Not sure what all the bad bruinwalk reviews are talking about in this class with Dr. Ow. I feel like you are guaranteed to do well if you stay caught up with lecture and the extra practice problems that Dr. Ow provides, which is what he warns you about in the very first lecture. I will say that the problems from the textbook don't align too well with his exams, but they are still good to understand the material thoroughly. Furthermore, there are some topics where Dr. Ow does NOT teach you how to approach (ie. chair conformation + flips) and you will most likely have to go to outside resources in order to fully understand how to do the related problems. So make sure to review material early on so you can tackle problems right away and see if there are things Ow did not touch up on. That being said, there are some ochem professors that do not provide practice problems, and fortunately Dr. Ow provides a lot of them.
I felt that the exams were very fair. If you know the material, both midterms and the final should leave you with a lot of extra time to check your work. For the first two midterms, they were more similar to the quizzes, homeworks, and extra problem sets on canvas. The final definitely caught some people off guard, as Ow implemented more conceptual questions like how different spectroscopy methods work. SO make sure to pay attention to lecture slides as the material in them is all fair game. In the event you do sorta bad on an exam, it's not the end of the world. There's a review with the category weights and you can see that the homework, quiz, and discussion categories add a lot of cushioning for the exams.
My last comment is to beware of the biomolecules. Dr. Ow kinda just speeds over them in the last week before the final and you don't really know what he would ask about them eeee

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.

NEVER EVER EVER EVER — and I mean NEVER EVER — take this class. Like many of you, I checked professor Ow's BruinWalk reviews and saw what seemed to be a beaming ray of sunlight — great overall rating, great professor rating, and EVEN outstanding comments from previous years. Well, I need all of you to look past all of that because ALL WRONG. EVERYONE IS LYING.

As an academic overachiever, I have found myself thriving with a 4.0, valedictorian, and even getting through my first year of college with a 4.0 across the board. So, when I say this class has single-handedly made me reconsider everything I know about science, myself, and the educational system, believe me. I had many friends with other chemistry professors, and they seemed to walk away from 14A unscathed. But Ow, on the other hand, has managed to create the absolutely most impossible class that has left many of my friends — myself included— feeling an unrepairable sense of doom, self-doubt, and lack of trust.

If you don't feel like reading everything I have to say, remember this one thing:
Ow DOWNCURVED the entire class. That pretty much sums it up.

After a quarter of sleepless nights, studying until my nails bleed, and ultimately trying to absorb every single detail, I still managed to find myself constantly surprised and disappointed by the truly unexplainably impossible nature of this class. In the end, I did get a B+, which honestly isn't that bad. But when you take a step back to realize the sheer amount of effort to reach this point, it suddenly becomes clear that this B+ symbolizes Ow's result for a student who has pushed themselves to their very limit.

I will give him credit that in the very first lecture he gently "warned" us, but the warning honestly should have been a red blaring siren because everything immediately went downhill. Each exam had an entirely different format from each other, none of which aligned with the practice exams. He did preface that they might not necessarily align, but the reality is that he truly does not create resources for us to succeed in the slightest. The ONLY people I know who even captured an A in this class were students who were scraping to ignite their chemistry knowledge from high school. Even a friend of mine who scored high As on both midterms found themselves unable to get an A in the class.

I went to office hours — which made me feel somehow emotionally penalized for showing up. He made me feel like it was my fault, as an individual, for asking for help. He invites questions to be asked but then makes you feel stupid for asking them in the first place. And the cherry on top, he offered two opportunities for 0.2% extra credit. Gee thanks. It almost felt like a slap in the face because that extra credit essentially makes no difference, and any difference it does make was ENTIRELY ELIMINATED by the class down the curve. So, if you spend the quarter attempting to calculate your grade — throw that method out the window. Your grades will ultimately be unknown to you, and unknown until he has decided how he wants curve — which was DOWN — AND ALREADY IMPUTED INTO MYUCLA. Once your fate is sealed, there is simply nothing you can do.

That being said, success in Ow's class entirely relies on your capacity to either 1. remember everything from high school or 2. miraculously become Ow and read his mind. If neither of those things pertain to you, then you simply do not stand the slightest of chances.

