If you've taken 172, this class is structured quite similarly with 3 psets and a take-home final. If you're looking at the grade distribution to decide to take this class, I'd take caution as the TA from the previous quarters has left and the newer TA is a bit tougher so it might not be a super easy A as it was before. The content was interesting but was a bit indigestible from the mountains of math and derivations with little talk about practical applications. You're also expected to be able to process a lot of the data that is not taught in class so be prepared for that. The psets are also quite hard and time-consuming and the only advice I have here is to work with others as the book and lectures don't help you at all. Also, the TAs were incredibly helpful albeit everything so email and go to their office hours if you need help! I'd probably stay away from this class unless you're interested in doing research in the field.

Chong is a great professor who's able to simplify fairly difficult electrochemical concepts to something more manageable. His lectures were good, and he always made sure to show the practical applications of concepts to experimental design or current research.

In regards to material, the class starts with a fair amount of physical chem. After Week 3, the class transitions from more theoretical lectures to applications, like cyclic voltammograms. If you're interested in chemistry research, this class is incredibly useful, as you'll learn how to interpret CVs from literature and from sample data.

The course only consisted of 3 problem sets and 1 final. As a result, most of the work was concentrated around the problem set weeks. The problem sets were difficult but doable, and grading was lenient. The assigned work complemented the lectures very well, and you'll need to think really critically about experimental design or CV interpretation to answer the questions.

Overall, this is a great choice for a chemistry upper-div if you enjoy physical or inorganic chemistry. Difficult content and problem sets, but it's interesting!