He honestly doesn't teach, just reads the slides. My class was his first time ever teaching chem at UCLA so I understand he just needs more practice. As the year went on, he became significantly better at teaching us brand new concepts. However, he was absolutely unwilling to listen to students' feedback. The first midterm was insanely unfair (it contained all the exception problems and nothing that was reasonably taught yet, because he taught us the stuff AFTER the exam). The final was much clearer and I don't have complaints about that. However, we did have weekly quizzes which were only 10 minutes long. The problems contained in these quizzes take a long time (he took 1 hour and 40 minutes to explain two problems), and we had both of these types of problems as well as 8 more to do in just 10 minutes. When we voiced our concern with the time, he said "it is what it is" and that was that.... lol.

Assignments: only online quizzes using inclusive access, has no limits and no consequences if you get some wrong
2 midterms and 1 final
study ! it will a lot easier if you study study study

Tourmari was very funny. Since this was one of my first classes, I did not put much effort into the class as I wanted. If I had studied more before midterms and exams, I would have gotten a much better grade. His assignments were only on online quizzes which you need inclusive access, with no limits on trying and no consequences if you get some wrong.

Arman is the sweetest cutest man ever. He is down to earth but kinda not approachable as he is quite awkward. But he tests exactly from the slides and is very clear in his lectures going point by point. His quizzes were tough at first but got easier. Homework was graded but incorrect answers were very very small penalty. The TA sessions were kinda useless but that was during the strike.

Overall, I really liked the class and wish every chem class was like him

Horrible teacher. Should be fired. I got an A, but that is only because I took IB Chemistry HL. Fun fact, my high school chemistry teacher was incompetent as well. I suppose it is a trend. Either way, I'd recommend becoming self-sufficient to the level of being able to learn chemistry (general, organic, and biochemistry) on your own because the teachers are all incompetent.

I don't think people's complaints about the first midterm are objective. Professor Toumari went over something that took up a lot of the first midterm the class before the exam, which is problematic, but he never said it wasn't going to be on the exam. When people complained about not getting enough practice with the new concepts before the midterm, he opened the homeworks for us to complete weeks earlier in preparation for our second midterm. I felt that he was constantly responding to people's complaints, as it was a lot of people's first time taking a college level Chemistry course and they seemed shocked at the possibility that they might not do well in a hard class. He gave 3% extra credit at the end of the quarter and adjusted the grading scale to help our grades. I think he should be cut slack as it was his first quarter teaching, but it took him too long to realize that his time management is poor and by then we were too far behind schedule. However, I would recommend that people take his class if he is an option for a professor because he has fair tests and is not looking to give students bad grades, like I have heard about some other professors.

I would like to start by saying that I did in fact take AP Chemistry. However, I took it junior year of high school and basically did not remember anything going into Chem 14a. Ultimately, I don’t think it’s necessary to take AP Chemistry to do well in this class, and the class itself was honestly not that bad.

I enjoyed having Professor Toumari as a teacher.

His slides covered absolutely everything you needed to know for the assessments. He also made sure to ask for questions, include videos and physical demonstrations of certain concepts, work through problems step by step with us, etc.

Moreover, Professor Toumari was incredibly responsive to student feedback. He extended deadlines when students complained, took questions off the quizzes when the diagrams weren’t loading for some students, reduced the weight of midterms, moved our final online in response to concerns about the TA strike, etc. You could tell he cared about our success in this class.

Granted, the complaint that Professor Toumari struggled with time management is valid. We were way behind schedule, and we only touched upon the basics of acids and bases in the end. However, I would like to point out too that this was his first time teaching on a quarter system and at UCLA. I’m sure he’ll improve with more experience. (Again, he never tested us on topics we never covered).

And yes, this class isn’t easy. The topics sometimes took a lot of studying to fully understand, and the quizzes/midterms were tough. I also hated having to memorize so much.

However, I felt like the class was at a manageable level of difficulty. The workload itself was light, and when I paid attention and studied hard I was able to do alright on the assessments. All of the extra credit also ended up bringing my grade up by 3%!

Overall, don’t be afraid to take this class with Professor Toumari. I personally would definitely take this class again.

While many people have already stated that the first midterm was difficult and we were not given the materials to study as much, Toumari was still a great professor in my opinion. After the first midterm, he listened to his students and provided extra materials and practice for the midterms and finals. I also felt that the second midterm and final were easier. However, I was definitely still not a huge fan of all the tests being multiple choice. In lecture I thought Toumari was straightforward and explained the material well, and also posted all of the slides for us to review. He also answered his emails very quickly. Overall I think he was a good teacher for first quarter chemistry and I would take this class again.

I had only taken honors chemistry in high school, and this class was really tough for me. The material was brand new to me, so it was really hard to adjust to studying/learning chemistry. However, I think that this class could have been a lot better if I had taken it with another professor. Toumari didn't explain anything in detail or try to make concepts easier for the same of the students understanding. He didn't really seem to know how to teach chemistry to students who were brand new to the subject. I felt that he left a lot of explanations out, and I really depended on Kahn Academy for my understanding of the course.
The textbook readings didn't help at all, so I don't recommend reading the textbook. The worksheets in discussion were also unhelpful and not worth your time. What I found most helpful was Kahn academy, youtube videos, and the achieve homework he assigned. If you can, take it with a different professor. One of the most stressful classes I've ever taken because I never truly felt prepared for the tests.

Another reviewer already went into detail for his class workload, so I'm just going to give some general things that I noticed. Professor Toumari will answer any questions you have, whether that be after class, through email, arranged office hours, and even during class if you raise your hand. Some people in the GroupMe were definitely frustrated with and complained about his style of teaching, but I think that most of the things that he did were fair. Yes, he did not prepare anyone for the first midterm at all, did not post Achieve assignments on time before that first midterm (thus leaving us unprepared/not knowing exactly what we were being tested on). Furthermore, there was the TA strike and it was probably his first time teaching at UCLA (given his inexperience with what to provide our TA). However, he does keep his promises and his office hours are very helpful. Toumari does not curve whatsoever. He once said during class, "I do not know what a curve is." None of us know if he really does not know or if he was just playing dumb for his dry humor, which btw, is quite refined. In any case, if you ever have him as a professor, make use of his helpfulness.