For some of you, taking Ow may be your only choice, in which case, I am very sorry. Say farewell to your 4.0 because after this class it will not be coming back. However, I can provide a slight bit of advice that can hopefully prepare you for your fate to come:
- The exams will present questions that you may have never seen before, so when you study, think BEYOND the content. You need to learn the context of chemistry outside of the things covered in class in order to succeed.
- mentally prepare yourself and lower your expectations. I came into this class filled with ambition, but I quickly found myself being disappointed time and time again.
- grades are not everything.... one quarter of chemistry certainly will not define the trajectory of your life. So try to remind yourself that you are so much stronger than 14A with Ow.

To those of you who have made it to the end of this review, I applaud your commitment to success. It is clear that you want to do well and that you are willing to take extra time to make that difference in your academics. I wish you all the best in your enrollment times and good grade fortune in the years to come.

If you want to regret ever becoming a STEM student, take this class. I would rather repeat my junior year of high school (with SAT stuff, AP classes, and college apps) and relive the whole of quarantine a hundred times than take this professor again. TBH Ochem is not that hard of a subject but teachers like this make it extremely difficult for students to pass the class. How is the midterm 5 pages for 2 hours but then the final is 14 pages for 3 hours including upload time? It's not adding up. In the last two weeks of class, he merely glanced over the biomolecular stuff without any concrete examples and that made up 60% of the final. He is very nit-picky with answers and sometimes it's hard to get partial credit. If you want peace of mind and a decent grade, save yourself and take someone else.

It's organic chemistry; there's are very few positive things to say about the material itself, but Professor Ow makes the subject so much more digestible than my professor for Chem 30A. As long as you pay attention in class, Professor Ow provides you with all of the necessary information to do well on the exams. There is no hunting for a hidden meaning; his lectures are very straight-forward. His exams are completely fair.

Take this guy!!!! He is so good at lecturing and he really knows his stuff!!! I had questions TAs couldn’t answer and he could in like 2 sentences. As long as you go to class and do the homework it will be a piece of cake. That being said he did downcurve the class by 1% which is the only thing he did that I disagreed with. Overall, 14A w Prof Ow was a really enjoyable experience!!

I loved Professor Ow! I could not recommend him enough. I typically struggle with paying attention in class, but Professor Ow had my attention every single time I walked into class. He is extremely clear when explaining and breaks down material well so that it is not super complicated. You don't even need to read the textbook if you go to his lectures.

I hadn't taken chemistry for a few years before going into this class, so I was a bit worried, but Professor Ow teaches all levels of chemistry, so it's completely right if you don't have the strongest background. I highly recommend doing the optional problems and attending office hours if you have any questions. I spent a lot of time on it and had some really great conversations with him. He is extremely helpful and very clear with answering questions. I felt like his tests were pretty fair and that you could do well if you did the optional problems from the textbook.

He did down curve the entire class, which was disappointing, but I think that is a rare occurrence and solely because our class had an average of an A- when the chem department typically has averages of Bs/B+s. My only other dislike was that we actually get to do examples on our own in class till the second half of the quarter, but I think that is normal for chem because classes are only 50 minutes.

Overall, I highly recommend taking this class. Dr. Ow is a fantastic and passionate teacher!

I really struggled with chemistry in high school and was a little nervous to take this class. I felt like Prof. Ow definitely made this class manageable for me though. His slides were very in-depth, and I definitely felt like what was taught in class mirrored what was on the exam which was very important to me at least. He explained concepts in a very easy-to-follow way and provided us with ample practice problems. Furthermore, I actually think Dr. Ow was one of the most approachable professors I've had at UCLA. He encouraged students to reach out for help and always was willing to give us help when needed.

One of the tougher classes I took fall quarter. You should try and dedicate at least 15 hours a week to outside study if you really want to do well, especially if you haven’t taken chemistry before, or its been a while since you have. He doesn’t assign any mandatory homework, nor has mandatory lecture attendance, but there are online quizzes every weekend (two of which are dropped at the end of the quarter), two midterms, mandatory section, and a final. I would definitely recommend taking this class with Professor Ow again, as he gives clear instructions, is understanding, and has a genuine passion for the subject. My only regret is not dedicating more time to outside study, but that’s about it.

Great professor, arguably one of the best chem professors I've had. Make sure to do the groupwork, additional practice problems he recommends, and follow his recommended timeline and tips for studying. He has office hours, but because of my TA's helpfulness during discussion, it wasn't needed. He also provides practice exams that are extremely similar to the tests. Overall the class is ultimately difficult because of the subject matter but professor Ow does an amazing job at breaking it down he even prints out copies of his slides for students to annotate along with him during lecture.