20A was a little rough starting out as a first quarter class. The lectures come at you fast, but you get used to it. All the lecture materials are posted after the fact which was really nice. Professor Shao was mediocre at lecturing, but I didn't have to use the text book at all. The discussions were helpful in solidifying the ideas from class. The midterm and final averages were 70%, 65%, and then 85%. The curve helps carry you through the class and you're homework makes up a majority of your grade. All in all, Shao does what to be done, and the concepts are difficult but there is enough padding built in to help you grade up.

This class was good.
You really hit the ground running with new material at the start of the quarter, which can feel daunting at first. However, going to the discussion sessions are general helpful to better understand the course, which is true throughout the whole quarter. The class is pretty accommodating to your schedule, with lectures being recorded and available through CANVAS. Moreover, though I didn't go personally, she holds office hours often if you want more help. Midterms were challenging for most, with averages around 65-69% for each exam (but the final is much easier). Difficulty peaks around midterm 2, with a dip back to basic stoichiometry in week 8, then going back to harder material. To me, it seems that Shao wants you to succeed and gives you many opportunities to do so throughout the course.
Overall, if you go to your discussion you're bound to have the same, if not better, experience as mine.

Professor Shao is a really nice teacher. The class is difficult since it’s quantum physics, but lots of free grades and an easy final+curve. She made all her notes by herself and were helpful. Just try hard and you’ll definitely get a nice grade.

Dr. Shao shows genuine care for her students and is willing to help out whenever she can. Though we spent the majority of the first three/four weeks learning quantum physics, I personally felt that it was still relevant to the chemical structure. I had an awesome TA as well, so that is definitely something to look out for. If there's a stellar TA that is not the leader of your particular section, it'd be super helpful to sit in on their sessions. One thing that was especially dreadful about this class was the end-of-chapter assignments on Cengage though. There's a timer that tracks how much time you spent on each assignment and I swear none of mine were below 5 hours. They're kind of dreadful and boring, but definitely help lots with your grade. Speaking of grades, this class isn't outrageously test-weighted, which I found to have helped me achieve the grade I wanted. There are also plenty of extra credit opportunities which were all easy to obtain, so you don't have to do anything super awful or a ton of extra work for extra credit.

Dr. Shao shows genuine care for her students and is willing to help out whenever she can. Though we spent the majority of the first three/four weeks learning quantum physics, I personally felt that it was still relevant to the chemical structure. I had an awesome TA as well, so that is definitely something to look out for. If there's a stellar TA that is not the leader of your particular section, it'd be super helpful to sit in on their sessions. One thing that was especially dreadful about this class was the end-of-chapter assignments on Cengage though. There's a timer that tracks how much time you spent on each assignment and I swear none of mine were below 5 hours. They're kind of dreadful and boring, but definitely help lots with your grade. Speaking of grades, this class isn't outrageously test-weighted, which I found to have helped me achieve the grade I wanted. There are also plenty of extra credit opportunities which were all easy to obtain, so you don't have to do anything super awful or a ton of extra work for extra credit.

I low-key thought this class was fine. As a freshman, it does hit you pretty hard in the face because this class isn't easy as the other reviews suggest. Due to some wrong advising from my NSA in orientation, I took chem 17 before this class so I took this class with professor Shao and not Kvaner like most did in the fall. I do not regret this at all. Even though all those who took 20A got easy As, they learned absolutely nothing and had no idea what anything was about. With Shao, you will definitely need to work for that grade, but at the end you do learn a lot which help A LOT for the classes after, notably 20B... Anyways, I thought Shao was a nice professor. She went REALLY quick in lecture because there is a lot of material to cover in 10 weeks. So bonus if you have an iPad, otherwise hope you know how to write quick. There was weekly discussion sheets to fill out which were not easy but so helpful to review for her exams, Do not miss discussion sections. As much as I thought my TA was unnecessary, LAs helped a lot and those worksheets do count towards your final grade so do them at your best ability and don't hesitate to ask for help. Exams were take home and were to submit on gradescope. 2 midterms and one final. Exam 1 was crazy hard and we had very little time to finish it. Exam 2 was a bit easier but still hard to finish on time. Final was easier than 2 midterms, but still had to rush to finish and do well. For exams know how to do in class exercises and discussion worksheets. Also, try to not just glide through the engage and actually spend the hours doing the assignment. It is super helpful to build your ability to exercise yourself. Overall, this class wasn't overly demanding in work, but if you want a good grade, you will have to not neglect it and actually put some effort into it. I also never went to office hours, so you don't need them to do well. And finally textbook is completely useless with Shao.

Recap: If you can, take this class with Shao. You will gain good knowledge about fundamentals of chem 20 A in a fast paced but reasonably constructed course. it will be VERY confusing at times, but with exercise and effort you can definitely do great. Good luck!

