Shuming is amazing! Organic Chemistry is not easy but she tries her best to make sure every student is successful and well prepared. She gives out A TON of practice problem sets (outside of the homework problem sets), she gives a bunch of practice exams that don’t mirror the exams but they do help you learn the skills that you will need for the actual exam, and she hosts WEEKLY reviews to go over materials that are taught the previous week. Her exams are extremely difficult, but she tells you so and prepares you very well for them. The average for the first exam was a B- and the second was a B, which in her class a B- is 70-75% and a B is 75-80%. I got a 109/120 on the first midterm and 111/120 on the second and i got an email from her writing to congratulate me on my scores. The final is a monster! I got a 131/215, which was above average somehow. She does give out 2% extra credit for your overall grade in the class though, so make sure to do Bacon and evaluations. In her straight scale, and A is 90-95% but I ended up with an 83.something% (extra credit already included) and she curved the class enough for me to get an A. Overall 10/10 would take again.

Professor Chen was definitely the best professor that I have had so far. You can tell that she truly cares about teaching and she truly goes above and beyond to help her students-she provides problem sets, practice problem sets, sample exams, weekly review notes, and more. She's super helpful and nice during her office hours and her lectures are engaging (and she puts memes in the slides). I would definitely recommend staying on top of the material since ochem in general requires you to memorize a bunch of reactions and do a lot of practice problems. The averages on the two midterms were about the same, and the final was pretty hard. Still in the end, I think she curved the class a bit. I definitely recommend taking 30A with her if you can.

EDIT: After taking 30B with another professor, I'm even more impressed with Professor Chen. She provided such an amazing foundation for my ochem knowledge and is legions better than any other chemistry professor I've had at UCLA. She truly cares about your learning!! During the class, I didn't think her tests were difficult, but looking at the exams now, I realized I wouldn't be able to have the same level of understanding for 30B. Not even close. But it's definitely worth it to endure a bit more work in 30A to have a good foundation for the rest of the series.

Shuming consistently goes above and beyond for her students. I haven't had a single teacher or professor from elementary, middle, high school, or college as dedicated as her to teaching students. Her class is extremely tough-don't get me wrong, but she prepares students well for her exams.
The homework is more-or-less free points, and it's very similar to what is on exams. She gives two practice exams which are fairly representative, along with additional problem sets. You can also get up to 2% extra credit, but you'll need it. Again, the exams are really hard.
Most importantly, Dr. Chen herself does weekly review sessions in the evening, which contain even more practice and are highly useful. Her lectures are engaging, and very clear and useful.
However, only buy the modeling kit-you get to use that on exams. Otherwise, the book is practically useless; just pirate it as you won't read much from it.
Looking back after having taken Chem 30B with Merlic, her class really does give students the fundamentals to succeed in future courses. Her tests were definitely hard; I'd say that her synthesis problems were even harder than the ones I had to do in 30B, with over a dozen of steps compared to 5-6 max in 30B.

Chen is the best professor I've ever had and probably will ever have. She is incredibly dedicated to her job. She hosts review sessions every week and provides countless problem sets and practice worksheets that you MUST do if you want to get a decent grade in this class. This class is equivalent to the workload of 2 stem classes; prepare to dedicate at least 3 hours a day to this class alone. I went from a 97% in the class uncurved to a B+ final grade. The final is HARD. I studied for 2 weeks for that final and got a 56% on it. Overall, chen is a really great professor, but regardless of how much you study for the final, there'll be a ton of shit u dont know on it.

Shuming consistently goes above and beyond for her students. I haven't had a single teacher or professor from elementary, middle, high school, or college as dedicated as her to teaching students. Her class is extremely tough-don't get me wrong, but she prepares students well for her exams.

The homework is more-or-less free points, and it's very similar to what is on exams. She gives two practice exams which are fairly representative, along with additional problem sets. You can also get up to 2% extra credit, but you'll need it. The exams are really hard, if you haven't noticed.

Most importantly, Dr. Chen herself does weekly review sessions in the evening, which contain even more practice and are highly useful. Her lectures are engaging, and very clear and useful.

However, only buy the modeling kit-you get to use that on exams. Otherwise, the book is practically useless; just pirate it as you won't read much from it.

Looking back after having taken Chem 30B with Merlic, her class really does give students the fundamentals to succeed in future courses. Her tests were definitely hard; I'd say that her synthesis problems were even harder than the ones I had to do in 30B, with over a dozen of steps compared to 5-6 max in 30B.

Chen went above and beyond to give us every resource to succeed in the class. Great professor but I think she left UCLA :/

Shuming is amazing! She genuinely cares that all the students understand the material she's teaching. Organic chemistry is a hard subject, but Shuming makes it doable. She offers so many practice opportunities, from extra (optional) homework packets and Monday evening review sessions EVERY WEEK. When I improved on my second midterm after doing not great on my first, she wrote me an email congratulating me. You can tell she really does care. If you're given the opportunity, enroll in Shuming's class.

The final was crazy difficult, but her class overall was wonderful. Shuming was a terrific lecturer who was able to make organic chemistry pretty fun and applicable to real life. She's funny, passionate, and knowledgable about the subject.

As many of other reviewers mention, Shuming is one of the best professors teaching organic Chem at UCLA. She gives out clear and well-written lecture notes, explanation, and abundant practice problems beyond homework. Make sure to do all the practice she hands out and attend her Monday Review Session as much as possible. I can't stress how important it is to devote lots of time commitment, enthusiasm, and determination into Chem 30A. Good luck and hope you'll succeed!

If you are dreading 30CL because of the fact that you have to go to lab twice a week, I wouldn't worry too much. The labs aren't that bad although there will be ups and downs. Some lab periods you come in and throw some stuff into a flask and then go home. Other lab periods you run a column, work up the reaction, and do some other stuff all within the period which means you're probably going to stay the full time. Professor Chen is also pretty cool. She's fairly new and young/hip so it's very easy to get along with her.

If you are expecting the same level of difficulty as 30BL then you might be disappointed. The class is laid out exactly the same way as 30BL so your entire grade essentially rides on the final because everybody does well on the lab reports. Professor Chen comes up with some interesting questions for the final so the test is fairly challenging compared to 30BL.