CHEM 14A
Atomic and Molecular Structure, Equilibria, Acids, and Bases
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Preparation: high school chemistry or equivalent background and three and one half years of high school mathematics. Requisite: completion of Chemistry Diagnostic Test. Enforced corequisite: Life Sciences 30A or Mathematics 3A or 31A or score of 48 or better on Mathematics Diagnostic Test. Not open to students with credit for course 20A. Introduction to physical and general chemistry principles; atomic structure based on quantum mechanics; atomic properties; trends in periodic table; chemical bonding (Lewis structures, VSEPR theory, hybridization, and molecular orbital theory); coordination compounds; properties of inorganic and organic acids, bases, buffers. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
Currently taking him for the summer. He's a pretty good professor and he relates to students well since he was recently a UCLA undergrad himself. The course had two midterms which are 25% each and the final is worth 50%. He gives 5% worth of extra credit. In my course he is trying a straight scale as an experiment, but he says he usually does a curve. He also assigns optional homework, but I personally don't do it because I think his lectures suffice to do well on the exam. He also does bruincast which is a great resource. Overall, I think the class is fair in terms of difficulty and grading
Currently taking him for the summer. He's a pretty good professor and he relates to students well since he was recently a UCLA undergrad himself. The course had two midterms which are 25% each and the final is worth 50%. He gives 5% worth of extra credit. In my course he is trying a straight scale as an experiment, but he says he usually does a curve. He also assigns optional homework, but I personally don't do it because I think his lectures suffice to do well on the exam. He also does bruincast which is a great resource. Overall, I think the class is fair in terms of difficulty and grading
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2019 - I really enjoyed this class. Professor Prado taught this class along with Professor Caram and Casey, but she was the main one who lectured and taught the class. She took on the class last minute as our initial professor could no longer do so (she began teaching Friday of week 1). She uses slides that are posted on CCLE, but she writes on the slides during lecture, so I'd recommend attending class. There are clicker questions during lecture and it's hard not to get full credit; there are bunch of opportunities and you get half a point just for participating. There are weekly quizzes (Friday during lecture) which aren't too bad. I didn't read the textbook too much but used it more as a reference if I didn't understand something. There are HWs for every lecture but they don't have to be turned in. I really like Dr. Prado and the class overall. She's really nice and very approachable. She is one my favorite professors here at UCLA and I think the class overall was appropriately paced. Definitely recommend. r/ucla
Winter 2019 - I really enjoyed this class. Professor Prado taught this class along with Professor Caram and Casey, but she was the main one who lectured and taught the class. She took on the class last minute as our initial professor could no longer do so (she began teaching Friday of week 1). She uses slides that are posted on CCLE, but she writes on the slides during lecture, so I'd recommend attending class. There are clicker questions during lecture and it's hard not to get full credit; there are bunch of opportunities and you get half a point just for participating. There are weekly quizzes (Friday during lecture) which aren't too bad. I didn't read the textbook too much but used it more as a reference if I didn't understand something. There are HWs for every lecture but they don't have to be turned in. I really like Dr. Prado and the class overall. She's really nice and very approachable. She is one my favorite professors here at UCLA and I think the class overall was appropriately paced. Definitely recommend. r/ucla
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2019 - I actually really loved this class. From the students I talked with that were also in the class, this seems to be one of the most polarizing classes I've been in. You either love it or you hate it. But that makes sense, since general chemistry is often a weeder-type class for many pre-med students. I will say this though: it's possible for anyone, even if you're not "good" at chemistry, to get a good grade in Eric Scerri's Chem 14A and have an appreciation for the material. 40% of your final grade in this class is the final exam, and 30% is the midterm. Dr. Scerri will give you several old exams to study and STUDY THESE!! Even MORE importantly, go to the test bank and search for as many old exams as you can find. Split it up between you and your friends to get literally as many exams as possible. These past exams are very useful because Dr. Scerri has been known to copy and paste pretty much all of his exam questions to his current exams, or he may change a single word or number. Understand how to do problems on as many practice exams as you can find and you'll be golden. I got a 98% on the midterm and a 97% on the final through this method, because as I reviewed more and more practice exams, the problems that I had with the material eventually disappeared. I can guarantee you that people who don't do well in this class don't do this. 20% of your grade is online quizzes, which aren't too difficult, and 10% is homework, which can be quite tedious but is overall manageable. Scerri is very funny at times, but can also be quite dull at other times. However, I would say he's in the better half of professors I've had at UCLA. Don't even bother wasting money on the textbook. Lastly, going to discussion definitely didn't hurt me either. Some of the more complicated concepts such as molecular orbital theory and hybridization were ironed out for me through my TA's teaching. Overall, this class is manageable, and the resources for you to do well are definitely there.
