This is truly one of this classes that bonds all of its students because its so unbelievably bad that we just suffer together.

It felt like there should've been a prerequisite to this class due to how fast we get into the material. Scerri did a very poor job introducing the subject matter and would start taking about complex topics such as quantum mechanics with out introducing the symbols or vocab he was using. TAs can be helpful, but if you are unlucky and get a bad TA to go along with this bad professor(as I did), you will most likely be teaching yourself this class.

Scerri also requires you to do Owl quizzes (that require you to opt into the textbook) that are easy to get 100% on since you can redo questions up to ten times, yet take hours to complete and don't reflect what he tests on what so ever. His exams are not very mathematical and rather involve a lot of explanation of theories and scientific principles which is much harder to prepare for.

The one thing Scerri did well was provide practice questions on the syllabus that help show what topics he covers which makes it easier to teach yourself the subjects.

This class is required for a lot of majors so if you have to take it just make sure you have a study group set up and don't get behind on the subjects because there is really no time to catch up.

Scerri just doesn't care about anyone or how much his students understand the material. There isn't much homework, but he will curve down your midterm and finals with no remorse. He is an overall awful professor, and I would avoid him if humanly possible.

GO TO YOUR TA's OFFICE HOURS IF YOU ARE STRUGGLING! Ok so like right off the bat, you get these difficult, but forgiving OWL "quizzes." They're basically free points. I have no doubts I will get 100% in all of them. They are worth 30% of the final grade. The midterm is also 30%. The final is 40%.

I feel like Scerri believes we should all be at his level, because we are at UCLA. For those who are not extremely well-versed on chemistry already, the Organic Chemistry tutor on YouTube will be your friend.

He races through the material, and it makes absolutely no intuitive sense. If you get a good TA, discussions are helpful. I got a meh one, but his strengths lie in office hours. He will cover about 20 concepts a week in very little detail, and then test them like we're all experts after his lecture. I guarantee you 90% of the kids have no clue what is going on.

The slideshow can be a helpful tool to reference for some OWL questions, but some of the OWL questions are entirely unrelated to the lecture and midterm material.

After the first midterm, he lets us know the cutoffs for each letter grade. A was 95%, which is way higher than it should be. If you got a 94%, you ended up with a B. I ended up with a C, which was what I was expecting. But the first thing this man says when talking about the midterm is "It was an easy test." No sir, it was easy for you, the Ph.D chemist. As an engineering student who needs to take this for lower division and will never use it again, it was not an easy test.

Avoid Sherri if you can. Although he is clearly knowledgeable and passionate, he can be very condescending to questions he feels are "dumb." People were constantly confused in his class. The only saving grace was that studying previous tests were helpful as he recycles a lot of questions. Would not take again

Scerri would often go through the material pretty fast, showing slide after slide giving little explanation. He is not a good lecturer, or he just doesn't care that a lot of students in his class didn't understand anything from class. The slides are useless for studying, so you have to take notes. The OWL homework gives you 10 chances to get it right so no problem with that. You WILL have to memorize derivations from various formulas that he will show in class because he likes to include at least one of them for the midterm and final.

Just be sure to choose a good TA. And if you have little to no background in chemistry, try avoiding him. Although, some say he's actually pretty good at teaching 14A.

Scerri is not a bad professor. This class is really more physics than chemistry, hence physical chemistry. The syllabus in this class is very condensed and a bit harder than most people expect it to be. I was lucky that I had learned most of the material in high school physics , but even I found it a bit hard to keep pace with the new material I'm learning. What was taught in HS in a week was covered by Scerri in half a lecture. Discussion sections or self-studying outside lecture is a must, unless you already know everything.

I came into college thinking I would not like Chemistry because AP Chem was rough for me, but Scerri made me like Chem!! I'm definitely not saying this class is easy, but I loved Scerri because he was always very clear and was obviously interested in the topic. This class is also a bit more conceptual than other chemistry classes that have more mathematical topics. Nothing on the midterms or final ever felt surprising; the slides and lectures were thorough and if you went over those and past exams, you pretty much knew what the exams would include.

Lecture:
Professor Scerri uses lecture slides, which he posts online after the lecture. Most of the time, he read off of the slide. It is not necessary to copy down the slides word for word, but you should pay attention to what he says. I relied heavily on his slides when I was studying for exams. He is not that bad of a professor. The course should not be too difficult as long as you have a basic understanding of chemistry.

Discussion:
This really depends on the TA, and it is optional, so only attend if it is helpful to you. During this term, there was only one good TA, and everybody attended that discussion. My TA just gave example problems for us to do.

Grade:
The homework is done through an online program called OWL. You will need to purchase an access code in order to log on and complete the assignments. The homework is time-consuming, but it is easy to get full score on the assignments. You get 10 tries to complete each problem, and when you get it wrong, there will be a complete solution as to how to solve the problem. Then, the program will generate the same problem but with different numbers. Also, you can use as much time as you need to finish the problems. Even though the homework sets are all due at the end of the quarter, I recommend doing them as he teaches the chapters. The midterm and the final are both based on the lecture material, and it is very helpful to do the practice tests that he posts online. Most of the time, he recycles questions from past exams. The new section that he added to the exams is a derivation-based problem. You will need to memorize a handful of derivations, and he will choose one or two of them for you to write out completely. For me, the tests were memorization-based, and I was able to score well because I memorized his notes word for word. I would do the OWL homework problems again, do the practice tests, and memorize the lecture notes in preparation for the exam. The textbook is not required, and I did not need to refer to it at all.

Grade Breakdown:
OWL: 30%
Midterm: 30%
Final: 40%

Chemistry at UCLA just sucks in general. It's a hard class and some of Scerri's derivations are extremely confusing, but relative to what I've heard about the rest of the teachers he's one of the better professors. The homework doesn't always relate to his exams, so just study what he goes over in lecture and you should be fine.

Scerri is a good lecturer. I learned a ton in his class. The tests were super difficult for me and often didn't have enough time (even with 3 hours). Derivation heavy. If you really want to learn, take this class, but know that it will difficult. Also, he uses OWL for homework which I really enjoyed. It may cost around $60 but will be worth it and will likely be used with Felker in the next class.