CHEM C215A
Quantum Chemistry: Methods
Description: Lecture, four hours; discussion, one hour. Requisites: course 113A, Mathematics 31A, 31B, 32A, 32B, 33A, with grades of C- or better. Recommended: knowledge of differential equations equivalent to Mathematics 134 or 135 or Physics 131 and of analytic mechanics equivalent to Physics 105A. Course C215A or Physics 115B with grade of C- or better is requisite to C215B. Students entering course C215A are normally expected to take course C215B in following term. Designed for chemistry students with serious interest in quantum chemistry. Postulates and systematic development of nonrelativistic quantum mechanics; expansion theorems; wells; oscillators; angular momentum; hydrogen atom; matrix techniques; approximation methods; time dependent problems; atoms; spectroscopy; magnetic resonance; chemical bonding. May be concurrently scheduled with course C115A. S/U or letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2022 - Highly disappointing and pure chaos. Professor Narang was often late to class and office hours, and on many occasions, she simply did not show up (weekly traveling excuses). Classes and office hours were frequently canceled, sometimes on very short notice. Sometimes, she would have other people hold her office hours on her behalf. This lack of commitment severely impacted everyone’s learning experience, but sadly this is not where it ends. Narang demonstrated a clear inability to teach effectively. Her lectures consisted mainly of reading notes from printouts and writing scattered equations on the board. The course material, including notes, homework, and exams, were obviously taken from the internet (e.g., MIT OCW or other instructor’s quantum mechanics classes). This lack of effort was very evident in both A and B and extremely frustrating to everyone in the class (undergrads + 1st year grads). You can find other reviews online from her time at Harvard on Rate My Professor, which basically say the same thing: she is incompetent. During the few lectures she gave (which btw were often cut very short, instead of being ~ 1hr and 50 min long, minus an optional 10 min break), Narang was often incoherent and struggled to answer student questions. When asked questions she couldn't answer, she wouldn’t say “I don’t know”, but she would either provide vague or straight up the wrong answers, further adding to everyone’s confusion and frustration. I think many stopped attending class after the first few weeks. Also, the distribution of class workload was very poorly managed. We had ~6 problem sets for both A and B, which were excessively long and contained material not even remotely covered in class. The due dates were poorly spaced, with most assignments being due toward the end of the course. The take-home midterm was also lengthy (9-10 questions). The final exam was a short presentation on a problem of your choice (similar in difficulty to a midterm question). Finally, if you thought it couldn’t get any worse, jokes on you, because the class TA for both courses was equally terrible. She struggled to hold discussion sections and was generally clueless about the material. Some students in the class appeared to know more than both the instructor and the TA combined, which tells you what a sad state of affairs this class was. The TA's grading was really inconsistent and often inaccurate. Answer keys were rarely provided, probably because the materials were stolen from the internet/someone else. Overall, my experience with Narang was extremely disappointing and both CHEM 115 A and B with her were absolutely the worst classes I took at UCLA. Her lack of commitment, teaching ability, and the poor structuring of the course made it a highly frustrating experience. Quantum mechanics is already a challenging class for many, but when you have an instructor who is obviously unqualified and so uninterested in teaching, the outcomes are just awful. I’m confident to say that most of us who took her class walked away knowing very little about the material, and if we did learn anything, it was learned on our own and not through the instructor/TA. I strongly advise everyone to avoid her classes at all costs. She is sadly an insult to the teaching profession and an embarrassment to the university. People like her shouldn’t be teaching at a place like UCLA.
Fall 2022 - Highly disappointing and pure chaos. Professor Narang was often late to class and office hours, and on many occasions, she simply did not show up (weekly traveling excuses). Classes and office hours were frequently canceled, sometimes on very short notice. Sometimes, she would have other people hold her office hours on her behalf. This lack of commitment severely impacted everyone’s learning experience, but sadly this is not where it ends. Narang demonstrated a clear inability to teach effectively. Her lectures consisted mainly of reading notes from printouts and writing scattered equations on the board. The course material, including notes, homework, and exams, were obviously taken from the internet (e.g., MIT OCW or other instructor’s quantum mechanics classes). This lack of effort was very evident in both A and B and extremely frustrating to everyone in the class (undergrads + 1st year grads). You can find other reviews online from her time at Harvard on Rate My Professor, which basically say the same thing: she is incompetent. During the few lectures she gave (which btw were often cut very short, instead of being ~ 1hr and 50 min long, minus an optional 10 min break), Narang was often incoherent and struggled to answer student questions. When asked questions she couldn't answer, she wouldn’t say “I don’t know”, but she would either provide vague or straight up the wrong answers, further adding to everyone’s confusion and frustration. I think many stopped attending class after the first few weeks. Also, the distribution of class workload was very poorly managed. We had ~6 problem sets for both A and B, which were excessively long and contained material not even remotely covered in class. The due dates were poorly spaced, with most assignments being due toward the end of the course. The take-home midterm was also lengthy (9-10 questions). The final exam was a short presentation on a problem of your choice (similar in difficulty to a midterm question). Finally, if you thought it couldn’t get any worse, jokes on you, because the class TA for both courses was equally terrible. She struggled to hold discussion sections and was generally clueless about the material. Some students in the class appeared to know more than both the instructor and the TA combined, which tells you what a sad state of affairs this class was. The TA's grading was really inconsistent and often inaccurate. Answer keys were rarely provided, probably because the materials were stolen from the internet/someone else. Overall, my experience with Narang was extremely disappointing and both CHEM 115 A and B with her were absolutely the worst classes I took at UCLA. Her lack of commitment, teaching ability, and the poor structuring of the course made it a highly frustrating experience. Quantum mechanics is already a challenging class for many, but when you have an instructor who is obviously unqualified and so uninterested in teaching, the outcomes are just awful. I’m confident to say that most of us who took her class walked away knowing very little about the material, and if we did learn anything, it was learned on our own and not through the instructor/TA. I strongly advise everyone to avoid her classes at all costs. She is sadly an insult to the teaching profession and an embarrassment to the university. People like her shouldn’t be teaching at a place like UCLA.
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2018 - Ben is one of the best professors I've had at UCLA and the best professor to learn quantum mechanics from on this campus (The man is effectively a quantum mechanic (?) himself and he understands the material to the bone). This class is HARD. You start with a linear algebra review and then hit the difficult abstractions of the subject right away. The first problem set is pretty easy, the rest get extremely hard and will take a lot of effort to figure out. His grading is 50% homework so the class is meant for you to figure out stuff via problem sets, a teaching philosophy that I quite like. It's strongly recommended you have a good math background to succeed in the class because quantum mechanics is a physics class after all. He does not hold back here. Work together and work with Ben. This class is very rewarding if you take the time with it.
Fall 2018 - Ben is one of the best professors I've had at UCLA and the best professor to learn quantum mechanics from on this campus (The man is effectively a quantum mechanic (?) himself and he understands the material to the bone). This class is HARD. You start with a linear algebra review and then hit the difficult abstractions of the subject right away. The first problem set is pretty easy, the rest get extremely hard and will take a lot of effort to figure out. His grading is 50% homework so the class is meant for you to figure out stuff via problem sets, a teaching philosophy that I quite like. It's strongly recommended you have a good math background to succeed in the class because quantum mechanics is a physics class after all. He does not hold back here. Work together and work with Ben. This class is very rewarding if you take the time with it.
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