What a horrid experience

First off, his lectures are completely conceptual, while his tests focus more on the mathematics side of things. As he's basically a talking textbook, you'd think you could skip lecture. Problem is, he sometimes gives equations during lecture, NOWHERE TO BE FOUND IN THE BOOK.

He seemed completely unapproachable in both lecture and outside, rarely taking questions during lecture and seeming like he wants to get you off his back outside of lecture. Seriously, it's like every question you ask him bugs him.

I reiterate, an absolutely horrid experience. I legitimately contemplated switching majors and would have done so had it not been for Pang clarifying everything this guy couldn't.

Felker should only be taken if there's no one better to take. Even then, beware.

As other people said, this is pretty much a boring class unless you an interest in chemistry. The lecture hall is only half filled most of the time since most students don't even show up. However, in order to do well on his exams, you should go to lecture. He gives formulas that are not given in the textbook at all and he tests those problems on the exams. It is up to you whether you think you should attend lecture or not though. He made his first midterm and final exam much easier compared to the past exams.

Here are the exam statistics (I don't know the final exam statistics though):

First midterm: Avg:78 and SD:20
Second midterm: Avg:44 and SD:12

I walked out of Felker's final exam feeling like I had just given birth through my penis.

Yeah, his tests are hard - HARD. But, to be fair, he's a decent professor. I passed the class with a C+, yet I never went to class or section - this was my bad. From what I did get from his lectures though was his insistence on his students understanding the material through formulae and derivations. In the few classes that I did attend, I did capture the material well, although he sometimes strayed from the book's explanations of the concepts. The exams assume that you've mastered these concepts to the point that you can breeze through the book (open-book tests) to merely look for this equation or other to solve a near-impossible thermodynamics problem that requires more sitting and thinking how an equation should be used than actual calculating. If you just plug shit in on a whim, you're likely to not get the right answer - there's always a catch to his questions that requires more than just math smarts.

In conclusion, Felker is good, but he isn't for everyone. If you know you can think abstractly and succeed in his exams by doing so, by all means, take the course. But, if you don't, you're better off taking someone else.

Felker's a pretty okay lecturer, I actually paid attention, but maybe that's because I'm a chemistry major, I was actually helped in office hours too, and considering that i had to take 30A with this, it was a stress altogether. Anyways, he's an okay lecturer, an okay professor, and his tests are challenging and I mean VERY CHALLENGING, they seem to be derived off of previous exam questions so get your hands on those and you'll be okay! To show how hard his class is:
1st midterm: 64 average
2nd midterm: 50 average
final: really hard! (don't know the avg)
The trend that I saw is that he seemed to challenge us the further the quarter progressed, the tests became more difficult.

First off, this guy is a major douchebag. I was hospitalized during Finals week but I decided to man up and still try to do my best on the final exam. Unfortunately, I was still really sick and I had to constantly leave to throw up during the exam. I managed to do about two problems but I was so miserable that I had to just turn in what I had. I later went to him asking if there was anything I could do. I would've been happy with just an incomplete or a late-drop or something like that. But he started yelling at me and saying that I was just lazy and trying to make excuses for not studying for the test. I got pissed off and just left so I had to settle for a D+ in the class. (I did above average on both midterms, but obviously failed the final miserably since I wasn't able to complete it).

With that said, I think he's a really good lecturer. If you actually read the book (preferrably ahead of time), his lectures make a lot of sense and really solidify the material. His tests are also pretty fair. They're open book and open note.

Terrible professor. His lectures are useless, he constantly only talks about conceptual aspects and spends the entire lecture deriving formulas or integrating nonsense without ever explaining their relevance to the material. Nothing he lectures on is on any of his exams. His exams consist of very difficult mathematical based problems. Even if you study every question, there is bound to be one question on the exam which is impossible to solve, I don't know why he puts it on the exam in the first place. I had him for Chem 20A and B, and he was terrible, try and avoid him at all costs. He is extremely rude and unhelpful at office hours. Take Scerri for 20A, he is easier and explains the materials a lot better.

Compared to 20A, 20B is a whole different ballgame - 20A is completely conceptual, while 20B (especially Felker's) is entirely math-based.

Felker's an incredibly smart guy (he's a CalTech PhD), but he has no people skills; he's somewhat abrasive during office hours and lecture, but if you have a legitimate question regarding a problem, he'll be happy (as happy as he gets, anyway) to answer it.

Lecture consists of mathematical derivations of stoichiometry concepts, gas laws, equations of state, the laws of thermodynamics, and mass-action equilibrium laws. (Doesn't it hurt just to look at that sentence?) It's very dry, and Felker's monotone doesn't help. Most people stopped going halfway through the quarter. I think the lectures helped some people and did nothing for others. The most important thing, by far, were the homework problems - because they were optional, many people didn't do them. This hurt - a LOT. You're pretty much guaranteed to fail Felker's harder tests if you don't do the homework.

The tests are all open-book with a 1-page cheat sheet, but if you don't know the concepts and haven't done the homework, this won't help you. In Winter '09, the first midterm was quite easy - the average was ~90 (this was bad because it was curved down - severely!). Felker said that the next one would be somewhat harder, and it was - the average was ~50. The final was also very difficult. His tests don't change much from year to year - the old ones are on VOH and they help a lot.

If you took a very solid AP Chem course in high school (i.e. got a 5 on the AP Chem test), Felker's class shouldn't be too difficult for you. Otherwise, be prepared to work hard as it takes time to get used to the concepts - if you can take an easier professor, do so, because he fails a lot of his students! Off the top of my head, I can think of five people who failed the class - and this is just out of the people I know.

Shows little interest in students. Dry, boring lectures that are hell to attend (congratulations if you are still going halfway through the quarter). Tricky exams. I only took this class as a GE requirement for being an engineering major and hated it. Take this at community college if possible

very smart professor who writes up very difficult exams. find practice finals from previous quarters and study them. he likes to reuse a lot of the old exam questions, i had a couple on my final. during lectures, if he says something might be on the exam, KNOW it. he will put them on the tests. i failed the final which explains my B, but your grade can go either way. just hope you get lucky and study the right things. his questions will make you think.

You do not have to go to class or discussion. especially class (because the only thing that happens in class is Amber asking stupid questions). I never went to his office hours but that seems to be more than enough to get help on your homework problems if you cannot do them. The HW is not due. Know the example problems from the book because more than a few of his questions are eerily similar to book examples. KNOW you're book! cuz you have it for hours and hours on your tests.