Professor
Hung Pham
1 of 2
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2019 - I don't even have Professor Pham, but WOW this man can teach. He served as our guest lecturer this morning; throughout the lecture, students were just messaging in our class group chat about how AMAZING he was. He was funny, explained things in ways my 12-year-old brother could understand, and was super engaging. As everyone left the lecture hall, I saw countless people with their jaws dropped and basically screaming to their friends about how they couldn't believe they just experienced such a quality lecture. I'm pretty sure people even begged Professor Pham to continue "guest lecturing" for the rest of the quarter.
Fall 2019 - I don't even have Professor Pham, but WOW this man can teach. He served as our guest lecturer this morning; throughout the lecture, students were just messaging in our class group chat about how AMAZING he was. He was funny, explained things in ways my 12-year-old brother could understand, and was super engaging. As everyone left the lecture hall, I saw countless people with their jaws dropped and basically screaming to their friends about how they couldn't believe they just experienced such a quality lecture. I'm pretty sure people even begged Professor Pham to continue "guest lecturing" for the rest of the quarter.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2020 - Going into the class I knew it was going to be very difficult due to the nature of ochem, and I was not surprised. However, one of the things Porfessor Pham emphasizes is how Ochem builds on itself, and how doing poorly on one test is not the end of the world. The way he teaches the class is really structured so you learn things in a way that they build off each other, so towards the end topics that may have been challenging at the beginning are easier because you've been working on them the whole quarter. A lot of people in the reviews from fall 2020 may say how he was unaccommodating and such, but I think the negative comments are due to a bias against him due to their own struggles. Also, please not I am not writing this from the perspective of a student who got As the whole quarter. I failed the first midterm out of 2, but I was able to improve my scores for the next midterm and the final. The class had 2 midterms and a final (50 points each), weekly BACON tutorials (40 points), Discussion attendance (40 points), and 5 problem sets due every other week (20 points each). However, he offered extra credit for answering poll questions, filling out surveys, and for doing an optional group project at the end of the year which my friends and I had a lot of fun doing. To conclude, don't be afraid to take his class, Pham is super clear and helpful, and it is worth it for the ask me anything he does at the end of the quarter :)
Fall 2020 - Going into the class I knew it was going to be very difficult due to the nature of ochem, and I was not surprised. However, one of the things Porfessor Pham emphasizes is how Ochem builds on itself, and how doing poorly on one test is not the end of the world. The way he teaches the class is really structured so you learn things in a way that they build off each other, so towards the end topics that may have been challenging at the beginning are easier because you've been working on them the whole quarter. A lot of people in the reviews from fall 2020 may say how he was unaccommodating and such, but I think the negative comments are due to a bias against him due to their own struggles. Also, please not I am not writing this from the perspective of a student who got As the whole quarter. I failed the first midterm out of 2, but I was able to improve my scores for the next midterm and the final. The class had 2 midterms and a final (50 points each), weekly BACON tutorials (40 points), Discussion attendance (40 points), and 5 problem sets due every other week (20 points each). However, he offered extra credit for answering poll questions, filling out surveys, and for doing an optional group project at the end of the year which my friends and I had a lot of fun doing. To conclude, don't be afraid to take his class, Pham is super clear and helpful, and it is worth it for the ask me anything he does at the end of the quarter :)
AD
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2021 - OVERVIEW: Simply put, Pham is amazing. If you have the opportunity to take this class with him, he will make the introduction to organic chemistry as easy as it can. A fair warning: this class is not easy. Pham is an engaging and clear lecturer, and the class is set up to be as accessible as possible to help you learn best. He is extremely friendly, willing to help, and isn't boring: he has tons of personality, so go to office hours! GRADING: The grading scale of this class is not curved. You aren't competing with anyone other than yourself, so work is required. Everything is graded with no weighting, so one point on the homework is worth the same as one point on the exam. There's a few opportunities for extra credit here and there, particularly bonus questions on the exams, for maybe a few percentage points. This quarter, he ended up bumping your grade up if you were only 1-2 points off from the cutoff, which was awesome! HW: Homework is actually quite light if you pace yourself. There were only five assignments, each was about four pages of related material meant to correspond roughly with the lectures every two weeks. They are practically identical to the exams, which makes them excellent study material. Each is randomly assessed for accuracy, and also points are given for completion. Make a study group to do well! Homework alone is likely not enough to do well, but there are an infinite amount of worksheets from TAs and LAs accessible to anyone, plus lots of review sessions and solutions posted weekly. Expect to put in the time studying non-mandatory material. It is really nice to have few things to actually worry about turning in, however. EXAMS: There are no quizzes in this class, at least not in the online format. This does make the amount of points from the two midterms and final (all weighted equally) substantial. A warning: the tests are difficult. However, the tests are fair. Everything on the test is gone over in lecture. Homework, as previously mentioned, is basically identical to the test. Tons of material is available for practice. In the online format, it was open note, but to be honest, if you do enough practice you'll be totally fine even without notes. For organic chemistry, a fair test with ample preparation is the best you can ask for. Each test also has bonus point opportunities. SUMMARY: If you're considering taking this class, you must not fall behind. There is new information every lecture, and there's little time for review during the actual class. Make ample use of discussion time and office hours to ask your questions; the LAs, TAs, and Pham are all very happy to help and very accessible. If managed correctly, this class will not be as stressful as the 20 series can be because the format is just better, even if the material is harder.
