I was very nervous about going into this class having heard all the rumors about Scary Scerri, but I'll say this-- the class is doable, especially so if you've previously taken AP Chemistry back in high school. Here are a lists of pros and cons about this man:

Pros

-> This man's so lazy that he reuses a lot of his old exam questions. If you have access to club test banks or have connections, that will make your life so much easier. The midterm was basically just his old midterm questions, and the past exam he provides in class is actually very helpful. The final, on the other hand-- because he only just swapped it to be all MCQ very recently, there were no past final exams that were all MCQ. However, past final exams did have these small MCQ portions at the end that you should definitely practice, as I saw them show up on the actual exam.

-> It's all recorded-- attendance and participation don't mean anything in this class. I was pretty proactive about going to class in the first half of the quarter, but then I stopped because honestly attending ALL of his lectures are kind of a waste of time because 1. he goes realllly slowly, especially when he's just reading off slides and 2. he gives way too much time for the practice problems. Just put him on 2x speed and pause it to practice problems. My TA also sucked so I just hopped to another TA's discussion, which I eventually became too lazy to attend too toward the end of the quarter.

-> The workload is nothing. All you're graded for on Canvas is the Achieve homework-- which, as long as you don't procrastinate until the very end of the quarter, is definitely doable. The only stupid thing is that the Achieve homework is different from the problems you do in class and the ones in the exam. In fact, it can be harder. I think they're very good in helping you understand the concepts better and practice manipulating the questions, but they are not reflective of the exams imo.

Cons

-> To be honest, I wouldn't call Scerri a TERRIBLE teacher, but I don't think he's a very good teacher either. He mainly reads off his slides and the solutions to the problems are kind of already laid out bare in front of you, so it's basically up to you to do practice problems on your own and actually learn. I don't think he does a good job of thoroughly going over concepts, which annoyingly enough ended up on the final exam.

-> He goes over derivation of equations. Son, this is a chemistry class. Ain't nobody interested in learning that mathematical jargon. However, on the bright side, you don't need to know derivations for exams anymore!! I heard that he previously had derivation on his exams back when he still did free response, but now that it's swapped to all MCQ, derivation is no more. Despite that, though, he still dedicates a number of slides to them which is kind of annoying. Don't waste your time on studying them.

My own experience

I hardly did the practice textbook problems, I didn't go to office hours nor review sessions. I half-heartedly went to lectures and discussions for only the first half of the quarter. I think this mainly worked because I took AP Chemistry and this class is straightforward enough in that it's mostly just math.
Biggest advice would be to just study all the past exam problems you can get your hands on, get familiar with using and manipulating the equations. Good luck!

I wouldn't say Scerri is the worst professor, but I definitely don't think he is the best either. He can be funny at times and is generally open to answering questions. He sometimes calls out on people for no particular reason, which disrupts the flow of the class. He goes through slides very quickly, and those slides are packed with information that he only briefly covers instead of explaining it in detail. This approach makes it challenging to learn how to solve problems effectively because he never works through the problems by hand. As a result, you'll essentially need to learn everything on your own. I attended nearly every lecture but did not find them particularly helpful. Since attendance is not mandatory, you could likely skip all the lectures and still do well in the class, as long as you are willing to invest time in learning the material or just watching the recorded lectures. I can see this being especially challenging for someone without a strong chemistry background, as you'll need to rely heavily on outside resources to succeed. I found the PLF, TAs, videos, and practice problems to be especially useful.

You are required to purchase the eBook to complete the homework for this class, as the Achieve problems account for 30% of your grade. You will have unlimited attempts to solve these problems, so I recommend working on them right after you learn the material. Keep in mind that all six Achieve topics have the same due date, and each topic contains approximately 20-30 questions.

