Scerri is a great lecturer! He is very thorough and is great in his field. He also has this sense of ego which does often lead to a few chuckles (and a girl laughing hysterically at the front row)

Scerri makes this class quite difficult. He teaches decently, but he has an egotistical attitude which makes him very unpleasant at times. I've seen several incidences, where a student would ask a perfectly reasonable question that's then either shot down or answered in a very derisive manner. Though I had questions at times, I never asked them, as I was afraid he'd shoot them down like he did the others. It's unfortunate that he has this defensive attitude; he'd be a good professor otherwise.

Professor Scerri is an extremely competent teacher, the material he teaches is hard but his coursereader and teaching combined are enough to get you to grasp what is going on. I enjoyed his class and his teaching style a lot. He think that he is a God definitely, but he kinda is, so it's okay. Overall I'm extremely happy I took it Chem 20a with scerri over the other teachers because he was a very good professor. The one negative about him is he will apply a negative curve to your grades if he feels like too many people did well and in the end that's what kept me from an A in his class so keep that in mind.

Selling textbook mint condition for only $70. Text me at **********. BTW fantastic professor!

Selling both Chem20A course readers for $25! Contact me in you're interested **********

Selling both Chem20A course readers in great condition for $25!! Text me in you're interested **********

Selling 7th edition Principles of Modern Chemistry (Oxtoby/Gillis/Campion) for $80
Hard back/excellent condition
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I took Chem 20A with Professor Scerri and a few things you need to know before even going to his class:

GET A COURSE READER (even if it's old and used-which can be good because not everyone thinks the same)
DON'T GET HIS PERIODIC TABLE BOOK- he writes it himself and it's about his research but really he tells you everything you need to know about it in lecture.

For lecture, he spends a lot of time talking about the periodic table, which seems irrelevant to the rest of the world of chemistry but it's still on the midterms and homeworks.

He's pretty condescending when he answers a question and sometimes dismisses your question if he thinks it's too stupid and has you come talk to him after class. He's got an attitude problem...

His TAs aren't that great but they definitely vary so try to find out which are the best by going to other discussions.

He tests small details that he may have only mentioned once and if you think that this is an easy class just because it's podcasted, you're wrong. Often times he knows the students can just go look at them online (some of them were audio only or not available so not always reliable) so he goes really fast, even with the course reader. He tends to dawdle with subjects he likes and we were behind when it got to 10th week so he rushed it.

All in all, he's only okay. Not an easy A but an A- is doable (even the engineers or the I-skipped-a-year kids got A-'s too).

2 Midterms and a final. He has questions he writes himself in the back of the course reader for practice.

I learned a few interesting things but I didn't learn what I thought was the bulk of chemistry and what I definitely needed to know until halfway through the course.

Scerri's sense of humor is quite odd but made the class much more tolerable than expected. He plays the guitar during one of the lectures which was pretty cool.
His style of teaching is not my favorite. It can be very boring at times since the material is so dry. But his curve is generous. I got a C+ , better than I expected considering that I had no prior knowledge of chemistry. Do be aware that Scerri tends to make a huge jump in the beginning since he assumes most of his students know how to calculate yields, empirical / molecular formulas, convert from moles to molecules etc. Study your butt off and you should be fine

I took 20A with Professor Scerri in Fall, 2014. Professor Scerri is an extremely intelligent professor, and has been teaching for years. He knows his stuff thoroughly, and you'll be amazed by the depth of knowledge he has. The biggest advantage of this class was his course-reader. Make sure you buy the latest one. Know the course-reader completely, don't skip anything from it. Understand every single word in it. You don't even need to open the textbook.
Another advantage was his mid-term. There's only one mid-term, and it is held pretty early in the quarter. You haven't studied much by then, so be assured that your midterm is gonna be an easy chance to get a good grade in the class.
Do every single test at the back of the course-reader and also go get some more from the test-bank if possible- he repeats many questions on his tests from previous tests.
You'll instantly fall in love with his British accent (which BTW makes understanding stuff so much easier). Some people think he is rude, but well that's their opinion. He is sarcastic, and he will tear apart, sarcastically, anyone who asks dumb questions. His class will be super-entertaining for sure. I fell in love with chemistry in his class.
I had to work somewhat hard for this class, got an A- in the midterm, A+ on the homework and an A+ overall.
Make sure that you take Anjan Nandula as your TA. He, in my opinion, is smarter than Scerri himself (which blows my mind, because Scerri is awesome enough already.)
If you get a professor like Lin who has higher ratings than Scerri, trust me, don't look at the ratings, GO FOR SCERRI!
He is the best professor I've had at UCLA so far!
Here's a bonus - go watch Scerri confront an evangelist on youtube - search for 'I teach logic motherfucker!!! UCLA Professor Scerri raging at an evangelist'