Spring 2021 - OVERVIEW: Simply put, Pham is amazing. If you have the opportunity to take this class with him, he will make the introduction to organic chemistry as easy as it can. A fair warning: this class is not easy. Pham is an engaging and clear lecturer, and the class is set up to be as accessible as possible to help you learn best. He is extremely friendly, willing to help, and isn't boring: he has tons of personality, so go to office hours! GRADING: The grading scale of this class is not curved. You aren't competing with anyone other than yourself, so work is required. Everything is graded with no weighting, so one point on the homework is worth the same as one point on the exam. There's a few opportunities for extra credit here and there, particularly bonus questions on the exams, for maybe a few percentage points. This quarter, he ended up bumping your grade up if you were only 1-2 points off from the cutoff, which was awesome! HW: Homework is actually quite light if you pace yourself. There were only five assignments, each was about four pages of related material meant to correspond roughly with the lectures every two weeks. They are practically identical to the exams, which makes them excellent study material. Each is randomly assessed for accuracy, and also points are given for completion. Make a study group to do well! Homework alone is likely not enough to do well, but there are an infinite amount of worksheets from TAs and LAs accessible to anyone, plus lots of review sessions and solutions posted weekly. Expect to put in the time studying non-mandatory material. It is really nice to have few things to actually worry about turning in, however. EXAMS: There are no quizzes in this class, at least not in the online format. This does make the amount of points from the two midterms and final (all weighted equally) substantial. A warning: the tests are difficult. However, the tests are fair. Everything on the test is gone over in lecture. Homework, as previously mentioned, is basically identical to the test. Tons of material is available for practice. In the online format, it was open note, but to be honest, if you do enough practice you'll be totally fine even without notes. For organic chemistry, a fair test with ample preparation is the best you can ask for. Each test also has bonus point opportunities. SUMMARY: If you're considering taking this class, you must not fall behind. There is new information every lecture, and there's little time for review during the actual class. Make ample use of discussion time and office hours to ask your questions; the LAs, TAs, and Pham are all very happy to help and very accessible. If managed correctly, this class will not be as stressful as the 20 series can be because the format is just better, even if the material is harder.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2020 - While this professor has mainly positive reviews, there are some things about this class that deserve attention. Yes, Pham has very organized slides which include the material you need. Yet, this course requires a lot more than attending lecture/discussion to actually do well. For those who had a harder time understanding material, I do not think this professor was of much help AT ALL. He does provide some opportunity for extra credit, but if he was not FORCED to make the final optional during the pandemic, I probably would’ve failed this class because towards the end it was so fast paced and easy to fall behind with concepts. (For reference, I got a C on the midterm). He seemed to discourage asking questions and came off as rude upon confusion in office hours. Idk why this professor is so hyped up honestly.
Spring 2020 - While this professor has mainly positive reviews, there are some things about this class that deserve attention. Yes, Pham has very organized slides which include the material you need. Yet, this course requires a lot more than attending lecture/discussion to actually do well. For those who had a harder time understanding material, I do not think this professor was of much help AT ALL. He does provide some opportunity for extra credit, but if he was not FORCED to make the final optional during the pandemic, I probably would’ve failed this class because towards the end it was so fast paced and easy to fall behind with concepts. (For reference, I got a C on the midterm). He seemed to discourage asking questions and came off as rude upon confusion in office hours. Idk why this professor is so hyped up honestly.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2021 - Overall, I thought this class was fine. Professor Pham is clear during lecture, but I wish that he had more time to spend going through examples or solving problems. A lot of material builds on information from 30A, so if you didn't do well in that class (like me), you need to really look at what went wrong and try to improve, or else it's likely you'll also do poorly in this class (like me). The class is broken up into two sections of reactions/mechanisms with a spectroscopy section in the middle, which is totally new and a nice break. The latter half of the class moves very quickly, so you need to make sure you are keeping up with content. Practice is the key to doing well.
