Dr. Pham is a godsend for the organic chemistry department, and he was one of my favorite professors that I have taken at UCLA so far. He is incredibly clear, methodical, engaging, and knowledgable about the material. I learned so much in this class and am thankful to him for his help making the material understandable for students and providing supplemental help during office hours and via email. With that being said, Chem 14D is definitely a very difficult class, and there is a TON of material covered within the 10 week time span; for me, it was certainly the hardest class in the chemistry series, but Dr. Pham alleviates the difficulty with his incredible teaching and quite generous grading scheme.
In terms of grading scheme, there were two midterm exams and one final. The midterms were 50 points each, and the final exam was 100 points. There was 100 other points in the class for submission of biweekly practice problem sets and weekly "BACON" online chemistry quizzes, which were both mainly an easy 100 points to earn. Therefore, the class was out of a total of 300 points, with 200 of those points coming from the 3 exams; Dr. Pham offered around 13 points of extra credit in the form of surveys/forms and an optional extra credit group project at the end of the quarter. Moreover, there was also extra credit on the exams, around 3-4 points on each exam, so in total there was likely around 25-30 points of EC in a 300 point class (almost a 10% grade bump!).
For this reason, I would say that Dr. Pham's grading policy is extremely generous and made it easier to achieve a high grade in this difficult class. As for the material, the first few weeks and corresponding Midterm 1 were quite slow-paced and relatively easier, in order to introduce us to the fundamentals of organic reactivity and how to draw complete mechanisms. After the fundamentals were taught and Midterm 1 was taken, Weeks 4-10 seemed like an absolute sprint to the finish line, as we cover multiple new reactions in lecture every day. For me, Midterm 2 and the final exam were significantly more difficult than MT1, and the pace of the class picks up tremendously fast after the first few weeks. Chem 14D requires a lot of practice and hard work outside of class time in order to keep up with the sheer breadth of the material covered. While there is definitely a lot of memorization in this class, it is also important to understand the reactions and mechanisms because many of them follow the same overall theme; therefore, practice is essential, and it would not be wise to cram/memorize all the reactions a few nights before the exam.
Overall, Chem 14D is definitely a really difficult class because you learn a LOT in a short 10 week span. However, Dr. Pham makes it extremely understandable and manageable by clearly explaining everything in lecture and keeping the class engaged; moreover, his generous grading policy helps students achieve a high grade in what is supposed to be a difficult lower division organic chemistry class. I highly recommend Dr. Pham for Chem 14D; he was the best!

Highly recommend Pham for 14D! Chem 14D is hard but if you practice and strategize, you can succeed. This is not a class you can just read the lectures/take notes and succeed in; be prepared to do a ton of practice problems if you want to do well. He gave a TON of extra credit this quarter as well (like 10+ points, opportunities spread throughout the quarter).

Coming from someone who got a literal F on the first midterm and ended with an A- in the class, I can't stress enough how critical it is to do practice problems. For the first midterm I didn't do a single practice problem. After that, I went to lecture and took notes like normal; I would then rewrite the reactions, mechanisms, key reagants, etc again (active recall) and do practice problems (discussion worksheets, old exams, homework problems). I made my own "cheat sheets" and organized all the information in a way that made sense to me. The biggest thing about this class was honestly getting familiar with what was going on when looking at a reaction; I went to OH for the first time in my life for this class. My biggest tip to prepare for exams is to take old ones.

Grading
Problem Sets (top 4) 60
Midterm Exams (x 2) 100 ~33%
Final Exam 100 ~33%
BACON Tutorials (top 8) 40 ~13%
Total 300

I really liked the format of the class and after I got adjusted, I couldn't have imagined taking this class with anyone else. Pham is an excellent lecturer and explains things very well but you have to practice on your own. Tests and homework assignments are fair.

Selling old Midterms and Final. Email: *************

Selling notes, final study guide and midterms. Text me at ********** if interested!

A gem of a professor. Pham is so clear in lectures and made class very engaging. I thought the material was definitely different and much more conceptual than past chemistry classes, and taking the class in 6 weeks was a challenge. Take Pham though, you won't regret! For practice/past exams or study guide/notes, feel free to contact *************

I took Chem 30B with prof Hung V Pham for csesh. I am so glad that I took this class with prof Pham. Because our class was online, the exams were all open book, but prof Pham didn't make them insanely difficult. I actually thought his exams were quite fair. He is a very clear professor and doesn't overcomplicate things that don't need to be complicated, which is something a lot of professors unfortunately do. Even though I have 1.5x extra time, I found myself finishing his exams only about 15-30 min after the designated finish time for regular students.

The homework problem sets were a little long, but given that it was a condensed summer class, this was to be expected. During a regular quarter, the HWs would probably be shorter.

Overall, I really liked prof Pham and would definitely take a class with him again!

I was scared to take this class but Pham’s lectures were very engaging and the tests were very well made (not too easy but not insanely difficult). I thought that the class was well structured and very organized. The TA and LA’s were also very helpful in this course. Would definitely recommend taking chem 14D with Pham!

I can't recommend Pham enough. I never enjoyed a single Chem 14 series class, but this was the perfect way to end the journey. Pham is clear, organized, tests very fairly (no trick questions or unnecessarily tough questions), and gives a huge amount of extra credit. His support team of TAs and LAs are phenomenal and are so incredibly helpful. I would recommend going to one or two discussions a week with a TA that you like, or at the very least, do their worksheets which really help ingrain topics.

