Prof Shao definitely listened to the feedback she got her last quarter, as well as the feedback this quarter, and made the class is a lot more manageable. It is hard to make comprehensive 50 minute exams, but I believe her exams were fair and were not too easy/not too hard. She offers 3% extra credit and the class is already pre-curved (a normal A- would be an A, a normal B+ would be an A-, etc.) and she is very very clear with her grading policies (no curving if the class average is at/above a B-). It is a hard subject, but practicing the end of the chapter problems are really helpful in preparation for her exams. However, I often found the discussion worksheets to be unrelated to the material we were learning (they were often far ahead), and they were also usually released late, which made it hard to get help on them. I also did not find the discussion sections to be useful either, as it was mainly just regurgitating the answer key to the worksheets. Overall, the class is what you make out of it and it is not impossible to get a good grade is you are consistent in keeping up with the matieral.

Shao is a good professor who evidently cares a lot about her students as she provides handwritten lecture guides and creates review questions so that you are well-prepared for the exams. Also, as someone who is writing this review while in Chem20B *SHAO IS A GODSEND COMPARED TO BARR. I THOUGHT SHAO WAS A 'PRETTY GOOD' INSTRUCTOR BUT HE MAKES HER LOOK SO GOOD. ENJOY HER BEFORE YOU HAVE TO TAKE BARR*.

*Ahem* Going back to the review the grading is pretty generous, I forgot exactly what it was but I'm pretty sure you just needed to average above an 80% on the exams since the grading was like 50% was homework, discussion questions, Cengage, etc and the other 50% was exams so I think as long as you got above an 80% you were fine (it might even be lower than averaging 80% because I think above an 85% was an A or something like that). She provided us with handwritten lecture slides so if you have an iPad and have notability or something like that I would recommend doing that because it makes this class so easy when you can essentially just annotate what she's writing down instead of having to write it all from scratch.

Content Review: Ok honestly this class is a lot of random math/physics that you'll probably never use in real life, so don't get overwhelmed if you feel like a lot of the stuff you're doing is really abstract and random. Also for context, I never took AP Chem and my high school had a really bad Chem teacher so I came in with essentially no previous chemistry background and still ended up getting an A, honestly, if you have somewhat of a physics background then that will probably help you more because the first half of this class is a lot more quantum physics-based (Schrodinger Equation, Potential Energy Diagrams, etc). As a whole though, I thought the Cengage did a good job reinforcing the concepts from class (although the Cengage will take a while) and the Review Questions were also very good as well in preparing you. For me, the hardest part of the class is the material on the second Midterm: Valence Bond Theory, Molecular-Orbital Diagrams, and that kind of stuff, but for those with stronger Chem backgrounds, it probably won't be that bad. Again, as someone with little to no Chem background, following along with the Cengage, Review Sections, and Discussion Worksheets was good enough for me to not exactly understand it perfectly, but at least understand it enough to understand what to do when given a question like that on the test.

Overall: I liked Shao as a professor. She was kind, was a little hard to understand at times but really nothing major, and definitely knew her stuff. Even if you find yourself not liking the class, tell yourself to enjoy the class and enjoy Shao if you need to take 20B after this (if you are in this boat and are like wow this class sucks I hate this, just read some of Barr's 20B reviews and then you will feel a lot better about where you are right then and there). Grading was pretty lenient for a college Engineering Chemistry class, Shao and the TA's are always pretty helpful, and the discussion worksheets and Cengage do a good job reinforcing the topics learned in class.

This class is polarizing to say the least but my experience was very positive. To address the negative reviews, I do agree that some of the content was far above me and might not have belonged in an introductory chemistry class but I do feel like I learned the basics of quantum mechanics and that it helped my fundamental understanding of topics covered later in the class. If you don't take the time to regularly attend office hours, read the textbook when confused, or meet with your TA, you won't learn anything and will only survive by sheer memorization. That said, if you put in the effort, things will start to make sense with time. A lot of the concepts covered before the midterm are really abstract and though it might feel like you're not learning anything, STICK WITH IT! At least for me, things eventually started to fall into place over time (you're learning just not realizing it until the end). Though others may claim this class is unfair to give to freshman, I have friends at Michigan and Harvey Mudd who were given very similar classes so I think that's just how it is.