THIS IS FOR CHEM 14 C ( there is no review for her up on bruinwalk so I’ll put it here)

Where to begin … at first we all like professor Shao, she was nice and approachable. She gives 3% extra credit, 30% for discussion worksheets each midterm is 15% and the final is 20%. Our first midterm was horrible the Chem department never printed enough tests so we started late and instead of sending us home they followed through with the exam and we were tearing pages and passing the test around. Some TA’s had different policies when taking the tests. So then the professor decided to cancel those exam scores and make us take it again during class time which was a huge inconvenience to many people. She made the test optional but if you didn’t take it, your other exams would be weighted even more so say homework is 15% it could be 20%. Apart from that the tests were difficult and SOOO LONG !!! I couldn’t even finish my exam at times because of so many questions. The final took me 2:30 hr to finish and we have 3 hours. I swear all those questions are so unecessary. Then for the first midterm she curved but it was only like a 2 pt curve because she determines averaged and tries to make sure the average is a B-. However, for the second midterm everyone did worse than the first it was a D average and she did not decide to curve everyone to a B- ? But she did it when it was a very small point boost ? Make it make sense. She also changed the syllabus I don’t know why ? Overall, I guess it worked out. But for transperacy…

I got full points from homework and discussion worksheets

1st midterm: C+
2nd: D-
Final: C

Ended up with a A- ( but keep in mind it may be different for others since the exams may not be optional for you because we had different circumstances. )

All in all I would never take a class with her again

Not terrible, by the grace of god I ended up with an A. This class is very hard at the start and progresses to easier topics later, so be ready.

Huiling (from what I've heard), was not so great in the quarter before, but she really improved this quarter. She really listens to feedback, and looks like she wants everyone to succeed. She was extremely helpful, and I'm pretty sure it just looks bad because she's forced to begin with quantum mechanics to weed out students. Granted, midterms and finals were online, so it was a lot less stressful than in person, but the tests were much harder and longer than in person as well. I really liked this class, after hearing how rough it could've been from previous students. can she pls teach 20B over Barr, I want to die.

THIS IS FOR 14C - The class doesn't exist on Bruinwalk yet so this will have to do

Shao herself seems quite nice, welcoming, and accommodating to students. I'm sure she's an amazing person. The class however is another story, which I will tell in 3 chapters: lectures, discussions, and exams.

I found Shao's lectures to be extremely confusing. She would go through concepts extremely quickly (thank goodness she listened to us and slowed her pace down after the first midterm) and I felt she was lacking in her ability to provide clear explanations. Shao teaches by doing, not really explaining, and as I felt this wasn't my learning style, I didn't have the best time at lecture and would skip all the time. I found my time was instead best used watching a youtube tutorial on the concept before going to / watching the lectures I had previously missed. Yes, I skipped, but I would watch the lectures eventually and only after getting an intro or explanation to the material elsewhere. Whenever I did attend in person lecture, I would sit in the back and listen without taking notes. I tried at first but learned that because of how quickly she went and how low my comprehension was, my in-class notes were garbage. It was much more worth it to take notes from recordings with the luxury of being able to pause. I will also mention that the textbook was completely useless. There's no real need to buy the $80~ textbook and I'm glad I never did. The molecular modeling kit she recommends however is quite useful, and it greatly helps with the stereochemistry unit.

Discussions are important since each TA will release weekly worksheets that together make up a significant portion of your grade and having a good TA makes a world of a difference. I suppose my personal advice is to find a good TA if you don't have one and act as if you're in their section in addition to your own. Do their worksheets and attend their office hours, esp as I found that certain TAs can be better instructors than the professor.

Exams were... something else. It felt as though the entire school had heard about the catastrophe of the first midterm, in which there was a mix-up within the chem department and only 1/3 of the needed tests were printed. Students were made to take the test regardless, with 1/3 of the class with actual tests and the other 2/3 with blank sheets of paper. The execution of this exam was so unfair that Prof. Shao ended up giving an optional in-lecture midterm the next week and discarding the failed midterm entirely. This second attempt at the first midterm went smoothly. The questions Shao asked were all doable based on the content she'd taught in class, with a few challenging problems occasionally thrown in. This test and all that followed it were extremely long and for many people required all of the allotted time to finish. Because of this though, all of the exams were worth many points and smaller mistakes + challenging problems were balanced by the sheer number of straightforward questions. The second midterm and final were also extremely fair. I'm not too sure how the class managed to get a percent average in the 60s for the second midterm, but it seems people got used to it by the final, which had an average in the 80s.

Overall, the class was a challenge, especially with it being Shao's first time teaching it contrast to her experience teaching the physical science version of the intro chem series. People are far from forgetting the mishap of the first midterm, but in the end, all was made to be fair. Prepare to work hard on your own to succeed.