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Shuming Chen
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As other reviews say, she is absolutely an amazing teacher. To add some facts, your final grade will be way better than what the grading scale says because the exam scores are apparently curved. Personally, I find the weekly reviews not as useful as I expected because she uses half the time for concepts already explained in class, but be sure you do the practice questions on the weekly review worksheet and read her notes.
And she's basically the enantiomer of Han Kuo-yu 韩国瑜, if you know what I mean.
Love this professor. Terribly difficult class but she really gave it her all. Extremely engaging lectures - memes and puns included. She explains things very well in my opinion. She gives you tons of material to succeed and holds lots of extra office hours before midterms and the final. If you have 100,000 hours to do all of the material it’s an easy A (seriously she gives so much supplemental material). This class requires dedication for sure. That being said, the average on the two midterms was a C or D I think and the final was an F but she curves. Prioritize learning over grades and be above average and you’ll be fine. Go to the review sessions and discussion!
Chen is an ochem legend. Her teaching style is very white board focused, and she teaches the chemistry through a very proof based format. She hardly uses lecture slides, and teaches through a combination of drawing charts/tables and writing down mechanisms, explaining each step. Discussion was optional, and I never went since the worksheet and its solutions were posted online. I used the worksheet as extra test prep. The amount of resources we were given was the thing that separated Chen apart from other professors. Each weekly homework assignment was around 8 pages long and took anywhere from 3-5 hours to complete. But she also gave practice problems each week which was around double the length of the homework. Doing these each week made taking the tests MUCH easier, since she never threw a single curve ball on any of the exams. The first midterm did not cover any ochem, rather, it set up the fundamentals of what a molecule is. The second midterm and the final were both very challenging, and primarily covered alkene/alkyne mechanisms respectively. The average on her midterms were around 70%. The final was incredibly difficult. I got a 68% but she must have curved it generously because I still got an A. We also had +2% extra credit.
Take Chen for Chem 30A! She's probably been one of the best professors I've had at UCLA. From the start, Chen tells you that her tests will be hard (and they definitely were, especially the final), but she prepares you well for them. She hosts weekly review sessions in the evenings, and she provides a large amount of practice for you (problem sets, practice problem sets, weekly reviews, and sample midterms/finals). The sample exams she gives generally provide a good representation of what the actual exam is like. She's very clear in lecturing and really good at answering student questions (both in-class and in office hours). The lecture notes are pretty clear, and there's really no need for a textbook. She's interestingly funny as well and is able to relate popular culture into o-chem haha. Yes, this class is a lot of work and Chen really pushes her students, but in the end it's definitely worth it!
P.S. The curve for this class seems to be pretty strong, so don't worry if you don't do too well on the first or second midterm! :)
Professor Chen is a phenomenal professor who gives it her all at teaching her students and so far is the best professor I've had at UCLA. She provides us with so many resources such practice problem sets, practice midterms, and practice finals. A textbook is "required" for the course, but the supplemental resources she provides for her students in conjunction to her weekly reviews is sufficient. However, the only downside is that you need to be consistent on doing these resources. You can buy an organic chemistry model kit, but they are time-consuming if you are going to use it for an exam, and to be honest, they are a scam because they're SO expensive.
Professor Chen says that her exams are difficult, and she is absolutely correct, but they are reasonable because of the resources that she provides on CCLE (with the exception of the final, which was absolute death; Average for midterms 1 and 2 were like a B- and B, respectively, and I think the final's average as an F). However, the curve on the class is generous so there isn't too much concern if you do bad on the final. In all, if you have the opportunity to take organic chemistry with Professor Chen, please do it. It will not be a waste of your time, and it was relatively fun and interesting.
Professor Chen is beyond amazing, just take her. Also Rob is also an excellent TA. Unfortunately I didn't study enough, and Organic Chemistry is not my forte, so I got rekt on my finals (100/210 LOL). The first two midterms and extra credits saved my ass.
Professor Chen is the best professor I have had so far. She is so engaging and really cares about her students. She even had a weekly review just for our benefit. The tests were reasonably difficult but if you know the material on the study guides then you can get a good grade pretty easily. Take her class if you can.
Like other reviews, plenty of material to work through, and Chen is very helpful with lecture, review, office hours. The midterms were very doable given you know the core concepts + reactions well and do enough practice to be aware of any tricks/quirks. Just review concepts + reactions, practice, and the class is OK. The finals for O-chem tend to be difficult. I did wish Chen elaborated a bit more on reaction mechanisms and theoretical background.
