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.

I liked this professor. He was a good and engaging lecturer. His exams were very fair. The TAs were cool too. Definitely a doable class given the difficult rep that Organic Chem has. He also gives extra credit (like 8 points) if you do the polling question during each lecture. It definitely bumps your grade up a lot if you do them (but you have to get the questions right). He gives weekly problem sets which are graded kinda harshly, but you get a whole week to do them and you can collaborate on them. Exams are in the same format as the Problem Sets, and can either be harder, easier, or the same level as the Problem Sets, its kinda a gamble. But overall, they weren't too different. He gives suggested homework problems, which are good for concept but don't help a ton if you want the style of problems he gives on the exam. TA Worksheets are immensely helpful, people in my class would do them for other TAs too because the questions are more relevant to what you learn in the class. Overall, pretty good class.

I want to start off by saying I really do not enjoy chemistry and I was really dreading taking ochem. I (like many others) have not necessarily had the best experiences in the chem department so that really made it worse. In fact, I actually liked chem before I came to UCLA...But anyways, as much as I was afraid of ochem, I was pleasantly surprised by Dr. Pham. I really enjoyed his teaching style, he made everything very clear and relatable to us as students. I really appreciated his funny analogies that actually helped me understand the topics well. He actually made me kinda like chem again. And I actually got a better grade in his class than my other chem classes, which I honestly didn't think was possible considering the stereotype surrounding the difficulty of ochem and how much I sucked at chem in general lol

The breakdown of this class is midterm and final heavy (2 midterms = 33%, the final = 33%), so 66% for 3 tests. This is pretty standard for a chem class. His exams are doable. Maybe it's because I've learned to study better this year but I really found his exams quite a bit easier that the chem exams I have taken in the past. If you redid the problem sets you could have a good idea of the test layout and types of questions. However, to really prepare for the exams and to get down a concept really well, I highly suggest doing as many of the practice questions from the TA worksheets as you can!!! This is what I think made me the most successful in the course. I was really able to get an ample amount of practice problems from these worksheets that help me understand how to apply what we were taught in lecture, as well as be prepared for the questions on the exams. Just watch your time on the exams! This class is where I took my first in person exam in college (bc of COVID) and I was nervous, but it was not bad as long as you watched the time and tried to ignore everyone dropping their calculators lol. He even projects the time on the screen so that was super helpful!

Though I really liked this course, I definitely would have liked it more if Dr. Pham were more approachable. In lecture, anytime someone asked a question, he seemed to answer it a little condescendingly. Maybe I am overthinking it, but I talked to a few people and they seemed to agree. Something about his tone made it seem like we should have already known the answer. If you like asking questions in class, hopefully this does not discourage you. I am not sure what he is like in office hours, so I can't speak for that.

Overall, I am glad to have had a chem class where I feel like I learned, but I wish Dr. Pham would be kinder to our questions :)

I took the 3 week version of this class so it was very fast-paced. As the other reviews, Pham is a super engaging lecturer that explains concepts really well, they were all bruincasted (This class was fully online) so I found it extremely helpful to rewatch lectures at about 1.5x-2x speed. Youtube resources like Professor Dave and Leah4sci really helped as well. Overall, the tests are difficult and long but they are also fair. If you keep up with lecture and do the discussion/LA worksheets you should be good!

Professor Pham is an EXCELLENT teacher and explains concepts very well. He has also been excellent in making accommodations during the pandemic. I was so scared of taking organic chemistry based on what I’ve heard, but if you’re taking the class with him and review at least a little bit every night to make sure you stay up to date with concepts (the class builds on itself) you should be fine! I’d highly recommend studying for this class using his slides, but also Leah4Sci, the Organic Chemistry Tutor, and Professor Dave Explains on youtube. I also really liked the book “organic chemistry as a second language”, it helped a lot! Overall I wouldn’t worry about this class if you take it with him and make sure to attend lecture as it is worth extra credit.

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 *************

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He's one of the best chemistry teachers at UCLA. I've had Scerri (who is one of the worse human beings) and Lavelle (who was really nice and cared for his students). I think Pham is the best one because he keeps it real. His test are hard but very straight forward and not wordy.

Professor Pham is by far the most amazing professor I've had at UCLA. He's so funny, which makes lectures a lot more enjoyable, but he's also very knowledgeable about the material. He really wants students to understand the theories behind different concepts and cares deeply about student learning in general.
I would definitely recommend doing practice problems almost every night/keeping up with the material in general. Ochem builds on itself, so it's really important to constantly review. I took this course 2 times, and the first time I actually dropped the class week 9 because I hadn't been keeping up with material and didn't understand a lot of concepts on the test. But when I took it during the summer, I did practice probs every night and made sure to review lectures, and ended up doing very well.
Overall, I highly recommend Pham. I think he'll make your Ochem experience better despite its reputation.