dude this class was bad... scerri is incomprehensible and terrifying. the course is reasonably difficult (what you'd expect for a chemistry class) but scerri is a terrible teacher and is entirely unclear about what he wants you to know.
the homework is fine- its a bunch of modules due at the end of the quarter. totally manageable but not really helpful for exams.
the ta's are helpful for the most part. sometimes they seemed to be just as lost about how scerri approaches certain topics, and will just teach you a different way. theyre as helpful as they can be with what theyre given, and i definitely suggest going to discussion. attendance isnt taken for discussion or lecture so you can pick which TA you like.
ive heard that other sections of 20a have much better professors. do everything you can to avoid scerri. his slideshows make absolutely no sense and wont walk you through the kinds of problems youll see on the exams. he's going to be incredibly vague about what will be on the exams and what info he will give you on the formula sheet. he doesnt really stop for questions and will make you feel stupid if he doesnt like your question. he's really terrible at gauging how his students are feeling or how much we're learning. the first lecture about quantum mechanics will be comically difficult and scerri will simply push through.

shits tough. cant wait to take a chemistry class with a decent professor.

DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS WITH THIS PROFESSOR LIKE THE REVIEW BEFORE ME SAID HE IS QUITE LITERALLY A MENACE TO SOCIETY. First off, Scerri grades on a bell curve. If that did not scare you off then you should know for this quarter, he refused to make the final online, despite the fact that there were not enough TAs left to proctor the exam because of the strike, and he also did not allow us to ask any questions during the final exam. During the actual final he forgot to add multiple equations onto the equations sheet and literally had to add them onto the board mid-final, and also began throwing random questions out, making the final out of 41 questions instead of 45, thereby increasing our chances of receiving a worse score. When asked about final grades, Scerri left a very passive-aggressive email, literally stating that he "very much doubt[s] that there are errors since I have done this work myself rather than leaving it to TAs who don't have as much experience compiling grades" and then proceeded to blame the entire situation on the TA strike. He also managed to lose my friend's final and then proceeded to accuse her of not even taking the exam, despite the fact that there were multiple witnesses of people who saw her turn it in. Scerri is quite possibly the worst professor I have ever taken a class with at this school and is a disappointment to UCLA.

DO NOT TAKE HIS CLASS! HE IS THE WORST! YOU WILL FAIL AND CRY AND SUFFER!

The Chem 14 series is just hard altogether, there is no "easy" professor, especially if you don't know how you learn. With that being said, GOODLUCK. Try new methods, and rely on yourself rather than the professor! I personally liked Scerri for 14A, but don't rely on my review

Scerri is literally the most miserable professor I have ever had. There was a midterm and final, but thankfully I dropped the class before the final. I am so glad I did because I had Lavelle after who is 10000x better than Scerri. Scerri reads off confusing slides in a monotone voice and does not work through or explain problems thoroughly. It seems as though he does not like teaching, which is unmotivating as a student trying to learn. He provides very few resources in order for one to succeed in his course.

I thought this was a solid class. I took this my sophomore year for the psych major, and I hadn't taken chemistry since sophomore year of high school. lectures often have mistakes in them that do get corrected, but overall they were informative. they also had great practice problems. what really helped was lab. Spencer was probably one of the best TA's I've ever had, he was so clear and explained everything really well. Definitely attend section if you need help and clarity. Scerris was also nice and I did think he was approachable, you can stay on the zoom for a good while afterwards to ask questions. if you follow along the practice questions and do the homework, the exams really shouldn't be difficult at all. don't shy away from this class, I was scared at first but really there is no need to be nervous.

a lot of the reviews here bash scerri and the class but it’s about as hard as you’d expect a college-level (weeder) chem class to be. i studied hard and it was doable. (not easy, doable.)

grade distribution: for my quarter, it was 30% hw (easy 100%), 30% midterm, 40% final. the midterm and final themselves weren’t curved but the final grade was. (iirc it was a downgrade :( ). no extra credit.

lectures: scerri goes really fast in lecture which was def a struggle to keep up with but i HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend going to his office hours. he’ll go over material again and again and you can ask follow up questions, which you can’t really do in lecture. he’s also not that scary. he actually has a sense of humor (i know, how surprising) also, he usually stays behind lecture for a few minutes to answer questions. even if you don’t have questions, i recommend you hang out there so if someone else asks a question, you can benefit from the answer.

homework: the class uses owl for homework assignments, which has lots of attempts and you can keep coming back to it. it’s due at the end of the quarter but don’t fall behind cuz it takes forever. one problem is that the owl questions aren’t even what you’re expected to know for the course, so just speedrun them and you’ll be fine. (it’s an easy 100% so do not mess up. it’ll put you at a huge disadvantage for the final curve). other than owl, there’s no other hw.

exams: for exams, scerri does reuse so many old questions. do as many of his past exams as possible and that’ll set you up really well for the midterm and final. he posts a couple on bruinlearn but see if you can find others (like at the test bank, etc.). don’t start studying too late — there’s so much to study.

your ta will usually have practice questions for you to do. if you want more practice, other tas also sometimes post their questions on bruinlearn, so you can check that out.

also, this course is def not just like ap chem since it does cover some quantum stuff. it is complicated and you will have to work at it, but find a good study group, engage with the material, and you’ll be able to do it.

good luck!!!

Great lecturer and great class . Took it my first quarter at UCLA and it was interesting and a perfect introduction to the classes here. Tests arent hard at all, just use his course readers and the pages he assigns from the textbook

I am selling my textbook Principles of Modern Chemistry by Oxtoby. No notes or highlights, and in mint condition. Text me at ********** I can meet on or around campus. Selling for $60 with price negotiable.

I feel like Dr. Scerri is not given enough credit for the time he invests in his students. To me, it seemed that he answered every relevant question asked of him, and he always made time for students to voice their confusions. Some people complain that he brushes students off & appears condescending, but I think they were just misunderstanding him. He has a good sense of humor & sometimes shows his cats on camera-- he is a nice guy.
While I did struggle with many of the concepts taught in this course, I believe that was a result of my own lack of preparedness for this class. I did not have a strong chemistry foundation coming in, and I was very quickly overwhelmed, but that is to be expected of a college-level chemistry course-- it's gonna take some work to get the grade you want, don't expect it to come easy. If I really tried to concentrate on the material during lecture, I understood it. Dr. Scerri is a clear lecturer if you really listen to him. Although I sometimes found his slides kind of confusing and disorganized, if you asked him to clarify them, he would.
The bottom line is that this class is difficult in that there is a large amount of material you are expected to learn, but you are totally capable of learning it if you're willing to put in the work. Dr. Scerri provides many resources to facilitate student learning, including recorded lectures, lecture slides, practice problems, office hours, and a textbook.

If you have had him for 14A the grade breakdown is identical. 30% thinkwell, 30% midterm, and 40% final. I opted out of the final due to everything that went down during the end of spring quarter..

Scerri comes off as a very arrogant, know-it-all professor, granted I am sure he is incredibly knowledgeable but he likes to say words like "elementary" when describing certain concepts which just comes off condescending. I wouldn't say he is the worst professor I have had, but he is not near the top of the list. I did well in both of his chem classes because the problems he does in class are nearly identical to the problems on the midterm/final.

The best thing to do in this class is honestly rewrite notes to get a better understanding for yourself. Scerri is not the clearest, and you will most likely be confused by his lectures due to the disorganized structure and his poor way of teaching.

Otherwise, I did generally learn a lot from 14A and 14B but I am incredibly glad to be over with Scerri.