CHEM 14B
General Chemistry for Life Scientists II
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Enforced requisite: course 14A or 20A with grade of C- or better. Enforced requisite or corequisite: Life Sciences 30B or Mathematics 3B or 31B with grade of C- or better. Not open to students with credit for course 20B or 30A. Chemical equilibria in gases and liquids, acid-based equilibrium; phase changes; thermochemistry; first, second, and third laws of thermodynamics; free energy changes; electrochemistry and its role as energy source; chemical kinetics, including catalysis, reaction mechanisms, and enzymes; use of molecular modeling software to illustrate molecular structures and their relative energies. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2020 - Professor Courey was, without doubt, the best professor I have had during my time here at UCLA. He is very passionate about teaching, and it shows when he lectures. He posts the PowerPoints for lectures ahead of time, and there is a quiz that corresponds with almost each PowerPoint. You have unlimited attempts on these quizzes, and to encourage you from guessing your way through these quizzes, he awards you a point of extra credit for each quiz that you get a 9/10 or higher on in under 2 attempts. His first midterm was pretty hard, and time was extremely limited. However, he realized this, and allowed us to gain back some of the points we missed. Also, he made the second midterm significantly easier, and I think it was because of the feedback he received on the first midterm. The final was not super easy, but he was very understanding of the circumstances, considering it was during the whole coronavirus frenzy. He made it optional, but if you were to take it, you had ample time to do it. In addition, he allowed us to collaborate on it, and gave us the opportunity to earn 10 points extra credit on it. We had weekly homework due, but these were graded on effort, and we would go over some of the problems with an LA in our discussion, which clarified the concepts well. Overall, Professor Courey is a gem, and I would definitely take a class with him if I could!
Winter 2020 - Professor Courey was, without doubt, the best professor I have had during my time here at UCLA. He is very passionate about teaching, and it shows when he lectures. He posts the PowerPoints for lectures ahead of time, and there is a quiz that corresponds with almost each PowerPoint. You have unlimited attempts on these quizzes, and to encourage you from guessing your way through these quizzes, he awards you a point of extra credit for each quiz that you get a 9/10 or higher on in under 2 attempts. His first midterm was pretty hard, and time was extremely limited. However, he realized this, and allowed us to gain back some of the points we missed. Also, he made the second midterm significantly easier, and I think it was because of the feedback he received on the first midterm. The final was not super easy, but he was very understanding of the circumstances, considering it was during the whole coronavirus frenzy. He made it optional, but if you were to take it, you had ample time to do it. In addition, he allowed us to collaborate on it, and gave us the opportunity to earn 10 points extra credit on it. We had weekly homework due, but these were graded on effort, and we would go over some of the problems with an LA in our discussion, which clarified the concepts well. Overall, Professor Courey is a gem, and I would definitely take a class with him if I could!
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2020 - Same format as his Chem 14A class. Due to COVID-19 however our final was changed to an online Multiple Choice quiz, which for sure was WAY easier than any 3-hour exam he could have made in person so my grade got kind of saved on it. I feel like I should have done better for my efforts but oh well. Grade Distribution I got: - Chem Community: 100% (easy points) - Homework: 100% (also, easy points) - Test 1: 100% (I studied through the pre assignments he assigned over break, only had to review a bit to do well) - Midterm: 69% nice (STRAIGHT BS for this test, studied really hard on the new concepts... in the end it tested 1 problem from new content covered through class, the rest of the test was Test 1 content but more tricky, CHEM14A material, and THERE WAS NO FOLLOW THROUGH POINTS! Lost 16 points for messing up a calculation on Step 1 even though the concept was right) - Test 2: 96% (Studied my butt off for 2 days through homework problems) - Online Final: 100% (blessed that I went to every single lecture, took detailed notes, and had a ton of homework problems done that I can look at and refresh my memory when taking it online) I Took AP Chem and did really well on that in high school. You need to have a pretty solid understanding of the material to do well. Proceed with Caution but Lavelle is a great teacher and you certainly will learn a lot of Chem material from him! He does do a lot of things outside of lecture to give students resources to succeed, so if you enjoyed taking him with CHEM14A then you should still take him!