As other reviews say, she is absolutely an amazing teacher. To add some facts, your final grade will be way better than what the grading scale says because the exam scores are apparently curved. Personally, I find the weekly reviews not as useful as I expected because she uses half the time for concepts already explained in class, but be sure you do the practice questions on the weekly review worksheet and read her notes.
And she's basically the enantiomer of Han Kuo-yu 韩国瑜, if you know what I mean.
Love this professor. Terribly difficult class but she really gave it her all. Extremely engaging lectures - memes and puns included. She explains things very well in my opinion. She gives you tons of material to succeed and holds lots of extra office hours before midterms and the final. If you have 100,000 hours to do all of the material it’s an easy A (seriously she gives so much supplemental material). This class requires dedication for sure. That being said, the average on the two midterms was a C or D I think and the final was an F but she curves. Prioritize learning over grades and be above average and you’ll be fine. Go to the review sessions and discussion!
Chen is an ochem legend. Her teaching style is very white board focused, and she teaches the chemistry through a very proof based format. She hardly uses lecture slides, and teaches through a combination of drawing charts/tables and writing down mechanisms, explaining each step. Discussion was optional, and I never went since the worksheet and its solutions were posted online. I used the worksheet as extra test prep. The amount of resources we were given was the thing that separated Chen apart from other professors. Each weekly homework assignment was around 8 pages long and took anywhere from 3-5 hours to complete. But she also gave practice problems each week which was around double the length of the homework. Doing these each week made taking the tests MUCH easier, since she never threw a single curve ball on any of the exams. The first midterm did not cover any ochem, rather, it set up the fundamentals of what a molecule is. The second midterm and the final were both very challenging, and primarily covered alkene/alkyne mechanisms respectively. The average on her midterms were around 70%. The final was incredibly difficult. I got a 68% but she must have curved it generously because I still got an A. We also had +2% extra credit.
Take Chen for Chem 30A! She's probably been one of the best professors I've had at UCLA. From the start, Chen tells you that her tests will be hard (and they definitely were, especially the final), but she prepares you well for them. She hosts weekly review sessions in the evenings, and she provides a large amount of practice for you (problem sets, practice problem sets, weekly reviews, and sample midterms/finals). The sample exams she gives generally provide a good representation of what the actual exam is like. She's very clear in lecturing and really good at answering student questions (both in-class and in office hours). The lecture notes are pretty clear, and there's really no need for a textbook. She's interestingly funny as well and is able to relate popular culture into o-chem haha. Yes, this class is a lot of work and Chen really pushes her students, but in the end it's definitely worth it!
P.S. The curve for this class seems to be pretty strong, so don't worry if you don't do too well on the first or second midterm! :)
Professor Chen is a phenomenal professor who gives it her all at teaching her students and so far is the best professor I've had at UCLA. She provides us with so many resources such practice problem sets, practice midterms, and practice finals. A textbook is "required" for the course, but the supplemental resources she provides for her students in conjunction to her weekly reviews is sufficient. However, the only downside is that you need to be consistent on doing these resources. You can buy an organic chemistry model kit, but they are time-consuming if you are going to use it for an exam, and to be honest, they are a scam because they're SO expensive.
Professor Chen says that her exams are difficult, and she is absolutely correct, but they are reasonable because of the resources that she provides on CCLE (with the exception of the final, which was absolute death; Average for midterms 1 and 2 were like a B- and B, respectively, and I think the final's average as an F). However, the curve on the class is generous so there isn't too much concern if you do bad on the final. In all, if you have the opportunity to take organic chemistry with Professor Chen, please do it. It will not be a waste of your time, and it was relatively fun and interesting.
Professor Chen is beyond amazing, just take her. Also Rob is also an excellent TA. Unfortunately I didn't study enough, and Organic Chemistry is not my forte, so I got rekt on my finals (100/210 LOL). The first two midterms and extra credits saved my ass.
Professor Chen is the best professor I have had so far. She is so engaging and really cares about her students. She even had a weekly review just for our benefit. The tests were reasonably difficult but if you know the material on the study guides then you can get a good grade pretty easily. Take her class if you can.
Like other reviews, plenty of material to work through, and Chen is very helpful with lecture, review, office hours. The midterms were very doable given you know the core concepts + reactions well and do enough practice to be aware of any tricks/quirks. Just review concepts + reactions, practice, and the class is OK. The finals for O-chem tend to be difficult. I did wish Chen elaborated a bit more on reaction mechanisms and theoretical background.