CHEM 14D
Organic Reactions and Pharmaceuticals
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Enforced requisite: course 14C with grade of C- or better. Organic reactions, nucleophilic and electrophilic substitutions and additions; electrophilic aromatic substitutions, carbonyl reactions, catalysis, molecular basis of drug action, and organic chemistry of pharmaceuticals. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
Dr. Gould is amazing! She made organic chemistry enjoyable and easy to understand. She was so caring and always available in her office for a quick question. Not only was she a very nice lady and always helpful, she was also very organized in lecture, and I loved that she gave practice problems during lecture because then you had extra material to study for the exams. I thought her lecturing style was great - I felt like I really understood what was going on thoroughly. As for her exams, she was NOT out to trick you. More than anything, she wanted you to really get the concepts and apply them. Though some professors say this, Gould really meant it. As long as you did this, you would do well on her exams. I am so happy she taught 14D during this quarter because she was fair, helpful, and overall a great professor. I'm so happy I had her for my last course in the chemistry series because left a great impression on me for my chemistry experience at UCLA. If you have the opportunity to take her, DO!!
Dr. Gould is amazing! She made organic chemistry enjoyable and easy to understand. She was so caring and always available in her office for a quick question. Not only was she a very nice lady and always helpful, she was also very organized in lecture, and I loved that she gave practice problems during lecture because then you had extra material to study for the exams. I thought her lecturing style was great - I felt like I really understood what was going on thoroughly. As for her exams, she was NOT out to trick you. More than anything, she wanted you to really get the concepts and apply them. Though some professors say this, Gould really meant it. As long as you did this, you would do well on her exams. I am so happy she taught 14D during this quarter because she was fair, helpful, and overall a great professor. I'm so happy I had her for my last course in the chemistry series because left a great impression on me for my chemistry experience at UCLA. If you have the opportunity to take her, DO!!
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Winter 2018 - I'm selling my molecular model kits (near mint condition). It helped me a lot visualizing the molecular structures, and since I'm done with the 14 series I'm selling it. Text me at 626-698-2698 if interested :) (I'm moving so will be packing stuff up after 6/14, so please contact me ASAP if interested!) Professor Hardinger is incredibly good at communicating course materials in a non-boring way and making everything so clear, and the analogies he used turned out to be very helpful. The best thing about this class is that there is SO much resources that be be utilized, e.g. LA workshop, the numerous tutorials, glossary, and finally, the Thinkbook and past exams, which are absolutely the most helpful and which I hope every science class has. Prof. Hardinger's own website is also a great idea, and with that many resources it's basically impossible to not be good at 14D. This has to be the first time in my life that I study chemistry this diligently and painlessly (coming from a person who used to haaaaaaate chemistry), and this class should be the example of what every other south campus class should be like.
Winter 2018 - I'm selling my molecular model kits (near mint condition). It helped me a lot visualizing the molecular structures, and since I'm done with the 14 series I'm selling it. Text me at 626-698-2698 if interested :) (I'm moving so will be packing stuff up after 6/14, so please contact me ASAP if interested!) Professor Hardinger is incredibly good at communicating course materials in a non-boring way and making everything so clear, and the analogies he used turned out to be very helpful. The best thing about this class is that there is SO much resources that be be utilized, e.g. LA workshop, the numerous tutorials, glossary, and finally, the Thinkbook and past exams, which are absolutely the most helpful and which I hope every science class has. Prof. Hardinger's own website is also a great idea, and with that many resources it's basically impossible to not be good at 14D. This has to be the first time in my life that I study chemistry this diligently and painlessly (coming from a person who used to haaaaaaate chemistry), and this class should be the example of what every other south campus class should be like.
Most Helpful Review
Professor Karim was an excellent professor. He says from the beginning that the class it there to prepare us for the MCAT, so he only focuses on the big reactions and only includes the exceptions that will be on standardized tests. I won't lie, his exams are hard but if you know the material and have done lots of practice then they are do-able. He is a great guy and will help you out when you go to office hours. I am expecting an A in the class, but again, it took alot of work to get the grade. I'm taking MCAT classes now, and as I look over the MCAT organic chemistry questions I fell very well prepared. The way I see it, you can take Hardinger and get an A arguably more easily, but Hardinger focuses on useless exceptions that never show up on the MCAT, with Karim if you work hard you can get an A and at the same time be prepared very well for the MCAT. Take Him!
Professor Karim was an excellent professor. He says from the beginning that the class it there to prepare us for the MCAT, so he only focuses on the big reactions and only includes the exceptions that will be on standardized tests. I won't lie, his exams are hard but if you know the material and have done lots of practice then they are do-able. He is a great guy and will help you out when you go to office hours. I am expecting an A in the class, but again, it took alot of work to get the grade. I'm taking MCAT classes now, and as I look over the MCAT organic chemistry questions I fell very well prepared. The way I see it, you can take Hardinger and get an A arguably more easily, but Hardinger focuses on useless exceptions that never show up on the MCAT, with Karim if you work hard you can get an A and at the same time be prepared very well for the MCAT. Take Him!
