While I was a bit terrified going into this course (I last took Gen Chem over a year ago), Dr. Harran is an incredible lecturer and made me interested in organic chemistry. He often brought up connections of what we were learning to real world topics (such as drug development), and managed to make this really hard topic pretty interesting. I would recommend taking this class with Dr. Harran! He makes the lectures fun, is approachable, and includes a lot of real-life examples to make what we're learning interesting!
Chem 30A will always be a difficult course; there's no real way around that. The lectures are bruincasted, and a lot of question types on the exams are directly related to examples shown in lecture. I felt that the exams were difficult, but the questions asked were usually pretty reasonable.
The grading was out of 450 points. There were two midterms worth 100 points each (averages were about 61% and 51%, respectively), a final worth 200 points, and 50 points from the discussion section quizzes (which I'm not sure if were graded based on participation or correctness). I scored in the ballpark of 20% above the average on both midterms and ended up with an A in the class, and I think the class is curved to make a B- the average grade.
My advice I guess is to enter this class with an open mind (the material is difficult, but doable), do a lot of practice problems, watch YouTube videos explaining the concepts, and practice it a lot! One of the TAs (shoutout Morris and Alek!) told us during a midterm review session that a lot of organic chemistry is applying simple-ish concepts to difficult applications, and I think that that is kinda the way to approach it. Learn the concepts and then practice doing some of the more difficult applications/problems, and you will do well!

I took this class during the intensive summer session. I love Prof. Harran! He's super passionate about his field and often spices up the course content with applications and stories from his research or the real world. He's very knowledgeable as well, and he always breaks things down very clearly. His quizzes/tests are not super difficult, as they're based on the content of the lecturers. However, you have to practise a lot, as they do extend the skills and knowledge needed considerably.

I don't write reviews on bruinwalk. But I shall make an exception for professor Harran's class. His lectures ares very interesting and his tests are fair. I would recommend attending his lectures (although I quite often didn't). He adds perspective to seemingly banal aspects of organic chemistry. He will often relate what you'd think as elementary organic reactions to something that happens in real life and will make you realize that what you are learning is not just some practically useless fundamental organic chemistry, but something of profound practical value. He is funny too, and I enjoyed talking to him, in general. I got by just fine by studying directly from the textbook, but I don't think that was the case for everybody. The only thing about this class that I didn't like was my TA (and the fact that Prof Harran gives quizzes in some discussion sections as extra credit to jump up your grade higher if you have a borderline grade- bear in mind that doing poorly on the tests has NO negative impact on your score at all)
Take this class.

He is a great professor. Tests based only on lecture materials. You only need the book for practice problems. His tests are pretty doable as long as you study!

Dr. Harran is a pretty good professor. He explains the material well, has a decent sense of humor, and tries to make Organic Chemistry as painless/enjoyable as possible, which he did a fairly good job in doing.

Although his lectures are usually not overwhelming, his first midterm was very time constrained. However, his exams in general are fair. In order to get an A, make sure you are in the top 30 of the students and you should be fine. He also cranks out grades quickly, which is good. I recommend him.

Midterm 1- Average:60
Midterm 2-59
Final-70

Selling the Textbook and Solutions Manual for cheap. I got it brand new like three months ago and its the newest edition. Contact 714-318-2437.

Selling the Textbook and Solutions Manual for cheap. I got it brand new like three months ago and its the newest edition.

If anyone is looking to SELL any of organic chemistry 30A's course material such as the book, notes, midterms final and ... Please email me at cali792@yahoo.com thanks

I did a lot worse than I expected, but I still got a B. In all honesty, though, if you miss a day, you miss a week, so don't fall behind. I did while taking two lab classes, which really sucks. Oh yeah, since there are a lot of try hards in the class waiting to suck that A, it's hard to get an A unless you dedicate your whole time.

I fucking hated chemistry. For 20A I had Baugh - don't even get me started on that motherfucker, but let's just say I walked out of that class having retained almost nothing except how to bullshit my way through a south campus exam. For 20B, I had Peter Fucking Felker - He was boring and I never went to class. Whatever. For 20L, I had Pang - an improvement, most definitely, but still a bit of a drag to wake up for in the morning.
But then there's this fucking guy. I like him. This guy's great. His passion for chemistry will always resonate in my mind as the driving force for my wanting to learn it - and, I'm glad to say that I did. I learned more in Harran's class than I did in all of general chemistry, and a lot of it has to do with the fact that I actually WANTED to due to him. His lectures are very clear, though sometimes he has the tendency of going a bit too fast. He's very helpful in office hours, and is very open to helping students in need. His sense of humor has the ability to light up CS Young Hall, which I thought was pretty fucking impossible considering how much time I've spent contemplating suicide in those damn lecture halls due to every boring-as-shit lecturer I've encountered in them. His exams are hard, but what the flying fuck do you expect? His final was absolutely killer, but totally fair (still waiting on results!)
Though difficult, I suggest you take this class with Harran if you really want to gain an appreciation for chemistry, which I'm glad to say that I now have.