There's no two ways around it : this class requires a LOT of memorization and practice. Don't be intimidated though because the sooner you get on it, the faster it will come to you until it's like second nature. It is definitely doable if you but the effort in. Take Pham, you won't regret it!

Chem 14D is a difficult class, and there's no way around that. But, Dr. Pham was an awesome professor, especially considering who I had for A, B, and C. He was very clear in lectures, had slides and worked examples on the board, and had a ton of resources for students. The discussions are very helpful and were definitely worth attending. They were optional, but you could go and ask homework questions, or work on a practice sheet. I did well in this class but it was because I was willing to put in the time. Understanding the concepts behind the mechanisms so you can predict the outcome will be a lot better for you in the long run than just making notecards and memorizing every arrow of every reaction, but there is still plenty of memorization involved and it takes time. You cannot cram for this class. I had back to back midterms the first go around and tried to cram for this class and I did terrible--the second midterm, I started seriously studying a week in advance and was able to pull off a grade that allowed me to make up for the first one. Pham offers a TON of extra credit so make sure you take advantage of every opportunity. Also take advantage of office hours, as the problem set homework assignments can really sneak up on you if you don't start them well in advance and have time to ask all of your questions. So, since you probably have to take 14D or you wouldn't be considering it, take Dr. Pham. He was an excellent professor.

Before getting into the main body of the review, I, for the sake of context, despise Ochem and everything this god forsaken subject stands for. The constantly flurry of arrows and transfers will inevitably impact me up to my eventual demise. The apocalypse, as described in Revelations, seems trivial in comparison to the nightmarish hellscape that is Ochem. I could watch 46 of the most adorable infants (along with 7 kittens, 5 puppies, and a couple rabbits) get tied to train tracks and pulverized by a massive steam engine (all in slow motion might I add), and I would still feel less anguish than I felt trying to study for Ochem exams. I could witness the most indescribably awful crime, one that would permanently alter the life of any who witness it, and I would still only rank it as the second worst experience of my life (first should be obvious). TLDR: I find Ochem quite tough.

However... Pham is easily the best professor you can take this class with. It is only due to his wonderful instruction and generous grading policy that I did even remotely well in this class. Dramatic intro paragraph aside, Pham makes Ochem bearable. His grading scheme goes as follows:

Problem Sets x5 - (60 points, your lowest problem set score is dropped)
He assigns 5 throughout the quarter, they are due every other week (you basically have two weeks to work on each). I did not get 100% on a single one, but partial credit was very generous.

BACON x10 - (40 points, your lowest two BACON assignments are dropped)
Assigns one each week. Got a 100% in this category, try to memorize a lot of the pictures given in the BACON assignments, since some questions ask you to recall a structure mentioned in the assignment (you also cannot go back to the reading once you get to the questions)

MT1 - (50 points, 2 pnts of extra credit possible)
I got sick during this exam, so I did not take it. Average was 71% (median 75%). I took the midterm on my own time and this was quite doable in my opinion. The extra credit is often a super random question from the slides, so it could kinda be anything (even the Fun Fridays). Importantly, if you are sick or cannot make one of the midterm, Pham averages your MT2 and Final score and makes your MT1 score that average (if you got a 70% on MT2 and 80% on the Final, your MT1 would be around a 77% since more weight is given to the final).

MT2 - (50 points, 2 pnts of extra credit possible)
I personally got a C on this exam. Didn't give myself enough time to memorize the reactions and mechanisms AND didn't do enough practice. Do yourself a favor and use either a quizlet or Anki deck and give yourself at least a week/week and a half to memorize all the reactions and mechanisms listed in the slides. If it's on the slide, and Pham didn't explicitly mention that it will not be tested, assume it is fair game. Also, do the TA worksheets after you memorize your reactions, that way you get a good idea of all the different ways the reaction can affect a molecule

Final - (100 points, 3 pnts of extra credit possible)
I got an A on this exam. Giving myself more time to memorize and apply really helped here (plus, I got mildly lucky, since the mechanisms on the exam were ones I was very comfortable with / made the most sense to me). The same advice from MT2 applies here. MT1 content on the final is very implicit, since the Substitution and Elimination reactions learned at the beginning of the quarter form the basis for the rest of the reactions in the class (plus, there were some questions that required identification of a strong base, nucleophile, etc).

Extra credit was super plentiful (I think there was around 13 extra credit points total, which is a ton in this class). You can get up to 8 extra credit points if you participate in CryOFF (basically making your own Fun Friday assignment), and the rest were from feedback and evaluations.

Overall, I felt the exams were fair (but difficult, because ofc, it's Ochem). Additionally, due to how the grades are calculated, you have a lot of wiggle room to mess up and still do well in the class. As long as one stays up to date on lecture (I did not, brought me immeasurable pain later on when I had to catch up) and give yourself enough time to memorize and apply all the reactions and mechanisms (I did not, brought me more aforementioned immeasurable pain), you will do just fine in this class. And while a lot of studying is required outside of class, Pham really does do a great job at introducing you to all the mechanisms and reactions he tests on.

Side note, but the TAs and LAs in this class were phenomenal. While I did not go to a single discussion (do not do this, please go to discussion), TA office hours were a great place to get help on the problem sets (Caleb's office hours were awesome). They also make pretty great if not challenging worksheets to help you practice the material. The LAs held review sessions before every exam, which while not as good of practice and the TA worksheets, were a great way to get a quick review in before each exam (especially for the final).

Overall, 9/10 class. Professor Pham was awesome, the subject was not. For me to even consider giving an Ochem class above a 5/10 demonstrates how truly spectacular Pham was.