Fall 2021 - Overall, I thought this class was fine. Professor Pham is clear during lecture, but I wish that he had more time to spend going through examples or solving problems. A lot of material builds on information from 30A, so if you didn't do well in that class (like me), you need to really look at what went wrong and try to improve, or else it's likely you'll also do poorly in this class (like me). The class is broken up into two sections of reactions/mechanisms with a spectroscopy section in the middle, which is totally new and a nice break. The latter half of the class moves very quickly, so you need to make sure you are keeping up with content. Practice is the key to doing well.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2021 - to be honest, when i took 30a with pham, i didn't particularly like him. i was very intimidated by him in office hours, and i found it very difficult to get a straight/clear answer out of him. however, i actually really enjoyed 30b in person with him. i appreciated the fact that he's very transparent about his thoughts and opinions, and he has a very dry/sarcastic sense of humour. with the class being in person, his personality was a lot more evident, and it made learning from him very fun. _____________________________________________________ the class was out of 300 points. we had two midterms worth 50 points each, one final worth 100 points, five problem sets worth 15 points each, and BACON worth 25 points. The midterms had lowish averages (mt1 - 65% and mt2 - 67%), but i think that this is normal for an ochem class. he also give a lot of extra credit (it was something like 10 points not counting the 2 buffer points he has on tests). if you can do well on the problem sets, you'll do well on exams because he likes to put similar questions on his midterms. in addition to the extra credit, he scaled our class up so that a B was an 80%, which he said was right below the average. _____________________________________________________ overall, i think that pham is a great professor. to echo the other reviews, ochem will be hard no matter who is teaching it because of the sheer volume of material (30b had something like 100 reactions plus spec). pham doesn't try to make the class harder that it already is, and he's a fun person to be around. i enjoyed 30b with him, and i would take him again if i had the chance!
Fall 2021 - to be honest, when i took 30a with pham, i didn't particularly like him. i was very intimidated by him in office hours, and i found it very difficult to get a straight/clear answer out of him. however, i actually really enjoyed 30b in person with him. i appreciated the fact that he's very transparent about his thoughts and opinions, and he has a very dry/sarcastic sense of humour. with the class being in person, his personality was a lot more evident, and it made learning from him very fun. _____________________________________________________ the class was out of 300 points. we had two midterms worth 50 points each, one final worth 100 points, five problem sets worth 15 points each, and BACON worth 25 points. The midterms had lowish averages (mt1 - 65% and mt2 - 67%), but i think that this is normal for an ochem class. he also give a lot of extra credit (it was something like 10 points not counting the 2 buffer points he has on tests). if you can do well on the problem sets, you'll do well on exams because he likes to put similar questions on his midterms. in addition to the extra credit, he scaled our class up so that a B was an 80%, which he said was right below the average. _____________________________________________________ overall, i think that pham is a great professor. to echo the other reviews, ochem will be hard no matter who is teaching it because of the sheer volume of material (30b had something like 100 reactions plus spec). pham doesn't try to make the class harder that it already is, and he's a fun person to be around. i enjoyed 30b with him, and i would take him again if i had the chance!
