Professor
Franklin Ow
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2024 - I don't like ochem. However, this professor made the subject bearable. He was very straight to the point and his lectures are helpful. There is no mandated homework, but DEFINITELY do the discussion and suggested problems. The only way to study for ochem is to do the questions enough to understand the patterns. He is a great professor. Attendance is not mandatory but I really felt like his lectures helped me understand and get a good grade in ochem which I personally never thought was possible. I would take him again if I had another chem class, but I do not plan to anytime soon.
Fall 2024 - I don't like ochem. However, this professor made the subject bearable. He was very straight to the point and his lectures are helpful. There is no mandated homework, but DEFINITELY do the discussion and suggested problems. The only way to study for ochem is to do the questions enough to understand the patterns. He is a great professor. Attendance is not mandatory but I really felt like his lectures helped me understand and get a good grade in ochem which I personally never thought was possible. I would take him again if I had another chem class, but I do not plan to anytime soon.
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2021 - The grading scheme for this class was on a straight scale based on the number of points from several categories: Each midterm is 100 points Final is 200 points Top 8 of 10 quizzes are scaled to 100 points Group projects during discussion section were 50 points. For a total of 550 points. The grade scale was relatively generous with 90% being the cutoff for an A, 84% for an A-, 81% for a B+, 77.5% for a B, and 74% for a B-. This class is difficult, as indicated by the grade scaling, but not impossible to do well in. The first midterm tested on IR Spec, H-NMR, C-NMR, and Mass Spec. This material was the most difficult for me as there were many tiny details that you had to pay attention to when doing the problems. It is very easy to miss something and lose points because of that. The second midterm tested mainly on Synthesis problems, with one spectroscopy problem similar to the first midterm. This class is all reactions after the first midterm. For me, Anki flashcards were key to memorizing all of them and doing all the practice problems from the book was great prep for the second midterm and the final. The final was also mostly synthesis questions, but had two spectroscopy problems. The timing for the tests was actually decent. I usually 'finished' about 30 minutes before I had to upload to gradescope, so I spent the next 25 minutes combing through my answers and checking for mistakes. Practice tests were posted before each midterm and final. They were all accurate in difficulty and helpful in gauging how prepared you are for the actual one. During the (open book/note) tests, I wrote down as much material as possible and had everything in front of me, although I don't think that will be possible in the future once classes are back in person. The lectures for the class were all pre-recorded and posted on CCLE. The actual lecture time served as office hours. The lectures were kind of dry, but decent enough. Dr. Ow gives you the material and constantly reminds you that the key to doing well is doing practice problems. Keeping up with the material is all on you, so don't slack on watching the lectures. Leave time in the week to do the book problems as well. I highly recommend getting the solutions manual to check your answers. I couldn't find it online, but its relatively cheap if you rent from Chegg or some other service (less than $15). During discussion sections, we were given 'reaction roadmaps' that showed how to go from molecule to molecule. The group projects were filling in the reagents, reactants, and products in these roadmaps with classmates in your discussion section. These group projects are basically free points if you go to your TA's office hours and make sure everything is correct. The roadmaps are also very useful during tests. Weekly non-timed quizzes were posted on CCLE, which covered the lecture material for that week. They were relatively easy, but worth checking your answers so you don't miss out on points. You only had one session to do the quiz as well, no stopping in the middle and starting it again at a later time. The average for both midterms was 64%. I got a 69% on midterm 1 and 85% on midterm 2. I don't know the average for the final, but I it was probably similar to the midterms. I got a 94% on the final and got an A in the class. I assume there was a small upward curve applied to the class as I don't think that I made the cutoff for an A based purely on points.
Winter 2021 - The grading scheme for this class was on a straight scale based on the number of points from several categories: Each midterm is 100 points Final is 200 points Top 8 of 10 quizzes are scaled to 100 points Group projects during discussion section were 50 points. For a total of 550 points. The grade scale was relatively generous with 90% being the cutoff for an A, 84% for an A-, 81% for a B+, 77.5% for a B, and 74% for a B-. This class is difficult, as indicated by the grade scaling, but not impossible to do well in. The first midterm tested on IR Spec, H-NMR, C-NMR, and Mass Spec. This material was the most difficult for me as there were many tiny details that you had to pay attention to when doing the problems. It is very easy to miss something and lose points because of that. The second midterm tested mainly on Synthesis problems, with one spectroscopy problem similar to the first midterm. This class is all reactions after the first midterm. For me, Anki flashcards were key to memorizing all of them and doing all the practice problems from the book was great prep for the second midterm and the final. The final was also mostly synthesis questions, but had two spectroscopy problems. The timing for the tests was actually decent. I usually 'finished' about 30 minutes before I had to upload to gradescope, so I spent the next 25 minutes combing through my answers and checking for mistakes. Practice tests were posted before each midterm and final. They were all accurate in difficulty and helpful in gauging how prepared you are for the actual one. During the (open book/note) tests, I wrote down as much material as possible and had everything in front of me, although I don't think that will be possible in the future once classes are back in person. The lectures for the class were all pre-recorded and posted on CCLE. The actual lecture time served as office hours. The lectures were kind of dry, but decent enough. Dr. Ow gives you the material and constantly reminds you that the key to doing well is doing practice problems. Keeping up with the material is all on you, so