Prof. Reilly is an amazing lecturer. Everything in the lectures is extremely clear and I know I'll be using the notes from her class in the future. However, her tests are unfortunately unclear/unexpected/unfair. They have some problems that we either didn't cover at all or are 5 times harder than the hardest problem she had us do. The averages on her tests are very low for this reason. She is a very sweet professor and you will leave feeling like you have a good understanding of ochem, however, beware her tests! Your understanding will not always be reflected on your score.

HI Ya'll, I know you guys are on here because you're curious about professor Reilly so I'll give my honest review.
Professor Reilly is great, she does soo much for her students to pass the class and I highly recommend going to office hours, especially over the summer if that's when you decide to take the class. I've taken her for both 30A and 30B over the summer. It's great because you definitely get to have more one on one time with her, as opposed to a regular academic quarter where theres over 200 students that require attention for such a tough course. For anyone who is taking her for the first time, please do not worry if you didn't do so well on the first exam. Focus on the average and try to go above that, only because her grading scale will be adjusted. So for example, if the average to her 2nd exam is a 55%, then anyone who received a 55% got a B- on the exam and anyone who received lets say a 75% or higher would because considered an A. Don't worry guys, my first time around I cried because I did not understand her scale adjustment, but you'll be fine as long as you put in your best foot forward. Please enjoy the class and appreciate the time you have with professor Reilly, because I honestly believe there's not too many professors like her. She's awesome, but don't forget its Organic Chemistry!

This review is for CHEM 14D. Overall, I really enjoyed taking ochem with Reilly. Even though her lectures go by really fast, she takes time to answer questions and give examples for clarification. This helpfulness also extends beyond class hours, as she uploads some tutorial videos and practice problems to CCLE in order to help you prepare for exams. Her lecture notes and chapter summaries are extremely helpful and easy to follow (especially helpful in making notecards). I found her exams to be difficult, but fair. Exams (2 midterms and a final) make up the bulk of the points in this class, but there are smaller points to earn from BACON exercises and smaller extra credit opportunities. Discussion sections are a hit or miss, depending on which TA's section you are enrolled in, but you can drop into any TA's section if there's space allowing.

She is one of the best professors I have had at UCLA. Her workload isn't too bad, and he gives out plenty of A's as long as you understand the material. Take her by all means, I would definitely recommend her.

Very hard class, amazing professor. The first Ochem class will be hard for anyone, but the professor makes it so much better. she posted the lecture notes online so you print them before lecture and then work through the problems in class. It makes lecture so much better and I actually learned a lot more. The material is hard so I read the textbook before class which helped a ton. Grading is 23% midterm 1, 23% midterm 2, 45% final, and 9% bacon (online HW, very easy, and free). She also offers 1.5% extra credit for going to lecture which is nice. The test are very hard midterm 1 (avg. 83%), midterm 2 (avg. 52%), final (avg. 60%). The key to do well is do good on mdterm 2. The material on midterm 2 is not hard but you learn a lot of reactions between weeks 4-8 so make sure you stay ahead of schedule and know all the reactions very well before then. The really hard test is the final. By now everyone knows all the reactions, so she adds tricky problems that don't just test your knowledge on memorizing reagents and reaction, but to truly think like a chemist and draws a little on acid/bases and general chem knowledge from chem 20A/B. Overall to do well in this class you need a solid understand of chemistry and there is no way to fake it

I really liked Professor Reilly! She's a wonderful professor and is so helpful both inside and outside the classroom. She held an insane amount of office hours, and I went really often and was satisfied every time we talked. She posted all of the handwritten lecture notes on CCLE, and we would print them out and fill them out in class. For every discussion worksheet, she would post a video answer key of her doing out the problems, which are SUPER helpful and can save you time if you can't make it to office hours. There was a review session before every exam, but they were run by the LAs. While most of the LAs are really nice and smart, they also make the review sheet that they go over during the review session, and I felt like the problems were more for pushing your thinking and went beyond what was expected on the exam, which was kind of unhelpful if you were going to review exam material. Professor Reilly also posts a lot of extra practice, which I recommend doing ALL of it because they'll really help prepare you for the midterms/final, especially when it comes to mechanisms and synthesis problems. While she does go kinda fast, office hours do remedy that, as she goes through any and all questions thoroughly and will explain concepts multiple times if you don't understand them. My only complaint is that the first midterm was relatively straightforward, and our average was a B-, which is really good. However, she made the second midterm and final extremely difficult, and the respective averages were an F and a D-. The second midterm and final were really difficult for most of the class, me included, and the questions were meant to push your thinking. However, that was a problem for the second midterm considering the extreme time constraint (during a 50 min. lecture period). For the final, it was more understandable, as it's 3 hours, but it was still extremely hard, and most of the class stayed all 3 hours. However, she does offer multiple XC opportunities and easy homework points through BACON. Overall, I would definitely take her, even though her exams are difficult, because she's really nice, helpful, straightforward, and a great chemistry professor!

Dr. Reilly is a very compassionate and clear professor for Chem30A! She really wants to help students to the best of her abilities, and was good about having office hours, review sessions, extra practice problems, video keys, etc. to help students. This past quarter, she did lecture very quickly and at times it can be rather difficult to keep up with what is going on. But I walked away with a very strong understanding in the end. If you take her, here's some things to know:
-Dr. Reilly lectures extremely quickly, especially after the first midterm things start flying by. Really try to look at the material that will be covered beforehand, and review it consistently after.
-Reilly makes very helpful worksheets that are pretty reflective of the kind of material that will be on exams. Definitely do all of the worksheets and go to discussions.
-The textbook problems were not too helpful/reflective of what is expected. Often they are significantly easier. Maybe do some early on for practice.
-One frustration I had with the class was how much of the exams relied on being creative with mechanisms/synthesis. You can still understand the reactions but still do very poorly on exams. Do not let the 1st midterm fool you! Exams got significantly more difficult afterwards. Practice, practice, practice with the resources she makes + anything you can find.
-Averages of 2nd midterm and final were in the 50s, low 60s, but Reilly adjusts her grading around these. She wants a more difficult exam for a better distribution.
-Its been said that Reilly manipulates grades at times significantly, and values improvement, so don't be discouraged!

Professor Reilly is the best. She even makes video answer keys of herself explaining the worksheets.. She also has extra office hours every week to help with additional questions. Her notes are super clear, and herself is just very good at explaining and clarifying things. Chem 30A is definitely not the easiest class, the concepts are not challenging but it takes a lot to get used to. I would definitely recommend to take advantage of every opportunity she offers to ask questions. It’s important to build a strong foundation in Organic chemistry, especially if you are chem e/chem/biochem majors. Overall, I’m very glad that I had her this quarter:) She made O chem so much more interesting and exciting!

Take her, trust me

Took her for both 30A and 30B. Prof Reilly will guide you through intro to ochem pretty painlessly as long as you put in the effort, i.e. go to class and office hours, do the practice problems, read her lecture notes, summaries & other materials carefully before exams, and actually try to learn and understand. Imo she paced material pretty slowly and covered material clearly, and knew well that most people were completely new to ochem. Her tests were very fair and she gave a little bit of extra credit for lecture attendance and for exams. She posted meticulous handwritten lecture notes before lectures and personally I found the annotated lecture notes she uploaded after lectures the most helpful for revision. I personally didn't go for office hours but I could tell she definitely cared about students and their learning. Would recommend her for CHEM 30 series for sure.