through your notes since you're rushing to complete the exams. For the final exam, Merlic gave us a sample final with 11 questions on it and ASSURED us that we would have plenty of time compared to the midterms. However, he placed 16 questions on our final, many of which required written responses which consumed a decent amount of time. In addition to his ridiculous exam formats, Merlic is extremely disorganized with his homework schedule. The first few weeks we were given a homework assignment each week; however, near the middle of the quarter we didn't have one for nearly three weeks. Towards the end of the quarter he would assign a homework assignment every 3-4 days under the excuse of trying to fulfill the 10 homework assignments for the class. There are also quizzes in this class during discussion, but those don't mirror Merlic's exams too well. Overall, I would never take this class again and I highly regret having someone as unaccommodating and ridiculous as Merlic for a professor. One last note, Merlic likes to sell himself as a "nice guy", but don't fall for this as he is usually highly sarcastic and lies about his schedule and exam lengths. Good luck to y'all!
Fall 2020 - I'm not sure how Merlic is during a usual quarter when things aren't remote. However, if you have the chance to take this class with Merlic during remote learning, do NOT take this class. He was extremely unaccommodating during the pandemic and made the class harder than a usual quarter. Instead of having two midterms, our class had 3 midterms, one of which was the Friday before Week 9. His justification behind this was to give us a "progress report" on how we were doing, but nobody knew what they had in the course since the class was graded on a curve. The averages for each midterm were extremely low, usually around a 50% or a 60%. The exams themselves are already quite challenging to complete on time; however, we were also expected to scan and upload the exam within the given 1 hour time frame, which wasn't required for the in-person class. Merlic also made the exams more difficult and longer due to our ability to "look through our notes", but in reality there isn't any time to skim through your notes since you're rushing to complete the exams. For the final exam, Merlic gave us a sample final with 11 questions on it and ASSURED us that we would have plenty of time compared to the midterms. However, he placed 16 questions on our final, many of which required written responses which consumed a decent amount of time. In addition to his ridiculous exam formats, Merlic is extremely disorganized with his homework schedule. The first few weeks we were given a homework assignment each week; however, near the middle of the quarter we didn't have one for nearly three weeks. Towards the end of the quarter he would assign a homework assignment every 3-4 days under the excuse of trying to fulfill the 10 homework assignments for the class. There are also quizzes in this class during discussion, but those don't mirror Merlic's exams too well. Overall, I would never take this class again and I highly regret having someone as unaccommodating and ridiculous as Merlic for a professor. One last note, Merlic likes to sell himself as a "nice guy", but don't fall for this as he is usually highly sarcastic and lies about his schedule and exam lengths. Good luck to y'all!
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Most Helpful Review
hands down one of the best professors i've had at ucla. her lectures are pretty clear, explains concepts well, organized with her review session notes as well. if you do her assigned problem sets, which are difficult but prepare you well for her exams, as well as assigned book problems and look over her review session notes before a major exam, you're gonna do fine. speaking of exams, they are very fair, anything from lecture is fair game, not too easy but not too hard( average is mid 60 to low 70). also she is extremely helpful! offers extra office hours, almost every day of a midterm or final week, definitely recommend her for the 30 series, youll learn so much
hands down one of the best professors i've had at ucla. her lectures are pretty clear, explains concepts well, organized with her review session notes as well. if you do her assigned problem sets, which are difficult but prepare you well for her exams, as well as assigned book problems and look over her review session notes before a major exam, you're gonna do fine. speaking of exams, they are very fair, anything from lecture is fair game, not too easy but not too hard( average is mid 60 to low 70). also she is extremely helpful! offers extra office hours, almost every day of a midterm or final week, definitely recommend her for the 30 series, youll learn so much
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2024 - Dr. Ow is an incredible professor. I wasn't terrible at organic chemistry coming into the class, but I hadn't had the best experience in 30A and was very cautious of 30B in the beginning. Dr. Ow completely changed my view of organic chemistry and now I think it's one of my favorite courses. He is incredibly organized and thorough with his lectures. Most professors I've had usually go over time or have to push back material to fit the time frame, but Dr. Ow rarely did this. He went through all the course topics and really emphasized each topic's connection to another. His emphasis on patterns and practice is the reason I passed the course. His exams are completely fair and don't contain anything unexpected. He also left a ton of time to review in class and offered really good review materials on the course website.
Winter 2024 - Dr. Ow is an incredible professor. I wasn't terrible at organic chemistry coming into the class, but I hadn't had the best experience in 30A and was very cautious of 30B in the beginning. Dr. Ow completely changed my view of organic chemistry and now I think it's one of my favorite courses. He is incredibly organized and thorough with his lectures. Most professors I've had usually go over time or have to push back material to fit the time frame, but Dr. Ow rarely did this. He went through all the course topics and really emphasized each topic's connection to another. His emphasis on patterns and practice is the reason I passed the course. His exams are completely fair and don't contain anything unexpected. He also left a ton of time to review in class and offered really good review materials on the course website.
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2021 - to be honest, when i took 30a with pham, i didn't particularly like him. i was very intimidated by him in office hours, and i found it very difficult to get a straight/clear answer out of him. however, i actually really enjoyed 30b in person with him. i appreciated the fact that he's very transparent about his thoughts and opinions, and he has a very dry/sarcastic sense of humour. with the class being in person, his personality was a lot more evident, and it made learning from him very fun. _____________________________________________________ the class was out of 300 points. we had two midterms worth 50 points each, one final worth 100 points, five problem sets worth 15 points each, and BACON worth 25 points. The midterms had lowish averages (mt1 - 65% and mt2 - 67%), but i think that this is normal for an ochem class. he also give a lot of extra credit (it was something like 10 points not counting the 2 buffer points he has on tests). if you can do well on the problem sets, you'll do well on exams because he likes to put similar questions on his midterms. in addition to the extra credit, he scaled our class up so that a B was an 80%, which he said was right below the average. _____________________________________________________ overall, i think that pham is a great professor. to echo the other reviews, ochem will be hard no matter who is teaching it because of the sheer volume of material (30b had something like 100 reactions plus spec). pham doesn't try to make the class harder that it already is, and he's a fun person to be around. i enjoyed 30b with him, and i would take him again if i had the chance!
Fall 2021 - to be honest, when i took 30a with pham, i didn't particularly like him. i was very intimidated by him in office hours, and i found it very difficult to get a straight/clear answer out of him. however, i actually really enjoyed 30b in person with him. i appreciated the fact that he's very transparent about his thoughts and opinions, and he has a very dry/sarcastic sense of humour. with the class being in person, his personality was a lot more evident, and it made learning from him very fun. _____________________________________________________ the class was out of 300 points. we had two midterms worth 50 points each, one final worth 100 points, five problem sets worth 15 points each, and BACON worth 25 points. The midterms had lowish averages (mt1 - 65% and mt2 - 67%), but i think that this is normal for an ochem class. he also give a lot of extra credit (it was something like 10 points not counting the 2 buffer points he has on tests). if you can do well on the problem sets, you'll do well on exams because he likes to put similar questions on his midterms. in addition to the extra credit, he scaled our class up so that a B was an 80%, which he said was right below the average. _____________________________________________________ overall, i think that pham is a great professor. to echo the other reviews, ochem will be hard no matter who is teaching it because of the sheer volume of material (30b had something like 100 reactions plus spec). pham doesn't try to make the class harder that it already is, and he's a fun person to be around. i enjoyed 30b with him, and i would take him again if i had the chance!
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