A lot of people are leaving harsh reviews based on the intensity of the final, so I'm gonna give a non-biased review of the course.

Courey is a fairly good professor. He explains the concepts pretty well and his slides have a lot of content (the textbook reading isn't necessary because of this). However, he often will skip/quickly go over slides that have important info, so make sure you review all the slides from the lectures and ask questions if you don't understand. Courey always does his best to answer student questions during office hours (he usually goes overtime if there are more questions) and hosts additional office hours for Q&A sessions about the exams/written assignments. Also, sometimes we got a little behind in schedule, which made it difficult to understand the pre-lecture assignments (we were doing pre-lecture assignments for future lessons without even finishing the current ones). Nevertheless, it was still manageable. This was the first time 14BE has been offered, so I think there will be improvement in the future.

The workload is genuinely not bad. The "enhanced" part of this course was to provide students extra opportunities to understand the material, and that is exactly what all of the assignments do. Yes some are time consuming, but for someone with no chemistry background before college, having structured activities were really helpful to assist me in understanding the material. Also, the PRWAs are not as bad as people make them out to be: the first one was like 3 simple questions (explanation/calculation), the second was a 250 word paragraph explanation of a concept, and the third was a 500 word essay that was BASED ON a biochem concept, but we were only asked to explain it relative to the content we learned in class and all the necessary information to understand it was provided.

The midterms were relatively easy. My TA told us that Courey specifically made the final harder because of the easiness of the midterms. Once again, cut him some slack; it's the first time this course has ever been done and he made accommodations once he saw how people performed. He made it out of 88 points instead of 100 and changed the grade breakdown so that a 91%+ was an A and an 88-90% (I think) was considered and A-. Personsally, I think this was a decently fair curve (still trying not to be biased - I literally got an F on the CCLE portion).

Overall I still would prefer this class over 14B. Courey is a nice professor who wants his students to learn and understand the material. Yes the content in itself is challenging, but I think Courey does a good job at teaching it.

A lot of the reviews on here are coming off of a long, difficult final that students were not able to finish which negatively impacted grades. So, take these reviews with a grain of salt as Courey really is a fair, great professor that truly cares about his students.
Other than the final, this class is manageable. After taking Chem 14A with Lavelle during the fall quarter, I wanted nothing more than to take a chem class with a different professor. In terms of lectures, Courey was very clear and a really good lecturer. His slides are very comprehensive, so even if you miss something in the lecture, the slides fill in all of the blanks. They also make reading the textbook pretty unnecessary in my opinion (which is totally different than Lavelle's class in which I read every chapter of the textbook and took notes in order to understand concepts).
The workload of this course is honestly heavy, especially compared to what I did in 14A with Lavelle. There are weekly, group discussion worksheets, 3 peer-reviewed essays (hated these, your peers are not nice graders lol), weekly homework, 1-3 per week pre-class quizzes (multiple attempts), 3 concept mastery quizzes (single attempt), 2 midterms, and a final.
Ultimately, this class is more work than Lavelle's class, but if you put in the time, you can do well. The grading is FAR MORE FORGIVING than what I experienced in 14A. And, even though the material is harder, Courey does his best to make it understandable.
This was the first time Courey taught 14BE, so I think he deserves a break. His midterms and quizzes were extremely fair if you studied. His final was pretty bad, but it was manageable, especially after the curve he offered. I would still recommend this class over Lavelle's!

Despite all of the negative reviews below, I thought that Chem 14BE was one of the better classes I have taken at UCLA. The course logistics are very similar to Chem 14AE: there are 3 quizzes, two midterms, and one final. The midterms have an individual and group portion and you have two hours to complete the individual portion. The final worth 23% of the overall grade and is solely based on individual effort. The midterms were pretty easy if you attended LA workshops or understood the homework. I do agree with the reviews below that the final was tough and long. However, Dr. Courey fully acknowledged the length of the final was unreasonable and curved the final as well as the overall class. Dr. Courey took our grade on the final out of 100 and divided by 0.88. I scored an overall 76% on the final and the curve brought it up to an 88%. He also adjusted the grading scale so that a 91 was an A as opposed to a 93 as stated in the syllabus. Overall, I think Dr. Courey was a very clear professor and his slides were very helpful for studying. If given the opportunity, I would 100% take Dr. Courey for chemistry over Lavelle or Scerri!

I think a lot of my peers that reviewed this course took to Bruinwalk to vent their frustrations after the final, which would explain Professor Courey's low average rating for the class. However, I think that's very unfair; I also felt that the final was very difficult, but students had given him very little time to both grade and react to exams before dragging his name through the mud.

In regards to the class itself, I found it to have a pretty big workload, but all of the group and writing assignments were very helpful for exams. For the most part, I felt that the peer grading of writing assignments was generally pretty fair. There were some graders that definitely missed the mark, but this was not worse than LS 23L peer grading. Midterms 1 and 2 were fine, and the time limit was reasonable. The final was very difficult in that it was too long and not enough time was given. However, Professor Courey divided all exam scores by 0.88 (some students complained that this benefited those who scored higher much more, but in reality, the difference in score-boosting was pretty marginal), lowered the thresholds for all grades (an A became a 91%), and provided 1% of extra credit (from surveys throughout the quarter). He could have done better to prepare a more suitable final exam, but I'm confident that, should he teach this class again, an issue like this will not pop up again, and given how amazing the rest of the quarter was, I would definitely recommend taking this class.

