Professor Shao is genuinely invested in her students’ learning. She takes into consideration student feedback and adjusts her lectures and class structure accordingly. She also provides lots of study resources (midterm review sessions, expectation questions, etc).
There was definitely a steep learning curve for the course material. I received a 69% on the first midterm. This class taught me how to effectively study, and it is very, very possible to receive an A in this course if you put in the time to review lectures. Professor Shao’s exams are very fair; not easy but also not extremely difficult. She writes exams so that students have ample time to complete them.
Discussions were incredibly helpful; exam questions were very similar to discussion worksheet problems. I also had the best TA Rakesh Bal! He was very good at explaining concepts that originally weren’t clear during lecture. He was also very easy to reach and replied quickly if I ever had questions about the content.
Overall, I would definitely take this class again. The grade scaling was very generous and in favor of students. Each midterm (two total) was worth 15%, discussion worksheets were worth 30%, homework was worth 20%, and the final was worth 20%. The workload itself is not a lot, however studying to simply understand the material is time consuming. Chem 20A with Professor Shao was definitely my hardest class of the quarter, but also my favorite.