Just out of curiosity in regard to the last poster below: If you don't need chem 172 (and thus have not and will never even take 172), how do you know if the way Spokoyny taught will not prepare for 172 in any way? To be honest, 172 can be taken independently from 171 material-wise. I'm not sure why 171 is a pre-requisite; 172 is very straightforward because you just follow the motions of solving the same problems over and over again. I feel 172 is just an intro class for group theory and 171 helps establish appreciation and recognition of what's out there in 171. It's not the teacher's fault if the student can't put two concepts together and has to have the teacher spell out every single thing...that's called studying at home. Spookily is a great teacher and does not trick you.

For the second poster: ok sure he asked some history questions...look back at the test again...you may have missed 4 points out of 100 AND he curves in everybody's favor. Also recall the solid state chemistry questions that took a whole page. How about the page of quantum mechanics and conceptual mass spec questions on the next page? It's a lot to learn but it comes down to the student's responsibility. Good luck!

He is a new professor who taught 171 without the conceptual rigor that the material required. Instead, he talked a ton about historical things and lecture just felt like being exposed to a ton of trivia about elements. When it actually came down to chemistry things, like drawing correlation diagrams for metal complexes, many people are confused and have to seek help because Spokoyny didnt properly emphasize how orbitals work, just assuming you remember all the way from chem 20A. For exams, just go through the slides and copy every random trivia onto the cheat sheet that you are allowed (write really tiny).

So yes, he is well-meaning and entertaining, and the class is pretty fun overall, but you will not feel like you learned any cohesive concepts about inorganic chemistry and you will be very poorly prepared for 172 (good thing im biochem so i dont need 172)

Never Never take his class. He is the worst professor that I ever met at UCLA.

He didn't teach any useful knowledge relating to inorganic chemistry. On his test, he asked question like "What is the biggest company that manufacture Al?" Why should we know the answer to this kinds of non-sense questions.

He taught based on his own interest. All the lectures relating to main-group elements were historical-based. And for his tests you need to memorize all the historical facts... He always claims that he want us to be successful in his class, but base on his test and the way he assigned grades, his claims were not true.

If you took his Chem 171, you will definitely have a hard time in Chem 172 since he basically prepares you for nothing.

I highly recommend this professor. There's one midterm, final, and wiki article project. The textbook is not necessary but MAKE SURE you study his PowerPoint slides. No homework. For the wiki project it's actually quite fun; just make sure you pick a topic you like. There's also plenty of extra credit points if you mess up. Spokoyny is also a very good lecturer, very clear, relates concepts to current topics. Overall fun class and awesome professor.