CHEM 14C
Structure of Organic Molecules
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Enforced requisite: course 14B with grade of C- or better. Not open to students with credit for course 30A. Continuing studies in structure of organic molecules, with emphasis on biological applications. Resonance, stereochemistry, conjugation, and aromaticity; spectroscopy (NMR, IR, and mass spectrometry); introduction to effects of structure on physical and chemical properties; survey of biomolecular structure. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2020 - First and foremost Prof. Castillo from winter quarter to spring quarter 2020 has pulled a massive 360. Take the old reviews with a grain salt, but some things still remain. Also 85-92.9 is A- and 93 up is A. She became hella lenient ngl. Lectures can be ass but go to Office Hours she's more responsive. In summary, she has shit communication and attitude problems, but hella rarely. Anyone can get tired and some of us were hella pushy for extra credit etc. She's a really smart woman tbh and in OH she knows her shit. I repeat ditch lectures and go to OH. Lectures get recorded anyways and use the powerpoint. To begin with this class as a general consensus is not as hard as Chem 14A and 14B especially if you had daddy lavelle. The concepts till about week 8 are fairly easy in this class and even the last two weeks aren't bad. The thing is this class isn't exactly organic chemistry. We do not cover reactions like SN2 and SN1 reactions. We cover concepts such as conjugation and aromaticity and etc. These are fairly easy. They don't involve calculations and hard stuff. You can even cram them tbh I did and got a 89 percent on the midterm and ended up with an A in the class. The quarter being online did make lecture kinda ass, but her powerpoint were pretty good. Also, use Chad's organic chem videos. Stereochemistry its the only bitch in this course tbh. The quizzes are 10 pts each and you get about 4 questions on each worth 2.5 its each adding up to 10. Lowest quiz is dropped. On top of that Prof. Castillo gave like 2 points of extra credit straight up in the quiz category. The midterm was also straight up similar to lecture problems and we got 1 pt of extra credit on it. Now the tea. The reason everyone basically called her a first class bitch is because the TA's and the professors had a MEGA-MEGA screwup on the grading of the midterm. They used a wrong answer key and basically our first scores were hella shit. There were 400 regrade requests and the professor got quite annoyed lmao and passive aggressive. Sometimes her attitude can be wonky, but for the most part she's a G. Finally, Dr. Castillo does not trick you at all on exams. I didn't find any trick questions on neither the midterm or quizzes. She also gives you past exam questions which are hella similar. I'm sure half this class has a solid A rn. Grade Break Down: ---30% quizzes - 5 quizzes lowest one dropped ---20% midterm ---20% discussion/hw --- everyone gets full credit on this basically free 20% ---30% final -- shit got cancelled for us but knowing her it would have been simple Final thoughts are that while Prof. Castillo has shit communication bc she never replies to emails, she is a decent lecturer. You may not learn the best from her but her assessments are frankly a joke compared to lavelle. Also, people are ungrateful cunts which led her to get annoyed. None of you would talk to lavelle the way some people did to her. She already lowered the bar for an A- to an 85 and gave hella extra credit. Take 14C with Castillo.