Regardless, Prof Shao is an excellent lecturer and is extremely helpful in office hours (which she happily extends if you have more questions). The midterms are tough but are almost identical to the review packets she hands out the week before (just with different numbers).

My suggestions:
1) Only read the textbook before lectures if you have the time (though Shao suggests doing it before every class). The textbook isn't very clear and is VERY time consuming to read. Instead, I'd ask questions in office hours which are usually empty.

2) Don't procrastinate on attending office hours to ask your questions. There were quite a few lectures where I had no idea what was going on and if you let the questions build up, you'll continue to be confused during future lectures.

3) Break the Cengage homework into digestible sessions or risk spending 12+ hours straight grinding them out the night before. The Cengage problems are also really similar to those on the test so it's important to understand it and not just get it done.

I feel like I did not learn at my full potential. May have been my fault, but not totally sure. I feel like this is a pretty easy class if you've taken AP Chem in hs or with a help of people who know what they are doing. I can tell you I am not sure how I passed, but I think my friend would explain the material better to me than she would. Overall pretty easy, as long as you get everything done.

The content is definitely hard, but Shao does a pretty good job with it. Lectures are super organized and cover the content with decent depth. Discussions are mandatory (30% of your grade is the worksheets you do in them), but also super helpful. Tests are a bit difficult but nothing crazy.

Challenging yet enjoyable class.

I did feel like I learned a lot from Dr.Shao's class however, I think it wasn't the right class for me. Her format of lecturing is not very helpful for me as she has slides that she annotates throughout the lecture, but moves so quickly that you don't have time to write stuff down. She tries to provide lots of resources to succeed but none were super helpful in my opinion. My TA was definitely the reason I did decent in the class. The class starts out feeling like a physics class so it is very offputting because you signed up for a chemistry class, not physics. I took AP Chemistry in high school and maybe 10% of the material was similar so unless you have a strong background in chemistry, physics, and quantum mechanics, you may struggle. She is a very nice person and does want to help you, but isn't the easiest person to get help from. I only recommend this class if you have a strong background in the things I mentioned above or have a passion for them. It's a challenging class.

Huiling is incredibly organized and accommodating. Every lecture recording was posted promptly, blank lecture notes were posted long before class, and annotated lecture notes were always available after class. If she made an error on the lecture notes in class, she alerted us that corrections were available and would often take that content off the midterm because she thought it would be unfair to test us on something that wasn’t taught clearly. She provided a number of resources for extra help and was always willing to hang around outside the lecture hall after class answering questions. She let us take both midterms and the final open note because she wanted us to be able to show comprehension, not memorization. She also always had a cool outfit. Highly recommend her class!

The content of this class is tough (isn't super similar to AP Chemistry and deals a lot more with quantum mechanics/chemistry) but Shao has a very generous grading scheme to make up for it. First, she implements a scale where 90-100 is an A, 85-89 is an A-, 80-84 is a B+, ... , and so on until needing only a 55 to pass the class. Exam averages were low (around the 70s range), mostly due to needing to work through them quickly, but all in all are similar to her discussion worksheets and "expectation problems." She doesn't curve given her scaling, and exams are not weighed as much compared to other classes. Discussion worksheets and homework account for 50% of your grade, and for homework you are given 10 attempts per question. That leaves 15% for each midterm and 20% for the final. Given it was her first time teaching, her lectures were a lot and sometimes disorganized, but she is a kind, generous person and truly wants to help students learn (I heard she is also much more helpful in office hours). All in all, her lenient grading is a great reason to take Professor Shao's class, and she's also a decent teacher and overall just super nice person.

I genuinely swore I was going to fail this class. I bombed the first midterm after studying for two weeks before it. THE TESTS ARE HARD. Nearly impossible. But somehow you make it out alive because if you utilize this outstanding professor the seemingly impossible material will start to make sense.

The homework takes a lot of time but is entirely manageable if you make time for it. That is what saves your grade. Take this class its worth it.