This quarter, all tests were multiple-choice, which was a new format. The midterm was fair and included a good mix of math and conceptual problems. However, some of the "easy" questions turned out to be quite complicated and tedious, although they weren’t entirely out of left field. I recommend studying by working through as many practice problems as possible and asking clarifying questions if you need help. Additionally, make sure to understand all the concepts discussed in lecture, as even small details may be included in the exam. Scerri allocates time for review during lectures, but he simply goes over the slides again. His review slides are just an amalgamation of all the previous slides, often exceeding 200 slides in length.

If you have the option to choose another professor, I would recommend it. However, if that’s not possible, the class is manageable as long as you put in the effort.

Scerri is the worst professor I have had thus far. His slides are organized horribly and he doesn't like it when people ask clarifying questions in class. He also assigned homework that was much harder than anything we did in class and was mostly unrelated to the exams. The breakdown of the grades is horrible and very harsh for a class at this level. The exams were so conceptual it was unfair because he mentioned it for 0.002 seconds in lecture yet I have to write a whole explanation for it. CALCULUS IS NOT A PRE-REC so we shouldn't be expected to know who to integrate and derive. I have not taken a calculus class and the description and syllabus did not mention needing it. Scerri needs to seriously look at his class structure and learn how to care about his students or he should quit. He has a horrible reputation as an unfair and bad professor for a good reason. I didn't think he could be as bad as the reviews and that was true - he's worse.

I would do anything to go back in time and tell myself to not take this class. The material isn't the problem. I had high school credit from IB chem HL for this class, so this was all material I already knew. The issue was professor Scerri. By far the most unaccommodating, rude, and downright evil professor I've ever had at UCLA. He clearly HATES teaching. He hates answering questions and will go off on students who ask them, even if the questions are completely reasonable. I don't understand why he's a professor. I wouldn't walk near this class again with a ten foot pole. There's a reason why his nickname on campus is Scary Scerri.

I'm a disabled student and he argued with my CAE advisor on why I didn't need an accommodation, which is bordering on illegal. If I wasn't majoring in the chem&biochem department I'd consider reporting him. So yeah. It's fair to say I'll be avoiding his classes in the future.

Honestly, I feel this class gets a lot more shit than it deserves. I, 100%, believe that I would be more peeved if I did not receive an A, so take this review with a grain of salt, since knowing my grade will give it a more positive skew. I went into this class utterly terrified due to past reviews, but left feeling... okay

Firstly, the categories and weights that make up your grade are: Achieve (30%), Midterm (30%) and Final (40%). Unfortunately, you are graded on a bell curve, it didn't seem to make much of an impact this quarter (for better or for worse). It seems like many of the complaints regarding down curving stemmed from COVID quarters where averages were far higher than they were in person. I'm not arguing that this justifies down-curving, but it doesn't seem like it's as common when there are in person exams.

The most important thing to know about Scerri's exams is that questions are often times pulled from previous exams (he posts around 3 each for the midterm and final). The amount of time allotted felt very reasonable. Some of the multiple choice questions were a little finicky, but overall not awful. This was definitely the case with the midterm for this quarter.

The final this quarter was... odd to say the least. Because of the TA strike, Scerri was forced to make the exam fully multiple choice (45 questions). While most questions were solvable (or at least, were solvable considering what we were taught), there were a few problems that we were not equipped to solve. These questions, luckily, were removed from the final entirely, so our exam was out of 41 instead of out of 45. We were not given the results of the final unfortunately, I do understand however that distributing final results may have been made difficult because of the strike, but it obviously would've been very helpful to know, especially for students who didn't do as well as they expected or hoped. I do not think making this exam online would've been a good idea. Because this class is curved, going online would only punish students who decide not to cheat on the exam. Overall, the questions on the final weren't awful. I hated the electrochemistry questions, but granted electrochemistry just sucks in general.

In terms of achieve, it's horrible if you leave it until the last minute. My final score could've been far better if I didn't have to spend hours upon hours finishing achieve during week 10. Scerri did extend the deadline multiple times, which was nice, however I did just end up putting achieve off to the new deadline. If you manage your time throughout the quarter, achieve is very doable, and serves as a free 100% to your overall grade.