Spring 2019 - I actually really loved this class. From the students I talked with that were also in the class, this seems to be one of the most polarizing classes I've been in. You either love it or you hate it. But that makes sense, since general chemistry is often a weeder-type class for many pre-med students. I will say this though: it's possible for anyone, even if you're not "good" at chemistry, to get a good grade in Eric Scerri's Chem 14A and have an appreciation for the material. 40% of your final grade in this class is the final exam, and 30% is the midterm. Dr. Scerri will give you several old exams to study and STUDY THESE!! Even MORE importantly, go to the test bank and search for as many old exams as you can find. Split it up between you and your friends to get literally as many exams as possible. These past exams are very useful because Dr. Scerri has been known to copy and paste pretty much all of his exam questions to his current exams, or he may change a single word or number. Understand how to do problems on as many practice exams as you can find and you'll be golden. I got a 98% on the midterm and a 97% on the final through this method, because as I reviewed more and more practice exams, the problems that I had with the material eventually disappeared. I can guarantee you that people who don't do well in this class don't do this. 20% of your grade is online quizzes, which aren't too difficult, and 10% is homework, which can be quite tedious but is overall manageable. Scerri is very funny at times, but can also be quite dull at other times. However, I would say he's in the better half of professors I've had at UCLA. Don't even bother wasting money on the textbook. Lastly, going to discussion definitely didn't hurt me either. Some of the more complicated concepts such as molecular orbital theory and hybridization were ironed out for me through my TA's teaching. Overall, this class is manageable, and the resources for you to do well are definitely there.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2017 - Reviewing this class a year late because she wasn't listed as a professor when I first took the class in Spring 2017. I have to say, Shiraki probably isn't the model of what you would like in a professor. She visibly cringes when students don't understand, so even though I don't think it's intentional, she can definitely make students feel stupid. With that said, if she ever teaches 14A in the future, I'll say that this class is extremely flexible and success is definitely possible as long as you know how to approach the material. This is especially true given that her practice exams are almost exactly like her real exams. It's flexible because it's all based on quizzes or exams - no homework, so no accountability. This was daunting for me at first, but once again, not only are her exams similar to her practice exams, her quizzes are incredibly intuitive / reasonable especially in comparison to, say, Lavelle's (from speaking to a friend). In the end, I loved having her because I could not show up to class for 4 weeks and still be able to keep up with material since she posts her slides and answer keys. I'd just read Atkins, Chemical Principles and I was set. If you're a student who learns just as well from textbooks and independent learning, this is a great class because she essentially makes it so that you can do it on your own - especially since she's not an engaging lecturer. In the end my grade breakdown was Quiz 1: 19/20 Quiz 2: 20/20 Quiz 3: 20/20 Midterm 1: 97/100 Midterm 2: 96/100 Final: 179/200 Total: 431/460 (93.7%) = A Even getting a concussion ~2 weeks before the final and not having gone to class for those 4 weeks (and not keeping up), I was able to do well in the class simply by methodically going through the textbook and doing her practice exams. Chemistry is an intuitive subject for me, but nonetheless I think it was definitely feasible to do well in this class. It's just that most students didn't really have a chem background (including me) and also didn't really know how to study for the class because it's the first in the series. She's fair, but chemistry is just hard for people and her mediocre lecturing probably didn't help. So yeah, it'd be tough if you're not an independent learner, but personally her style actually really worked for me.
Spring 2017 - Reviewing this class a year late because she wasn't listed as a professor when I first took the class in Spring 2017. I have to say, Shiraki probably isn't the model of what you would like in a professor. She visibly cringes when students don't understand, so even though I don't think it's intentional, she can definitely make students feel stupid. With that said, if she ever teaches 14A in the future, I'll say that this class is extremely flexible and success is definitely possible as long as you know how to approach the material. This is especially true given that her practice exams are almost exactly like her real exams. It's flexible because it's all based on quizzes or exams - no homework, so no accountability. This was daunting for me at first, but once again, not only are her exams similar to her practice exams, her quizzes are incredibly intuitive / reasonable especially in comparison to, say, Lavelle's (from speaking to a friend). In the end, I loved having her because I could not show up to class for 4 weeks and still be able to keep up with material since she posts her slides and answer keys. I'd just read Atkins, Chemical Principles and I was set. If you're a student who learns just as well from textbooks and independent learning, this is a great class because she essentially makes it so that you can do it on your own - especially since she's not an engaging lecturer. In the end my grade breakdown was Quiz 1: 19/20 Quiz 2: 20/20 Quiz 3: 20/20 Midterm 1: 97/100 Midterm 2: 96/100 Final: 179/200 Total: 431/460 (93.7%) = A Even getting a concussion ~2 weeks before the final and not having gone to class for those 4 weeks (and not keeping up), I was able to do well in the class simply by methodically going through the textbook and doing her practice exams. Chemistry is an intuitive subject for me, but nonetheless I think it was definitely feasible to do well in this class. It's just that most students didn't really have a chem background (including me) and also didn't really know how to study for the class because it's the first in the series. She's fair, but chemistry is just hard for people and her mediocre lecturing probably didn't help. So yeah, it'd be tough if you're not an independent learner, but personally her style actually really worked for me.
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