don't slack on watching the lectures. Leave time in the week to do the book problems as well. I highly recommend getting the solutions manual to check your answers. I couldn't find it online, but its relatively cheap if you rent from Chegg or some other service (less than $15). During discussion sections, we were given 'reaction roadmaps' that showed how to go from molecule to molecule. The group projects were filling in the reagents, reactants, and products in these roadmaps with classmates in your discussion section. These group projects are basically free points if you go to your TA's office hours and make sure everything is correct. The roadmaps are also very useful during tests. Weekly non-timed quizzes were posted on CCLE, which covered the lecture material for that week. They were relatively easy, but worth checking your answers so you don't miss out on points. You only had one session to do the quiz as well, no stopping in the middle and starting it again at a later time. The average for both midterms was 64%. I got a 69% on midterm 1 and 85% on midterm 2. I don't know the average for the final, but I it was probably similar to the midterms. I got a 94% on the final and got an A in the class. I assume there was a small upward curve applied to the class as I don't think that I made the cutoff for an A based purely on points.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2025 - Glorious King Franklin Ow. While this is the last of the 30 series, I'd say that in terms of difficulty it is actually slightly easier than 30B. There is a lot of material to get through, but in terms of variety it's less than 30B because you have a lot more patterns to utilize. With regards to the professor, he's one of the best at UCLA and a personal favorite of mine. His expectations are always very clear in terms of what you need to know and as a lecturer he's fantastic at conveying the material in an effective way. I walked out of almost every lecture feeling confident I understood everything he explained. Dr. Ow is very emphatic on patterns you can recognize as a sort of shortcut for learning the reaction mechanisms and products, which makes it easy to pick up on things quick. He's succinct with the only fluff being him trying to engage deeper with the material by explaining pharmaceutical or industrial applications of certain organic compounds and reactions. He's also quite funny and sometimes uses anecdotes to describe parts of the class. I found the lectures to be engaging and effective, so I went even though they're recorded and livestreamed on Zoom. Given the course, you definitely need to still be practicing with the textbook problems provided. I don't have the exact gradescheme because I no longer have access to the Canvas course, but it is similar if not identical to the other Ow markschemes. Discussion attendance was probably around 10%, the two midterms made up 40%, the final was about 30%, and the remaining 20% was split between the best of 5/7 quiz grades. I thought everything was very fair, and the average was in the high 70s to 80s for the midterms. He also always reserves lectures for review before exams, which is pretty helpful because it shows problem solving strategies and gives you a hint as to what to expect on the exam. All of the exams and quizzes are very doable if you're keeping up with the material, and the final and quizzes were all multiple choice. A small amount of extra credit is also offered for filling out LA surveys and course evaluations, in addition to turning in your submission of the practice exams. Because this is organic chemistry, you can't leave it on the backburner, but if you're keeping it in view, it's very very feasible to do well.
Spring 2025 - Glorious King Franklin Ow. While this is the last of the 30 series, I'd say that in terms of difficulty it is actually slightly easier than 30B. There is a lot of material to get through, but in terms of variety it's less than 30B because you have a lot more patterns to utilize. With regards to the professor, he's one of the best at UCLA and a personal favorite of mine. His expectations are always very clear in terms of what you need to know and as a lecturer he's fantastic at conveying the material in an effective way. I walked out of almost every lecture feeling confident I understood everything he explained. Dr. Ow is very emphatic on patterns you can recognize as a sort of shortcut for learning the reaction mechanisms and products, which makes it easy to pick up on things quick. He's succinct with the only fluff being him trying to engage deeper with the material by explaining pharmaceutical or industrial applications of certain organic compounds and reactions. He's also quite funny and sometimes uses anecdotes to describe parts of the class. I found the lectures to be engaging and effective, so I went even though they're recorded and livestreamed on Zoom. Given the course, you definitely need to still be practicing with the textbook problems provided. I don't have the exact gradescheme because I no longer have access to the Canvas course, but it is similar if not identical to the other Ow markschemes. Discussion attendance was probably around 10%, the two midterms made up 40%, the final was about 30%, and the remaining 20% was split between the best of 5/7 quiz grades. I thought everything was very fair, and the average was in the high 70s to 80s for the midterms. He also always reserves lectures for review before exams, which is pretty helpful because it shows problem solving strategies and gives you a hint as to what to expect on the exam. All of the exams and quizzes are very doable if you're keeping up with the material, and the final and quizzes were all multiple choice. A small amount of extra credit is also offered for filling out LA surveys and course evaluations, in addition to turning in your submission of the practice exams. Because this is organic chemistry, you can't leave it on the backburner, but if you're keeping it in view, it's very very feasible to do well.
Most Helpful Review
Prof Ow is pretty cool. His lecture is very well organized and concise. His exams are pretty much straightforward from his notes and practice exams. He curves the average to B/B-, which looks good. My only complaint is that he sometimes does not explain the concepts in detail if you don't ask him. If you put some efforts, definitely you can get an A. Highly Recommended.
Prof Ow is pretty cool. His lecture is very well organized and concise. His exams are pretty much straightforward from his notes and practice exams. He curves the average to B/B-, which looks good. My only complaint is that he sometimes does not explain the concepts in detail if you don't ask him. If you put some efforts, definitely you can get an A. Highly Recommended.
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