Spring 2020 - First and foremost Prof. Castillo from winter quarter to spring quarter 2020 has pulled a massive 360. Take the old reviews with a grain salt, but some things still remain. Also 85-92.9 is A- and 93 up is A. She became hella lenient ngl. Lectures can be ass but go to Office Hours she's more responsive. In summary, she has shit communication and attitude problems, but hella rarely. Anyone can get tired and some of us were hella pushy for extra credit etc. She's a really smart woman tbh and in OH she knows her shit. I repeat ditch lectures and go to OH. Lectures get recorded anyways and use the powerpoint. To begin with this class as a general consensus is not as hard as Chem 14A and 14B especially if you had daddy lavelle. The concepts till about week 8 are fairly easy in this class and even the last two weeks aren't bad. The thing is this class isn't exactly organic chemistry. We do not cover reactions like SN2 and SN1 reactions. We cover concepts such as conjugation and aromaticity and etc. These are fairly easy. They don't involve calculations and hard stuff. You can even cram them tbh I did and got a 89 percent on the midterm and ended up with an A in the class. The quarter being online did make lecture kinda ass, but her powerpoint were pretty good. Also, use Chad's organic chem videos. Stereochemistry its the only bitch in this course tbh. The quizzes are 10 pts each and you get about 4 questions on each worth 2.5 its each adding up to 10. Lowest quiz is dropped. On top of that Prof. Castillo gave like 2 points of extra credit straight up in the quiz category. The midterm was also straight up similar to lecture problems and we got 1 pt of extra credit on it. Now the tea. The reason everyone basically called her a first class bitch is because the TA's and the professors had a MEGA-MEGA screwup on the grading of the midterm. They used a wrong answer key and basically our first scores were hella shit. There were 400 regrade requests and the professor got quite annoyed lmao and passive aggressive. Sometimes her attitude can be wonky, but for the most part she's a G. Finally, Dr. Castillo does not trick you at all on exams. I didn't find any trick questions on neither the midterm or quizzes. She also gives you past exam questions which are hella similar. I'm sure half this class has a solid A rn. Grade Break Down: ---30% quizzes - 5 quizzes lowest one dropped ---20% midterm ---20% discussion/hw --- everyone gets full credit on this basically free 20% ---30% final -- shit got cancelled for us but knowing her it would have been simple Final thoughts are that while Prof. Castillo has shit communication bc she never replies to emails, she is a decent lecturer. You may not learn the best from her but her assessments are frankly a joke compared to lavelle. Also, people are ungrateful cunts which led her to get annoyed. None of you would talk to lavelle the way some people did to her. She already lowered the bar for an A- to an 85 and gave hella extra credit. Take 14C with Castillo.
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Most Helpful Review
TAKE HIM IF HE EVER TEACHES 14C AGAIN. Two midterms and a final make your grade in this class, but they're all very doable, especially because he structures his practice exams VERY similarly to the real tests. If you go to his review sessions where he provides answers to the practice exams and spend some time on your own to truly understand the material, you will do well. I'm surprised the class average wasn't higher. Put in work and you will get an A. There was such an awesome curve at the end of this quarter I was a tiny bit sad that I got an A and not A+ LOL and this is coming from a student who has gotten straight B+'s in 14A and 14B. TAKE CHANG! He's funny, too.
TAKE HIM IF HE EVER TEACHES 14C AGAIN. Two midterms and a final make your grade in this class, but they're all very doable, especially because he structures his practice exams VERY similarly to the real tests. If you go to his review sessions where he provides answers to the practice exams and spend some time on your own to truly understand the material, you will do well. I'm surprised the class average wasn't higher. Put in work and you will get an A. There was such an awesome curve at the end of this quarter I was a tiny bit sad that I got an A and not A+ LOL and this is coming from a student who has gotten straight B+'s in 14A and 14B. TAKE CHANG! He's funny, too.
Most Helpful Review
When I found these ratings, I was not surprised at all, although I was surprised to see some reviews defending him. I can safely bet that whoever wrote those reviews were not students. Yes, maybe it's fortunate to have him as a researcher at UCLA, but these reviews are supposed to critique his teaching ability, and only that. If a professor is strict, gives hard tests or has a bad personality, I won't knock him/her for it as long as he/she CAN TEACH and I LEARN. I've had some professors who were really difficult, but were great teachers and so I understood their subjects pretty well. Chapman's lectures are unorganized and much of them were spent on tangents and tirades demoralizing pre-med students and his personal life. He spent one entire lecture about how to write CPR's properly (just grammar)! Where's the o-chem in all this? Add to that his crabby attitude and lack of concern for his students and you got one of the worst professors you can find. I didn't learn anything from him, except knowing what kind of professor to avoid. If he didn't have tenure, he would definitely get the axe. "Dr. Chapman's courses are clearly not for everyone. But for the right students, they are well worth taking." Well, you're right in saying they're not for everyone, but they're also not for the "right" students who actually care about learning.
