Deifel was honestly one of the best and funniest professors I've had at UCLA so far. I'm a math major so I had to take a chem class and I didn't know what to expect coming in with a new prof but he turned out to be amazing. The workload is manageable and I never really read the textbooks and did fine on exams. Remember the rules of sigfigs for the exam questions though! The tests are pretty fair in my opinion and Deifel even holds review sessions for each and goes over what he'd tests which was super helpful. Overall a funny and fantastic professor. Would 100% recommend.

Amazing professor who is really passionate about chemistry and about helping his students understand as much as possible, even in hard to understand concepts like quantum physics. He is super supportive for his students and knows several by first name basis despite 200+ class size. Overall, take his class!!

TL;DR: Highly recommend this class and professor! This class transformed my uncertainty (borderline distaste) about chemistry into appreciation and comfortability.
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General Workload: 9/10. Workload was pretty decent and manageable. In terms of specific assignments that were not exams or personal studying, we had weekly HW that took roughly 3-5 hours per week at MAX. If the class had trouble with assignments or found that deadlines weren't manageable, it was very easy to communicate with Dr. Deifel and have them reasonably extended!
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Grading Scheme: 9/10. Offered a reasonable balance of formative assessments (HW, etc.) and summative assessments (midterms and final). The weight for participation (discussion attendance, etc.) matches that for the final (25% discussion attendance and work, 20% final). Other categories are also easy to get full points in as long as you put in effort and go to office hours consistently (25% HW, 30% midterms).
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Readings/Textbook: 7/10. I'd say that the textbook can be helpful to supplement lecture material since they proceed pretty quickly! I also found that the readings could be substituted with extra time in office hours instead, where you could practice different assessment problems and apply skills. However, the textbook was necessary because HW assignments were assigned through the online textbook platform (Cengage).
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Quizzes/Exams: 8/10. Midterms were extremely reasonable for the covered material and didn't contain anything unexpected. Something really helpful that Deifel did before the midterm was hold topic review sessions a few days beforehand. During these, we discussed how to work on certain problems relevant to the listed study topics, as well as reviewed certain conceptual ideas that would be helpful. As of this review, the results of the final are TBA (formatted as 1 hour MCQs, 2 hour FRQs). Occasional tricky conceptual questions, but most of the FRQs were straightforward and mimicked problems covered in office hours or the textbook.
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Material: 8/10. Material is a fair difficulty and doing the textbook HW is essential to doing well in the class. my biggest recommendation would be going to office hours, which are held consistently throughout the week and for long hours. Deifel + the TAs put in a lot of effort into making sure students were supported.
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Lectures: 7/10. Lectures are decently organized. However, sometimes Deifel would get a bit excited and go over advanced chemistry class topics that aren't 100% necessary for 20A (like the real-world job applications of spectroscopy).
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Support: 10/10. Deifel + the TAs value supporting students and hold review sessions for midterms. My biggest takeaway from this class is that you will be 100% supported if you put in even the slightest effort to email questions, go to office hours a few times, etc. TA Cohen was specifically super, super helpful during discussions because she created study guides for difficult topics and was relatively available for office hours / by email.

Amazing teacher. Very manageable workload as long as you don't wait until the last minute to do homework assignments. You do have to pay for the textbook, since he uses Cengage. And 50% of our grade is based on homework and attendance, which are both very easy to get 100% on. Overall, a great teacher and I would definitely take him again if I could.

Deifel was incredibly welcoming, helpful, and an overall fun and engaging lecturer. The class is mostly based on participation - the majority of your grade comes from going to discussions, completing the homework (you have 10 attempts per question, and if you get the question wrong it shows you how to do it), and showing up to class (he tried to use iClicker but it didn't end up working out). The tests and midterms are over exactly what he says he will cover - you understand what you need to study. Deifel also offers tons of office hours where he explains so many concepts and helps answer specific questions from the homework. He truly cares about his students and wants to see them succeed. I highly recommend taking this class.

Dr. Deifel is one of the best teachers I've ever had, and he's made chemistry so much more enjoyable for me. Though the course isn't exactly easy, it's not too difficult to get an A in this class. He provides all the resources necessary for you to succeed. It's very clear how much he loves the subject and how much he loves teaching. 10/10 would take again.

Deifel is such an enthusiastic teacher. He brought so much energy to our 8 AM that I think he genuinely improved students’ moods. He really cares about his students, and it shows. 100% a teacher I bragged about to my friends. Attend his office hours; you won’t regret it.
The content can seem kind of overwhelming at first but he explains a lot, gives a lot of points for homework and participation, and his tests are absolutely fair and manageable.
I think the only complaint I heard was the homework program, but he hates it too so you end up bonding over it (don’t worry, it’s actually set up to get you a 100% on hw- it’s just annoying).
Anyways, I really liked him as a teacher and would love to have a class of his again. Definitely recommend.

Deifel is a a great professor. He's a little goofy but super helpful professor and has lots of office hours. He is genuinely rooting for everyone's success and really tries to make lectures engaging and fun. Even though it was an 8am, CHEM 20A is one of my favorite classes I had this quarter.

The content of the class was very difficult for me but in his review sessions, he goes over exactly what is going to be in the midterm and finals. Would highly recommend! He may be homeless(?) and divorced but he really loves chemistry.

Professor Deifel is easily one of the most caring professors at UCLA. He takes the time to learn each of his students' names, and he makes himself available even late during the night to help students. He is not only passionate about chemistry, but he is passionate about making sure that all of his students succeed. In terms of grading, Deifel made it very easy to earn an "A." Half of your grade is determined by homework (based on completion, not homework) and attending discussions. The other half is based on the final and two midterms, which are pretty reasonable in difficulty. Overall, I'd 100% recommend taking this class with Deifel!

I had to take this class at 8am because all other professors had chem times that conflicted with a mandatory intro class for my major, and it's one of the best things that has happened to me. Listening to horror stories about Scerri makes me so glad I got Deifel instead.

Participation matters, but only in that you need to attend the discussion sections to get credit, and you don't even really need to be paying attention in the discussion sections to be honest. It's purely attendance-based, and I spent a couple discussion sections just zoning out the entire time. My TA was great! I just despise chem.

Attendance was not mandatory, although it was initially supposed to be part of our grades. This might change in other quarters, but this is mainly because iClicker didn't work for our class. If it did work, Deifel would have had iClicker questions as part of participation during the lectures to monitor attendance. Keep this in mind if this is offered as an 8am again. Also, lectures are not recorded.

You have to buy the textbook since the homework is on OWL, but I think that's the case for all 20a classes. Office hours are great, make sure you go to them if you have trouble understanding anything. Deifel can be somewhat unclear and rambly in lecture when he gets more passionate about the subject, but in a smaller setting, he's really helpful with explaining things and he'll go over sample problems. It's also a good way for him to get to know you better.

Homework is difficult and tedious unless you submit a blank page and use the solutions to solve. Then it's easy. You get a ton of checks on OWL too, so it's great, and whenever there's a glitch with the program where it won't accept certain answers, he makes sure to let everyone know. I also submitted homework 5 minutes late before and I was worried he'd be hard on the deadline but I asked him about it and he didn't care at all. Just don't make it a habit. Technically, I probably could've been later and it still would've been fine. He gives homework extensions a lot if you ask for it and have a good reason.

He also gave out his google home number so that you can text him if you have questions. I found that really nice of him--he's super accessible and invested in your learning. Definitely the best professor I've had so far at UCLA.