Everyone is bashing on Pang as if he were the biggest douche alive....but honestly, I'm guessing that they're just a bunch of spoiled pre-med majors that constantly bitch about how the grading wasn't fair or whatever.

Here's the reality of it.

Pang is a very good and clear lecturer, and his accent is definitely not that bad... If you were to go to his office hours or ask him about something after class, he's a very nice, chill guy and he's definitely going to help you out until you understand it.

As for the material itself and the tests, you can definitely get an A if you PUT IN THE TIME and effort to learn the material, instead of just ignoring it (which is hard, considering it's only a three unit class). His midterm and his final were definitely doable if you went to lecture, and kept up with the material.

So, I don't know why everyone is bashing on this guy. It might be true that he does seem a little bit cold, but that's not the case. He's a clear lecturer, straight-forward tester, and a genuinely nice guy. Just give him a shot....it's not like you have any choice if he's the only guy teaching the class.

There were two professors this quarter - Pang & Walsh, and people were equally unhappy in both classes. This is because 20L is hard - not because of the professor teaching it, but because it is a lot of work (~4-5 hours each week spent on prelabs + lab writeups). The course is just a standard, very time-consuming lab class. Pang's a great lecturer - very organized, & always gives out guided notes.

The course grade consists of: Pre-Labs (22%), Lab Reports (35%), Midterm 1 (10%), Final (16%), CPR (8%), & In-lab work (8%).

Little nitpicky things on the labs & pre-labs are what get you graded down, and these lost points slowly accumulate - you kind of get nickeled & dimed to death, but as long as you do fairly well on the tests, you can do OK in the class, because CPR & In-lab work are freebies.

The CPR (online writing assignment) is easy points - 8% of your grade. People complain that it is unfair, but the unfair part of it is a very small part of its overall point value. In-lab work is free points as long as you follow the safety protocol & clean up properly.

Tests - tests are hard because people are unsure what to study. He hands out a study guide before each of the two tests, but the study guide only covers the relevant math concepts. In order to do well, you need to review your lab writeups + lecture notes - those concepts are much more important than what's on the study guides. If you can somehow get your hands on an old exam, that helps quite a bit, too.

He's a decent professor and puts a lot of effort into the class, but the grades he gives out are not consistent with the work his students put in. It doesn't make much sense to me to give such a crap distribution. Plus the CPRs are dumb because the self-evaluations can screw you over and have no real purpose. Have fun.

I remember reading Bruinwalk and thinking i'm gonna have a hard time in Pang. But it turns out this year (for some odd reason), he is much easier. His tests are not that bad. The thing you basically gotta do is pay attention to you're labs. The only thing i can see hurting you a lot is not paying attention in lecture or the CPR. He does have an accent but if you're comfortable with Asian accents (its not that thick)--you're gonna be fine. He does talk fast too, but i think its because he's conditioned himself to in order to fill in all the information he has to cover in 1 hour. Just make sure you pay attention in his class, do the labs well, and don't mess up on CPR. An A shouldn't be that far away (although i don't think i got one).

I'm writing this review strictly in reference to Chem 20L which is the class that I had with Dr. Pang. There is no doubt in my mind that he is a very intelligent professor. He only has 50 minutes to go through vast amounts of information, so yes, he does move very fast, but he manages to cover almost everything. Still, for every lecture, I was provided with study guides and handouts, so it wasn't too hard to keep up. To do well in this class, it is very important to have a good TA, because the TA is the one grading everything. For the lab reports and pre-labs, you should take them very seriously because they're worth the majority of your grade. For the CPRs, though they are only worth a total of about 8% of your grade, you should put in the time and effort because if you can do well on the CPRs, you're probably going to do well in the class. Keep track of the start/end dates, and follow Pang's instructions on how to do the peer reviews. For the tests, you just have to work carefully. If you don't understand the wording of a question, ask for clarification...make sure you understand exactly what his questions are asking for.
A lot of the stuff in Chem 20L should be review from Chem 20A/20B, so if you did well in those classes, you should be fine for 20L.

During the 1st 4 weeks of class I really didn\355t see why pang had such a bad rep. After we got our midterms back I suddenly understood. Write out ALL of your work on your tests, even if it is an extremely simple calculation you would normally do in your head or quickly punch into your calculator because he will mark you off A LOT, to the point where it is pretty much unfair (I learned this the hard way). I actually never thought he was a bad lecturer, though he tends to go quickly and has pretty bad English (\354are these make sense\356 written straight on one of his powerpoints). He is definitely a jerk when it comes to grades. If you have the option, I wouldn\355t take him for 20L unless you can settle for a B because more than likely, even if you put a great deal of effort in the class AND even if you have old lab reports to help you out, that\355s the best you\355ll possibly do. If you really wanna go for the gold and get an A, scramble now and try to find old midterms and finals made by him and make sure you remember chemical kinetics, buffer solution titrations, and intermolecular forces from 20B because he will test you on that stuff even though it is never covered on the lab reports (which is pretty dumb, but then again it is pang).

Didn't learn anything. This guy gives lots of busy work. Had to search google.com for most of my information becuase he likes to make it extra hard for his students.

I did not like him as a teacher in any sense -- in fact, he's not a teacher. He is more like a director who just tells you what to do. His references material doesn't help much either. I didn't like chemistry going into the class, I hate chemistry now.

He's not as bad as the reviews say he is. The labs are easy if you've taken high school chemistry before. The final is just like the review package he gives out, so if you do the sample problems you should be fine. The only problem is that he doesn't give +/- grades...

Overall, Pang is a good teacher. Compared to other chemistry professors, he's good and he's pretty fair. I got a C average on the writeups and CPRs, but I did really well on my midterm and final and I got an A in the class. You do have to know the lecture material, but everything in the tests are from his lecture. Just know it well and you'll do well on the exams.

I think prof pang is a great professor. he is 100 times better than the way others describe him. He really cares about students learning. He always remind us in class of what is due. The midterms and the finals are sort of tricky, but if you listen in class and study the concept behind the labs, you will do fine. He is very clear on the ideas and willing to repeat it many times if he knows that students are lost. I highly highly recommend taking Pang for chem lab.