When I found these ratings, I was not surprised at all, although I was surprised to see some reviews defending him. I can safely bet that whoever wrote those reviews were not students. Yes, maybe it's fortunate to have him as a researcher at UCLA, but these reviews are supposed to critique his teaching ability, and only that. If a professor is strict, gives hard tests or has a bad personality, I won't knock him/her for it as long as he/she CAN TEACH and I LEARN. I've had some professors who were really difficult, but were great teachers and so I understood their subjects pretty well. Chapman's lectures are unorganized and much of them were spent on tangents and tirades demoralizing pre-med students and his personal life. He spent one entire lecture about how to write CPR's properly (just grammar)! Where's the o-chem in all this? Add to that his crabby attitude and lack of concern for his students and you got one of the worst professors you can find. I didn't learn anything from him, except knowing what kind of professor to avoid. If he didn't have tenure, he would definitely get the axe. "Dr. Chapman's courses are clearly not for everyone. But for the right students, they are well worth taking." Well, you're right in saying they're not for everyone, but they're also not for the "right" students who actually care about learning.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2019 - He seems like a super cool dude and has a ton of potential to be an amazing professor! He improved a lot from the first week to the tenth week. There was hardly any reading or assignments, which made the class easy but I feel very unprepared going into 14D. I feel kinda bad for Fulton because he was so nice and you can tell he is really trying, it's just so difficult because everyone in class is pretty harsh on him.
Fall 2019 - He seems like a super cool dude and has a ton of potential to be an amazing professor! He improved a lot from the first week to the tenth week. There was hardly any reading or assignments, which made the class easy but I feel very unprepared going into 14D. I feel kinda bad for Fulton because he was so nice and you can tell he is really trying, it's just so difficult because everyone in class is pretty harsh on him.
Most Helpful Review
Hardinger makes it easy to learn chem- just go to lecture, skim the chapter, and do the CFQs and PPs. Don't worry about the text problems and the OWLs problems too much. It is difficult to find a good TA for this class so visit office hours. Finally- to study for the final, just do the CFQs and PP's over again and do the last few practice exams- they don't change much from year to year. The best part of this class is knowing how to study for it- no guessing around or studying the wrong material. I got As on both midterms and just took the final, which was pretty straightforward. Good luck!
Hardinger makes it easy to learn chem- just go to lecture, skim the chapter, and do the CFQs and PPs. Don't worry about the text problems and the OWLs problems too much. It is difficult to find a good TA for this class so visit office hours. Finally- to study for the final, just do the CFQs and PP's over again and do the last few practice exams- they don't change much from year to year. The best part of this class is knowing how to study for it- no guessing around or studying the wrong material. I got As on both midterms and just took the final, which was pretty straightforward. Good luck!
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Most Helpful Review
I am not really a chem person, and I definitely was not that optimistic about how 14C was going to go for me. However, Dr. Lam is amazing. He definitely makes himself available to his students and has reviews before exams. He's such a nice man, and his lectures are easy to follow. His midterms were okay (I got a 77.5 on one and a 79 on the other) but his final was absolutely ridiculous. I think I just ended up writing down nonsense for one question because I had literally no idea what the question was asking me. This is not a class to slack in at all, because this shit is hard. I ended up with a B+ in the class, which I guess is all I could have hoped for. Also, my TA was Natalie James and she was wonderful! She's such an adorable person who also happens to be stellar at teaching you organic chemistry.