I didn't take AP Chem, but I was able to do well in Courey's class by studying his slides, LA worksheets, and discussion worksheets before quizzes/exams. His midterms were very easy (lots of people did very well on them if they studied), and there's a lot of easy points in the class so that exams don't count for as much. The only things that generally sucked were the peer reviews (but they don't count for too much of you grade), and the length of the final. The final was very similar to the practice final exam he gave us and I didn't think it was too difficult if you made sure you understood everything in the course, people's main issue was with length, although I was able to finish since I generally work fast under pressure. Courey was very nice and curved the final by making it out of 88 points instead of 100, and curved the grades by making a 91-98 an A, 88-90 an A-, etc.
If you have the time to put the effort into this class and really study, I would definitely recommend this class.

COUREY MY MANNNN. The first class, you're gonna think to yourself: "why did I take 14be, I should've taken 14b like everyone else," but do not drop! Courey is such a sweet and kind professor (gave out multiple extra credit assignments and extensions and made changes to the syllabus to boost grades), and he genuinely cares about you learning the material in class, not just skimming across it for the grade. Give him a chance, and Courey is gonna grow on you over all your other professors. Tip: lectures aren't the greatest, but so much of the exam material comes from the POGIL worksheets, homework problems, and weekly quizzes. Just do all the work and try your best to keep up with the reading, and this class will be super manageable.

I preferred this class with Courey over Chem 14AE with Caram! Significantly so. Although the material is arguably tougher to understand conceptually and to apply correctly to problems, Courey gave solid lectures and provided tons of study resources. There were two in-person exams, a midterm in Week 6 and a final. Lectures were clear, recorded, and had helpful slides to go along with them (posted in advance weekly). Attendance was taken through iClicker polls, but he was generous in the amount that counted towards full credit. Weekly discussion was mandatory attendance for 2 hours working with a group to complete a packet of questions that helped us derive equations and concepts of the content. Oftentimes our group finished the packet in less than an hour, but you are given till the end of the day to submit for graded credit. Weekly homework was doable and helped guide you through solving the mathematical problems of the topics. There were weekly quizzes, but the lowest you could possibly get on each was 75%. In preparation for exams, Courey provided practice exams and an in-class practice quiz (that you got extra credit for as long as you showed up and completed it). Many opportunities for extra credit were available, ranging from surveys to writing pieces to identifying model problems. I felt that both of the exams were very fair and a reflection of the problems and work he gave us prior to them. Although I think the averages for both were quite low, there was an online and a group portion for the midterm that could raise your score. Also, if you scored better on the final, he would replace your midterm grade. I definitely feel that I did not put the proper amount of time into this class as I should have especially given all the help, resources, and extra credit that was provided (I never attended office hours nor studied diligently). I think the content of this course is definitely challenging, but the structure of this class and how Courey presents the material is very good. I think if you utilize all of the resources he provides, pay attention during lecture, fully understand the discussion worksheets, and spend some extra time studying the content, anyone could get an A in the class! (I wish I would take my own advice lol)

GRADE BREAKDOWN
Mastering Chemistry Homework Assignments: 10%
Formative Assessment Quizzes: 12.5%
Midterm: 20%
Final Exam: 35%
Peer Review Homework Assignment: 5%
POGIL worksheets: 12.5%
iClicker: 5%
Surveys and other extra credit assignments: 2.6%

I really enjoyed this class and Professor Courey as a teacher. His lectures are very organized, and he gives the slides beforehand so you can take notes on them during lecture. The class is a little difficult conceptually, but Professor Courey gives a pretty good gist of what you need to know in preparation for the final and midterm. For some context, I only took honors chem in high school and took Lavelle for 14A (I got a B+). I took this class because Lavelle's class had no spots, but I definitely liked Professor's class format way better. You could also get partial credit on the midterm and final since some of the questions are free response. Overall, would take this class again!

I think Professor Courey is a great lecturer: he's engaging, cracks jokes, and I feel that my classmates and I are always comfortable talking to him. I believe he cares a lot about our success in the course, and I appreciate that.
As for the course itself, I think its structure is a little strange; 7 weeks of thermodynamics, 2 weeks of acid-base chemistry, and 1 week of kinetics. Of course, I don't know what we should know for the other courses in the chain, but I feel that the course would be a lot more cohesive if we focused solely on thermodynamics and left acid-base chemistry and kinetics to other courses.

I'm sure you can read the other comments with the grade break downs, so for that info go there.

This course, theoretically, should've have been pretty manageable. I know my listed grade make it seems like I didn't put in the time and effort, but when I say I put triple the amount of time into this class compared to my other classes, I mean it. (I put in roughly 30 hours a week into this class, doing the mass amount of assignments, reviewing, and doing practice exams.)

Dr. Courey is very knowledgable in chemistry, however he assumes that most of his students also possess that knowledge. I remember hearing from someone that he used to only teach grad students and thought that made sense, as he seems to not explain most information present in his slides, makes large assumptions about the class's own knowledge, and essentially re-asks your own question to you as a response in the lecture rather then actually answering you.

He is not very good at explaining things multiple ways, so if it doesn't land the first time it won't get much better.

He wasn't too accommodating either. I remember our only in-person midterm also happened to be when some people had enrollment (first pass) and he wouldn't reschedule it, instead making them pause in the middle of their exams and have a 15 minute cut out.

Frankly I heard from other people that regular 14B was much easier and an easier grade. But to each their own.