I had professor Baugh for both chem 20A and 20B. Yes, he was my only option but I'm glad for it. He is pretty terrible for chem 20A and his exams are almost impossible but for chem 20b he is not that bad. He has been helpful in office hours and his lectures are much clearer that for chem 20 a

Baugh is a really nice guy, but an absolutely terrible teacher. Like all the other reviews have said, I'm not a disgruntled student with a bad grade. I got an A in Chem 20B. Here's how I did it: I read every single chapter of the Oxtoby book that related to what he was saying, just so I had an idea of what he was ATTEMPTING to teach. I still ended up confused about everything, but I guess I was less confused than everyone else. Even when i scored 100/200, it was way better than most of the class. He tends to repeat things over and over until you get sick of it. In almost every single lecture, he drew a potential energy diagram that looked exactly the same each time, so of course we all aced that question on the midterms... all of the other questions came directly out of left field because we hadn't learned anything from his lectures. You NEED a good TA, and you NEED to put in extra time to read everything that he suggests, and definitely do the practice problems!

Class was extremely doable. I took Scerri in 20A and didn't so well. I took Baugh and got an A in 20B. Very easy curve.

Lectures are HORRIBLE. It's best to just stay in your room and read the chapters yourself. First midterm was decent, but the second one was killer. Best to find another chemistry professor, seriously.

1. Baugh is a terrible lecturer. He doesn't make sense. He tries to make sense by talking about everything as "these guys" and "those guys," but it just confuses you more.
2. He thinks he is really funny and laughs at all of his own jokes.
3. Tests aren't too bad if you can learn material yourself.
4. He curves nicely.

I struggled in this class. Of all the chemistry professors I've taken, he was the most difficult to comprehend. He's good at synthesizing all the concepts, which is good for some but not all first time learners. What I mean by synthesizing is that he is very good at taking all the basic concepts, combining them, and applying them (a good approach if the students already knew the basic concepts). Thus, I felt this class was very dense. Not only were you trying to learn the new material but also you were trying to take that new material and start connecting it with other ideas at the same time.

His lecture presentations consist of powerpoints (not very engaging). He goes at lightning speed through the slides, so kudos to those who took notes by hand (I used a combination of laptop and notebook). He does not really talk to the TAs. My TA for 30A also TAed for his 20B class and told me that they only met with him once or twice and that was it. The TAs were on there own as to what to cover in discussion. My TA also told me that Baugh teaches chemistry from a more physical point of view (which explains all the equations and derivations).

He is not absolutely terrible. If you can study on your own and get outside help, you can get through the class. I advise you not to make him your first choice, but if you have to take a chem class and he's all that's left,just go for it. He assigns grades generously at the end.

this was not an easy class despite what some people are writing. you have to reread each chapter about 3 times to actually understand it and baugh is EXTREMELY philosophical with his questions. you have to UNDERSTAND the information and be able to connect everything. just knowing it won't do you any good. he has review sessions for both midterms and the final, which are definitely helpful. not a good lecturer though. most of the time you will see the SAME slides up for weeks! benefit to having him is that you get 1 side of 1 page of notes for each midterm and the front and back of a page of notes for the final. so don't worry about memorizing formulas or definitions-just put it on your paper and you're good. i ended up getting a B in this class but i deserved an A- for sure. don't know what happened. go to his office hours if you have questions and sit in the front or you won't hear him. good luck!

The ratings you see on the right there are definitely unjustified as this IS an easy class and MANY As are given out. Lectures are fairly organized and EVERYTHING Baugh puts on his midterms or final is either mentioned in the book or in the book. If you keep up with the reading, pay attention in office hours, and bust your butt thoroughly doing the practice problems inside the book, there is no way you cannot get an A. Baugh is extremely friendly during his office hours and genuinely wants to help. His midterms were quite manageable as you get one sheet to put equations/whatever you want on them; if you write anything on a question, the TAs will most likely give you at least partial credit. The most wonderful thing about this class is the grading system, whatever points you missed on the midterm get added to your final exam overall total. This means, if you get a hundred on your final exam, it doesn't matter how badly you failed or well you aced the midterms. This also means that you need to study the most for your final. As previously stated, at least half the questions from midterm two were put on the final, and many problems on the final were manageable if you did practice problems or even understood the example problems in the book. overall, good professor, easy class.

Easy class. Stay awake in class and pay attention, write down equations and take note of the concepts he emphasizes and logic jumps he tries to explain; then just read the book. Final was really easy if you just read the book and copied down the equations. Makes up for hard second midterm. Honestly, most prof. can't teach anyways. At least he follows the book unlike some so you can actually learn by yourself. Who cares if he can't teach. At least the information is out there unlike some prof who think their lectures rock and don't follow any sort of text.

Don't take Baugh.
In lecture, if you want to get all the notes, you are writing the entire time, trying to copy down his lecture slides before he moves on to the next. And while you're copying, he is also talking, and you should be writing that down as well. And understanding what he's saying.
His lectures do follow the book, but he just copies out the long equation derivations and/or the pictures, and just reads it off.
His first midterm was alright, but the second one was a little bit ridiculous with an average of 90/200. So even if you got a "B" it's not like you actually understand it.
The thing with Baugh is too, he is a researcher. In class you don't feel like he cares about teaching at all. He was 5-10 minutes late about 30% of the time, and he rescheduled a lecture that he cancelled last minute for a friday night.
Not to mention his lack of organization. We spent 8 week going over 4 chapters, and in the last 2 weeks we skimmed though 3 more. He ran out of time so just crammed everything into the end of the quarter.
Leaving this class, I feel like I taught myself the material, not Baugh.