AD
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2020 - I took this class the first time Pham taught it online, during the pandemic. I've previously taken Chem 14C with the dude (I switched from life sci to biochem), and knew that I would like him. For context, I tried out taking Chem 30C with Merlic for the first 2 weeks of Winter (before the impacted course drop deadline) and REALLY did not like Merlic's teaching style. I personally know that I do fine with slides and appreciate the greater organization over seeing everything drawn out. Merlic was a lot more messy and harder to follow, and spoke so goddamn fast that lecture was just excruciating. I just couldn't retain anything from his lectures because of it, which made me super anxious. But Pham is highly understandable, able to point out key concepts and good at simplifying things. For huge ochem buffs, you may prefer Merlic since Pham may have a tendency to over-simplify (but not in a way that would hurt you on an exam b/c his exams reflect what he teaches you), but I definitely didn't mind. Because of the nature of this quarter, we only had one midterm and one final. Everything was open-book, open-note. We were given 24 hours to submit, but were encouraged to follow guidelines for taking it within 2 hours for the midterm and 3 hours for the final. However, this was only an honor-based system and he only started pushing this more heavily when he felt like students were taking advantage of the system...and ended up going back to saying 24 hours was okay at the end of the quarter when things were getting crazy with the protests. The class was originally supposed to be 50 points BACON, 100 points midterm, 100 points problem set, and 150 points final, but Pham was extremely accommodating following the protests. He made the class instead out of 250 points, and the final optional. Essentially, he adjusted the final to be 100 points and would just take the better exam between the midterm or final. If you did take the final, it was made no-harm as well. The problem sets and BACON were the same number of points. Problem sets weren't bad at all. Only select problems were graded. He added them so we wold have more buffer points during this online quarter. We had a total of 3 main opportunities for extra credit. CryOFF project for 8 points + 2 more points if you were chosen as best project, 2 points for evals, and 1 point for pre-midterm survey. Following the protests, he gave everyone minimum 6 points on CryOFF though. On the midterm, there was one random EC point (not skill). On the final, there was 4 EC points, with 3 points coming from some ochem relevant knowledge (knowing UCLA professors) and 1 free EC point. But yeah, Pham was great, although it was sad to see him less enthusiastic/more down this quarter. He's a good teacher, although I finally understand why some people say he's not as patient with questions. He switches between being usually pretty nice during lecture, to being potentially blunt/intimidating for individual questions during OH or at the end of class. But I know he means well and just tried not to take it personally. I still really appreciated him b/c ochem could be somewhat confusing/convoluted to me with other profs, but I had no trouble whatsoever with Pham, even though it's been 2 years since I took ochem. He was more than fair - promising us that he would not make the exams any longer or harder than he normally would even with all his accommodations. And I can verify that this is true. Never in a million years did I expect ochem to go this smoothly, and yes there were a lot of accommodations, but I still feel like I learned a lot :).
Spring 2020 - I took this class the first time Pham taught it online, during the pandemic. I've previously taken Chem 14C with the dude (I switched from life sci to biochem), and knew that I would like him. For context, I tried out taking Chem 30C with Merlic for the first 2 weeks of Winter (before the impacted course drop deadline) and REALLY did not like Merlic's teaching style. I personally know that I do fine with slides and appreciate the greater organization over seeing everything drawn out. Merlic was a lot more messy and harder to follow, and spoke so goddamn fast that lecture was just excruciating. I just couldn't retain anything from his lectures because of it, which made me super anxious. But Pham is highly understandable, able to point out key concepts and good at simplifying things. For huge ochem buffs, you may prefer Merlic since Pham may have a tendency to over-simplify (but not in a way that would hurt you on an exam b/c his exams reflect what he teaches you), but I definitely didn't mind. Because of the nature of this quarter, we only had one midterm and one final. Everything was open-book, open-note. We were given 24 hours to submit, but were encouraged to follow guidelines for taking it within 2 hours for the midterm and 3 hours for the final. However, this was only an honor-based system and he only started pushing this more heavily when he felt like students were taking advantage of the system...and ended up going back to saying 24 hours was okay at the end of the quarter when things were getting crazy with the protests. The class was originally supposed to be 50 points BACON, 100 points midterm, 100 points problem set, and 150 points final, but Pham was extremely accommodating following the protests. He made the class instead out of 250 points, and the final optional. Essentially, he adjusted the final to be 100 points and would just take the better exam between the midterm or final. If you did take the final, it was made no-harm as well. The problem sets and BACON were the same number of points. Problem sets weren't bad at all. Only select problems were graded. He added them so we wold have more buffer points during this online quarter. We had a total of 3 main opportunities for extra credit. CryOFF project for 8 points + 2 more points if you were chosen as best project, 2 points for evals, and 1 point for pre-midterm survey. Following the protests, he gave everyone minimum 6 points on CryOFF though. On the midterm, there was one random EC point (not skill). On the final, there was 4 EC points, with 3 points coming from some ochem relevant knowledge (knowing UCLA professors) and 1 free EC point. But yeah, Pham was great, although it was sad to see him less enthusiastic/more down this quarter. He's a good teacher, although I finally understand why some people say he's not as patient with questions. He switches between being usually pretty nice during lecture, to being potentially blunt/intimidating for individual questions during OH or at the end of class. But I know he means well and just tried not to take it personally. I still really appreciated him b/c ochem could be somewhat confusing/convoluted to me with other profs, but I had no trouble whatsoever with Pham, even though it's been 2 years since I took ochem. He was more than fair - promising us that he would not make the exams any longer or harder than he normally would even with all his accommodations. And I can verify that this is true. Never in a million years did I expect ochem to go this smoothly, and yes there were a lot of accommodations, but I still feel like I learned a lot :).
1 of 2
