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.

I took this class with no prior experience in chemistry. Overall, I put a good amount of work into this class (took lecture notes, read through the textbook, attended office hours, completed practice questions, etc.) because I was scared of getting screwed over by curving. The workload in this class is deceptively light, so I would make sure that you find ways to study on your own time. I do not think I would have been able to do as well if I didn't dedicate as much time to this class as I did. Scerri seems to be knowledgeable and passionate about chemistry, but his lecture slides often had mistakes, which made me rely much more on the textbook. A large portion of our grade (50% I think it was) came from completing online Thinkwell quizzes. The quizzes weren't bad at all, as we could take them up to three times, open-everything, with no time limit. I was just annoyed that the questions were pulled from a bank that included some concepts we did not (and were not going to) cover. Scerri acknowledged we wouldn't be tested on those concepts, too. The midterm and final were fair and reflected practice questions done in class and discussion sections, but I would make sure to also pay attention to conceptual ideas mentioned in the lectures/textbook so you aren't caught off-guard when they show up on exams.

Chem 17 offers a lot of help for first timers in Chemistry, but also is insanely quick. Scerri covered 11-12 topics in the 10 weeks and, in truth, missing a class or dropping out of focus for a minute can put you behind. I heavily recommend attending his office hours (the ones he holds in the morning I found work best for 1 on 1 time with the professor). The classwork is light, with four online quizzes that are open everything (book, professor, classmate, internet, and can be taken three times with the highest score being in the gradebook) and two graded homework assignments from the textbook. There is one midterm. If the pace scares you, I still recommend taking this class. It absolutely helps with understanding the subject and opens doors for attending professor and TA office hours.

This class was not enjoyable, but it was manageable. Scerri makes absolutely zero sense in lectures and I found myself relying on high school chemistry notes and YouTube to get me through this class. Chem isn't my strong suit, but as long as you put in the effort success is manageable, but I would say this is a very much self taught course. So if you rely on good instruction avoid this class.

So this is genuinely one of the worst classes I have taken at UCLA. As a professor, Dr. Scerri is fine I guess. He's knowledgeable about the material and explains things thoroughly, which is nice. Very monotone though. He also makes a lot of mistakes during lecture (Like, a LOT. At least twice per lecture) and it gets really really confusing because he makes these mistakes so often. But if you really have an issue in the class and need help, I doubt that he'll help because he's pretty unapproachable. His TA's are even more unapproachable and unhelpful. DO NOT take the TA Robert Lavroff. He is a narcissist. He pretends to be all nice and friendly during lecture, but one-on-one he is a nightmare. If you point out a mistake that he made, he gets enraged and lashes out. Which is highly unusual; in my experience, TAs usually want their students to point out when they make mistakes, because they want to support their students and make sure they do well. This TA is not like that; he is self-serving instead. So if you do take this class and if you care about your mental health, do not take that TA. Moving on, the workload in this class is a pain but I guess every stem class at this school is like that.

Overall, Scerri is a pretty good professor! He is a fairly good lecturer as he conveys the necessary material to his students. Still, he quickly moves past topics because he expected us to know much of the information already presented. He is approachable and helpful during his office hours; make sure to bring thoughtful questions. Scerri provides practice exams for his tests (be sure to study them because they all follow the same format and question types), and his tests are pretty reasonable. A lot of his past exams are in the test bank, too!

Let me just start off by saying that I came in not having took chemistry since the tenth grade. I thought this class was way pretty easy and a light workload. I took this before starting the 14 series. I stopped attending lectures after the third week because Scerri repeatedly made mistakes in the slides and it would confuse me a lot when I would go to lecture, because of his mistakes. He would post the slides online so I would just review them on my own. I thought that the final was very easy. The midterm was harder then the final in my opinion. Overall take the class, but don't depend on Scerri.

I came in this having some prior knowledge w/ Chemistry. Although it states that you need no prior knowledge I reccomend you start familiarizing yourself. Scerri seems like a nice person but when it comes to teaching he seems disconnected. If you have trouble with Chemistry or Science I think reading the textbook chapters prior to class might be helpful. Since the workload was very light it doesn't necessarily prepare you for the test or online quizzes. There is much material he doesn't cover in lecture which is why I suggest preparation prior to it. Overall, with enough outside work you can achieve a good grade in this course, just make sure not to rely on Scerri.

I'm not sure what other courses Scerri taught this quarter, but it seemed like this class was of a super low priority to him. He was not clear in his explanations of topics, and would give the wrong answer to nearly every math-related question. He was also very unclear as to what we were expected to know for the midterm and final. The thinkwell quizzes were also much harder than anything we had done in class or during discussion.

I took this class my first quarter of freshman year as I'm assuming most people will do. When it comes to this class, it was very slow pacing wise and the first four weeks felt as though we were moving at a snail's pace. However, after the first four weeks when we started going into conversions it seemed like Prof Scerri over complicated material which was simple. This was the case for most of the class. Overall the homework isn't overwhelming and I definitely feel that this was extremely helpful to take before chem 14a where they expect you to know all the things high school chem doesn't really teach. If you took AP chem in high school then definitely skip this class. The hardest part about this class is the midterm. When I took the class, the midterm was allotted one lecture period to complete. Although he said that the midterm would be fairly short many people weren't shy of complaining about how it was almost impossible to finish on time. I never went to office hours because he doesn't seem like the kind of professor that is easily approachable, but if you have a good TA stick to them like white on rice.