This class does require a lot of self studying outside of class, but I do believe Scerri is very straightforward about what you need to know for exams. Solved examples during lecture are often times 1:1 parallels (both conceptually and word for word) to exams seen on the exam. He is pretty responsive to emails, so that's nice. The TA strike did make post midterm content harder to understand and fully comprehend, but the curved nature of grades makes accommodations (like online exams or 24 hour exams) difficult to implement without unintended side effects.

Overall, 6/10 class. I barely have HS chem experience, so if I could do ok, I'd wager anyone could.

Scerri is a cool guy, but not the greatest lecturer. I often found that going through youtube videos and attending discussion sections helped me understand what was going on in the class. Also, doing all the practice pdf exam problems he provides helped for preparing for the midterm and final. Achieve was sometimes helpful but mostly time-consuming problems that aren't that related to exam problems.

Scerri is condescending but his accent is nice. He is not the best professor in terms of teaching but at least he is consistent and predictable. Don't ask questions unless you want to be chastsised. Don't recommend but he could be worse.

14B was such a rollercoaster that I'm not really sure where to start...

Class breakdown: 50% Thinkwell quizzes (3 attempts, most problems are found online), 20% midterm and 30% final. No homework, no extra credit, and discussion attendance is optional (but helpful!).

Scerri made the exams extra long ON PURPOSE so that students were prevented from cheating. While I don't want students to cheat, this system prevented most of us from finishing the exam, reviewing answers, or submitting on time. He would say for the final, "there are only 8 problems, 6 free response and 2 multiple choice". This seemed very reasonable, until we were doing the exam and one of the MC was numbered 7a, 7b, 7c, 7d, 7e, 7f, 7g, 7h, 7i, and 7j, and none of them were related conceptually, so there were actually 10 multiple choice problems in "one" problem.

This class also made me dislike chemistry more than I ever have before. I don't know if it was the abstract, intangible concepts of thermochem, the overall disorganization in electrochem, or everything in between, but this class made me think "why the hell am I doing this? because I hate this". I wouldn't say that the disinterest was widespread, so don't take that too much to heart.

I wish I could've taken this with another professor. I'm not going to be mean and say that my disdain for the course was entirely Scerri's fault, but I think his teaching style (scrolling through a PDF) probably just wasn't the best way for me to learn.

Also, I keep reminding myself that professors are going through the same Zoom fatigue and exasperation that we're feeling too. Scerri was very optimistic throughout the quarter and as a person he's wonderful! He even played his guitar for us and cracked jokes often.

TLDR: Taking chemistry with Scerri is definitely doable, getting an A- is very possible, but getting an A is hard to do. You will get confused and rely on your peers and TAs for guidance more often than normal, but it's ok!! You'll be okay.

I had Professor Scerri for both 14A and 14B, and did receive A's in his classes, but I think this is mostly due to prior exposure through AP Chemistry, and having him two quarters allowed me to better understand his teaching style and slides. I think one difficulty in his class is that his slides are not organized in a way that emphasizes the important concepts. This makes studying for exams a bit difficult, so what I would suggest is to go through all the worked examples in class, try them on your own before you look at the answer, and also do practice problems from the textbook. (I found the textbook pdf online for free). Also DO ALL the old midterms/exams that he gives you because he often repeats problems or has similar ones on the test, so understanding those makes the exams super easy. The hardest part about this class is he doesn't assign us much homework or projects or anything, so it's really up to the student to take the initiative and do outside practice to double-check you understand the material. If you don't have that kind of time or ability, then I would suggest trying to get another professor.

Scerri is a fine lecturer, but I have to spend lots of time after each class going through the lecture slides and working out problems for myself since he moves very quickly. I found 14A and 14B incredibly challenging, and Scerri's TA's are not great. Some TA's are MUCH better than others, so you have to figure out which sections to go on your own. The exams are much harder than the lecture practice problems, so if you don't do practice in your own time, you will not do well on the exams. I wish the TA's would assign homework problems from past exams and then check them so you could get feedback on what you did wrong.