Winter 2020 - Same format as his Chem 14A class. Due to COVID-19 however our final was changed to an online Multiple Choice quiz, which for sure was WAY easier than any 3-hour exam he could have made in person so my grade got kind of saved on it. I feel like I should have done better for my efforts but oh well. Grade Distribution I got: - Chem Community: 100% (easy points) - Homework: 100% (also, easy points) - Test 1: 100% (I studied through the pre assignments he assigned over break, only had to review a bit to do well) - Midterm: 69% nice (STRAIGHT BS for this test, studied really hard on the new concepts... in the end it tested 1 problem from new content covered through class, the rest of the test was Test 1 content but more tricky, CHEM14A material, and THERE WAS NO FOLLOW THROUGH POINTS! Lost 16 points for messing up a calculation on Step 1 even though the concept was right) - Test 2: 96% (Studied my butt off for 2 days through homework problems) - Online Final: 100% (blessed that I went to every single lecture, took detailed notes, and had a ton of homework problems done that I can look at and refresh my memory when taking it online) I Took AP Chem and did really well on that in high school. You need to have a pretty solid understanding of the material to do well. Proceed with Caution but Lavelle is a great teacher and you certainly will learn a lot of Chem material from him! He does do a lot of things outside of lecture to give students resources to succeed, so if you enjoyed taking him with CHEM14A then you should still take him!
Most Helpful Review
Summer 2020 - Dr. Ow was amazing. I took him for 14A & 14B during the summer. It was a lot of work, but only because 6 weeks is an accelerated period to learn chemistry, especially if you are taking other classes along with it. I had 0 prior chemistry experience too, so it I had to study a lot. However, Dr. Ow uses an interactive textbook through Tophat which was amazing in my opinion. He wrote the book himself, and the textbook simplifies and presents the material in a very concise manner. It provides a ton of video examples and practice problems so you can really learn at your own pace and self-study efficiently. He uses pre-recorded lectures which are straight to the point and explain the concepts clearly. This is how online classes should be run and I wish more teachers would follow his example. Take Dr. Ow if you can. You won’t regret taking this awesome teacher.
Summer 2020 - Dr. Ow was amazing. I took him for 14A & 14B during the summer. It was a lot of work, but only because 6 weeks is an accelerated period to learn chemistry, especially if you are taking other classes along with it. I had 0 prior chemistry experience too, so it I had to study a lot. However, Dr. Ow uses an interactive textbook through Tophat which was amazing in my opinion. He wrote the book himself, and the textbook simplifies and presents the material in a very concise manner. It provides a ton of video examples and practice problems so you can really learn at your own pace and self-study efficiently. He uses pre-recorded lectures which are straight to the point and explain the concepts clearly. This is how online classes should be run and I wish more teachers would follow his example. Take Dr. Ow if you can. You won’t regret taking this awesome teacher.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2021 - TAKE THIS CLASS WITH PROFESSOR QUINLAN! She is so sweet and very understanding of students' needs. Personally, I took Chem 14A with Scerri, and he scarred me for life lol. Taking this class with Quinlan was really refreshing and nice because she actually cares about teaching, and about her students. There are so many opportunities for points, so getting an A shouldn't be too difficult. And she emphasizes that EVERYONE can get an A because there is no curving relative to other students' performance, which I was so happy with. The exams weren't very difficult as long as you study the problem sets and lecture slides. Overall, really good lecturer and professor overall! We love you, Margot <3
Spring 2021 - TAKE THIS CLASS WITH PROFESSOR QUINLAN! She is so sweet and very understanding of students' needs. Personally, I took Chem 14A with Scerri, and he scarred me for life lol. Taking this class with Quinlan was really refreshing and nice because she actually cares about teaching, and about her students. There are so many opportunities for points, so getting an A shouldn't be too difficult. And she emphasizes that EVERYONE can get an A because there is no curving relative to other students' performance, which I was so happy with. The exams weren't very difficult as long as you study the problem sets and lecture slides. Overall, really good lecturer and professor overall! We love you, Margot <3
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2020 - Scerri is the most confusing, least helpful professor I have ever had at UCLA. He is somehow worse than the entire 7 series which is saying a lot. He curved everyone's grade down incredibly this quarter--I earned a 99% in the class, opted out of the final due to the circumstances, and somehow got an A- in the class. He rarely knows what he's talking about, does not care about students, and is pretty much only teaching for tenure. Instead of grading on a bell curve, he should maybe make his exams more challenging? Students should not be penalized because Scerri makes his exams so easy. AVOID THIS PROFESSOR AT ALL COSTS.
Spring 2020 - Scerri is the most confusing, least helpful professor I have ever had at UCLA. He is somehow worse than the entire 7 series which is saying a lot. He curved everyone's grade down incredibly this quarter--I earned a 99% in the class, opted out of the final due to the circumstances, and somehow got an A- in the class. He rarely knows what he's talking about, does not care about students, and is pretty much only teaching for tenure. Instead of grading on a bell curve, he should maybe make his exams more challenging? Students should not be penalized because Scerri makes his exams so easy. AVOID THIS PROFESSOR AT ALL COSTS.
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