Not bad at all. 2 midterms worth 45% total, final is 35. Exams averaged like over 80% I think. Lectures are recorded but doing the hw and discussion problems are more helpful. Didn't feel the need to go to office hours really. Make sure to redo hw, quiz, and exam problems. Overall the course is alright and prof ow is sufficient.

As someone who did AP chemistry and IB chem HL in high school, this class was nothing like high school. The materials covered before the first midterm were really basics chemistry, like stoichometry and balance equation, but after the first midterm everything just spiraled downwards. We started getting to quantum mechanics and other quantum theory. It felt more like a physics than a chemistry class and it took a while for me to understand everything. I took this class for GE and my love for this class and chemistry slowly diminished after week 5. Professor Ow is a straight-forward lecturer. Most of the times he simply introduced the topics and guided us through an easy example and left us pondering on the the harder problems. The recommended textbook problems helped to some extents, but some answers in the back were incorrect so…

This prof is GREAT! But honestly, 20A is more like a physics class than a chemistry class for the bigger portion of the class. Professor Ow is really skilled at explaining concepts. He's great at teaching and you can catch on quickly. However, towards the end of the quarter when things got tougher, he seemed to struggle a bit and was rushing to cover everything. Luckily, his classes are recorded, which helps.

Attendance in discussions was mandatory, and they counted for 10% of our grade. We had to complete a worksheet in groups and we were graded on completion not accuracy.

He has no homework but he had weekly quizzes online (he drop the lowest 2) - however, you cant see your grade for the quiz until after the deadline.

The midterms were mostly straightforward with lots of calculation questions, but one small mistake could really hurt your grade. No cheat sheets were allowed, but he provided all the necessary equations. The final was different—it was all multiple-choice, 27 questions worth 25% of our grade, covering all the chapters equally. This equal distribution made studying harder since we couldn't focus on specific topics. Plus, with multiple-choice questions, a couple of errors could drastically lower your grade.

Professor Ow doesn't round grades, so if you end up with an 89.9, it stays as B+ and won't be rounded up to an A-. (I know it hurts)

Overall, the class was manageable IF you're not taking more than two difficult classes at once with it at once. (don't repeat my mistake)

loved the class but some of the textbook problems took forever bc prof ow only gave examples of simple problems & didn't always explain the more complicated concepts (esp at the end of the quarter)

I would avoid taking this class, especially with Ow. He did the bare minimum, rarely gave examples and never explained how to solve problems. The work was very manageable because it was only suggested to do the questions in the book not required. He is very passionate about the material but not really about teaching it.

great professor, take him if you get the chance