I don't think all these negative reviews of Reilly as a person are fair lol. This quarter she offered a lot of extra credit, and she also seems to genuinely care about students' learning. She's super nice when you ask for clarification and go to her office hours.

The things I dislike about this class: it's just insanely tough and there's so many mechanisms to remember. There's also a lot of "tricks" and exceptions for many of the reactions, and you have to be good at remembering them and WHY they happen. People say this class is all memorization, which it is partially, but tbh if you don't understand the fundamental chemical basis of why things react the way they do, you are going to struggle when an unfamiliar problem is on the exam.

Exams were really tough, averages were around 60 for both midterms. It really helps to review the midterms thoroughly when you get them back and understand why you got things wrong.

Also, the prof is sometimes disorganized and makes mistakes on answer keys that are later corrected, and emails and Gradescope submissions are sometimes sent out pretty late. But overall, I feel like Dr. Reilly truly tries to help us succeed in this class.

Everyone is out here hating on Amber, and I’m not 100% sure why. Like she is by no means a perfect professor but she is pretty reasonable. First of all she kept exams remote for all of winter quarter. Second while the class was hard, as ochem is, she’s curing the class average up to a B- which is not bad at all. Plus there was plenty of extra credit and she dropped a midterm. Like it’s a hard class, and I spent way to much time on it but Reilly is always happy to take questions after class or in office hours. She’s pretty accommodating but can be hard to contact besides class/office hours since she doesn’t respond to emails. There disorganization in terms of posting problem sets, practice questions etc. But her lecturing kinda worked for me. Like I had to some out side self studying with Kahn academy and other YouTube videos, but overall her lectures were clear. It just took me a while to get used to her notes. Anyways she isn’t a bad as everyone is saying and if you work hard an do ok on exams you’ll be more than fine in this class.

Prof. Reilly gets a lot of crap for issues that are really just problems with the class material itself, something that she is not to blame for. The class is incredibly fast paced, and a lot of memorization is required, but these are problems that you would have with any CHEM14D professor. In my opinion, it would be better to cover less material in this course and allow students to actually comprehend each reaction before moving onto the next one... but I digress. This being said, Reilly lectures from her own notes rather than slides and organizes the reactions in a way that definitely aids with memorization. Flash cards will be your best friend in this class. She was also very considerate with the last two exams and narrowed down which things to focus on. Admittedly, instead of providing us with the second problem set in order to help study for the midterm and give examples of problem types, she told us to create our own synthesis problem, probably because she never got around to writing the problem set herself. She is definitely not the most organized person when it comes to assignments (posting them late), emails (simply does not respond), or life (cancelled OH day of exam because she had not finished writing the exam), but she is a good lecturer.

Assignment Breakdown:
Midterm Exams (100 pts x 2) 50%
Problem Sets (16 pts x 3) 12%
Discussion Worksheets (8 pts x 2) 6%
BACON online (28 pts) 7%
Final Exam (100 pts) 25%

TLDR; Reilly is a good lecturer with helpful notes in a class that is incredibly fast-paced but is pretty disorganized.

Reilly was a much better professor in Spring 2022. She was open to criticism and embraced it. Her tests were very fair, but it requires memorization and understanding. Reilly recommended using flashcards, which I used and turned out very well for me. She was transparent about the final and revealed one of the problems on that final for us to memorize and review. There were lots of extra credit opportunities and an insane curve at the end as well (~3-4%)

I really tried to come into this class with hopes that I would do good, but I'm telling you now, this has definitely been the hardest class I have taken at UCLA. For some, organic chemistry may come easy and at some point in the class some of the material did come easier... after (not exaggerating) spending at least 15-20 hours a week (while working 20 hours on an on-campus job and having two other classes) studying just for this class. (Also, during finals week or midterm season, I definitely spent all my free time studying for this class). I studied so much for this class that I even started falling behind in my other classes. Let me tell you, if you come in this class thinking that if you work very hard, you're guaranteed an A, that may not be the case as it was for me so don't get your hopes up just to be crushed. Amber Reilly. The topic of so many of my Ackerman lunches and BPlate dinners and dorm lounge breakdowns. I would say I naturally try to find the best in people and I didn't want to believe all the reviews that were previously left for Amber, and while I will say some may be a little of an exaggeration, they are not founded on false pretenses. First off, my main fault is with the entire chem department. I really think there is something wrong with this class and how the curriculum is structured. This is a very rigorous topic for some students to be taught in just 10 weeks and if a majority of the students are having mental breakdowns, not getting good grades, or the class has to be curved around 20-25% JUST so the grade distribution doesn't reflect horribly on the professor, then there is obviously a fundamental problem in the way this class is being taught. I will say some fault is saved for Amber, but I really did think that Amber cared for her students to do good and she is very very smart when it comes to ochem, but the slides and notes were messy, she would contradict herself in different lectures, she talked so quick to barely even comprehend the subject cuz you're just trying to fill in the notes, and the exams were just horrid. No class should require as much studying as this class did and leave students in shambles or (as for myself) wanting to drop pre-med because of their soon-to-be drop in GPA or they lost interest or their love for chemistry. I will say though, if you were like me and had to take this class to fulfill requirements, then find a study group and be prepared that this class will be very hard. I don't know what I would have done in this class without my 'cyclopentane' group. Be prepared to devote a lot of time studying, to making a lot of flashcards (flashcards are your friend), to be confused and to cry. Guaranteed this class will make you shed a tear or two. However, you got this. You can make it through and just remember a grade doesn't define who you are as a person and one bad grade to your GPA does NOT mean you can't go to med school or that you're not smart. And if you do naturally good in this class, well then I really envy you. Last thing, if you're NOT like me and you don't even need to take this class to fulfill a requirement or something... run.

