do yourself a favor and don't take this class. Justin is smart but he seems like he has 0 interest in teaching. he does not seem like he knows the material well enough to be teaching it. he just derives equations on the board without any good explanation. his homework and exams are impossible because he puts stuff on there that he has not taught us yet. this class is notoriously hard but taking it with him will make your life absolute hell. by far the worst chemistry professor i have ever had.

Absolutely phenomenal. A lot of the other reviews on here are mixed because they are from last year, Caram's first year teaching 14A. He has improved drastically since.
His lectures are engaging. He constantly uses real-world examples to demonstrate how Chemistry actually applies to our everyday lives. You feel like you're learning rather than just memorizing a series of facts.
And he has a booming voice that keeps you alert. I didn't truly appreciate this until I listened to Lavelle give a lecture and his soft, British-accented purr nearly rendered me comatose.

The only workload is optional practice questions on Sapling and optional practice midterms and finals leading up to the exams. Do them! It's nice that he trusts you to manage your own studying. He gives you everything you need and lets you decide what works best for you.

And the exams are definitely fair. He offers so much partial credit that even if you don't know what you're doing but do the stoichiometry and show all your work, you'll be fine.
And the TA's! Take advantage of their office hours. I really, really mean this: the TA's in this class are one-of-a-kind brilliant.

PROTIP: Share Sapling with a buddy or five and split the cost.

Honestly, I can't begin to express how much I love Caram. I mean, the guy doesn't even use a mic to begin with in a huge lecture hall so that tells you his voice won't be putting you to sleep anytime soon.

Each day, he starts his slides off with a meme (so he def knows his target audience) and the slides are never info dense with just text filled to the brim. He engages the class with clickers (so make sure to show up to class) and he always makes an effort to relate the chemistry content that we are learning to the real world. He gives weekly quizzes that are very doable and its just to make sure you have been keeping up with that week's content.

His midterms and finals are also not too difficult, if you go over his lecture slides and go to TA office and review hours, you will be more than prepared. The problems are very straightforward, and Caram wants you to succeed. He won't include any trick or convoluted questions intended to make you confused. Also, the grading from the TA's are amazing, like you can miss the question completely but still get 3/4 of the credit from your work.

At the end of the day, you can't go wrong with Caram. This man loves chemistry just as much as he loves his wife and loves talking about his own research. He's also just a goofy and lovable guy, and won't fail to put a smile on your face. :)

Selling past exams (Lavelle, but 14A content is roughly the same regardless of professor)! Contact ************* for details :)

DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS WITH THIS PROFESSOR

He is not clear at all. Very very very disorganized person. His homewokrs and exams are questions that haven't been taught to us. It looks like he doesn't care bout this class, and is not a good professor at all.

I’m writing this 2 quarters later, but I still feel so strong about this that I had to leave a review. This class was probably the worst class I’ve taken. The professor did not know what he was doing, he had to constantly check the textbook and never answered my questions when I asked. The problem sets were almost impossible if you didn’t attend office hours, partly because there were so many errors that made it unclear. The teaching had no structure and the textbook did not help at all because they professor basically read out of the textbook. I know this is his first time teaching for this class but there is no excuse for such terrible teaching as a professor.

a no BS chem professor, I recommend reading through the book and understanding each concept as he does not always explain it completely. if you like being spoon-fed this is not the professor for you

I enjoyed chem 14a because Caram was pretty straightforward with what he wanted us to learn, and he had a lot of office hours (including ones at Bplate at night!) to help us with the material. His quizzes are fairly easy if you pay attention in class, and the material is not too hard to master. Would recommend taking him! He does clicker during class too, so you kind of have to show up for lecture.

Class it self was not too difficult, but what made the class stressful is that professor Caram is somewhat new to teaching. He is bad at explaining things, especially to those who do not have a base in chemistry from high school. I often left lecture very confused, only to find that the concept was quite simple after our TA explained it to us. Professor Caram, despite not being the best teacher, still went out of his way to help students, such as holding late night office hours at b-plate. Overall the class wasn't too bad, but I'd recommend taking another professor for 14A if possible.

This class was a really easy A. Professor Caram was amazing, and his lectures were very engaging. Would definitely take again.