I am not really a chem person, and I definitely was not that optimistic about how 14C was going to go for me. However, Dr. Lam is amazing. He definitely makes himself available to his students and has reviews before exams. He's such a nice man, and his lectures are easy to follow. His midterms were okay (I got a 77.5 on one and a 79 on the other) but his final was absolutely ridiculous. I think I just ended up writing down nonsense for one question because I had literally no idea what the question was asking me. This is not a class to slack in at all, because this shit is hard. I ended up with a B+ in the class, which I guess is all I could have hoped for. Also, my TA was Natalie James and she was wonderful! She's such an adorable person who also happens to be stellar at teaching you organic chemistry.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2021 - Lannan was a new teacher this quarter, so there is room for improvement. However, he wasn’t that great of a lecturer since he was just reusing Pham’s (the original teacher) slides. Quite frequently the slides would confuse him, and he would just stop and stare at them for a few minutes while the students just sat there. Explanation-wise, he also wasn’t that great—mostly given how disorganized he was when talking. He would also introduce ideas for projects and such but keep scrapping them as things turned up (likely more of an issue given he was a very new teacher). His exams were fair, but he was very unforgiving on them. As a test taker, I tend to make quite a few minor mistakes that I usually only get marked a few points off for. Lannan would mark you down almost all the points on the problem, which is what brought down everyone’s test grades (from what I understand talking to other students--the test averages were typically in the low 70s). The time crunch on the midterms was also a factor in that. The tests were also the majority of your grade. Furthermore, our original extra credit was through Mentimeter and discussion attendance. However, he realized he couldn't track students through Mentimeter and exchanged the participation-based extra credit with a very intensive group video project. These two extra credits (Mentimeter vs. group video) were not equivalent, and the amount of effort was not work it for the percent boost it gave. Even despite that, he graded these group projects very harshly (where Mentimeter was going to be for participation)--my group spent a long time on ours just to get an A-. He was very nice, passionate about the subject, and tried to be accommodating to students, but I just don’t really recommend him. TL;DR: new teacher + bad lecturer + manageable tests, but harshly graded (There are more reviews for this class on his PEERS entry since 14C was just added to his profile)
Fall 2021 - Lannan was a new teacher this quarter, so there is room for improvement. However, he wasn’t that great of a lecturer since he was just reusing Pham’s (the original teacher) slides. Quite frequently the slides would confuse him, and he would just stop and stare at them for a few minutes while the students just sat there. Explanation-wise, he also wasn’t that great—mostly given how disorganized he was when talking. He would also introduce ideas for projects and such but keep scrapping them as things turned up (likely more of an issue given he was a very new teacher). His exams were fair, but he was very unforgiving on them. As a test taker, I tend to make quite a few minor mistakes that I usually only get marked a few points off for. Lannan would mark you down almost all the points on the problem, which is what brought down everyone’s test grades (from what I understand talking to other students--the test averages were typically in the low 70s). The time crunch on the midterms was also a factor in that. The tests were also the majority of your grade. Furthermore, our original extra credit was through Mentimeter and discussion attendance. However, he realized he couldn't track students through Mentimeter and exchanged the participation-based extra credit with a very intensive group video project. These two extra credits (Mentimeter vs. group video) were not equivalent, and the amount of effort was not work it for the percent boost it gave. Even despite that, he graded these group projects very harshly (where Mentimeter was going to be for participation)--my group spent a long time on ours just to get an A-. He was very nice, passionate about the subject, and tried to be accommodating to students, but I just don’t really recommend him. TL;DR: new teacher + bad lecturer + manageable tests, but harshly graded (There are more reviews for this class on his PEERS entry since 14C was just added to his profile)
Most Helpful Review
she does have a tougher curve, but luceigh is a great lecturer. she's very approachable and helpful - i did better in this class than i did in 14A, probably because she made the material a very interesting and accessible. i'm not sure what some other people mean by her "arrogance"...she never struck me as being so. sure, she might castigate you once in a while for not knowing some basic information, but i think the fact that she was willing to schedule extra review sessions at the beginning of the quarter to bring us up to speed is indicative of her concern for student learning.
she does have a tougher curve, but luceigh is a great lecturer. she's very approachable and helpful - i did better in this class than i did in 14A, probably because she made the material a very interesting and accessible. i'm not sure what some other people mean by her "arrogance"...she never struck me as being so. sure, she might castigate you once in a while for not knowing some basic information, but i think the fact that she was willing to schedule extra review sessions at the beginning of the quarter to bring us up to speed is indicative of her concern for student learning.
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