This class can be super overwhelming and is definitely a lot of work. I've never had to study for a class this hard before because you basically have to commit a ton of reactions to memory and have a really strong understanding of everything. Reilly gives tons of practice problems and posts these really great reaction summary sheets, but she can be disorganized and a lot of the time her answer keys are wrong. A lot of older reviews complain about her timing/pacing but this quarter, she was pretty good about staying on track. The midterms were very difficult (averages of 60% for both) but the final was a lot easier in my opinion (in person, closed note, 1 hr for all exams, even the final). Reilly is a clear and engaging professor and her explanations/lectures are good, and she does try to take feedback and definitely addresses student concerns. She gave us opportunities for extra credit, and for our midterms, she even gave us the 3-4 mechanisms that she would pick from to put on the exam so it was basically a free 20% to your score. Do all your practice problems, go to lecture, and memorize those reactions!!

Based on past reviews I was worried to take this class with Reilly but she ended up being one of the better professors that have taught Organic chemistry. She uses her own notes instead of slides like other professors, but honestly her notes were so concise that it helped me more than regular lecture slides. She curves pretty well and it's mainly memorization and understanding different mechanisms. The only important thing is try not to cram right before her tests or you won't do well.

Don't be scared off by some of the horrible ratings for Prof. Reilly. First of all, Chem 14D is a hard class-Organic Chemistry is a hard class. There are a LOT of reactions that you have to memorize, and the amount of material really picks up after the first midterm.

Professor Reilly is not a bad professor. She is slightly disorganized; she doesn't personally respond to emails (but she addresses questions in the next lecture in person), she posts problem sets and Gradescope assignments late, and posts answer keys with wrong answers sometimes. But, she does care about her students.

For our second midterm and final exam, she literally told us which reactions we would have to know the arrow pushing for (2 mechanisms for the 2nd midterm, 1 was tested; 4 mechanisms for the final exam, 1 was tested), and that was basically an automatic +20 points on your exam. She also provided plenty of extra credit assignments that were quite fun (we drew her dogs for one, and then made a meme of the class for another); these compiled up to around 8-10 points.

Her online exams from past quarters were MUCH harder than her in-person exams. She provided past exams as practice exams for our midterm and finals. After taking her in-person exams, it's very clear that she made her online exams (open-note) significantly more difficult than her in-person (closed-note) exams.

According to other students, she also curved the class, but I didn't calculate my grade percentage so I'm not sure how much she curved it by. However, I went from an E on my 1st midterm to an A on my 2nd midterm and final and ended up with an A-.

There's a lot of tweaking that you have to do with your studying habits-- THIS IS NOT A CLASS THAT YOU CAN PROCRASTINATE IN!

Honestly, this class in general is the worst class youll ever take in your life. When it comes down to it, it is pretty much just memorization and creating a huge puzzle in your head to try and understand how everything works. Everyone gives Riley a bunch of shit and says shes a horrible teacher but she is honestly probably top 2 best chemistry teachers. She gives you the notes and even condenses them for you. She also narrows down what you need to know for the midterm/final. Apart from that she hands out very easy extra credit opportunities. Dont get me wrong, the class is horrible, but she is not a terrible teacher. I would not take this class at all, but if you have too, shes not a terrible option. JUST STUDY!!!! and memorize and begin doing this during week 0 LOL

This class requires lots of practice. I would advise you to get ahold of summary sheets before week 3 and start memorizing and understanding those reactions, as she takes a long time going through SN1, SN2, E1, E2, etc. Also, go to her office hours, she will teach a lot there and answer the questions you have. But all in all, memorize, practice, and make those flashcards!