Most Helpful Review
Prof. Luceigh is a wonderful professor. From previous students I had high expectation of her and they were mostly fulfilled. She has a passion for chemistry and she will try to make chem understandable for you. This quarter she had the tendency to go fast in lectures and sometime I found her course guide to be somewhat frustrating because she has the tendency to put down questions yet never answer them in the reader and lectures. overall the reader is a critical tool in her class. Do her practice exams...they will be somewhat similar to the exam you will take. Her exams were very fair this quarter overall she is a great prof to have for chem.
Prof. Luceigh is a wonderful professor. From previous students I had high expectation of her and they were mostly fulfilled. She has a passion for chemistry and she will try to make chem understandable for you. This quarter she had the tendency to go fast in lectures and sometime I found her course guide to be somewhat frustrating because she has the tendency to put down questions yet never answer them in the reader and lectures. overall the reader is a critical tool in her class. Do her practice exams...they will be somewhat similar to the exam you will take. Her exams were very fair this quarter overall she is a great prof to have for chem.
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Most Helpful Review
She was a good teacher I enjoyed her. I recommend studying the problem sets and the reaction list. Take notes of the mechanisms and know them. You can memorize the reaction list and still do fair on all her tests. Those are most important and actually going to lass for the extra credit points.
She was a good teacher I enjoyed her. I recommend studying the problem sets and the reaction list. Take notes of the mechanisms and know them. You can memorize the reaction list and still do fair on all her tests. Those are most important and actually going to lass for the extra credit points.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2020 - Going into the class I knew it was going to be very difficult due to the nature of ochem, and I was not surprised. However, one of the things Porfessor Pham emphasizes is how Ochem builds on itself, and how doing poorly on one test is not the end of the world. The way he teaches the class is really structured so you learn things in a way that they build off each other, so towards the end topics that may have been challenging at the beginning are easier because you've been working on them the whole quarter. A lot of people in the reviews from fall 2020 may say how he was unaccommodating and such, but I think the negative comments are due to a bias against him due to their own struggles. Also, please not I am not writing this from the perspective of a student who got As the whole quarter. I failed the first midterm out of 2, but I was able to improve my scores for the next midterm and the final. The class had 2 midterms and a final (50 points each), weekly BACON tutorials (40 points), Discussion attendance (40 points), and 5 problem sets due every other week (20 points each). However, he offered extra credit for answering poll questions, filling out surveys, and for doing an optional group project at the end of the year which my friends and I had a lot of fun doing. To conclude, don't be afraid to take his class, Pham is super clear and helpful, and it is worth it for the ask me anything he does at the end of the quarter :)
Fall 2020 - Going into the class I knew it was going to be very difficult due to the nature of ochem, and I was not surprised. However, one of the things Porfessor Pham emphasizes is how Ochem builds on itself, and how doing poorly on one test is not the end of the world. The way he teaches the class is really structured so you learn things in a way that they build off each other, so towards the end topics that may have been challenging at the beginning are easier because you've been working on them the whole quarter. A lot of people in the reviews from fall 2020 may say how he was unaccommodating and such, but I think the negative comments are due to a bias against him due to their own struggles. Also, please not I am not writing this from the perspective of a student who got As the whole quarter. I failed the first midterm out of 2, but I was able to improve my scores for the next midterm and the final. The class had 2 midterms and a final (50 points each), weekly BACON tutorials (40 points), Discussion attendance (40 points), and 5 problem sets due every other week (20 points each). However, he offered extra credit for answering poll questions, filling out surveys, and for doing an optional group project at the end of the year which my friends and I had a lot of fun doing. To conclude, don't be afraid to take his class, Pham is super clear and helpful, and it is worth it for the ask me anything he does at the end of the quarter :)
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2019 - Prado supposedly added a lot of material compared to when Hardinger taught it, and I definitely felt that. I studied a ton for this class, and memorizing all the mechanisms felt impossible at times. The grading scale is also pretty harsh at 95 to an A (I got a raw 93.7% and she curved it 1.5%—her curve was pretty generous in the B-C range but really limited for the A range, so it was almost straight scale). I definitely saw a correlation between grades and how long people spent studying. Her lectures can be pretty unclear at times, so your best bet is to just do all the practice you have available. Don't bother with OH worksheets, but the practice midterms and finals are really helpful so definitely do them and when you mess up on them practice those areas. As far as I know Prado and Tobolowsky have the same tests or similar very tests and also decided on the grading scheme together so don't let that be your deciding factor in who to take.
Winter 2019 - Prado supposedly added a lot of material compared to when Hardinger taught it, and I definitely felt that. I studied a ton for this class, and memorizing all the mechanisms felt impossible at times. The grading scale is also pretty harsh at 95 to an A (I got a raw 93.7% and she curved it 1.5%—her curve was pretty generous in the B-C range but really limited for the A range, so it was almost straight scale). I definitely saw a correlation between grades and how long people spent studying. Her lectures can be pretty unclear at times, so your best bet is to just do all the practice you have available. Don't bother with OH worksheets, but the practice midterms and finals are really helpful so definitely do them and when you mess up on them practice those areas. As far as I know Prado and Tobolowsky have the same tests or similar very tests and also decided on the grading scheme together so don't let that be your deciding factor in who to take.
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